Cult Perfume House Le Labo Opens a Rustic “Olfactory Playground” in Potts Point

In 2006, Fabrice Penot and Edouard Roschi tore up the rulebook to create “slow perfumery” Le Labo. The antidote to mass-market perfumes and impersonal celebrity fragrances, Le Labo bucked all trends – instead of advertising or celebrities, it favoured plain packaging and hyper-personalisation.

From its first boutique and fragrance lab in New York to its just-opened shop in Potts Point, the fragrance brand has gone from under-the-radar to bona fide cult status. Its best-known products include Santal 33, a subtle sandalwood (sourced and harvested in Western Australia) perfume worn by in-the-know fans around the world, and the woody Palo Santo 14 scented candle, which wafts through hotels from Tulum to Ibiza.

But, through all this, the brand has stuck to its roots and name (Le Labo’s name means “the lab” in French). Each shop – including its new Potts Point store – functions as an “artisanal laboratory”, bringing the behind-the-scenes process of perfumery to the fore, with each fragrance made to order and hand-blended on-site. The final touch is a personalised label with the buyer’s name and the name of the person who made it.

Everything is plucked and created by hand and developed with a community of craftspeople: the flower harvesters, the local family farms, the candle pourers and the reclaimed-wood artisans, and each store reflects the principle of wabi-sabi: celebrating the beauty in handcrafted imperfection.

The new Potts Point store (the first Australian store was in Melbourne, followed by Bondi), features the brand’s signature “raw” traits: distressed wallpaper, cracked tiles, locally sourced vintage and reclaimed metal and timber furniture. Designed as an “olfactory playground”, customers are encouraged to smell, test and linger in the store. Reclaimed sinks are common features in all the stores, and invite customers to sample the soaps and grooming products.

Like the rest of Le Labo’s stores around the world, Potts Point features the brand’s core collection of genderless perfumes, candles and special-edition scents, plus its body, hair and face product lines.

Le Labo Elizabeth Bay
22 Macleay Street, Elizabeth Bay

Hours:
Daily 10am–6pm

lelabofragrances.com.au
@lelabofragrances