Confidence
to play
FEATURING Abel founder Frances Shoemack, and master perfumer isaac sinclair
Fifteen years ago I reached out to Isaac Sinclair, the only classically trained master perfumer Australasia has ever produced, with an idea everyone else had told me was impossible.
With a background in winemaking and literally no beauty or fragrance training to speak of, I had a stubborn belief that modern perfume could be made using only natural ingredients. Isaac was the first person to say "awesome, let's talk," and that moment a pipedream started to become a reality.
We worked for two years in the lab before launching our first fragrance in 2013, and that patience is still the foundation of everything Abel is today. Those two years weren't about proving a concept quickly. They were about testing what naturals could actually do when pushed properly, not indulged.
Fifteen years on, the creative relationship has only gotten sharper. We know how to challenge each other, the industry, and continue the search for better ingredients, processes, and innovation. We've got a sense for where the boundaries lie, so within that we can fully express our creativity. That's what fifteen years of working the same problem does. It doesn't make you cautious. It gives you the confidence to push harder.
I've been told the past couple of months that you can feel that confidence in Double Scoop and Miami Split, our two most recent launches. People keep telling us there's a playfulness in these scents that they haven't seen from Abel before. I think it's because we're not proving naturals can work anymore. We're just working.
15 years in, but only just getting started.
