SCENTSES + Co, the brainchild of sisters Sadira and Sabreena Yeong is a fun way to discover luxury fragrances at a fraction of the price every month.
Describing themselves as “chronic-perfume lovers”, 26-year-old Sadira said: “The cost of original perfumes are always a sticking point for us when collecting more scents. Hence, the idea of launching Scentses + Co to make 100% authentic perfumes affordable in an 8ml atomiser through a monthly subscription plan.”
Sadira, who is a pharmacy graduate, previously ran a tech start-up for book comparison called Readpublic, which was supported by Cradle Fund and won second place at the 2017 Global Student Entrepreneur Awards in Germany.
From running an online blog shop during her high school days to starting a business at the beginning of the pandemic, Sadira’s entrepreneurial spirit is beyond doubt.
Scentses + Co began with only 150 perfumes. It now has more than 500 options to choose from, with new perfume selections added into its LITE and LUXE subscription plans every month.
“This is largely based on subscribers’ suggestions and growing wishlists. And to build a close relationship with our subscribers, we truly focus on personalising their experience instead of just selling a product,” Sadira explained.
How do you personally experience perfumes?
I grew up playing musical instruments in an orchestra.
In many ways, I find the world of perfume and music to be closely related. For example, a musical chord can be made up of different notes. The same goes for a perfume consisting of top, middle and bottom notes.
Just like how music evokes different emotions through auditory sense, perfumes evoke different emotions through the olfactory sense, and I personally enjoy wearing citrusy perfumes to boost my mood and productivity.
How do you and your sister address disagreements and how does your skill sets complement each other?
Disagreements in our daily operations are inevitable. So, whenever we get into a heated debate, we’ll activate our cool-off policy.
At the end of the day, things will always work out fine as we both work towards the best interest of the brand.
Even before working on this together, we had stated our expectations and defined our job scope so that we are clear on each other’s responsibilities.
My sister takes charge of the whole operations while I oversee the marketing. Her people skills make her suitable to manage the staff while I can focus on strengthening and bringing our marketing level to the next frontier. In this sense, we basically complement each other a lot.
What makes Scentses + Co stand out?
Unlike a normal subscription box that comes with fixed curated items, we give subscribers the freedom of choice to switch to the perfumes of their choice every month, unless they opt in to be surprised by our handpicked model.
How do you build trust with subscribers on the authenticity of your perfumes?
We fully trust the credentials of our authorised distributors and work directly with them. If there are any issues concerning the quality of the perfumes, which are few and far between, we can always check directly with them and work together to resolve it.
How has it been for Scentses + Co since its launch?
With gratitude, our sales have been growing month-on-month and we’ve launched over 500 perfumes to date. And recently, we successfully scored a brand collaboration with our authorised distributor on the new Furla perfumes.
It’s also our honour to have Southeast Asia’s leading fintech platform – Fave’s co-founder Yeoh Chen Chow – as our investor and strategic mentor on our entrepreneurial journey.
What is next for the brand?
Our journey will only get more exciting from here on. In the near term, we’re launching a Build-a-Gift-Box, where customers can easily choose three to four designer perfumes of their choice to be delivered in a customised gift box.
There will also be more brand collaborations in the pipeline and we hope to have more like-minded partners join us in this fulfilling journey. Looking at the end of 2021, we will be expanding into the Singapore market.
