Sniph: The power of perfumes

Your dad’s sweater, summer rain, or olive oil and garlic frying in the pan – they’re all scents we associate with particular memories of a certain time or a certain place, and they most likely come with a specific feeling. The award-winning Swedish company Sniph knows the power of scents better than anyone and has built a service for people to explore perfumes.

Tara Derakshan, one of two co-founders, has been interested in perfume since she was a kid. When she met Lisa Kjellqvist, they quickly realised they shared this passion and decided to start a business together.

“We founded Sniph because we know that smells affect how we feel on a certain day or situation. When we smell nice, we feel good about ourselves, and we want everyone to be able to have that feeling. Scents are such an important part of our lives and we believe we can help people emphasise their lives through perfumes,” says Tara Derakshan.

When they started in 2017, there were no good options for people to try new perfumes in a creative way. Most people either bought a mainstream perfume at the TaxFree shop when travelling, or bought a very expensive one that might sit forgotten about on a bathroom shelf; so, they decided to do something about it. Starting in Sweden, the company has now expanded to the UK, and they deliver to 16 different countries, in line with their mission to democratise perfumes.

Sniph launched a perfume subscription service that sends out a new perfume to clients every month. The perfumes come in small containers of eight millilitre for you to test them on your skin, explore how they make you feel throughout the day, and learn whether it’s a scent you enjoy, before you buy the big bottle. The thinking behind it is to reduce waste and make sure that you only own the scents that you love.

With today’s endless opportunities it can be overwhelming to find the perfume that suits you. If you’re new to perfume, Sniph’s scent experts are there to help you navigate the field with a personalised recommendation. The perfumes range from well-known brands to lesser-known indie brands, offering a broad range for any gender, and making it easier to explore. The subscription service has been highly successful and has made Sniph the biggest company within their niche in Scandinavia.

On their website, Sniph offers an online test. Find out what scents you like, whether you’re into earthy, woody tones, citrusy, floral, avant-garde or experimental – Sniph will give you a suggestion for which profile to subscribe to – or you can choose to be surprised.

“We have a lot of different kinds of customers, looking for different moods, and it’s our goal to make every single one of them feel a little better through a scent,” Derakshan explains.

In September, Sniph is launching three room scents with different moods, developed in collaboration with the Swedish brain-researcher Katarina Gospic. The scents are curated to evoke a certain mindset: sensual, relaxed or energised. They recently released the perfume ‘Malo’ with the co-founder of Spotify Martin Lorentzon, which will take you on a journey from darkness to light through six different scents.

Our noses help us navigate through life, remember situations and people, and feel certain ways – something many of us became wary of during the pandemic, when a side-effect some people experienced was the loss of smell.

Both co-founders Tara Derakshan and Lisa Kjellqvist lost their sense of smell from the virus – incredibly troubling for the perfume entrepreneurs. They both have got their sense back, but it made them want to explore the sense of smell even more, so they wrote the book Doft: Din Guide till ett Rikare Liv (Scent: Your guide to a Richer Life), where they explore the power of sense of smell in keeping us grounded and present. The book was released in 2021 and can be bought in Swedish bookstores and online.

Whether your heart beats faster when you sense the smell of wood, or your shoulders relax from the scent of salty winds – Sniph is there to take you on a journey that will indulge all of the feelings that perfume arouses.

Web: www.sniph.com
Instagram: @sniph
Facebook: sniphperfumes