How PHLUR Fragrances Became the Must-Have Accessory of the Decade
September 12 | 4 minute read
Words by Christie Sinclair
This was always the vision for founder Chriselle Lim; to create scents that weren’t an afterthought, but the ultimate accessory. “It’s like wearing a great bag or your favourite pair of shoes, it’s that final finishing touch,” she tells MECCA, adding, “Fragrance can enhance the vibe, it can enhance the look, the mood.” And just like style, each scent is deeply personal.
PHLUR was never designed to just smell good – and that’s the reason the brand has become one of the most viral fragrance houses of the decade.
From OOTDs to Front Row at Fashion Week
Cast your mind back to 2007, when YouTube was known mostly for low-res memes and music videos, TikTok was a kid’s snack, and the only influencers were It-girls splashed across glossy magazines. Fashion graduate Chriselle Lim was ahead of her time, documenting her outfits on her style blog The Chriselle Factor (recently revived as a Substack): “There was really no industry back then to create a career out of this, so it was pure passion,” she recalls.
While it started as a hobby, the blog she assumed no-one would read slowly grew into something much bigger: “I remember attending one of my very first fashion shows in New York, and Ralph Lauren sat a few of us front row. It was a shocker!”
For the first time, bloggers were seen rubbing shoulders with magazine editors – but not everyone loved it. “People were not happy we were doing what we were doing because essentially they thought we were taking seats away from editors,” Lim says. Still, like it or not, the industry was changing, and Lim was proof that digital creators could translate their influence into real industry power, a skill that would prove crucial years later.
The Perfect Next Chapter: PHLUR
“I always admired fragrance. I've always loved fragrance. I've always been fans of these incredible noses. But did I ever imagine that I would be an owner of a fragrance company? No, absolutely not,” shares Lim.
That changed in 2021. While navigating a divorce, Lim heard from her business partner about an opportunity to acquire a fragrance brand: PHLUR, of which she was already “a huge fan”. She’d first discovered it through a gift box; inside was Améline, one of PHLUR’s OG fragrances. “It was so beautiful,” Lim recalls.
That spark led her down a rabbit hole of research, where she discovered PHLUR had been one of the very first fragrance brands to be fully transparent with their ingredients – “Back then, 10 years ago, no-one did [that]” – and had built a devoted cult following. The timing felt meaningful, and after all, she had spent more than a decade honing exactly what PHLUR needed at the time, which was the ability to build brand love and an emotional connection by sharing stories that resonate. “I thought, you know, I’m going through a transition in my life, and so is PHLUR.”
Bottling Heartbreak
“I’ve always been a storyteller at heart,” Lim explains, but when it came time to create her first fragrance as PHLUR’s creative director, she hit a wall. “I was going through my divorce, I was in a really dark place… and I just couldn’t come up with that idea.”
Then came a breakthrough: “What if I bottle up something that I truly feel, which is emptiness, loneliness, this feeling of missing a person, missing a moment in my life, missing feeling love?”
That idea became Missing Person, an intimate, skin-like scent that evokes the comfort of being close to someone. “We really wanted to show that this is that lingering scent of your lover… Imagine a worn-in T-shirt left behind, and you’re nuzzling your nose into it.” For Lim, the fragrance became “warmth and comfort on [her] loneliest and darkest days.”
When it launched, Lim hoped her vulnerability would resonate, but nothing prepared her for the tidal wave of emotion it unleashed online. “We started seeing TikToks and videos of people spraying Missing Person and just crying. It had this visceral reaction for people and it brought them back to a certain moment in their life, whether it be a moment or person that they miss.”
It went viral overnight, cementing itself as the brand’s signature scent. Lim compares it to “the white tee of your closet” – a hero you can always depend on, simple and essential. “You could have an incredible closet with lots of beautiful things, but you still need that classic white tee. And that’s Missing Person. It will never go out of style; it works with anything.”
A New Era of Body Mist
Next came Vanilla Skin. Rather than a typical sugary vanilla, pink pepper adds a spicy kick, drying down a little earthy and woody so that it feels grown up and unexpected. “The last thing I want to smell like is a sweet cupcake bakery,” Lim shares, recalling a “traumatising” memory of dousing herself in too much of those scents as a teenager.
Launched first as a “sophisticated” body mist, Vanilla Skin quickly became one of PHLUR’s most popular scents, with fans begging for an EDP. “The body mist is less concentrated so it’s great for during the day, throwing it on when you go on the plane or to the gym, and then [you can] layer it with the eau de parfum,” explains Lim.
Redefining Fragrance
Today, the collection is bigger than a single viral spritz; it's a full wardrobe of cult-status scents with heart. Heavy Cream is comfort in liquid form; a lactonic gourmand with marshmallow-y characteristics that Lim whipped up after a late-night scroll through cooking creator Nara Smith’s videos.
Father Figure, a lush green fig-jasmine combination and one of Lim’s own most-used scents, was inspired by the demands of the modern woman. Beach Skin recalls the nostalgia of summers past with notes of coconut, sandalwood and salty tiaré flower. Together, they all form part of Lim’s story: “I started creating content at 20, I’m 40 now, and all I really knew how to do was communicate, visually, through writing, through sharing my life,” she says.
That’s the secret to PHLUR’s pull: it’s personal. “My audience, they’re rooting for me. When they see me, it’s not ‘I’m excited to meet you,’ it’s ‘We did it. We’re a team together.’”
For her community, cheering on PHLUR is cheering on Lim herself, and that bond is something you can’t bottle.
Although, if anyone can, it's Lim.
