Despite the fact that Liis co-founders Alissa Sullivan and Leslie Hendin grew up inside minutes of one another in Marin County, California, they did not meet till years later when a buddy launched them at a marriage in 2009. The duo instantly bonded over a mutual obsession: fragrance. “We each used to gather the little vials and miniature bottles in shoe packing containers,” Sullivan tells Entrepreneur. “In order that was a very wonderful connection. Again then, it was extra uncommon to seek out any individual [with] this identical passion. It was earlier than social media and all that.”
Picture Credit score: Emily Dulla. Co-founders Leslie Hendin, left, and Alissa Sullivan, proper.
On the time, Sullivan had simply accomplished her grasp’s at ISIPCA, a college for post-graduate research in fragrance, cosmetics merchandise and meals taste formulation primarily based in Versailles, France, and Hendin was en path to Central Saint Martins in London to pursue a grasp’s diploma in design.
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As Sullivan launched her profession engaged on product development for area of interest fragrance manufacturers Penhaligon’s London and L’Artisan Parfumeur, she and Hendin mentioned creating their very own perfume line at some point. “We did notice that we had been a yin and yang of ability units,” Hendin says. “Alissa along with her fragrance background and me with my design background.”
“However again then, we had been like, How do you start a business?” Sullivan remembers.
“We would like to have the ability to inform tales which are significant to us.”
When Hendin moved to San Francisco after graduate college and Sullivan to Los Angeles, the pair obtained severe about their very own brand. It was 2017, they usually’d gathered appreciable expertise within the magnificence and style world. Hendin was the second worker and artistic director at Vintner’s Daughter, the place she developed the corporate’s branding platform, and Sullivan was behind hit merchandise for main manufacturers akin to Hourglass and Iris&Romeo.
Sullivan had crossed paths with famend French perfumer Jérôme Epinette over the course of her profession, so the co-founders approached him a couple of partnership for the nascent side hustle — and Epinette agreed. Liis, a mixture of shared letters from Sullivan’s and Hendin’s first names, was born. The model launched its beta discovery set, a perfume sampler, in 2020; three full-size scents adopted in 2021.
The co-founders by no means approached the road from a spot of What’s trending? or What are individuals shopping for? As an alternative, they concentrate on creating scents they’d wish to put on themselves, in the kind of packaging they wished to see on their vanities. (It took about two years to engineer the clicking perform on Liis’ spherical white cap.) “We would like to have the ability to inform tales which are significant to us,” Hendin says. “The whole lot’s coming from, How can we wish to specific ourselves? [All Liis perfumes] inform actually private tales.”
The model’s latest launch, Choux Choux, exemplifies that ethos: Sullivan’s mom is French and referred to as her “chouchou,” a time period of endearment just like “darling,” however there is a double entendre at play — the choux à la crème is a French pastry. Liis’ Choux Choux options prime notes of whipped cream and lemon zest, center notes of caramel, vanilla and salt, and base notes of cocoa, mocha and sandalwood. The scent, priced at $175, is on observe to hit $1 million in retail gross sales this yr, per the corporate.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Liis
“Individuals can go into a store and come upon us very organically.”
Liis, which has at all times been self-funded, is rising by 60% to 70% yr over yr. The model produces 9 fragrances and 6 candles stocked in Neiman Marcus, Violet Gray, Goop and greater than 125 specialty unbiased retailers throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan. Liis sustains its spectacular momentum by leaning into organic growth — and a distribution technique that is “actually about discovery.”
“We’re in smaller boutiques that we’d most likely store at ourselves,” Hendin says. “In order that’s one other huge piece; individuals can go into a store and come upon us organically. Then it’s totally word of mouth, speaking about us on-line.”
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TikTok, particularly, has been a boon for the model. Perfume influencers and fragrance critiques abound on the platform, although the co-founders weren’t conscious of the area’s gold-mine potential when Liis entered the market.
“After we first launched, we had a TikTok go viral [and] instantly offered out of our discovery units,” Sullivan says, “and the humorous factor is, as a result of we’re self-funded and so scrappy, we had been hand-fulfilling them.” That meant placing the fragrance into vials and handwriting perfume names on every one — a course of that took about eight hours.
The model continues to see viral social media success that does not come from PR pitches or product gifting — it organically flows to Liis.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Liis
“It is about your small business [and] seeing what your wants are.”
Regardless of the early and regular traction, like most companies, Liis encountered some challenges alongside its path to progress. Between provide chain, warehouse and hazmat hurdles, the co-founders needed to be open to artistic pivots and problem-solving. As an example, when their first warehouse did not have the required stage of consideration to element (“We would like the package deal to be lovely when it arrives”), they shifted to a special 3PL and moved their merchandise to a special facility.
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“We did not go to enterprise college, so we do not have a framework that we have discovered that that is what it’s important to do,” Hendin says. “I do not assume that there is a one-size-fits-all. What works for our enterprise may not work for an additional enterprise. So I believe it is about your small business, seeing what your wants are after which determining what’s best for you and utilizing frequent sense to place these items collectively.”
The enterprise that began as a side hustle continues to be in a “transitioning part” to a full-time profession for the co-founders, however Sullivan and Hendin are well-versed in balancing their freelancing and consulting work with their rising model — and look ahead to allocating extra of their time and assets to Liis. Sullivan and Hendin are excited to proceed Liis’ world scale and attain new audiences with their perfumes and perfume tales.
