Australia & New Zealand · Fine & Home Fragrance
The 15 Scent Houses Worth Knowing
From Maori-owned perfumers in Aotearoa to Melbourne's queer-born niche labs, the ANZ fragrance scene has quietly become one of the most interesting in the world. Here are the ones to have on your radar.
Goldfield & Banks Where French perfumery meets the Australian wilderness
If you only know one name on this list, it's probably this one. Founded by French-Belgian perfumer Dimitri Weber, Goldfield & Banks arrived in 2016 and essentially invented the category of "Australian botanical luxury." Every bottle is built around native essences — blue cypress, boronia, lemon myrtle — ingredients that had no real presence in global perfumery until Weber started distilling them. The result feels both unmistakably Australian and technically world-class: structured, luminous, and remarkably wearable across the board.
The entire range is gender-free, which suits the coastal, sun-baked character of the scents perfectly. There's nothing heavy-handed here — these are fragrances that feel like landscapes rather than compositions.
Try first: Pacific Rock Moss (coastal moss, lemon, musk) · Sunset Hour (Desert Peach, caramel, sandalwood)
Aesop Incense as architecture for the senses
You already know Aesop for the amber bottles on bathroom shelves across the world, but their incense range deserves its own conversation. Linear in form and genuinely unconventional in character, these sticks aren't trying to evoke temples or wellness retreats. They're darker, more literary — the kind of thing that makes a room feel considered without shouting about it.
The fragrances read as extensions of Aesop's broader sensibility: rigorous, unhurried, a little austere. Burning one is closer to adjusting the lighting in a room than freshening the air. The incense holders are objects in themselves, worth displaying long after the last stick is gone.
Try first: Olous Aromatique Incense Sticks (papyrus, black tea, cedar)
Tsu Lange Yor Self, sanctuary, and sophisticated Gen-Z cool
Named after the Yiddish toast meaning "to long years and to good years," Tsu Lange Yor was launched in 2023 by Troye Sivan and his brother Steele Mellet as a proper passion project — not a vanity brand. The fragrances are genuinely thoughtful: unisex, emotionally intelligent, and composed with enough complexity to satisfy committed perfume people while remaining accessible to newcomers.
The aesthetic sits at the intersection of romantic and androgynous — clean-cut, a little unexpected. The eau de parfums feel personal in a way celebrity-adjacent fragrance rarely does, with scents like Luca landing as a warm, lactonic skin scent and By Your Side leaning into leather, cedar and black pepper for something bolder. A brand that earns its hype.
Try first: Luca EDP · By Your Side EDP · Sage's Rose EDP
The Raconteur Australia's native botanicals, poured into soy wax
The name means "the storyteller," and Craig Andrade takes that literally. Every Raconteur candle is a place — Bondi, the Red Centre, Tasmania's King Island coastline — rendered in native botanicals that you'd struggle to find in any European candle. Kunzea, native boronia, lemon myrtle, anise myrtle: the ingredient list reads like a bush-walk field guide rather than a candle brief.
Handmade in Australia with 100% soy wax, cotton wicks, and burn times of 60+ hours, there's genuine craft in the execution. These candles earn a place on the shelf for what's inside, not just what they look like. The Recycle & Refill program is a thoughtful touch for the sustainably minded.
Try first: Kittawa Lodge (boronia, kunzea, native white cypress) · Red Centre
Mihan Aromatics Romantic, nostalgic parfums at 30% concentration
Founded in Melbourne in 2017 by Josh and Jules — a master barber and a neurophysiotherapist — Mihan Aromatics is one of those rare brands where the backstory actually enriches the scents. Everything is made to parfum concentration (30%), which means serious longevity and depth, and the base throughout the collection is Australian organic sugarcane and Kakadu Plum seed oil. Clean, vegan, made entirely by hand in Melbourne.
The fragrance character is distinctly Australian in temperament: warm, grounded, romantic without being saccharine. Mikado Bark opens with sage and settles into cinnamon bark. Sienna Brume is the softer counterpoint — bergamot, vanilla, and a whisper of coconut. Sinful Rose, their most recent addition, wraps Turkish rose in oud and sandalwood for something considerably more opulent.
Try first: Mikado Bark · Sienna Brume · Sinful Rose
Amod Aromas Artisanal incense with a global soul
Amod Aromas sits in a category of its own: artisanal incense that feels genuinely global in its reach, with each blend drawing from rich, layered traditions. The three standout scents tell you everything about the brand's ambition. Exotique opens with heady spices and unfolds into something lush and enveloping — the kind of incense that transforms a room's entire mood in minutes. Shop Artisanal delight here
Artisanal Delight is the more versatile everyday option: complex enough to be interesting, calm enough to be lived with. Jardins de l'Inde is the showstopper — a deep, resinous tribute to the Indian garden tradition, all earthy florals, amber and warm woods. Burn it when you want the room to feel like somewhere else entirely. Shop Exotique here
Try first: Exotique · Artisanal Delight · Jardins de l'Inde
Abel Fragrance 100% natural, 100% uncompromising
Founded by New Zealander Frances Shoemack, Abel is the benchmark for what natural perfumery can be when it refuses to apologise for its ideals. Born in Amsterdam and now calling Wellington home, the brand uses zero petrochemicals, works with master perfumers and biotechnology-forward ingredients, and packages in low-impact materials — all without the slightest sacrifice in sophistication.
The scents are genderless and nature-led: salty ocean swims, crisp green woods, the particular hush after summer rain. Abel's collection is deliberately a considered edit rather than an endless catalogue, which is part of what makes it special. Golden Neroli — bright citrus floral with matcha tea and sandalwood — is the perennial bestseller, while Cobalt Amber offers something smokier and more mineral for colder months.
Try first: Golden Neroli · Cobalt Amber · Green Cedar
Hivern Scent, memory, and a curated playlist to match
Named after the Catalan word for "winter," Hivern was built around one central idea: that scent and memory are inseparable. Co-founders Tamara and Christopher Tubbs — who between them have spent decades travelling the world, from Ibiza summers to Parisian fashion weeks — have translated those places into six signature scents, each hand-poured in Wellington from 100% soy wax.
The genuinely clever part? Every candle comes with a curated music playlist by Christopher, who has a background in DJing. Scent and sound working together is not a gimmick here — it's the whole point. The resulting experience is immersive in the best way. Vetiver & Cedarwood and Lemongrass & Grapefruit are the two signature anchors: one grounding, one energising. Gift-ready from the moment it arrives.
Try first: Vetiver & Cedarwood · Lemongrass & Grapefruit
Perdrisât Cinematic perfume for the modern romantic
Callum Rory Mitchell comes from filmmaking, and it shows. Every Perdrisât scent is a character — a vignette, a close-up scene with vivid emotional imagery. Named after his maternal grandmother (a woman of elegance with a wicked sense of humour), the brand takes a slow, intentional approach to perfumery: small batches, no trend-chasing, no seasonal calendar. A new scent only arrives when the muse does.
The parfum concentration sits at 22–30%, the formulas are vegan, and each scent is handmade entirely by Callum in Melbourne. Pretty Boy — lychee and rose, devastatingly easy to wear — was the first to sell out. Nightstand offers something more quietly addictive: wisteria, powder, and old-world charm. These are scents for people who find most fragrance too literal.
Try first: Pretty Boy · Nightstand · Last Word
Addition Studio Australian-made incense rooted in native botanicals
Addition Studio incense is made in Australia from natural essential oils, and the range draws on two worlds: the native flora of the Australian bush and the global favourites that have anchored incense traditions for centuries. The brief is elegantly simple — uplift, ground, and refresh — and the execution delivers on all three.
The Australian native range is the standout: woody earth tones that echo Indigenous ceremonial burning traditions, translated into everyday ritual objects with clean, contemporary packaging. These are incense sticks that feel purposeful rather than decorative, and the scent throw is well-calibrated — present without being overwhelming. A genuinely accessible entry point into Australian-made home fragrance.
Try first: Australian Native range · Palo Santo & Cedar
Ficifolia Reverse-engineered scent memories of Australian cities
Ficifolia was born during Melbourne's lockdowns in 2020 — which says something about both the brand and the city that created it. Founder Sophie Marcoux describes her perfumes as "reverse-engineered scent memories," a phrase that perfectly captures the approach: these are olfactory reconstructions of specific places, moods, and rituals in Australian urban life.
Intermission is the theatre district on a cool evening. Rose Street is Fitzroy's creative heart on a Saturday morning — a little vintage musk, a little fresh air. Out of Office is the one that earns the most devoted followers: a sweet, fruity Aperol-adjacent fragrance with mandarin, jasmine, patchouli and fairy floss that somehow perfectly bottles the feeling of a Friday afternoon knock-off. Five dollars from every bottle supports the Stars Foundation for Indigenous young women.
Try first: Out of Office · Rose Street · Intermission
Curionoir Māori-owned perfumery as sensory memory-making
Curionoir is one of the most culturally significant brands on this list. Founded by Tiffany Witehira — a Māori perfumer drawing on the rich traditions of her tūpuna — the brand is about creating sensory experiences that don't just smell beautiful but actively invoke memory and whakapapa. Perfumery here is understood as a living connection to ancestry, not just an aesthetic exercise.
The scents are deeply considered: layered, evocative, and resistant to easy categorisation. They pull from New Zealand's landscape — its forests, its coastlines, its particular atmospheric quality — while remaining entirely wearable and contemporary. In a category sometimes dominated by novelty, Curionoir stands out for having something genuinely meaningful to say.
Try first: Explore the full collection — each scent tells a different chapter
Örök Fragrances Queer joy, dark dance floors, and unfiltered narrative
Örök — Hungarian for "inheritance, legacy, eternity" — was founded in 2023 by John Domjan to do something perfumery rarely attempts: tell genuinely queer stories through scent. Formulated in collaboration with French perfumer Flora Gourdon, the five-scent collection pulls from Melbourne's LGBTQIA+ culture with no apology and considerable skill.
Rave opens on bitter grapefruit and ends in an animalistic blur of patchouli, amber and cashmere — it is exactly what it says it is. Undergrowth is juicier, a cherry-musk-wet-soil combination that's flirtatious and disarming. These are fragrances as autobiography, as activism, as art. For fragrance lovers who want something that stands for something, Örök is essential.
Try first: Rave · Undergrowth · explore the full narrative collection
Teone Reinthal Absolu de Parfums from a studio garden in Brisbane
Teone Reinthal is one of Australia's most quietly extraordinary perfumers. A visual artist, scholar, and qualified clinical aromatherapist, she has been making entirely natural fragrance in her Brisbane studio since 2013 — long before natural perfumery was fashionable. Every ingredient is botanical: essential oils, absolutes, resins, and hand-tinctured plant parts grown in her own garden or sourced from trusted Australian suppliers.
At 35%+ concentration, these are properly dense, resonant absolu de parfums rather than conventional EDPs — the kind of fragrances that bloom over hours and differ slightly on every skin. The range spans over 125 scents: meditative florals, rich orientals, introspective woods. If you're a serious natural fragrance collector, this is a Brisbane studio you need to know.
Try first: Night Song Devotion · discovery sample sets (the best entry point)
Chasing Scents The indie house that follows instinct over formula
Chasing Scents operates in the spirit of true independent perfumery: no marketing machine, no mass-market ambitions, just fragrance created with curiosity and craft. The brand's scents lean toward the unexpected — combinations that shouldn't work on paper but land beautifully in practice. It's the kind of house where you discover something in a sample set and then quietly wear it for years without telling anyone.
The style is best described as modern-eclectic: neither strictly botanical nor strictly synthetic, pulling from wherever the inspiration leads. If you're someone who has exhausted the mainstream fragrance landscape and wants something with a genuinely independent point of view, Chasing Scents rewards the curious nose.
Best approached via a discovery set — each release is its own world