While attending the Flaconi beauty event, I met Heidi Jahn at the Valjues Perfume stand. The start-up co-founder explained all the different perfumes developed at her four year old label. During our talk, Jahn’s enthusiasm was charming.
Why did you start a perfume brand?
Jenni and I are not only best friends since school days, but also worked at an international beauty distribution for years. Working in the beauty industry, we fell in love with how a good perfume could influence someone’s day for the better. Diving into the history of perfumery, which is pretty easy for us, coming from such a perfume-history rich place like Cologne, we became convinced a good scent is way more than just a cosmetic product. It’s a piece of art together with true craftsmanship that you can wear everyday.
The two of us started thinking about how we could build a brand that combines potent, eco-luxury fragrances that people would want to wear everyday while producing everything in our own production site. We started super small, with a couple hundred bottles of 3 fragrances only sold on our own onlineshop. Basically, everything developed from there.
The Beauty Industry is a tough business with deep pocket competitors, as a start-up did you face a number of challenges?
Absolutely! Customers are way more educated about big cooperations. Many scent wearers actively seek out niche brands and true craftsmanship in perfume products. But of course the vast majority of customers buy a fragrance because they’ve seen ads on a million billboards, on TV or their favourite actress being the face of the campaign. As a self-funded, niche brand, huge campaigns like that are impossible to fund, but we knew that we could trust in the product and since day one we always say “When people have a chance to smell out perfumes, we already won.”
How many scents does Valjues have?
There are 12 Perfumes and 3 Bodymists.
What is the personality type for each scent?
All our fragrances are split into categories. At the moment we have 3 main categories:
Clean & Silky
Soft & Sensual
Whipped & Creamy
This makes it super easy for customers to navigate through the brand. If they fall in love with 9 | NINE, they will probably love 4 | FOUR as as well. Also, the Whipped & Creamy Bodymist is all in the same collection and keeps the same core notes.
The Clean & Silky Collection is very molecular, minimalist, clean and laid back. A lot of people love 12 | TWELVE, because it is like a white T-Shirt in a fragrance. It’s a great staple you can dress up or down because it works at 8am in the office then carries you for a lunch date at 1pm. The scent works for the entire day.
Soft & Sensual is a collection full of very flirty, seductive, warm scents with a lot of flowery notes. They invite you to see the romance in little things in your life and are the perfect accessory for nights out on the town.
Our Whipped & Creamy Collection is for all the gourmand-lovers. The fragrances in that collection are warming, homey and cozy – like a hug.
If a person were buying one fragrance, which would you recommend?
I think an excellent fragrance to understand us as a brand is 12 | TWELVE. It’s basically our cornerstone scent. The bouquet works on everyone’s skin, it’s such a warm-fresh-skin scent. I have never met anyone who didn’t like it.
If someone is on a smaller budget, I would definitely recommend one of our body mists, they’re Eau de Toilette quality, so 10% fragrance and perform super well.
What is a good winter or holiday season scent?
I love our newest perfume, Forbidden Fixation, with black tea, jasmine and sandalwood. It’s so soft and warming, while being the perfect holiday-party scent.
If you like it a little more on the nose, 9 | NINE or 4 | FOUR would be the most festive-gourmands. Especially 9 | NINE with vanilla, caramel and iris is super powdery-sweet and great for the cold days.
Valjues is available online, in Douglas and other fine perfumeries.