About

Pastiche Custom Perfume is a social selling company, like Pampered Chef, BeautyCounter or Stella & Dot.  But instead of selling beauty products or jewelry, Pastiche Fragrance Designers host parties where guests make their own custom Eau de Parfum.  A brand new company, Pastiche is the first to bring the custom perfume concept to the world of social selling.

The concept behind a Pastiche party is simple.  It begins with a 45-minute Interactive Scent Journey where guests sample ten different fragrance blends, ranging from Cacoa Flower to Balsamic Vanilla to Woody Amber & Patchouli.  Each guest then combines her favorites to create her own signature perfume.  Gorgeous customized bottles are also part of the experience.  Most women add a monogram or decorative piece of jewelry to give their perfumes a personal touch.

Signature perfumes are one of the hottest trends in the large fragrance industry, where over 1,400 new scents are introduced each year.  Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (GIA) reports that not only is the fragrance market expected to “exceed $36 Billion by 2017,” but also, “future growth in the [fragrance] market is expected to be fueled by growing popularity of customized fragrances.”

The deluge of celebrity perfumes is fueling this trend.  From J. Lo to Justin Bieber to Jennifer Aniston, a new perfume hits the market just about every week.  Celebrities obviously don’t create these custom perfumes by themselves.  They work with a Master Perfumer.  So did Pastiche.

Pastiche creates only premium-quality perfumes.  Their high-end perfume blends were designed by an Italian Master Perfumer, not an amateur, and are directly comparable in quality to any national brand.  Pastiche also refused to compromise on ingredients.  Many “perfumes” that you buy at the store are actually Eau de Toilettes, containing only 5 – 8% perfume oil.  Pastiche chose to develop only Eau de Parfum signature perfumes, which contains 18% perfume oil or more.

It turns out that home parties are the perfect way to sell custom perfume.  The custom perfume concept has been tried in department stores, including Memoire Liquide at Fred Segal, but hasn’t yet expanded beyond a handful of premium retailers.  That’s because designing a custom perfume can take up to an hour.  Few stores can devote a salesperson to a customer for that period of time.

Pastiche parties, by contrast, last up to two hours, with up to one hour dedicated to the Interactive Scent Journey.  Party guests sample a broad range of fragrances but aren’t overwhelmed, because Pastiche Fragrance Designers are trained to make the process easy.  

Another factor holding back the custom perfume market had been cost.  Bond no 9 in Manhattan offers a custom perfume service with prices starting at $350 and rising as high as $10,000.  That’s clearly out of reach for most consumers.

Pastiche Custom Perfumes, by contrast, start at $42 for a one ounce perfume and rise to $65 for a two ounce bottle.  “We’re taking something that most people assume is an unaffordable luxury, and we are making it not only affordable, but social and fun,” says Dana Knees, a Pastiche co-Founder.  

If someone doesn’t want to attend a party but still has interest in making a custom perfume, she can also just join Pastiche as a Fragrance Designer.  As a Designer she can then purchase a custom perfume kit directly from Pastiche for as little as $149, which provides everything she requires to make six custom perfumes.

Pastiche is one of the newest companies to enter the direct-selling party plan business, launching in November, 2013.  The company is off to a fast start, rapidly recruiting new Fragrance Designers who want to join such a unique “ground floor” opportunity.

Some Pastiche Fragrance Designers join to replace a full-time income.  But some sign on simply because they just love perfume and enjoy a bit of extra income.  For many, it’s a “dream” part-time job.  They view the extra income as “their” money, which they might use to do something special, like funding a child’s private school education.  They also value the flexibility.  And when they do work, they’re having fun because they’re going to parties, meeting new people and smelling great perfumes.

That’s the vision of Bill and Dana Knees, the husband and wife team who founded Pastiche.  “We’ve always wanted to start our own company” says Bill, the CEO.  “We love the idea of customization.  It’s just starting to take off in perfume.”  

Bill and Dana bring over 40 years of combined experience from the beauty industry to Pastiche.  Having worked at major global companies including Coty Beauty, Robertet Fragrances and Unilever, their aspiration is to build Pastiche into the next big thing in fragrance.

Pastiche is based in Rancho Santa Fe, CA.  To find out more about Pastiche, visit www.pasticheperfume.com or call Pastiche at 858.367.0270.