Discover elegance in simplicity with Unika
Meet Unika: a perfume house where extravagance yields to minimalist sophistication. Their scents are made with natural ingredients and are well-balanced, thoughtfully crafted, and authentic: truly scents that place the art of perfumery front and enter. The perfumes are created in the perfume capital of Grasse, where founder Véronique Stambouli is based.
Unika was born out of a deep passion for scent. Véronique seeks to highlight the elegance of simplicity with her house, where each fragrance weaves unique notes into unexpected olfactory creations that tell inspiring, captivating stories. Stambouli’s most cherished scent memory is Corsica, where the air is rich with the scent of fig trees, immortelle, cistus, and myrtle. “it’s the smell of my holidays!” she says. It is often in her travels that Véronique finds inspiration for her fragrances, as sudden taste or scent impressions arrive unexpectedly. It could be a spice or an unusual fruit that catches her attention, or perhaps she becomes captivated by an unfamiliar flower, encounters a painting, or a harmonious blend of scents in nature, that evokes a certain feeling. “Honestly everything around me has the potential to inspire“, she explains.
Once the idea for a fragrance is born, Véronique starts working on transforming it into a perfume: “I choose raw materials and connect them with colors, words, or smells. Then I experiment, trying again and again. It takes time to create a fragrance that feels just right, but it’s always worth the effort.” A scent note Véronique highlights as particularly underrated is Civet: a very animalic note that can seem off-putting when first encountered: “But when you use it diluted, it has a warm, slightly leathery facet and another chocolate facet. A very interesting note!“
The DNA of Véronique Stambouli’s perfumes is apparent: “One day, one of my retailers called to ask if I was the nose behind some perfume of a brand – which I was. When I asked how he knew, he said, “It’s your olfactory signature—clear, direct, singular, yet so refined.” That says it all!“
When we ask Véronique to describe her personality as a scent, she tells us it would be the scent of the wind: “It is different depending on where you are and the season: the country, the sea, the morning, the evening…” she says.
The wind is also present in our first featured fragrance from Unika: 3 Poivres EdP, a scent that revolves around a trio of Sichuan–, Pink–, and Black Pepper, creating a balancing act between spicy, citrusy, and floral notes. It evokes a warm spring breeze with aromatic wood, light musk, and oakmoss – impossible not to be captivated by. Shop it here and look forward to more creations from Unika later this year!