The ‘Tesla’ of beauty Ex Nihilo celebrates its 10th anniversary: best known for its personalised perfumes, the Paris-based tech-driven brand opens a flagship store in Asia – and drops a new scent
- The French fragrance darling just opened its first Hong Kong flagship in IFC Mall, complete with a personalisation station and several ‘zones’ dedicated to its various collections over the years
- Co-founder Sylvie Loday shares that the Paris-based perfumery is the ‘Tesla’ of beauty and that disruption is at the heart of its brand DNA – and it’s dropping a new scent to celebrate its 10th anniversary
How much can you decipher about a brand from its boutiques?
Walking past Ex Nihilo’s newly opened Hong Kong flagship tucked inside the second floor of IFC Mall, you might not think “perfumery” right off the bat – and that’s exactly how co-founder Sylvie Loday would have it.
“Ten years of freedom,” Loday says of her independent brand, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, “trying to be this Tesla of the world of beauty.”
Moreover, the brand’s futuristic flagship looks more like a cutting-edge scientific laboratory and less like a traditional perfume store. The company has paved the way for creative collaborations and inventive machinery in the industry – way ahead of the curve when it came to making groundbreaking innovations in the increasingly blurry grey zone between beauty and tech.
The cornerstone of the brand’s identity – a research-driven personalisation programme that allows customers to customise their own scents in-store – barely scratches the surface when it comes to why the house remains one of the hottest perfumeries on the market amid a field of much larger players.
The Paris-based fragrance house also released Blue Talisman – a scent specially created to celebrate its 10th anniversary – made in collaboration with self-made perfumer Jordi Fernández of Spain.