Waikato Business News November/December 2019

Amber Lenihan says there
was a lot of trial and
error along the way to
establishing her perfumes.
A nose for it
By ALISON ROBERTSON
Amber Lenihan has a keener sense of smell
than most people. It’s something she’s
worked at; growing up on a Martinborough
winery, then studying oeneology and
viticulture, and becoming proficient in wine
evaluation when she worked in London as
a sommelier. Today, that talent for “scent
recognition” has seen her launch a new
business - Circe perfume.
It’s been a lesson in
patience, determination
and endurance, but what
Lenihan has now is a natural
perfumery, products that
avoid the chemicals and synthetics
that go into most mainstream
products.
It was something she’d
wanted to do for a long time
and with encouragement from
family and friends she started
studying natural perfumery
online.
“It’s a hard skill to learn
because smell is not a sense
we’re encouraged to use as
much as the others. I’ve been
lucky - my parents were keen
gardeners and taught me about
plants and identification, and
growing up on the vineyard
and in the garden encouraged
me to develop my scent memories
from a young age.
“But there’s still been a
lot of trial and error along the
way, learning all about blending
and how each raw material
sits in a blend.”
Creating a perfume
involves a lot of different processes.
“A big part for us is
sourcing certified pure ingredients
from New Zealand
and overseas. They make up
between 20 percent and 30
percent of the finished perfume.
They’re arranged as a
composition of base, mid and
top notes, a bit like arranging
a piece of music. We then
blend this with natural grain
alcohol and water to create
the finished perfume. There’s
the creative aspect too, where
I create the initial blend, procurement,
packaging and marketing.”
Lenihan has a large range
of plants in her Frankton garden
and, where she can, uses
native New Zealand plants
that she steam distills, or uses
in tinctures for R and D, such
as manuka honey, kawakawa,
kowhai and harakeke.
There was no established
perfume industry in New Zealand
when Lenihan started
Circe, so the challenge was
first to find credible and ethical
suppliers of the niche
products she needed. It took
18 months to decide on and
have the bottles shipped from
France.
“And then because perfume
has alcohol in it, it’s
considered a dangerous good
and finding a logistics company
to move it for a reasonable
cost was almost impossible.
It’s taken two years, but
now we have dangerous goods
certification.”
Circe (pron: Sir-see) is
based in Frankton and at the
moment it’s Lenihan and
her partner Tim dealing to
all aspects of the business.
Much of their product is sold
at expos, markets and online.
Next year, the focus will be
on building Circe’s wholesale
network and exploring offshore
opportunities, developing
a plan to scale the business
and executing that plan.
Meanwhile Lenihan would
like to see more widespread
information and education
about perfume in an industry
she says is largely unregulated.
“At Circe we believe in
transparency so we list all
ingredients on our website.
Currently, the industry only
has to label their ingredients
under ‘fragrance’ or ‘parfum’
under the guise of trade
secret. We believe that by
listing our ingredients it gives
our customers confidence in
what they’re buying. We’ve
also worked with suppliers to
make sure our packaging is as
sustainable as possible.”
(And in case you’re wondering,
Circe was a Greek
goddess/sorceress who created
potions using plants.)
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Waikato Branch – Upcoming events/courses
The Institute of Directors supports
and enables directors to add value
to their organisations and wider
communities and prepare them to
positively transform the future.
Governance Development Programme
The Governance Development programme is returning to the Waikato, in April 2020.
Learn how to apply the principles of governance in organisations in this short-session
course. You will hear the personal experiences of directors and board chairs, shared by
facilitators and fellow participants.
Express your interest in the programme to Megan Beveridge, Waikato Branch Manager,
The Institute of Directors.
Megan Beveridge
Branch Manager
waikato.branch@iod.org.nz
021 358772
www.iod.org.nz
Waikato branch is kindly sponsored by:
J1121P