Although Liisa Co-founders Alissa Sullivan and Leslie Hendin grew up within minutes of each other in Marin County, California, they didn't meet until years later when a friend introduced them at a wedding in 2009. The pair instantly bonded over a mutual obsession : flavor. “We both used to collect small bottles and miniature bottles in shoeboxes,” says Sullivan. The entrepreneur. “So that was a really great relationship. Back then, it was rarer to find someone (with) the same passion. It was before social media and all that.”
Image credit: Emily Dulla. Co-founders Leslie Hendin, left, and Alissa Sullivan, right.
At the time, Sullivan had just completed her master's degree at ISIPCA, a graduate school in perfumery, cosmetics and food flavor formulation based in Versailles, France, and Hendin was on her way to Central Saint Martins in London to attend a master's degree. degree in design.
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While Sullivan began her career working at product development for specialty perfume brands Penhaligon's London and L'Artisan Parfumeur, she and Hendin discussed creating their own perfume line one day. “We realized we were a yin and yang skill set,” says Hendin. “Alissa with her perfume background and me with my design background.”
“But then, we were like, how are you start a business?” recalls Sullivan.
“We want to be able to tell stories that are meaningful to us.”
When Hendini moved to San Francisco after graduation and Sullivan to Los Angeles, the pair took themselves seriously. brand. It was 2017 and they had accumulated considerable experience in the world of beauty and fashion. Hendin was the second employee and creative director at Vintner's Daughter, where she developed the company's brand platform, and Sullivan was behind successful products for major brands such as Hourglass and Iris&Romeo.
Sullivan had crossed paths with renowned French perfumer Jérôme Epinette during her career, so the co-founders approached him about a partnership for the fledgling. side hustle – and Epinette agreed. Liis, a combination of letters shared by the first names of Sullivan and Hendin. The brand launched its beta discovery set, a fragrance sampler, in 2020; three full-size fragrances followed in 2021.
The co-founders never approached the line from a place i What's trending? OR What are people buying? Instead, they focus on developing fragrances they would want to wear themselves, in the kind of packaging they would like to see on their vanity. (It took about two years to engineer the click function into Liis' spherical white cap.) “We want to be able to tell stories that are meaningful to us,” Hendin says. “Everything comes from, How do we want to express ourselves? (All Liis perfumes) tell really personal stories.”
The brand's latest launch, Cabbage Cabbageexemplifies this ethos: Sullivan's mother is French and named him “chouchou,” a term of endearment akin to “beloved,” but there's a dual interest at play—choux à la crème is a French pastry. Liis' Choux Choux features top notes of whipped cream and lemon zest, middle notes of caramel, vanilla and salt, and base notes of cocoa, mocha and sandalwood. The fragrance, priced at $175, is on track to reach $1 million in retail sales this year, according to the company.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Liis
“People can walk into a store and come across us very organically.”
Liis, which has always been self-financedit is growing by 60% to 70% year on year. The brand produces nine fragrances and six candles stocked at Neiman Marcus, Violet Grey, Goop and more than 125 independent specialty retailers across the US, Europe and Japan. Liis maintains her impressive momentum by leaning into organic growth — and a distribution strategy that is “really about discovery.”
“We're in smaller boutiques that we would probably shop ourselves,” Hendin says. “So that's another big part; people can walk into a store and stumble upon us organically. Then it's very word of mouthtalking about us online.”
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TikTokin particular, it has been a boon to the brand. Perfume influencers and perfume reviews abound on the platform, though the co-founders weren't aware of the space's goldmine potential when Liis entered the market.
“When we first launched, we had a TikTok that went viral (and) sold right out of our discovery groups,” says Sullivan, “and the funny thing is, we're self-funded and so Scrapiewe were fulfilling them by hand.” This meant placing the perfume in bottles and writing the names of the scents on each one—a process that took about eight hours.
The brand continues to go viral success in social media that doesn't come from PR campaigns or product giveaways – it flows organically into Liis.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Liis
“It's about looking at your business (and) seeing what your needs are.”
Despite early and sustained traction, like most businesses, Liis encountered some challenges on its way to growth. Between supply chain, warehouse and hazmat hurdles, the co-founders had to be open to creative pivots and solving problems. For example, when their first warehouse lacked the necessary level of attention to detail (“We want the package to be beautiful when it arrives”), they moved to another 3PL and moved their products to a other.
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“We didn't go to business school, so we don't have a framework that we've been taught that this is what you should do,” Hendin says. “I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all. What works for our business might not work for another business. So I think it's about looking at your business, seeing what your needs are. and then figuring out what's right for you and using common sense to put those pieces together.”
The business that started as a side hustle is still in a “transition phase” to a full-time career for the co-founders, but Sullivan and Hendin are adept at balancing their freelance and consulting work with their growing brand — and look forward to sharing more of their time and resources for liis. Sullivan and Hendin are excited to continue Liis' global scale and reach new audiences with their perfumes and fragrance stories.