Scent by SIX is a Singaporean fragrance house founded by Jason Lee. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, SIX had redefined itself by making mental health a core focus for the brand. In late 2020, it launched the Hikaru collection which was designed to uplift and evoke happiness.
“[The Hikaru launch] was beyond our expectations. In fact, it has come close to the performance of our best seller 27F Biei… What’s important to note is that we see a good number of return customers for Hikaru. They claim that the scent had indeed uplifted them. One customer even suggested we arrange for a long-term subscription program for him,” Lee told CosmeticsDesign-Asia.
This September, the company will be following up with a new collection designed to help people get a good night’s sleep and fulfil the brand’s mission to “to champion mental wellness”.
“We are all tired – mentally and emotionally. Sleep is so near yet so far. And even when we thought we had enough sleep, we wake up disappointed and feeling empty, unfulfilled – having enough sleep doesn’t mean its quality sleep,” said Lee.
The Sleep, Returns collection was developed with the Sleep Accord by Japanese Fragrance House, Takasago.
A two-week study of the Sleep Accord involved 45 panellists from France, Singapore and the US. One group was given the fragrance and told to smell it for 20 seconds before bed and the other was told to do the same with a control.
In the morning, the panellists filled out a sleep diary to record details of their sleep and mood. Their sleep was also tracked via a Fitbit tracker worn by the panellists. The experiment concluded that it improved people’s sleep quality and increased the REM and Light Sleep stages by four minutes each.
As it did with Hikaru, the company has pledged S$10,000 from the sales of Sleep, Returns to the Singapore Association for Mental Health (SAMH), which it began working with last year.
SIX unveils new scent bar
This month the company unveiled its third retail space in the western part of the island after a temporary closure affected the mall and works on the outlet.
Despite the challenges and uncertainties of the retail market, Lee emphasised that a brick-and-mortar presence was still “imperative” for a fragrance brand.
“As much as we can incorporate machine learning, augmented reality, artificial intelligence into our business model, we cannot completely take away the human touch. After all, a scent is created to tell more than a story, it has the power to heal emotions, preserve memories and bring people together. It is about the human connection.”
He added that the firm’s first two outlets, which were located in prominent shopping districts, have been performing well despite the disruptions of the last two years.
“We had expected retail to be badly affected especially when safe management measures were unpredictable in the past few months. Surprisingly, our two outlets were very resilient and in fact, they have done better on a year-on-year comparison.”