About
WALES PERFUMERY
An independent niche perfumery rooted in Wales. Built on science, craft and story.
Wales Perfumery is a British, independent niche perfumery founded in Monmouthshire, in the heart of the Wye Valley. Every fragrance in our collections is conceived, formulated, and made Louise Smith, a Paris-trained perfumer with a background in pharma and a deep fascination with the stories that landscape, history, and nature have to tell.
Wales Perfumery isn’t built on trends. It is built on curiosity, craft, and a genuine love of how fragrance can be so much more than just a product.
The perfumer behind the house
My love for perfumery started in childhood, playing with my grandmother’s beautiful fragrance bottles. I would pull out the stoppers and smell the incredible scents within. When I was ten years old I had a chemistry set for Christmas, and I absolutely loved it. Chemistry became my favourite subject in school, and it has shaped everything I have done since.
As a teenager I had all the iconic 1990s fragrances: Lulu, Poison, Anaïs Anaïs, Acqua di Giò, Trésor, Clinique Happy, to name a few. Miracle by Lancôme was a particular favourite. It was actually launched while I was working on the Lancôme fragrance counter, which I adored and continued part time as my career in the pharmaceutical industry took shape. The pharmaceutical world gave me years of rigorous scientific training that I would later bring directly to the bench.
Paris trained perfumer
It was a chance article in a chemistry magazine that changed everything: I read about perfumery as a discipline, and something clicked. I trained in Paris, spending years learning the craft at its source before returning to Wales to begin what would become Wales Perfumery. In 2019, I opened my studio in a 500-year-old secret walled garden in Monmouthshire and began welcoming people in for perfumery workshops.
What started as an artisanal lab and a place of education has grown into an independent niche perfumery with three collections, a home fragrance range, and a community of people who share my belief that scent is one of the most powerful storytelling tools we have.
I am a proud member of The British Society of Perfumers and the International Fragrance Association. I am also a champion for Smell Taste UK.
The Wales Perfumery collections
Everything I make begins with a story I want to tell.
Natur, launched in 2022, was my first collection. It draws on the scent of the Welsh landscape: the damp earth, the woodland, the coast, the seasons. It is where the house began, and it remains close to my heart. Each fragrance in the Natur collection is also available as a layering set, pairing a matching body mist with the eau de parfum for longer, deeper wear throughout the day.
The Celts, launched in 2025, took me somewhere wilder. Five fragrances, each one inspired by an ancient Celtic tribe: their land, their rituals, their character. It is the most ambitious collection I have made to date, and the one that pushed my formulation the furthest.
Storii, launched in 2026, is something a little different. It is my creative playground: a collection where I give myself permission to follow what delights and fascinates me, without boundaries. Each fragrance is designed to be worn alone or layered with the others, building something that is entirely personal to the person wearing it. Storii is derived from the Welsh for story, and every chapter begins wherever your curiosity takes you.
Why I do this
I started Wales Perfumery because I wanted to share the real world of fragrance: the materials, the process, the history behind what ends up in the bottle. The niche world gave me the freedom to do that without compromise.
Working as an independent niche perfumery means every decision, from the materials I choose to the way I describe a scent, is mine. There are no committees, no trend reports, no brief from a marketing department. There is just a question I want to answer, a story I want to tell, and the craft to do it with.
If you are new to niche perfumery, I hope what you find here surprises you. If you already know this world, I hope Wales Perfumery feels like somewhere worth staying.
