Our Story
In an age where we all want to understand better about craftmanship and provenance, Ostens gives you access to ingredients previously unavailable to consumers.
Our aim: to celebrate and bring access to ingredients which lie at the heart of so many perfumes and to create sensory wonderment, open to all.
These exceptional ‘hero ingredients’ were then shared with some of the most talented perfumers in the industry, without any limitations of their creative impulses.
The result? Unique olfactive compositions, full of charm and intensity, showcasing creativity in its purest form.
Founders
Ostens is an unconventional and alternative state of olfactory mind, born out of the collected experiences of working with some of the world’s leading creative minds.
During their joint career in the perfume industry, Laurent Delafon and Christopher Yu have collaborated with the founders and artists behind Diptyque, Tom Dixon, Cire Trudon, Maison Francis Kurkdjian, Fornasetti and Anya Hindmarch. They have honed a unique creative point of view from these past experiences, the result of which expresses itself through Ostens.
Partners
Ostens is the result of our creative encounter with Laboratoire Monique Rémy and the master perfumers of IFF.
Laboratoire Monique Rémy (LMR) is one of the world’s leading companies producing natural ingredients for the high-end perfume industry. They specialise in essential oils, absolutes, resinoids, concretes and molecular distilled constituents, reaching all around the globe in their search for growing and harvesting exquisite ingredients. They are fully transparent, and can guarantee origins, methods and ingredients. LMR is fully sustainable and their approach includes all aspects of environmental, social, economic as well as technical responsibility.
International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF) is the world leading fine fragrance house, whose famed perfumers have created some of the most iconic scents. Based in Paris and New-York, IFF acquired LMR in 2000 to support and stimulate the creativity of its perfumers with access to the world’s best natural ingredients.
Our collections
Préparations (Perfume Oil)
To magnify and carry the selected LMR ‘Hero ingredients’, Ostens developed a unique oil base formula which constitutes what we call our ‘Préparations’. This range of unique scented oils contains the highest legally and technically permitted concentration of each carefully chosen ingredient.
Each oil can be used as a scent by itself, or as a way to experiment, transform and personalise any chosen perfume: whether it be an Ostens Impression or a favourite perfume from another fragrance house.
An Ostens Préparation can help to lift or deepen a scent; invigorate or quieten it; transform or balance it.
Impressions (eaux de parfum)
Using the selected LMR ‘hero ingredients’ as creative ‘jumping off’ points, the master perfumers of IFF have imagined unexpected fragrances, where sometimes the ‘inspirational’ ingredient is obvious and central to the scent, and sometimes it is more akin to a spice, used sparingly yet dramatically.
True to our ethos of giving access and lifting some of the mystery enveloping the fragrance industry, on each bottle, alongside each fragrance name, you will find details of the ingredient, country of origin, supplier and concentration included. This illustrates the role of the ‘hero ingredient’ either as a ‘pillar’ essential to the scent, or as a ‘finishing touch’ lifting the creative edifice.
Our visual language
Each of our selected ‘hero ingredients’ has been interpreted into a unique colour pairing. A colour combination evoking the intensity and emotion felt from its unique scent. Making the invisible… visible.
For composite creations, each is a visual interpretation using a colour palette that combines its key ingredients and expresses its unique fragrance.
Laurent Delafon and Christopher Yu