Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Veronique Gabai Pinsky. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Veronique, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Scent is part of my life. I have spent years creating perfumes for the most beautiful brands and most interesting people. But at some point, I wanted to express in my own way what scent can be and do for people.
I wanted to bring people to the region where modern perfumery was born, and where I was born too. My line is all inspired by the South of France and takes you on a journey into the Mediterranean light. My collection is about “sunshine”, the sunshine above us, so present in the Côte d’Azur, but also the one inside us, the one we carry along, the one that sustains true happiness… The way we create that sensation is by composing our perfumes with a very high concentration of natural ingredients. Having worked on scent for so long, I learnt how powerful natural ingredients can be on your wellbeing. Through my perfumes, I wanted to connect people to Nature, because Nature makes you feel happy. Synthetics are not harmful, but no-one ever dreams of a chemicals’ factory when thinking of their happy place. Nature brings joy and peace to people. My perfumes are composed with that in mind. We bring sunshine, we bring joy, we bring nature, we bring also a way to personalize your scent through easy layering, so you can express your true nature. And we do this with a profound commitment to ethical sourcing and sustainability, so we protect Nature.
This is what I called “sunshine for the senses and the soul” and this is the promise of my brand.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I always had a very strong sense of smell and a very creative mind….but I did not know as a kid, what I could do with it. So I went to business school, out of elimination….I was recruited by L’Oreal, and after a couple of years was directed to their fragrance division….and there everything made sense, all the dots started to connect. I was on a path of marketing and business management but I was so passionate abut the product, I trained in perfumery and aromatherapy on the side, and my career was one that always balanced the creative process with business acumen. At l’Oréal, I was working for Giorgio Armani perfumes and launched Aqua di Gio. At LVMH, I worked for Guerlain and did a lot there, among which designing the Aqua Allegoria Collection, among other things. I went to live in the USA, opened the creative studio of a major fragrance house, where I truly learned the process of perfume creation, and then was recruited by the Estee Lauder companies, where I became their global president of the fragrance division. There, I worked with many designers, launched many brands and reshaped the fragrance business and portfolio towards high end and niche. All and all, that journey took me deeper and deeper into the meaning and the experience of scent, the knowledge of ingredients and the power they contain….That journey led to where I am today, a much smaller business, but a formidable opportunity to create a different experience around scent, one bridging self-expression and wellbeing, luxury and sustainability, hedonism and humanism.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I had a thriving corporate career, one that was bringing a fair amount of access and financial reward.
I loved what i did, and I deeply respected the Estee Lauder Cies, where I was working.
But there was a moment in my life when I had to decide if that path led to my ultimate destination. Was becoming the CEO of a major corporation, a public company, my ultimate goal in life? Was that what I was deeply dreaming about? It was not.
And so, having realized that, every day spent on that path was a day walking towards the wrong destination for me.
This is when I realized what i loved, was to connect with people, give joy to people, help people feeling better. Scent is my mode of communication….
There was also most certainly a desire to express my philosophy, call it a bit of an ego trip….But the ego trip is short lived. You sustain the difficulties of building a brand and a business, only if you feel deeply within yourself your mission is worth it, and that you can really make a difference.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

With Fragrance, the first purchase is usually happening as people like your story, your design, your advertising campaign…
The second purchase, the third and the fourth and all after, are solely linked to the satisfaction you get in wearing the perfume itself.
I am not a famous person, I do not have millions of followers….so I opted to tell the story behind our collection, what we are trying to do, how we are doing it through social media, email marketing, traditional PR for the main part, in a very genuine and transparent way, with education at the core. We also pay enormous attention to our consumer service and consumers’ opinion. We listen as much as we talk.
Acquisition is a bit slower that way, and one has to learn patience and consistency.
Add to this, that my fragrances, being composed with a high concentration of natural ingredients, need your skin to bloom! The experience of the scent on blotter will be fine, but the experience in wear will be exceptional. This makes acquisition even slower, as one really has to try to understand the real power of these perfumes and their genuine effect on your wellbeing. But once they do, they stay within the brand, as the experience is indeed superior. We have therefore a high rate of returning consumers, more than 20% month on month, which is quite high for perfumes, all the more for a young brand. I made the choice of slow, steady and solid growth. Because I made the bet to build a brand and a business for the long term, putting my consumers and my communities’s wellbeing at its core.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://veroniquegabai.com
• Instagram: @veroniquegabai
• Facebook: @veroniquegabai
• Linkedin: @veroniquegabai
• Youtube: @veroniquegabai

Image Credits

Stephane Alessi – Photographer
amy schneider
denise Behrens