Boy Smells
Sensuous, accessible and bright, Boy Smells products elevate your intimate world. Packaged in pink and conceived beyond the gender binary, our full bodied fragrances and intimate apparel make loving your identity a daily ritual.
#ISMELLBS
In late 2015, Boy Smells began as an experiment in candle-making in the Los Angeles kitchen of co-founders and partners Matthew Herman and David Kien. Herman and Kien – both fashion veterans who worked in design (Herman) and product development (Kien) – began by making the things they’d want to use on a daily basis, products that were fluid, essential, but also accessible.
Founder-invented scents like Cinderose, a union of rose and smoke, and Gardener, a compilation of tomato vine and honeysuckle, wrap traditionally masculine scents in a prettier bouquet. Burn up expectations, release clear intentions. Boy Smells candles are all developed and designed in Los Angeles with fragrance and natural oils, and proprietary all-natural coconut wax and beeswax blend. The candles are hand-poured in a reusable glass vessel and hand-labeled in Los Angeles, California.
At the end of 2017, Boy Smells launched, Unmentionables their first collection of intimate apparel, a new direction in the brand’s study of closeness.
2021 and 2022 are also big milestones for the brand, moving beyond fragrance for the home space and into the sphere of fine fragrance and body care.
Boy Smells is currently carried in over 750 retail locations (300 in the US alone), across 35 countries on 6 continents. Big strides.
From routines to rituals, Boy Smells renews the personal care routine by creating rituals from the otherwise mundane experience. These are moments that can be experienced by all.
GENDERFUL Above Genderless
“We wanted to have products that were embracing masculine and feminine simultaneously in a simple and straight-forward way that wasn’t overtly targeted to one gender,” says co-founder, Matthew Herman. “It’s a permission to harness your power from wherever you want it.”
HOW IT STARTED (and how it's going)
TIMELINE TIME — There's so much to tell, but maybe that's a tell-all/memoir for down the line. Here, discover some milestones that shaped and transformed Boy Smells to become the brand and business it is today.
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JULY 2015SIDE JOB HUSTLE
MATTHEW AND DAVID STARTED EXPERIMENTING WITH CANDLES IN THE KITCHEN. MORE MISSES THAN HITS, BUT THE PRODUCT AND THE BRAND EVENTUALLY COME TOGETHER, CARVING OUT A NEW GENDERFUL UNIVERSE.
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JANUARY 2016INTO THE WORLD
BOYSMELLS.COM GOES LIVE AND LAUNCHES WITH SIX CANDLES TO START WITH — KUSH, ASH, CEDAR STACK, GARDENER, PRUNUS AND NOW RETIRED, MSSR. BLANCHY. FRIENDS AND FAMILY MAKE UP THE BULK OF ONLINE SALES, AND IT’S SO APPRECIATED.
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MAY 2016SUPER STORES
INFLUENTIAL RETAILERS LIKE FORTYFIVE TEN IN DALLAS (PICTURED), TENOVERSIX IN WEST HOLLYWOOD, AND BYGEORGE IN AUSTIN PICK UP THE COLLECTION. THE BRAND GAINS FANS AND RECOGNITION ACROSS THE US.
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JULY 201715 MINUTES EXTENDED
THE HOUSE TURNED OFFICE/WAREHOUSE APPEARS ON HOMESPACE/LIFESTYLE BRAND, THE COVETEUR, OUR FIRST MAJOR PRESS PIECE. NYLON, ELLE, VOGUE, COOL HUNTING AND GQ TO FOLLOW.
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NOVEMBER 2017
GETS INTIMATE
UNMENTIONABLES, OUR COLLECTION OF GENDERFUL INTIMATE WEAR, DEBUTS AND CONTINUES TO CONSTITUTE 15% OF ONLINE BUSINESS. SOFT COTTON JERSEY UNDERWEAR THAT SPANS FROM XS THROUGH XXL.
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NOVEMBER 2019HELLO HINOKI
HINOKI FANTÔME DEBUTS AND BECOMES AN IMMEDIATE HIT. THIS REMAINS A BEST SELLING SCENT TO DATE.
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FEBRUARY 2020BURN IN A HURRY
SLOW BURN, THE COLLABORATION WITH KACEY MUSGRAVES DEBUTS TO MAJOR FANFARE, BECOMES A BEST SELLER AND ARGUABLY, THE UNOFFICIAL CANDLE OF THE “WFH” YEAR OF 2020.
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MARCH 2021WRIST SPRITZ
EAU DE PARFUM, THE GENDERFUL FINE FRAGRANCE COLLECTION, FINALLY DEBUTS WITH 5 ALL-NEW SCENTS, AFTER YEARS AND YEARS OF TESTING AND EXPLORING FRAGRANCES FROM ALL OVER.
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APRIL 2021BIG ROLL OUT
A LARGE ASSORTMENT OF BOY SMELLS CANDLES ROLLS OUT TO NORDSTROM DOORS. EAU DE PARFUM WILL BE A BEAUTY FLOOR FIXTURE AT 30 HIGH TRAFFIC NORDSTROM LOCATIONS.
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SEP 2022MEET US AT SEPHORA
ANOTHER RETAIL MILESTONE. CANDLES AND FINE FRAGRANCE HAVE ENTERED THE SHELVES OF OVER 120 SEPHORA LOCATIONS. OH AND SEHPORA.COM AS WELL. THE BIGGEST RETAIL PARTNER ROLL OUT TO DATE.
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OCT 2022BODY BODY BODY
THE FORAY INTO SKIN AND FRAGRANCE CONTINUES WITH HAND WASH AND HAND LOTION. THE BRAND CONTINUES TO EXTEND ITS REACH FURTHER INTO THE HOME SPHERE WITH THE GOAL OF BEING PART OF EVERYONE'S BATHROOM AND KITCHEN RITUAL.
