BUSINESS
The Smell of Success Lambda Fragrances creates unique handmade scents
or years, Pasadena residents Gabriella Anaya and Sean Young bought essential oils and other raw ingredients so that they could create homemade fragrances for fun. As the couple experimented with various formulations, they realized they were onto something truly special. “It started out as a hobby and was inspired by our passion and intrigue for fragrance,” Anaya says. “Sean, our master perfumer, is a polymath who is gifted in different disciplines. He’s also a portrait artist and a fantastic chef, and that process is similar to making a fragrance – you’re creating something from scratch, you need to know ratios, and you need to have a creative mind to be able to put together a great scent. Sean spent a long time blending and making formulations over the years. We created many different fragrances that were quite amazing, so we decided that it was time to share our hobby with the world and we launched Lambda Fragrances last year.” The founders are high school sweethearts who met through a mutual friend back when Anaya was a student at South Pasadena High School and Young was attending Pasadena High School. The name for the company was inspired by the Lambda symbol used in math and physics. Young, a mathematician and researcher at UCLA with a background in physics, created each fragrance formulation from scratch. Young has a very technical mind but he’s also an artist, so that helped a lot with creating these amazing formulations. One thing that sets Lambda Fragrances apart from other companies is that its products are made with two simple ingredients, alcohol and fragrance, and are free of fillers and preservatives. In addition to clean formulas, their scents are also long-lasting due to its aging process. “Part of the reason why our fragrances are long-lasting is because of our curing process,” Anaya says. “We exceed the time that standard fragrance houses age their perfume. Everything is based on perfect timing, when we add in the raw ingredients and the alcohol, it is done with our proprietary aging process in mind. Each fragrance is really unique.” The formulas are available in two unisex scents, a cologne for men and a perfume for women, although Anaya points out that the cologne can be enjoyed by women as well. continued on page 20
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By Kamala Kirk
18 | ARROYO | 01.22
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1/5/22 8:58 AM
