Lesbian and sapphic perfume lovers, you’re about to have something made just for you.
While there are several brands that are inspired and marketed to the gay community like Boy Smells, Studio Ready, Leather Daddy Skin Co,, the same can’t be said for lesbians. That difference didn’t go unnoticed by fragrance enthusiast Mariella Faura. Faura, the founder & creative director of the queer intimates and lingerie company Dyke Queen Clothing, wants to fill that gap. Dyke Queen Clothing is preparing to launch two fragrances, Pillow Princess and Stone Top, inspired by and made for lesbians and queer women.
Tagg spoke with Faura about the inspiration behind her new lesbian-centric perfumes, how the industry has overlooked queer women as a worthy demographic, and how you can get your nose on these new releases.
Tagg: What inspired the expansion from clothing and intimates into fragrance?
Mariella Faura: I have to give credit for the idea to my dad. I often go to him for business advice, and I was looking for a way to differentiate and elevate my brand, and he gave me the idea of going into fragrance. And beyond that, he is the one who instilled the love of perfume and fragrance in me. He’s the one who taught me that fragrance is the final step or layer in getting dressed. And of course, in the development of any product, there has to be a key insight or data to back it up, and for me that was how many lesbian fragrance influencers there were online and the whole lesbian fragrance matrix. There weren’t any lesbian or queer femme-centered options out there, so naturally in the spirit of Dyke Queen I had to fill that gap.
@dykequeenclothing #greenscreen get to know our new fragrance collection intimately 💋 pre orders are now open!! #wlw #perfume ♬ Gentle and soft piano jazz [long](1148314) – Noi m knot
Tagg: Why did you choose Stone Top and Pillow Princess as your debut fragrances?
Faura: I had many ideas of what would be the first two fragrances, but I loved the idea of starting with two identities that are so recognizable within lesbian culture, but that also represent two very different energies. I also feel like it went well with our lingerie; it added another layer to that world. I wanted the scents to feel like different expressions of desire, softness, and confidence, without either being reduced to a stereotype. They’re also identities that can coexist within the same person. I thought that tension would make for a really interesting collection and a good starting point for a larger world we could continue building.
Tagg: What came first, the names and identities or the actual scents?
Faura: The names came first! I wanted to build the collection around these two specific archetypes. I first thought about what they would smell like as a person or a mood. I felt those ideas were too rigid, and ultimately I decided to just go into the sampling process with a completely open mind and wait for the scents to tell me something. I know it sounds rather woo-woo, but when it comes to selecting fabric or, in this case, scents, I go based on intuition.
Tagg: How involved were you in developing the fragrances? Did you work with a professional perfumer?
Faura: I worked with a fragrance partner to bring my creative direction to life. Similarly, like my process with the clothing, I led the development and all the creative behind it. I designed the boxes and bottles myself. It was so hard to choose which would be the two for this collection because I had so many amazing formulations available, but that just means we have the expansion of the collection ready.
Tagg: Fragrance marketing has historically leaned heavily on heterosexual attraction. What does it mean to create a fragrance specifically with lesbians in mind?
Faura: I think similarly to lingerie, the advertising has been built around a specific and honestly rather strange expression of desire: it’s always heterosexual, on a beach or a desert, and somehow there’s got to be someone on a horse, and women are positioned as the objects.
Thankfully, there are a lot of independent brands that are avoiding that traditional script. But ultimately I wanted to make something that belonged to us. And like the philosophy with our lingerie, as a femme lesbian, I’ve often felt that queer fashion representation can be narrow when it comes to femininity. There’s room for so many more expressions of lesbian identity than we typically see represented. Creating these fragrances is a way to center our experiences without having to translate them for anyone else. And I think that’s exciting because the result isn’t a product that only lesbians can enjoy; it’s a product that begins with us.
Tagg: Stone Top and Pillow Princess are familiar dynamics within lesbian relationships. How did you translate those identities into fragrance notes?
Faura: I approached them as personalities rather than literal interpretations of the labels. With Pillow Princess, I wanted something soft and intimate, but not overly sweet or juvenile. The matcha and bitter orange bring a fresh, green quality, while fig gives it a creamy richness. Then the vetiver and cedarwood ground everything. It feels sensual in a more subtle way, because it’s almost skin-like.
Stone Top has, of course, a different presence. The bergamot and pink pepper bring brightness to it, while the warmer vanilla and tonka notes create a more enveloping, sensual quality. The balsam wood, incense, and amber give it such a beautiful depth. In no way did I want it to smell masculine or rely on the usual tropes of what a “masculine” fragrance should be. Both scents are meant to exist outside those traditional gender boundaries. They’re really about an energy and a vibe, not rules or scripts.
Tagg: Do you think lesbians have been overlooked by the fragrance industry?
Faura: 100% yes. Lesbians are overlooked in like every industry. It’s only now that we are starting to see things for us. Fragrance itself is universal, but the imagery, narratives, and relationships used to sell it have historically been pretty narrow. There’s a difference between being allowed to purchase a product and actually seeing yourself reflected in the world built around it.
I also think lesbian culture has an incredibly rich visual and emotional language that brands have barely begun to explore. I personally reference a lot of lesbian ephemera in the brand’s work. I want Dyke Queen to help create a space where those things can exist together without being sanitized or turned into a Pride-month marketing exercise. We deserve to be part of the conversation year-round, and not just as a demographic brands want to reach when June comes, and the political climate allows for it, but as a culture with its own references, aesthetics, and stories.
Tagg: Can a Pillow Princess wear Stone Top, or would that be breaking the rules, ha?
Faura: Absolutely. There are noooo rules! The whole point is that these are playful archetypes, not boxes anyone has to fit into. You can be a Pillow Princess by day and a Stone Top by night. A lot of people are pre-ordering both. And really, I’d love for people to wear whichever fragrance feels right to them, regardless of the name. If anything, I think wearing the opposite scent is part of the fun, and there’s so much versatility with both of them.
Tagg: If you could create a third fragrance inspired by lesbian culture, what would you call it?
Faura: Hmmmm, I don’t know which one I would reveal yet because there are so many that I want to bring to life. I will maybe share an idea for one that I have been mulling over in my head, but I feel like I can’t land on a name that’s succinct enough to fit on a label and can encompass the feeling of it, but I want to create something evocative of, like, your first lesbian romance or relationship. For me, I was lucky, and I guess unlucky enough I guess because your first romance also means your first heartbreak, but that for me happened in my teens. So I want something that is rooted in nostalgia, memory, the rush and high of it all. The excitement of seeing her name on your phone, making playlists for each other, love notes, the first time she holds your hand, staying up way too late together, doing everything together, and feeling like nobody in the world has ever been in love quite like you are. The drama of it all and the all-consuming nature of it. But there’s also that bittersweet quality of looking back on something that might have hurt you just as much as it changed you. I feel like it has to come out in late spring/early summer. Something that feels like warm evenings of summer and being young enough to believe that a feeling could last forever. I can’t even begin to think of the exact notes, but I’ll know once I smell it, I guess.
You can pre-order Pillow Princess and Stone Top now from Dyke Queen. Orders are expected to start shipping around November 15. You can also get your hands on samples now if you place an order for clothing or intimates at Dyke Queen for $50+.