We speak to indie perfumer, Shawn Maher of Maher Olfactive and Chatillon Lux
About You
Tell us who you are?
My name is Shawn Maher and I live in St. Louis in the United States.
How did you get into the perfume industry?
I’ve always been a polymath and someone who loves learning about new things and adopting new skills. That set me up pretty well for a career as a copywriter.
Ten years ago I decided to make my own aftershave balm during an extremely cold winter. However, I hated the smell of shea butter so I picked up a few essential oils to create a scent. As someone who spent many years playing in bands and touring, I immediately understood why so many terms in perfumery (composing, notes, organ, etc.) are taken from music.
Composing perfume really felt like composing a song to me, and I immediately fell in love. I started Chatillon Lux with skincare and shaving products and scents inspired my home of St. Louis, but my real passion was the perfumery aspect, and I have since left skincare behind to evolve the Chatillon Lux line into a perfumery-focused line while adding Maher Olfactive, a more niche-oriented house.
What was the first perfume you ever purchased?
I came of age in the nineties, so it was likely either Tommy or CK One. However, Faherenheit was the first perfume I fell in love with. But I was a shy introvert and that felt like a different world than the one in which I lived. However, I do wear it frequently these days.
What is your favourite meal?
That’s a tough one. My grandfather always said that you eat to keep from getting hungry, not because you are hungry. And I live that every day. I do love authentic Mexican, Peruvian and Honduran food quite a bit. Schwarma also always hits the spot for me. And as someone who cooked pizza during college, I will never get tired of a wood-fired, Neopolitan-style pie.
Where is your favourite place?
In America, likely the Pacific Northwest or Rocky Mountains. And I do love living in St. Louis quite a bit. I don’t know if I could afford such a spacious studio to grow my business in many other cities. Additionally, my sister lives in Groenigen in the Netherlands, and I found it to be very enchanting when I visited.
Do you have an interesting party trick or any hidden talents?
I’m one of those who is full of useless trivia but can never remember appointments or where I left my keys.
Who would play you in a film of your life?
My first call would be to fellow St. Louisian Jon Hamm.
About your Brand
Describe your brand in one sentence.
Using juxtaposition of seemingly strange bedfellows to view familiar notes in new lights.
Where does the name of your brand come from?
Chatillon Lux is named after Henri Chatillon, the protagonist of Oregon Trail. He was from St. Louis, the grandson of the founder of Carondelet, which would eventually become South St. Louis City, where my studio is located and where I lived until recently.
He was illiterate but could speak every Native American language. Additionally, he was very empathetic and unusual for his era, as he treated Native Americans as equals and was married to Sni Mato, the daughter of an Oglala chief.
Most adventurers had mistresses, but he was deeply in love with Sni Mato. When she died, he was heartbroken, giving up his career to retire in what is now the Benton Park neighborhood. He never forgot her, and hundreds of years later they found a portrait of her along with relics of his years on the trail hidden in the floorboards of the attic, where I like to think he would sneak away and remember the life he left behind.
It was such a beautiful but heartbreaking story.
Maher Olfactive was much easier. It’s just my name, and Maher Perfumes was taken. Plus this just has a better sound to it, anyway.
Who are your perfumes for?
I try to compose something for everyone, but I do tend to avoid trying to create something that already exists. I want to provide new experiences. There may structures that are not necessarily new, but provide them with a unique perspective. I want to create perfumes for people who want something unique, but still wearable.
Tell us about your latest perfume.
The last release I had was Maher Olfactive’s Velouria Eau de Parfum, inspired by the Pixies song of the same name. That song, an ethereal love song for someone of the lost people of Lemuria, is all about the juxtaposition I love so much.
The reverb-drenched vocals of Black Francis and Kim Deal soar and sparkle above the fuzz-saturated guitar riffs of Joey Santiago along with the driving-but-not-overdone rhythm section of Deal and David Lovering. It has notes of candied violet, orris, blueberry, frankincense Frerena, Indian vetiver, Javanese vetiver, musk.
I will soon be releasing four new scents. For Chatillon Lux, Treget is an airy, woody reimagining of the first scent I created over a decade ago. Can’t Stand the Rain is an ode to St. Louis’ Anne Peebles’ song, with citrusy aquatic notes contrasted by throaty florals and cedarwood. And for Maher Olfactive, there will be a re-release of Lamplight Penance, which had a material discontinued and so I had to revamp it, along with The Fog Cowers, a musky tuberose chypre.
If someone wanted to try your fragrances, which one would you recommend they try first and why?
That’s tough because it so much depends on individual preference. I do sell sample sets of each line, but if it were just one, then I would say Confluence from Chatillon Lux and Red Skies from Maher Olfactive.
What challenges do you want to overcome for your brand?
I’ve bootstrapped everything and am not a person from means, so I’ve been growing slowly but steadily. I would like to find a way to enter the European market as international shipping is quite a hurdle. I often tend probably spend less time than I should on the business aspect of perfumery and much more on the creation of perfume, as that brings me joy while business is always such a headache.
What is unique about your brand?
I believe I straddle the two worlds of wearability and niche pretty well. Some perfumes may lean more to one side or the other, but I often feel pressure to become less unique or to become a house that’s more about the art of perfume than functionality. I want to create wearable art, so I am happy on the island between the two territories.
You can find out more about Shawn’s brands at chatlilonlux.com and maherolfactive.com
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