Sarah Baker: Perfume Is My Artwork

Written by Kristina Kybartaite-Damule

With the release of Peach’s Revenge earlier this year, the name Sarah Baker was often on the lips of the fragrance community. In this interview, we talk about this successful creation and what’s coming next.

Sarah Baker / Author’s photo

If you’ve ever tried anything from Sarah Baker perfumes, you know they have a special DNA—you can easily tell if a perfume is from this brand. From the Oud trilogy of Loudo, Gold Spot, and Symmetry, to something more animalic like Jungle Jezebel, or even fruity gourmand like the latest Peach’s Revenge, they are all unique, sometimes daring, playful, and definitely unforgettable.

Unforgettable, just like Sarah Baker herself—classy, artistic, and always with the best sense of style in the room. I had the pleasure of meeting her at the start of October in Cannes, and she agreed to share with the readers of PlezuroMag more about her work, inspiration, the idea behind the bestseller Peach’s Revenge, and to tease a little about what to expect in the near future. Spoiler alert: fans of Peach’s Revenge are going to love it.

Let’s begin with the usual question—what got you into fragrances?

I made a film, and it was about a fabulous fashion brand, so I had to create a lot of products, fashion items, homewares, jewelry, and the logo of the brand, among other things. After finishing the film, I thought, “Actually, I'd love to carry this on and create a real brand.” I loved the idea of getting my work out into the world in a much broader way. In the art world, it can tend to be elitist. I felt it was international, but it wasn't easy to be seen by a wider audience. Perfume seemed like a good tool to have my work in people's homes, used regularly around the world. I also came to realize that scent and storytelling can really help each other. As a filmmaker and storyteller, I saw that I could incorporate both to make art. People ask, “How come you're no longer doing any art?” But to me, this is my artwork. It's an extension of my art practice.

Each of your perfumes has a screenplay. What comes first? How does your creative process look? Do you start with a story and then go with the fragrance, or vice versa?

Mostly, the fragrance comes first. Even if I’m giving a brief to perfumers, that’s often how we make perfumes. Nowadays, I like to make a brief because it gives me a clearer creative direction for the story we’re telling. When the perfume is finished, I direct this process with collaborators. We smell the fragrances and discuss what we’re experiencing. Sometimes, the name of the fragrance is already there—like with Peach's Revenge, I knew the name before I even sent the brief. But with the fragrance, we’re inspired to create a story. I work with a screenwriter, and together we conceptualize it, and then he does the work (he's a professional screenwriter, so he writes the screenplays).

Sarah Baker / Author’s photo

And in the case of Peach’s Revenge, you even did a show with actors in London.

It’s always been a dream of mine to bring more filmmaking and performance into what we do. When I started the fragrance brand, I was doing theatrical plays that were scented. If you're hosting an event in a perfume boutique, there’s an opportunity for a live reading or performance of the script, and eventually, I’d love to make films of these stories. It’s a future ambition. But right now, running a business is a big job, where I’m wearing so many hats, so it's about carving out time and budget. Even for something low budget, it requires full commitment of time and effort to make it worthy of our fabulous fragrances.

Do you have a main message you want to send to people with your perfumes?

I hope people want to wear our fragrances and become a character inspired by them. When I put on certain things—whether it’s makeup, a dress, or perfume—I embrace a certain attitude, confidence, or character. Ultimately, I want people to experience that fun, joy, and confidence that perfume gives. In a way, it’s self-care. It’s a confidence booster.

Where do you find inspiration in everything you do?

I find inspiration in films, TV shows, images, and fashion. I find it when I travel, like to Cannes, for example. I love the look of luxury and extravagance. I was always inspired by that aesthetic, even growing up in Buffalo. I was born in San Francisco and always wondered, “Why are we in Buffalo and not San Francisco, which is a much better place to be?” When I moved to San Francisco as a young adult, I was inspired by the aesthetic of wealth and the nautical look. When I first started the fragrance brand, I made fragrances inspired by fashion motifs and fabrics.

Perfume collection of Sarah Baker / Author’s photo

Which fragrance-related project have you enjoyed the most?

I have to say Jungle Jezebel, artist edition. I didn’t give Miguel Matos a brief for Jungle Jezebel; he presented me with the finished fragrance and offered it to me for my brand. We created a story around it, inspired by Divine’s song “Jungle Jezebel.” We were transitioning packaging at the time, moving to the orange caps, but they weren’t ready, so we decided to do a special limited edition. We created a portrait of Divine with fake eyelashes and a blonde peroxide wig. Miguel suggested adding the beauty mark, which was the finishing touch. It’s basically a portrait of Divine, and for me, it made perfect sense as an artist.

The perfume audience’s reaction was interesting—it was a little shocking to see DIY touches like drugstore eyelashes on a bottle, but no one else had done it. It was a joy, and it definitely brought us a lot of positive attention.

Limited edition of Jungle Jezebel

You work with perfumers like Chris Maurice and Miguel Matos, but you also create fragrances yourself, like Flame & Fortune, one of my personal favorites. Do you enjoy creating perfumes yourself, and will we see something new from you anytime soon?

During the pandemic, I worked on a couple of fragrances. That time allowed me to exercise my skill and craft, and I was able to create G Clef and Flame & Fortune. But as things got busier, I didn’t have the space and time to create more. I love working with people who are fully dedicated to their craft, so I don’t want to release anything that isn’t 100% dedicated to that craft. It's in the future, but not the immediate future.

I’m still blending and learning, and and I actually exercise my craft by taking classes remotely with The Institute For Art and Olfaction, based in LA. During the pandemic, they started doing a lot of their classes online, and that was actually very helpful for me, because I was able to learn how to order the materials (that was one of the biggest hurdles). As a perfumer in training, who's a self taught perfumer, it's hard to know where to get the materials, how to dilute the materials, how to weigh them, what to do about pipettes, what to do about measurements, how to expand a formula. All of these like small things, ultimately, it's an art form. So I think if you can balance a composition visually, you could also balance a composition through olfactory.

Let’s talk about Peach’s Revenge. It’s been such a huge hit, and so many people love it. What do you think is the key to its success?

I think it was the perfect storm. First, it's a delightful, uplifting fragrance with a certain happiness to it. We launched it during Esxence, and people were smelling it for the first time in a big crowd, so word of mouth spread quickly. Even if you weren't at Esxence, people knew about it. So, I think that really helped to get the word out.

But the fragrance itself is happy, delightful, and sophisticated, with a bit of intrigue. The brief I sent to Chris included that element of intrigue, and he got it. I already had the name Peach’s Revenge before sending the brief, and I find it really interesting how he was able to interpret the name and my brief. The ideas that I had could have been interpreted in many different ways, and I thought he did a really excellent job of delivering a really fantastic fragrance.

Chris Maurice, Kristina Kybartaite-Damule, Sarah Baker / Author’s photo

And how did you come up with the name Peach’s Revenge?

I just woke up one morning with the name, and I don't know where it came from. I didn’t know I wanted to do a peach fragrance, but I knew I wanted something fun and fruity.

Actually, I did a video with Sebastian Jara, where he asked me to talk about Chris Maurice’s fragrances. So I started to study a lot of Chris Maurice’s fragrances, a lot of the other fragrances he did for other brands. We had already published Gold Spot, Ludo, and Symmetry that were all in the oud family that Chris Maurice had made. But I wanted to have a broader range, because we were at Sebastian's studio, and he has hundreds of perfumes, so I knew that I was going to be asked to give my impressions of a lot of other Chris Maurice’s fragrances. But also I just wanted to really dive deep into what is he about.

And it turns out, he's not only really great with oud, which is kind of the impression that I had of him, but he is actually amazing with fruits. And a lot of his really the best fragrances that I smelled from him that were not of my brand had a fruit element to it of some kind. So I think that that was when I decided something needed to be fruity.

And now you’re planning two new releases, and it will be a trilogy of Peach.

Yes, they’ll be released in November. It’s a variation on Peach’s Revenge, a peach trilogy. I don't want to say too much right now—keeping the suspense (laughs). But Chris came up with the idea for a peach trilogy, just like we had an oud trilogy, and he provided me with fragrances that are spot on.

Upcoming Peach trilogy / Author’s photo

Can we talk about future plans? Where do you see the brand in the coming years? Any more new releases?

I do actually have a new fragrance coming soon with Miguel Matos, and again, he always surprises me. He's full of surprises. And I didn't plan to have a fragrance like this. It was actually a similar reaction with Jungle Jezebel. First I thought, no, and eventually I smelled it more and more. And I've had a very busy year this year because of Peache’s Revenge, so I didn't have enough time really to spend with it. And I kept thinking, no, no, no. But then I tried it on my skin, and I absolutely loved wearing it. And I realized that this would be a really ideal fragrance for me personally. So that's when I decided I can just publish it. It’s coming probably this November.

Thank you for your time.