“A trip to Capri to visit the historic Carthusia Perfumery in the 1980s inspired a passion for fragrance in Laurie Arbuthnot. Thirty years later, she launched Wild Coast Perfumery, a plant-based perfumery on beautiful Vancouver Island. Arbuthnot’s daughter Haley Dawe is Creative Director. The pair’s long-lasting perfumes are inspired by and named after meaningful Canadian locales and each location’s coordinates is printed on the bottle’s label in degrees” (Clean Beauty Awards, 2021).

Laurie's passion project, 30 years in the making

It was a dream come true for Laurie when she opened Wild Coast Perfumery in Cowichan Bay in 2017. Decades after her monumental trip that formed the base of her perfume knowledge, Laurie began her venture. “I felt it was time to finally move forward with my dream after 30 years,” she said. “My family was so sick of me talking about it over such a long time that I finally had to do it.” (Barron, Cowichan Valley Citizen, 2021).

Creating scents using traditional methods, they hand-blend, age, filter and bottle everything in their perfumery. The calming and uplifting effect that comes from natural essences stems from our primal instincts. They believe in respecting nature, each other, and that we are the sum of the choices we make.

Their fragrances will truly blend with your own body chemistry to enhance your own natural fragrance, so wear their fragrances with confidence!

what sets wild coast perfumery apart?

It's artisan perfumery that uses only completely natural, plant-based ingredients in its formulas— no synthetic or chemical-based ingredients, no animal-based ingredients. Plus, they are one of the very first perfumeries to publish their entire ingredients list, the contents of each of their perfume recipes. Visit the full list here

Amongst the many ingredients Laurie champions in her formulas are traditionally blended pure plant-based, precious essential oils and wild harvested tinctures, including needles, leaves, flowers, lichen, fungi and moss from local forests. “Our botanical perfumes will evoke a sense of Island calm that is inspired by the ancient rain forests, mountains and the Salish Sea that surrounds us,” the website says (Barron, Cowichan Valley Citizen, 2021).

One of the things we find the most special about her perfumes is how their naming system instantly evokes memories and a connection with the brand and their scents when clients visit our boutique in Morden. Reading the names of the places printed on Wild Coast Perfumery bottles that we’ve visited, we can fully submerge ourselves in the scent and location, a truly unique experience.

Link to the original interview and article that this founder feature was based on, written by Robert Barron for the Cowichan Valley Citizen: https://www.cowichanvalleycitizen.com/news/opening-wild-coast-perfumery-a-dream-come-true-for-cowichan-bay-owner-816225