“There’s a saying in the wine industry: You can’t make good wine with bad grapes.” Today, Frances Shoemack approaches fragrance development as she once did natural winemaking, drawing on a deep respect for the ingredients and the conditions they’re grown in. The exception is that these days, that environment is just as likely to be a wild field as it is a scientific laboratory, as all Abel scents are made with natural origin ingredients including those derived from biotechnology, which begin as plants, yeast or fungi.

She started the line after moving from her native New Zealand to Amsterdam and falling in love with niche and artisanal scents. “At first I was looking for a product for myself,” she says. “I could find skincare and makeup with natural ingredients but if you went to buy a perfume, you almost got laughed out of the shop.” That was especially true in Europe, where she was told to go to an organic supermarket to find what she wanted. “I thought, ‘I don’t want to buy my perfume from the supermarket.'” 

What she ended up creating with Abel was destined for somewhere else entirely. These are sophisticated yet accessible fragrances that are the result of her clear, creative vision and the work of noses including Isaac Sinclair, who has the distinction of being the only master perfumer in his field from the Australasia region. Together, they have been able to utilize a biotech musk derived from plant sugars, a breakthrough material that is used in every scent. “Isaac likes to say that making a perfume without musk is like cooking without butter,” she says. “You can do it without, but with it allows you to shine a light on the other ingredients” in a way nothing else can.”

Abel’s top selling perfume around the world is also its most experimental: Cyan Nori. which utilizes a biotech-derived algae absolute that recalls that moment you open your car door at the beach and are hit with the smell of the ocean, a nostalgic yet strange wash of marine notes with tangerine and white peach. “We did it in 2020,” she says. “It was such a weird year that I wanted something to capture your senses.” In that, it has clearly succeeded.