United Perfumes’ Chris Yu a Force in Fragrance

At least once a week an email lands at the offices of United Perfumes asking for urgent help, invariably from a “household name” in luxury. “They don’t understand why their scented candles aren’t working,” says New Zealander Christopher Yu, who runs the London-based company alongside Laurent Delafon. Yu and Delafon aren’t perfumers, Mark C O’Flaherty writes in a story for the Financial Times. They call themselves “interpreters” – a go-between for designers and chemists, offering a lingua franca for each.

Yu says: “You can’t just put whatever fragrance you already have into a candle. We spend hours working on formulations, talking about what kind of wick works with certain blends, the shape of a vessel.”

This month, three ovoid-shaped black glass and metal Alexander McQueen candles created with the brand’s designer Sarah Burton will be released: Ghost Flower, Pagan Rose and Savage Bloom.

In July, United Perfumes’ own brand, Ostens, begins selling its Illumination range of Rose, Cashmeran Velvet and Jasmine candles in Selfridges.

Original article by Mark C O’Flaherty, Financial Times, June 13, 2023.