Behind the Bottle: Meet the Creators behind NAP (Not.Another.Perfume)

What happens when you mix luxury packaging expertise, music, fashion and over a decade of high-end fragrance manufacturing? You get NAP, a brand that is rewriting the rules of the perfume industry.

We sat down with the Creators of NAP Mark, Will, and KJ to get the raw, unfiltered story behind the brand, earliest scent memories, and how they are bringing NAP to the world for everyone to experience.

1. Our Earliest Scent Memories & First Fragrances

In the world of fragrance, everyone has a starting point. Lets look back at the scents that shaped the creators early years.

Mark: A Nostalgic Memory Of Lavender

"My earliest memory of smelling fragrance is one of my oldest memories. My nan passed when I was very young and while I can't remember her voice, and I only really remember her face from pictures, I do have a vivid memory of sitting on her lap as a very small child. I remember the feel of the fabric of her dress, a sense of warmth and safety, but more than anything I remember her lavender-based scent. To this day I still don't know which scent she wore, but whenever I smell lavender I smile and remember my Nan. My brother is 5 years older than me, so of course growing up I wanted to be like him. I distinctly remember a birthday when, after me repeatedly stealing his, he bought me my own bottle of Issey Miyake L'eau d'Issey. When I opened that packaging and sprayed 'my own' bottle, I was instantly older, cooler, and of course, more attractive to the girls!"

Will: From Holiday Samples To Cool Kid

"I remember my parents going to an Amway convention and coming home with a ridiculous amount of fragrance samples. Most of them smelt absolutely terrible, but as a kid, I thought the tiny bottles were the coolest thing ever. I kept them in my 'odds drawer' for years before realising they were actually pretty awful. The first proper fragrance I owned though was Jean Paul Gaultier. That was the original. I used to walk into school as a teenager thinking I was the absolute man. Spiky gelled hair, way too much confidence, and an ungodly amount of Jean Paul sprayed all over my school uniform. Truly epic times."

KJ: The Classic Teenage Rite of Passage

"Like most teenagers, my first real experience of fragrance was none other than Joop. That was probably the first fragrance I ever owned. But my proper experience of fragrance came later, when I joined a luxury fragrance house and had the chance to smell some of the most incredible fragrances that had been created by them."

2. Why NAP? The Spark That Started the Brand

What drives someone to step away from the mainstream and build a new fragrance from scratch?

Mark: Combining Materials, Scent, and Friendship

"Having supplied packaging to luxury brands for over 25 years, I've always loved how the choice of materials influences design, and ultimately portrays a brand's identity. Building NAP enabled me to play with ideas that I'd had for years around packaging. But more than that, exploring the importance and integrity of the raw materials in the fragrance itself—and how these values and ideas knit with decisions around packaging materials—was really exciting. Doing it with your mates just makes the process more fun and rewarding."

Will: A Global Music Obsession Meets Destiny

"I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world through music, and wherever I went I always found myself nose-deep in fragrance stores. It became a genuine obsession. Food and fragrance were always the two things I’d seek out first in every city. Over time, fragrances became something I collected and really connected with. I still remember buying my first 'expensive' fragrance at the Le Labo store in Austin. My manager at the time took me there, and I remember walking out thinking, 'How the hell have I just spent $200 on a bottle of fragrance?' Fast forward eight years and I don’t even want to know how much I’ve spent since. But honestly, I’ve always justified it as giving everyone around me ten seconds of pleasure. Like a legal supplier, just with slightly better side effects. NAP really started when KJ began dating my best friend from school, Liz. The first time I met him and he told me he worked for a high-end fragrance company, I immediately thought, 'Right… is this my chance to finally start something?'From there, the conversations never really stopped. We kept talking about what a fragrance brand could look and feel like if we did it our way. Eventually, we decided to stop talking and actually do it. Two years later, here we are with the team: KJ, Mark, Matt, and myself."

KJ: The Natural Next Step

"Having worked in the industry for over 10 years, launching a manufacturing facility, and working with lots of other brands who are launching their own products, it just felt like the natural next step in my career. I have always felt I had a significant advantage, having so much experience in launching fragrances for other people, so it felt right to finally put my own stamp on the market."

3. What NAP Means to you? "Not Another Perfume"

The identity behind the name represents a shift away from uniform and mass-produced luxury.

"We live in a world where everything is mass-produced and made to look perfectly uniform, and personally I think that’s boring. With NAP, we wanted every bottle to feel like its own piece."

Mark: "We wrestled with so many different names. The fact was, we didn't want to simply create another perfume brand; every name we played with felt like an homage to another brand. We discussed this at length until we realised that our idea was our brand. We're 'not another perfume'—this is our brand. It's got bits of each of us in it, so it means something to us; it's personal. We wanted to create our own scents from scratch. We chose to craft our own caps through experimentation, trial and error. It wasn't the easy choice, but it was the right choice. The brand is very much a reflection of us."
Will: "In my eyes, everything in the fragrance world has kind of been done already. Most brands are just repackaging the same ideas over and over again. We’re not pretending to reinvent the wheel with NAP, but we did want to bring something that felt a little more human and a little less manufactured. That’s why we decided to hand-make every concrete cap. No two are ever the same. We also only produce very limited batches. Even down to the packaging, we wanted the wooden box, the linen bag, and the texture to feel different. Fragrance shouldn’t just be about smell; it should be about the experience when you first hold it."
KJ: "For me, it represents something that is luxury but real. Unlike most luxury brands, we wanted to bring a real handmade element into both the fragrance and the product itself, particularly by integrating different materials, much like the fragrances themselves."

4. The First Impression: How We Want You to Feel

Fragrance is inherently emotional. Here is the impact NAP hopes to leave on anyone who experiences it for the first time.

Mark: "I want our fragrances to build memories. When people experience them for the first time, of course I want them to love them, but I want them to wear them and create those special memories that will live forever."
Will: "My thing with NAP is honestly pretty simple: I just want people to fall in love with it. Fragrance is such an emotional thing, and when someone finds a scent that truly feels like them, it becomes part of their identity. Whether that’s confidence, nostalgia, comfort, curiosity, or sexiness, I want people to experience NAP and feel something."
KJ: "I hope they understand that luxury does not always have to feel perfect or polished. It can be fun, cool, and a bit raw. When someone wears NAP, I want them to feel confident, authentic, and like they are wearing something with a bit of attitude."

5. Pro Tips: How to Wear Your Fragrance

To get the most out of your scent, the creators share their personal top tips for application and wear.

Mark: Spray for Yourself First

"Make sure you apply it so you can smell it yourself first, a spray around the collarbones works for me. As you turn your head either way, you'll get the benefit. Then, a generous application on the wrists, as you move your hands, your fragrance will fill the air."

Will: Wear It with Total Confidence

"Wear it loud… no pun intended. Honestly, the best thing you can do with fragrance is wear it with confidence. A scent always comes alive more when the person wearing it feels good in themselves. Walk into a room knowing you’re the best-smelling person there. And when someone eventually says, 'Who the hell smells so good in here?' you confidently reply, 'It’s me.'"

KJ: Let It Warm Up on the Skin

"Wear it where the fragrance can warm up naturally on your skin. For me, perfume comes alive when it has time to settle and react with the person wearing it, rather than just being sprayed and judged straight away."

Ready to find a scent that breaks the mold? Explore our Discovery Set and Limited-Batch Fragrances.

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