The Story Behind the Scents

Hi! My name is Reid, and I'm the owner/perfumer here at Fragrance for the People!

In one sentence, this perfumery exists to help fund the rescue and resettlement of North Korean defectors by bringing affordable, yet incredible-smelling perfumes to the rest of the world.

Here's how it all began:

From 2013 - 2018, after finishing college, I taught English in a small Chinese city called Yancheng.  The largest Kia manufacturing plant in the world was located there, bringing many South Korean migrants to the area.  Despite being right outside of Shanghai, a third of my students were from South Korea.

As I grew closer to a few of my students' families, I learned for the first time about the shocking human rights violations in North Korea.  I watched YouTube videos about the horrendous living conditions and asked myself, "How is this happening, and the rest of the world hasn't stepped in to stop it?"

By 2020, I was back in the US, working during the day and teaching ESL online to resettled defectors a couple nights a week.  Then COVID hit, and we all got fat, cut our own hair, and started a new hobby.  Mine was perfume-making.  I took classes online, spent way too much on essential oils, and started mixing this and that, just to see what would happen.  I wore my fragrances everywhere I went, and soon I was gifting them to friends and family on special occasions.

But when COVID hit, Kim Jong Un was not sitting at home in his sweatpants developing his olfactory palette.  That year, his regime imposed pandemic-related border lockdowns, increased state surveillance, and greatly restricted access to technology like phones and radios.  Despite an average of 1,500+ defectors escaping North Korea per year from 2010 - 2019, the new crackdowns saw to it that only 229 defectors escaped in the year 2020, and only 63 in 2021.  Month after month, the total number of defectors who successfully cross the border continues to dwindle to nearly zero.

Rescue missions can cost tens of thousands of dollars - far more than I could personally afford. So I decided to launch my own perfumery to help fund life-changing operations that give freedom and a future to people in need.

I researched the fragrance market and quickly learned how much price gouging goes on as an effect of intense industry-wide gate-keeping.  I realized I could recreate designer-label fragrance dupes with $30 of materials.  I thought, "They could sell these $400+ bottles of perfume for much less and still make healthy margin..."

So, here we are.

Fragrance for the People was created to make a meaningful impact - not just a profit. That's why 30% of net proceeds go to Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), a nonprofit that conducts border-crossing rescue missions, supports defectors as they resettle, and raises global awareness about the human rights abuses faced by more than 24 million North Koreans each day.

My hope in creating this brand is to provide you, the consumer, with an affordable fragrance option that actually makes the world a better place when you buy it.