Interview: Why I Created a Clean Perfume

When Allison Stubbings struggled to conceive in 2016, she began a journey that led to the creation of luxury clean perfume brand Medeau.

Q: How did struggling to have a baby lead to you creating a perfume house?

Allison: The conception and pregnancy journey was incredibly tough for my husband and I. We made every possible health and lifestyle change to give ourselves the best chance - from exercising and diet, to choosing safer cosmetics and perfumes.

Q: But why create a perfume?

A: Of all the life changes I made, I could never find a perfume as luxurious as my Dior - we form strong personal attachments to our perfumes, and while I found some natural alternatives, I could never find a perfume that felt as special, while also working in harmony with my body. I decided to create a fragrance that solved both of those problems.

Q: Is Medeau really safer? A lot of brands talk about ‘clean beauty’.

A: ‘Clean’ has definitely become a buzzword, but we mean it, and we spent over a year researching ingredients for our Origin fragrance. Our perfume needed to be 100% vegan, with sustainably sourced ingredients. Each ingredient has laboratory research supporting the fact that it isn’t an allergen, carcinogen or hormone disruptor. It was crazy to see how many ingredients used by perfume houses today fail those basic tests.

Q: Is the perfume aimed at people going through a specific health journey?

A: I think that the perfume is made for anyone who loves to wear beautiful fragrances that make them feel special, but is also starting to think more carefully about the safety of foods, cosmetics and perfumes. My journey was a personal one, but I hope that what I learned and the perfume that we have created will put people’s mind at ease and make them smile when they reach for our bottles.