Paul Kiler, 53, a commercial photographer and artist, started PK Perfumes in September 2012. Since then, he’s experienced a heady whiff of praise from perfume aficionados, racking up 10 national and 9 regional laurels for many of handmade scents that he sells online.
All Kiler needs are customers in the $25 billion world fragrance and perfume industry, particularly some of the brick-and-mortar retailers he’s courting. (Global sales are expected to exceed $36 billion in 2017). But he knows he needs to invest at least another $10,000 to $15,000 for fancier, sexier packaging and labels if he wants to grow. .
“I can’t get into Neiman-Marcus with this stupid bottle,” he said, holding up a boring, blah-looking bottle of one of the 12 perfumes he’s produced.
He’s only sold 100 of the $25 sampler sets and a dozen bottles of fragrance. A half ounce costs $55; 1 ounce, $85; and 2 ounces, $125. Of the 12 scents he’s produced, he considers Ere and Red Leather his masterpieces. Kiler spent two years tinkering with Ere
“He’s a great perfumer,” said Elena Knezhevich, the San Diego-based co-founder and editor of Fragrantica.com, which includes an online magazine and encyclopedia of more than 1,500 perfumes. She praises Red Leather for its mixture of “sour, sweet rhubarb, very sharp at one end and sweet and pleasing at the other. It has a message evokes something surprisingly fresh you have in your life, like a new red leather jacket.”
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