Liis Perfume: The Best Scents Right Now

I have never met a miniature perfume bottle I could walk past, so Liis spoke to me before I smelled anything. Alissa Sullivan and Leslie Hendin grew up minutes apart in Marin County, California, lost touch, then met again as adults living abroad and bonded over their shared collection of tiny fragrances. Alissa trained in perfumery in Versailles. Leslie came at it as a designer and artist and taught herself the craft. Their own story is the best way into the label. If you want to keep going, Barely There Perfume: Light Skin Scents That Smell Fresh is the one I would read next.

They began taking the idea seriously in 2017, brought in perfumer Jérôme Epinette, put out a small discovery set in 2020 and followed with three full-size scents in 2021. They have funded the whole thing themselves, which suits a house built around personal memory rather than whatever is trending this season.

Everything is made in California, with good ingredients from around the world and a base of organic sugarcane alcohol. What I like most is the quiet point of view: clear glass, soft notes and names that suggest a place or a state of mind. Nobody is telling you what to smell like. You are just invited to find the note that fits your day.

Liis feels less like a list of occasions and more like a map of private moods. The Bo Eau de Parfum is a tucked-away coastal artist enclave in cedar, incense and vanilla, and I would wear that story on a cool walk or a quiet dinner. in This World Eau De Parfum is greener and brighter, with blood orange and fig, while Ethereal Wave Eau De Parfum threads bergamot and cardamom through black and white tea. For a soft, bookish mood, Studied Eau de Parfum leans into pear and warm cashmere.

Choux Choux Eau De Parfum is the sweet one, all cream, caramel and cocoa (dangerous before lunch), and Lucienne Eau De Parfum brings a flash of pomelo and magnolia. Rose Struck Eau de Parfum is the rose and fruit pause in between. Picture her choosing one scent for a train ride and letting another belong to a lazy weekend morning.

My practical tip is to start with the Vivid Discovery Set, which gives you five small scents to live with before you commit to a full bottle. The Bo Candle and Bo Hydrating Lotion carry that same scent into the room and into your daily routine. What I would skip: judging any of them in the first thirty seconds.

Liis makes sense to me because the founders' story stays in the work. One brought formal perfumery training, the other a designer's eye, and the scents keep that authorship close without telling you exactly what to feel. I like the idea of starting small, giving a fragrance a full day on skin and deciding whether it has earned a place in your life. For a label built around memory, that feels like the right introduction. Although I suspect most people end up with a favorite by Thursday. I went deeper on a related idea in Abel Perfume: Which Scents Are Worth It?.