Premium Beauty News – First, could you tell us about what Good Brands – to which Typology belongs – aims to achieve?
Ning Li – When I founded Good Brands in 2018, I had in mind a long-term project inspired from major European and French groups. They often have a brand portfolio strategy, which offers real assets and synergies. Since the first brand launched seven years ago, Typology, was already well-established in the cosmetics world, it was the right time to create our second brand, Sujet, this time in the perfume segment. Today, Typology is widely recognised as an expert skincare brand, so it was key to keep it focused on this area and set up a fragrance project under a new name.
Premium Beauty News - Precisely, why choose the name ‘Sujet’? Do you think this French name can resonate on the global level?
Ning Li – It is a short, French-sounding name, but it is not that far from its equivalent in English. It is a clear choice to assert the brand’s French identity. And as Typology continues to expand globally, it also benefits from its French roots. So, it felt relevant to us to keep a French name. ‘Sujet’ is pretty unexpected and very descriptive.
Premium Beauty News - With the tagline ‘from the field to the bottle’, you claim a different approach to perfume: how is it different?
Ning Li – We made the choice to work directly with farmers to source our natural raw materials. It is only the beginning, because there is still a long way to go when it comes to fair trade, but for our first fragrance, we are working directly with a farm located in the south-eastern region of Nice: they supply hay, our main material. Then our partners carry out the extraction and composition processes. With this approach, we put the spotlight on the farmer and farming, and we validate traceability. To me, it is an even more beautiful dimension; it is much more grounded in the origins of the perfume, unlike celebrities and the trappings of glamour.
Premium Beauty News - Can we talk about natural perfumes?
Ning Li – This area does not really have a definition in the industry. Our message is mainly based on this direct-selling approach. The juice and fragrance development are not fully natural.
Premium Beauty News - The first ‘subject’ is Hay, then: why choose this olfactory material?
Ning Li – Though it is pretty ordinary, this ingredient is hardly used in perfumes, and yet hay extract does offer a great olfactory profile. It has a pretty strong sensorial rendering. And above all, it perfectly embodies the French landscape, smells, and culture.
Premium Beauty News - For this launch, you opted for a very limited distribution with a sales website accessible only by invitation. Why?
Ning Li – Our model is deliberately based on limited distribution, because we have produced about 4,000 items for this launch. As a small brand, we can create a perfume in small batches and preserve a sense of rarity and discovery, which is a strength. Our approach is an invitation to patience. We have chosen word-of-mouth rather than a massive launch. The people on our waiting list get early access to the website and can in turn invite other people. We want this exclusively online brand to remain a small, exclusive niche brand.
Premium Beauty News - Is the Hay fragrance [1] the first of a long series?
Ning Li – I hope so. What we want is keep building the brand through new launches in 2026, with the same philosophy directly related to farming, start from the raw material to craft the perfume, and create a small community around our perfumes. We want each launch to be a story and landscape to tell.
