Perfumes de Sarah Horowitz

Sarah Horowitz-Thran, an American perfumer, discovered her passion for perfumery when she was a university student in Boston. While studying theatre at Emerson College, she took a part-time job at Essence, an unconventional apothecary-style perfumery on Newbury Street, where she made custom scents for clients. Recognising her natural talent for fragrance creation, she finally opened her own shop in Boston before moving it to Los Angeles.

With more than 30 years of experience in the perfume industry, Sarah Horowitz-Thran is considered a pioneer of indie perfumery. Her fragrances have attracted a loyal following, including celebrities, stylists and media personalities. They have been featured at world-class retailers such as Barneys New York, Anthropologie, Fred Segal and Nordstrom. Some of her most popular creations include By / Rosie Jane Leila Lou, Skylar Fall Cashmere, Skylar Coconut Cove and Skylar Pink Canyon.

Sarah has worked with numerous brands, including Bellegance Perfumes, Biography Scents of Self, By / Rosie Jane, GoodTrueBeautiful, Lily Lambert, Max Azria, Saffron James, Sarah Horowitz Parfums, Skylar, UNTITLED and Urban Decay.

As a first-year student at Emerson College, Sarah began designing custom fragrances, a process she called “The Fragrance Journey”. This experience forms the heart and soul of her business, with custom perfumes that reach prices above 1,000 dollars. After being an apprentice at Essence for nearly four years, Sarah bought the shop with the help of her family, further honing her craft and building her reputation as a consummate and imaginative nose. In 1994, she sold her share in the business and moved to Los Angeles, where she founded Creative Scentualization, which later evolved into Sarah Horowitz Parfums.

Sarah’s intuitive, unformulated approach to fragrance development has made her a highly sought-after perfumer for both individuals and emerging niche brands. She creates unique trend-setting perfumes and home fragrances, with customisation at the core of her business. By distilling the essence of her clients’ personalities and preferences into a bottle, Sarah has built a dedicated following among demanding women from a range of professional backgrounds.

Today, Sarah Horowitz Parfums is an established niche fragrance house based in California, responsible for its own Sarah lines, such as SHP Evolution, the Perfect Perfumes, What Comes From Within and the Perfumer’s Palette. In addition, it has created numerous private-label and bespoke fragrances that have gained cult followings among connoisseurs of the fashion industry and celebrities across the US. In 2017, SHP opened a high-end filling and production branch with short runs, focusing on production services for the growing indie fragrance community that Sarah helped build.

Alongside her business activities and fragrance creation, Sarah is a teacher at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in central Los Angeles. She balances her time between her love of fragrances, teaching and her family: her husband, Greg Thran, and her two daughters, Jessica and Gianna.