The Index · House Profile
She Invented the House
for a Film.
Then She Made It Real.
Sarah Baker Perfumes is a London house built by an artist who commissions her noses the way a producer casts a film. Seven perfumers, three trilogies, and exactly one fragrance she composed with her own hands.
House Spotlight
Most perfume houses begin with a person who wants to make perfume. This one began with a fake perfume brand inside an art film, invented as a prop, which its creator then decided to build for real.
Sarah Baker is a multidisciplinary artist. Her own site describes a practice spanning film, photography and installation, circling the same three subjects: luxury, identity and desire. She was born in San Francisco, spent her early years in Buffalo, took a BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute, and moved to London in 2000 for an MFA at Goldsmiths. She has lived there since. The house is British. She is not, and the distinction is worth making because almost everyone gets it wrong.
In 2013 she made Impirioso, a soap opera artwork about a fashion heiress who murders her husband. Inside it sat an invented luxury brand. Speaking to The Perfume Society, Baker said that piece is actually the artwork which inspired me to make perfumes. By 2014 she was working with the Institute for Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles. The first collection followed, with perfumer Ashley Eden Kessler. The brand has never published a founding year and we are not going to invent one for it.
But to me, this is my artwork.
That line, from her interview with Plezuro, is the key to the whole catalogue. She is not a perfumer who learned to market. She is an artist whose medium happens to include smell, and who treats a fragrance brief the way a director treats a casting call. The house is co-owned with Andy Hsu, her husband and an artist in his own right, who built the bottling machines the brand fills on.
Her method is commissioning. The About page says the house collaborates rather than dictate; she told Plezuro that she now prefers to write a brief because it gives her clearer creative direction. Both things are true at once, and the tension between them is visible in the work. Seven perfumers have signed fragrances for her: Ashley Eden Kessler, Sarah McCartney, Andreas Wilhelm, Miguel Matos, Chris Maurice, Margaux Le Paih Guérin, and Baker herself. The Institute for Art and Olfaction is the thread running through the hiring: she met Kessler there, met Andreas Wilhelm at its International Scent Summit, and told Olfactif she was the first brand to launch Miguel Matos.
Each fragrance arrives with an original mini screenplay, written with a screenwriter. That sounds like copy until you learn that Peach's Revenge got a staged reading at Jovoy Mayfair in July 2024. The stories are performed. They are not packaging.
On awards, the record is precise and modest. Atlante was a finalist in the Independent category at the 2019 Art and Olfaction Awards, entered with the roles formally split: creative director Sarah Baker, perfumer Sarah McCartney. Gold Spot took an honourable mention in 2023. Neither won, and the house has never won an Art and Olfaction Award. Baker had sat on that jury herself in 2018 and presented at the ceremony, which tells you how small this world is.
The catalogue organises itself into trilogies, and that is how we have arranged it below. We carry the peach and the vanilla complete, two thirds of the oud, and the one fragrance she wrote alone.
The Peach Trilogy
The brand calls it a saga of vanity, betrayal and poison, and closes the description with the promise that this peach always gets its revenge. All three are built on peach and vanilla, all three are Chris Maurice, and the trilogy sold as a set at the brand is exactly these three. Start anywhere; the order below runs sharpest to softest.
Peach's Revenge
Chris Maurice · 2ml $13.99 · 50ml $195Ripe stone fruit with a knife behind its back. Peach, nectarine and guava land juicy against amaretto, then orris, cardamom, ginger and cinnamon dry the whole thing out before amber and caramel close it warm. The orris is what matters here: it gives the sugar a cool powdery spine and stops the fruit running away. Still sweet enough that anyone allergic to caramel should keep walking.
Peach · Nectarine · Guava · Amaretto · Orris · Cardamom · Cinnamon · Caramel · Vanilla
Pastel Rumours
Chris Maurice · 50ml $170Peach and milk with a mean streak. Peach, fruit loops and ginger open bright and frankly cereal sweet, then milk, cardamom and caramel turn it creamy and spiced, and custard creams with soft musks settle it somewhere cosy that never quite goes innocent. The middle chapter and the easiest of the three to wear. Note it is the only eau de parfum in the trilogy, so it sits closer to the skin than its siblings.
Peach · Fruit Loops · Ginger · Milk · Cardamom · Caramel · Custard Creams · Vanilla · Musk
Rococo Pie
Chris Maurice · 50ml $215Peach pie fresh from the oven, served on a gilded plate. Peach pie, tangerine zest and coconut open warm and bright, walnut and jasmine fold into a creamy heart, and amber, sandalwood and musk finish it buttery. The most dessert forward of the three, and the jasmine is the only thing keeping it out of pure bakery territory. If you want peach with an edge, buy Peach's Revenge. This is the cosy one, and it wants cold weather.
Peach Pie · Tangerine Zest · Coconut · Walnut · Jasmine · Cream · Amber · Sandalwood · MuskA Vanilla Trilogy
The best concept in the catalogue. The brand frames this set as vanilla across three centuries, imagining the material in 1887, 1987 and 2087, and sells the three together as a saga of desire, decadence and the unknown. The brand does not say which bottle is which century. Smell them in the order below and you will not need to be told. All three are Margaux Le Paih Guérin, who trained at the École Supérieure du Parfum and is now at Flair in Paris.
Velvet Vendetta
Margaux Le Paih Guérin · 2ml $13.99 · 50ml $195Vanilla with gunpowder on its hands. Gunsmoke, pink pepper and nutmeg open dry and mineral against dried fruit, then bourbon, black olive and vanilla take over and it closes on tobacco, molasses, resins and deadwood. The black olive is the surprise, a brackish saltiness that refuses to let the vanilla get comfortable. The most difficult of the three and the most interesting. A poor match for anyone who came here wanting something soft.
Gunsmoke · Pink Pepper · Nutmeg · Dried Fruits · Bourbon · Black Olive · Tobacco · Molasses · Vanilla
Va Va Vanilla
Margaux Le Paih Guérin · 2ml $13.99 · 50ml $195Espresso, rum and vanilla at the end of a long night. Black cherry, cinnamon and an espresso martini accord open sharp and dark, then rum, saffron and crushed nuts feed a milky vanilla that dries down on guaiac, leather, sandalwood and hot skin musk. A bar vanilla rather than a bakery one, and the coffee and booze keep it from ever reading juvenile. It does collapse onto the skin fairly quickly, so look elsewhere if you want a vanilla that fills a room.
Black Cherry · Cinnamon · Coffee · Saffron · Rum · Vanilla · Guaiac Wood · Leather · Sandalwood
Year XOXO
Margaux Le Paih Guérin · 50ml $195A clean vanilla that smells like a slow Sunday in bed with a paperback. Green apple, ozone and soft musks open fresh and airy, then paperback books, warm skin and a white paint wash give the heart a quiet lived in feel, and cashmere woods, a cloud accord and vanilla close it soft. The newest of the three and the exact opposite of Velvet Vendetta: airy and close where that one is smoky and dark. The ozone pulls it toward skin scent territory, so if you want a vanilla that announces itself, Va Va Vanilla is the louder pick.
Green Apple · Ozone · Soft Musks · Paperback Books · Warm Skin · Cashmere Woods · Cloud Accord · VanillaThe Oud Trilogy
The brand's own description of this set is unusually specific: orange blossom, cypriol, and one hundred percent natural Laotian oud with Suyufi agarwood, developed in sequence starting with Symmetry, then Loudo, then Gold Spot. We carry the second and third. Symmetry is the gap, and it is the one to ask us about. Both below use real oud and both show it in the drydown, so anyone shopping for a purely sweet gourmand should sample before committing.
Loudo
Chris Maurice · 50ml $215White chocolate and real oud, playing nice until they are not. Bergamot, neroli, petitgrain and black cherry open bright and fruity, then cypriol, orange blossom and white chocolate sit over Laos oud before Suyufi agarwood, musk, amber and vanilla close it deep. The brighter and more floral of the pair, where Gold Spot runs dark. Evenings and cold weather.
Bergamot · Neroli · Black Cherry · Cypriol · Orange Blossom · White Chocolate · Laos Oud · Agarwood · Amber · Vanilla
Gold Spot
Chris Maurice · 2ml $14.99 · 50ml $215Dark chocolate poured over agarwood, lit from underneath. Neroli, bergamot and petitgrain give a citrus lift before dark chocolate, butterscotch and Laos oud take the heart, then Suyufi agarwood settles in with amber, vanilla and sweet myrrh. The oud is used generously and the chocolate is what stops it reading medicinal. The butterscotch is heavier than the note list implies, so sample first if you like your oud austere. This is the one that earned an honourable mention at the 2023 Art and Olfaction Awards.
Neroli · Bergamot · Petitgrain · Cypriol · Dark Chocolate · Butterscotch · Oud · Amber · Sweet MyrrhThe One She Wrote Herself
She told Olfactif she trained as a perfumer for about five years before publishing her own work, and told Plezuro she is still blending and still learning. The About page calls her the perfumer behind Flame & Fortune, and the brand's product page credits her as its nose. It is the only one in the live catalogue where it does. Whatever you make of a creative director picking up the pipette, this is not a vanity exercise. It is the strangest thing the house sells.
Flame & Fortune
Sarah Baker · 2ml $13.99 · 50ml $195White flowers burning at the side of a desert highway. Orange blossom, apricot and pink pepper open lush, then tuberose and lily of the valley meet a motor oil accord, and it finishes smoky on labdanum, mezcal and embers. The motor oil and smoke are what stop this being another pretty white floral, and the mezcal gives the base a sour green edge you rarely meet anywhere. Tuberose avoiders will not be converted. Everyone else should know it wears far richer than that fruity opening suggests.
Orange Blossom · Apricot · Pink Pepper · Ginger · Tuberose · Motor Oil · Labdanum · Mezcal · EmbersHow to hear a house
- Pick a trilogy, not a bottle. This catalogue is built in threes and the fragrances argue with each other on purpose. Peach for gourmand, vanilla for range, oud for weight.
- The vanillas are the showpiece. Three centuries of one material, and they genuinely smell like a past, a present and a future. Take them in that order.
- Decants exist for five of these. Peach's Revenge, Velvet Vendetta, Va Va Vanilla, Gold Spot and Flame & Fortune can be met in 2ml first. The rest are bottle only for now.
- Chris Maurice is the thread. He signed five of the nine here, and if you know him it is probably from Xerjoff. He also wrote two for Azman, which we profiled separately.
- Flame & Fortune is the outlier and the point. It is the one she composed. If you want to understand what she hears when she briefs everyone else, start there.
- Read the screenplays. Every fragrance ships with one. They are not decoration, and one of them has been performed on a shop floor in Mayfair.
- Cold weather, mostly. Only Pastel Rumours and Year XOXO really want daylight and mild temperatures. The rest get better as it gets colder.
- Questions before you order? Email info@kaleidoscopescentindex.com and we will tell you which one is actually yours.
Nine bottles.
One house that started as a prop.
Begin with Peach's Revenge if you want the gourmand, Velvet Vendetta if you want the strange one, and Flame & Fortune if you want to know what the founder sounds like when nobody is translating for her.
Shop Sarah Baker PerfumesWhere confidence meets chemistry and every note compounds character