Melanie Bender (2:22)

What's in your bag?

Sarah (2:23)

What's in your bathroom, your vanity? Like, what are the products that you really go for each day?

Melanie Bender (2:27)

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I have really, really high expectations after all my, you know, over a decade of working in beauty. So she has a high bar products, like, I love, love, love Put on my face every day. I feel like brows are like one of the things that people always call out about me. Love the refi. Refy.

Kirby (2:48)

Oh refy.

Melanie Bender (2:49)

Refy.

Sarah (2:50)

We don't know either.

Kirby (2:51)

No, I only remember that because it's like defy, defy, gratify, refy.

Melanie Bender (2:56)

I will do my best to remember that because it is one of my all time favorite products. They're brow sculpt and clear. I do laminate and stain but like that needs a good little touch up and hold. So I swear by that product.

Kirby (3:09)

Where do you go for your lamination?

Melanie Bender (3:11)

Jenny from Katie Brows. Big shout out to Jenny. She is amazing. She is just like has brought new life into my brows. I had definitely over tweezed as a youth.

Kirby (3:22)

Couldn't even tell.

Melanie Bender (3:24)

Well, interestingly the stain brought them back. I was kind of without a tail and it something in the sandwich as henna. Like it actually like promoted regrowth. So anyway, brows are like a whole thing for me. Love them. What else? What else? Obviously spf. Super, super important. Eltamd. Swear by them. One of my all time favorite ads to my skin regimen this year is Naked Beauty's eye treatment which I wasn't using. I wasn't using. I've never used an eye cream all my life. I was that person, person in skincare, you know, working in skincare saying you don't need an eye product, just put like your face products in your eyes. And I got to know Dr. Chang and just like everything that she puts into her products and gave it a try and man, like such a convert really like noticed and felt a difference in like the quality of the skin around my eyes which I've definitely, you know, with wisdom there's definitely been some changes around the eyes.

Kirby (4:17)

Yes.

Melanie Bender (4:17)

And elsewhere we understand that. And glazing milk road glazing milk stick still like one of my all time faves. I actually use it instead of moisturizer so I don't wear moisturizer during the day. I feel like whatever products I can cut out and still love how I show up. I tend to do that Merit complexion stick for face. I do tend to break out and just love how good that is for sensitive skin, how good it is for acne prone skin. Yeah, those are just like a few of my, my gal pals.

Sarah (4:46)

Yeah. I mean I love that you brought up Dr. Chang's brand because I know she's been working so hard on it and I was testing that eye cream as well.

Melanie Bender (4:54)

Okay.

Sarah (4:54)

I went through it completely.

Melanie Bender (4:55)

Right.

Sarah (4:56)

Such a good I mean, I need a refill. Someone. It's really good.

Kirby (5:00)

Also her eye patches, right?

Melanie Bender (5:01)

Yes.

Kirby (5:02)

Are so good. Yeah, she's just like, anything she says, I'm like, okay, I trust you.

Sarah (5:06)

I would say she, she really, like.

Melanie Bender (5:08)

She does the legwork. She actually, like, brings forward ingredients that haven't, like, aren't in the other products out there. So I do, like, I really, I've loved her products. And I know she just launched a face serum as well, which I haven't tried yet, but I plan to.

Kirby (5:23)

She's also so hot. She's so beautiful.

Melanie Bender (5:25)

She's so beautiful.

Sarah (5:27)

I'm like, what are you doing?

Melanie Bender (5:29)

And so freaking brilliant. She used to be a concert pianist.

Sarah (5:32)

Yes. She's a smart woman. I mean, she's very, very accomplished in so many different aspects of her life. I always think that if I was going to bribe somebody, like, if I needed something against someone, I would go to Dr. Chang and I'd be like, HIPAA violations. Now tell me everyone you worked on. Like, I would want to hear the list. Cuz I know she's.

Kirby (5:51)

She obviously everyone goes to her.

Sarah (5:52)

Everyone goes to her. She would never tell me because she's a professional, but I, like, took an oath. But I would die to know who she's actually worked on because I hear around town like, she's the good name.

Melanie Bender (6:06)

Yes, yes, yes.

Sarah (6:08)

Some good names floating around there.

Kirby (6:12)

Let's dive into the world of Lore.

Melanie Bender (6:14)

Yeah, let's.

Kirby (6:15)

So you actually call Lore, like a world? Like, it's the. There's a world that's built around this, the fragrances. It's not just a brand. What does that mean to you?

Melanie Bender (6:27)

Yeah, I think that's very true to how I build brands. And I'm fortunate that lore is actually. It's the fourth early stage brand that I've. I've built like a different. In different ways, different capacities. And you know, for me, the brands that I've loved creating and the brands that I loved is out there in the universe. They're ones that like, they really, they've created a world. They have a different point of view, a different lens. It's much more than here's a product and here's a name. But they've actually thought about what they want to be true. And that was very much how I approach Lore of like, really envisioning what does it look like, what does it feel like, what are like, the rules of this world? Which has a lot of, like, parallels to the real world. But is. Is I. I call it like, it's it's bending reality a little bit. It. It's familiar but new. It. It challenges you in ways. So to me, the fact that we're a world, it's something that you can step into where you see yourself a little bit differently. You see, you see the rest of us a little bit differently.

Kirby (7:27)

Does that also have any sort of connection to who you were creating it for? So like the people in this world, like, you know, when you walked in and gave us the fragrances, we were.

Melanie Bender (7:39)

Like, we couldn't describe the notes, but.

Kirby (7:40)

You'Re like, oh, I created it for people like you.

Melanie Bender (7:43)

Yeah, you know, it probably does. I think there's always been such a collective spirit to anything I've done. I even like, I hate using the word like me and I with reference to what I crave. It's such, like, it's such a we to a brand. So definitely, I think that's such a great insight that when it becomes a world, like, of course there's other people there with you. And to me, that's where the joy is. I could have never founded something without the partners that I have in this brand. I could have never been inspired and motivated to create something without knowing that, like, it's this opportunity to bring people in and really like give it a new life together. Yeah.

Kirby (8:20)

Can you tell us a little bit about your co found co founders? So Youth to the People founders, which we love. Youth to the people. I think like their cleanser is still one of my all time favorites and I think like everything that they've done with the brand and I mean we remember when they launched.

Sarah (8:35)

Yeah.

Melanie Bender (8:35)

Like kind of bonkers.

Kirby (8:37)

Bonkers. How huge they are now. But tell us how you met them.

Melanie Bender (8:40)

Yeah. Yes. And the kale cleanser is on. Definitely on my vanity as well. I mean we just got to know each other by. At the time I was running versed and kind of out of mutual admiration, which is like such a cool way to strike up a friendship. Like in theory we were competitors, but just. So Doug, how. How each other approach brand building? I think with a lot of the same ethos. Very brand first, very just like vibe and love driven and that's just like where things unfolded from and we got to know each other during COVID So actually like, I think my first conversation with. I think my first conversation with both Joan G. Was in Clubhouse. Oh, Clubhouse. Clubhouse.

Sarah (9:25)

RIP A very Covid moment.

Melanie Bender (9:27)

Totally is waiting for the comeback.

Sarah (9:31)

Are you. Are you actually just podcasts but you.

Kirby (9:36)

Like the live interaction of it and.

Melanie Bender (9:38)

I loved Maybe unsurprisingly, I love taking the visual out of it. To me it changed the conversation to not be looking at screens, to not be filmed. And it just like it brought out so much more connection I feel like. And that's also what drew me to fragrance. Well, we'll get there but like the invisibility of what happens when you like you peel back the visual world, which is humans is just so distracting. But anyway, I got to know Joe first in clubhouse. Just like immediate respect and just kind of like joy being around each other. Met Greg shortly thereafter. Thought he was way cooler than I am. But amazingly like he still wanted to be my friend and stayed friends for years. And it was when I was had told him that hey guys, like I'm leaving road that very incredibly they said to me, Melanie, like we think that you should have your own brand and we, we'd love to do it with you. And that was what started this journey together.

Sarah (10:34)

Was that the first time somebody had ever said that to you?

Melanie Bender (10:38)

No, but it was the first time that it changed the way I thought about it. I think for me, I'm not a lone wolf. I would never do this by myself. I just, I love having people to bounce ideas off of. I just love sharing it so much. There's such alignment in our values and how we like to work both what we like to create like values of building brands but also just values as humans. That to me it was always like trying to fit through the eye of a needle to figure out like what circumstances would I be comfortable and actually want to do my own brand. And it was the second that they put it out that is like, oh, like it's this.

Sarah (11:18)

Okay, so they mentioned you need your own brand. How did you settle or not settle, but how did it come to fruition that it was going to be Fragrance?

Melanie Bender (11:26)

Yeah, honest to goodness, I was really tired of talking about how people look as a woman of a certain age. I have a 14 year old daughter, you know, I just, I couldn't do another moisturizer. I couldn't do another concealer. I love those products. Those products should be out there. But I didn't feel like the world needed one from me. And what I felt like I was really craving was feeling and connection. I started just to do a lot more research into the science of scent, which I found absolutely mind blowing. Like how it just processing your brain differently than the other senses. It has much more of this like immediate emotional component to it which I found so beautiful and exciting. It's also Plastic. So what we associate sense with the emotions that they evoke. Like, we're able to change that by kind of like, it's almost like incepting these feelings and association. So anyway, like, tons of super cool science to it. And, you know, I think what's always hold me places and been my love is emotion and connection. And I could see really getting into that and building in that in a really exciting way. In fragrance, of course, it's a really fast growing category. All the, like, commercial boxes were being checked. But most of all, it seemed like the playground to do something really deep and special.

Sarah (12:47)

So then how did you narrow it down to four? Well, actually, I feel like a lot of times when brands launch with fragrances, I mean, maybe not now, but two or three years ago, it was one.

Melanie Bender (12:58)

Yeah.

Sarah (12:59)

And now you have your wardrobe of fragrances, and I love this. But I also think it could be very difficult because then you're. You're like, okay, I'm giving options. But then what if one of these four options is not.

Melanie Bender (13:15)

Yeah.

Sarah (13:15)

Up to somebody's. You know, or you don't find standards in terms of what they like to smell like.

Melanie Bender (13:20)

Yeah. You know, it was. This was very much like a brand that unfolded. I didn't go into it saying there needs to be four fragrances or one fragrance or eight fragrances. It really started first with thinking about the world like we. I started by building out our beliefs and coal and codes. What do I want to hold true about this world that I'm creating? And what decisions do those drive as to how we actually show up? What. How does it mean? What does it mean for our fragrances? What does that mean for our packaging? What does it mean for how we talk about how we look? And from there, you know, I think knowing that I wanted to create a world that it was really about expression and almost like slipping into different moods and vibes. To me, it had to be multiple. There's just like, there is so much to express, there's so much to feel. How could. How could you want just one? And I started, I mean, like, the first briefs I put together, I think they're probably 12. And it was a mix of fragrances that came from memories, fragrances that came from emotions, fragrances that just came from ideas of like. Like, what would it feel like to live in this? And, you know, from there, some of those took off immediately in the development process with Jerome. Some of them, like, didn't go anywhere. But it was very much like, almost like a. I don't wanna Say, a whittling down, but like letting the heroes that really felt like that they should exist emerged and also thinking about, you know, what's a hero, Amazing scent on its own, but what fits together in this really special wardrobe. And to me, that's how they each are. Each is like so fully developed and representative of a mood, a vibe, a time, a place, a soundtrack, a visual style. But together they are kind of these corners of the lore world that, yeah, like, not everyone is going to be right for every single person. But I hope you feel something and think something just by trying them on.

Sarah (15:20)

Okay.

Kirby (15:21)

Because Kirby and I got it so wrong. Can you quickly describe how each fragrance, how each scent smells or like, what it means to you?

Melanie Bender (15:30)

For sure. I'm going to start with Sublimity, which is the very first fragrance I started working on.

Sarah (15:35)

Okay. So Sublimity is that the one that kind of rose to the top in terms of when you were ideating and creating.

Melanie Bender (15:43)

That was one that I knew from the beginning. It was the very first fragrance I wanted to make. To me, it's the story of growing up in Hawaii, which is where I spent my, my youth, my childhood. And man, like, there's nothing like that experience. It's an experience I will always treasure and like, want to refined. And it's the story of the beach being your playground and palace of piling into the back of the truck on a weekend with a cooler full of cold drinks, you're headed to the beaches that only four wheel drive can get to. You're going to be there all day. You pull up to the sand and in Hawaii, the white florals, they grow right up to the beach and it just fragrances the air with this sweetness that's also a little bit salty and just like wraps you in warmth, man, Sublimity. It's that very first wave that you go under. And if you've ever been inside a wave and opened your eyes and maybe looked out the back, you see the sun, you see the horizon. There's this incredible sensation that time stands still and that sublimity, these moments in life that just wrap you with such beauty that it's like time stands still. It's our sheer solar musk. So it's this warm scent. It has ylang, ylang coconut nectar, a little bit of sandalwood. But most of all, to me, it wraps you in the close kiss of full sun.

Sarah (17:05)

So beautiful.

Kirby (17:05)

My goodness.

Sarah (17:06)

It's beach but not tanning lotion.

Kirby (17:09)

No, no, not sunscreen.

Sarah (17:10)

Smelling like a very different beach.

Kirby (17:12)

A sol de Janeiro beach smell.

Melanie Bender (17:15)

I wanted it to feel complex and nuanced, which is like, if you go to the beach in Hawaii, that's how it smells. That's how it smells. There's these layers of just sweetness and organicness. There's the humanness of warm, wet skin when you're there with your friends. And man, like, no shade to the other beach scents out there, but they don't actually give me being on the beach in Hawaii. And with this one, like, if I close my eyes, it takes me there, and I've had other people say that, and that just brings me such joy. Yeah.

Sarah (17:44)

You could be at the pool with some of these other ones. You know, it really does feel like you're in, you know, Hawaii, which is amazing.

Melanie Bender (17:50)

Yeah. So that's sublimity. Somewhere but nowhere is our spice creamy wood. That scent I envisioned in a completely different way. It's in an ode to Americana, which is about such grit and such individualism, but there's also such a grace to it. And Somewhere but Nowhere became the story of a man who was tired of being around the world. And so he just started walking. He walked and walked, and eventually he found himself at a forest of cedarwood trees. And there he stops, he cuts down a bunch of cedarwood trees, and he builds himself a cabin out of wood. And in that cabin, he just sits on his own by himself so long that he makes himself laugh, he makes himself cry. And every single morning, he wakes up and brews a cup of black Ceylon tea, and he drinks it with a little bit of fresh cream and wildflower honey. If after 30 years of this man doing this, you were to walk into his cabin, put your face against his wall, and just breathe in, that's the scent of somewhere but nowhere. It's grounded in this American cedarwood, which is rich and bold and soulful. It has spice notes of cardamom and carrot seeds. It's just of sit at the tip of your nose, but it wraps you in this soft creaminess that comes from vanilla cream and makes it a wood scent, but it's a really balanced, a really beautiful, really layered wood scent.

Kirby (19:05)

Okay. Disfruta. My favorite.

Melanie Bender (19:07)

Disfruta. Dysfruta. So you're a good time in a bottle. Dysfruta is a cocktail. Dysfruta was the last scent that we. That we added to the. The. The launch assortment and really was inspired by Greg and wanting to cocktail something to build around this note of mezcal that's smoky, that's sexy, that's Just a little bit dangerous. We brought that together with these ecstatic top notes of passion fruit pulp and neroli. It's like the bright opening of a party. There's a little bit of white cedarwood in there. There's a little bit of agave nectar. The note that really ties it all together is this note of coal, as if I melting down glass. And it gives a sensation of sparkling celebration. And that's what dysfruda is. It's like I say, it's wearing your vices like jewelry. It's the parties that start at 11 and go to 11 the next day. It's believing that sleep is for people with less to feel. It's getting that kind of. That right people, right place, right drink flowing and letting the rest of life figure itself out.

Kirby (20:17)

Maybe that's why I like to wear it. Cause I'm usually in bed by 10, but I'm like, in spirit. I want to be out, but I'm actually going to bed.

Melanie Bender (20:24)

But that's the beauty of fragrance, right? Like, without changing anything else about yourself, you're in the same place, you're living the same life. It can completely shift how you think about yourself in the world, how you feel. That's what made it so such a cool category, but finally, lovely and a little twisted.

Sarah (20:42)

I love this one. I just. I love the name. And that's why I gravitated towards it immediately. I was like, I don't care what the notes are. I know this is.

Melanie Bender (20:49)

I identify. I identify.

Sarah (20:51)

I identify.

Melanie Bender (20:51)

I is my favorite to wear. It is probably also my favorite world to live in because it's so effing twisted. It's also how I describe the brand lore. Lovely and a little twisted. But lovely is. It's this world that's, like, rooted in Versailles, but it's Versailles stuck through the looking glass, where you can never quite get it to sit still. You can never quite get a clear picture. There's a decadent discordance to it that comes from combining two completely unrelated scents. The first is this delicious gourmand of rose milk and candied pistachio. It's good enough to eat. That's the lovely side. The twisted side is this aromatic side. It's resinous. It has oud, it has amber in it, it has patchouli. And those sides together, they hold you in the middle in a way that's just like. There's a little bit of tension. You're pulled in these different directions. It's sweet, but a little bit strange. And I think What I've loved about it so much is that it has that, like, immediate pull of a gourmand, where it's delicious and sweet, but there's also a complexity to it. There's something that's unexpected, that's just a little bit. A little bit different. And for that reason, I love it too. And, of course, the name. I love the name.

Sarah (22:11)

I think of it as. There's this meme of the character Kirby, the pink puffball that's standing outside a glass door with a knife. Knife in its hand. And I'm like, that's me. And that's how I feel about. Yeah, that's how I feel about this particular fragrance when I was. When we first received them. So Melanie was lovely enough to send them the travel sizes rather to us in their first iteration, and I wrote all of them down, and then I started, like, kind of just putting words next to things that I was thinking.

Melanie Bender (22:42)

I'm so excited for this.

Sarah (22:43)

So for somewhere but nowhere, I put grassy.

Melanie Bender (22:47)

Okay.

Sarah (22:47)

I just put grassy. That was, like, the first thing that came to mind. So it's interesting to hear the story of the man.

Melanie Bender (22:53)

Yeah. In the woods.

Sarah (22:54)

Yes, in the woods. Sublimity. I could not figure it out. Like, I was like, it's familiar. It's familiar. But I can't put my finger on what this is reminding me of right now. Lovely, little twisted. It's just like, love. And then it says, reminds me of London or France. And then I got powder, and I was like, it just reminded me of my trips. And there's the hotel. Is it Costa? Costa, yeah, Costa's coast. And it's in Paris.

Melanie Bender (23:22)

Yeah.

Sarah (23:23)

And I went there with Ashley Benson, the actress, for a trip a couple years ago, and she, like, made me go with her, and she was like, we have to take a matchbook. I love the smell of this place. And I remember, like, it had a similar feeling for me.

Kirby (23:37)

Yeah, it's very, like, sex sea.

Melanie Bender (23:41)

Yeah.

Sarah (23:42)

It feels elevated, and it feels safe. But then also, it's, like, very dark and moody in there.

Melanie Bender (23:47)

Yes.

Sarah (23:47)

And so that's why I think I gravitated towards it. And then just fruta. I was like, I cannot figure this out. Just, like, I can't figure it out. I love that so much.

Melanie Bender (23:58)

I mean, that's like. That's the beauty, right, that we. We all interpret it so differently. And coming from skincare and cosmetics, which are, you know, it's easy to evaluate a cleanser. It's easy to evaluate a moisturizer and say, okay, it does what it wants, does what you want it to do. There is such subjectivity and interpretation to fragrance and that really led how I thought about Lore, where, you know, I want to start a sentence and invite you to finish it. I don't want to tell you what to think of. Even the names are intentionally non direct. You know, at a time where I think fragrance is so photorealistic. And I'm going to most brands, many brands will tell you exactly, literally this is what we want you to think and feel. To me, there's such beauty in being able to bring your kind of personal feelings and emotions and kind of dreams. Yeah.

Kirby (24:47)

So has it been challenging then to educate people on how to sell the fragrance? Or one, for the customer to be able to find it. And two, so at Sephora, the cast members to be able to, you know, talk to the customer and say, this is, you know, maybe you'd like this because like what? Yeah, how are you educating them?

Melanie Bender (25:09)

You know, how we tell our fragrance stories at Lure is very, very different than other brands. And Sephora immediately loved that. I give them so much credit for, you know, taking the risk with us, for getting excited about what we were building, even though, you know, it was, it's different, it's new. So they've really embraced the fact that there is such depth and richness and story to each of the worlds. And they were incredible partners with thinking about how do we bring that to life on a website, how do we bring that to life in store? And with each of those touch points, you know, how we've executed on this foresight, it's different than how we've executed on Lore site. And with each, you know, I think there's a lot of consideration as to how do you make sure the brand comes through, how do you stay true to this identity that you're creating? But how do you also really be smart about giving people what they're expecting about, you know, kind of meeting them with, with what they need in that specific environment. So I'd say like we're still, we're still super learning. I think we're two weeks into Sephora.

Sarah (26:13)

Yeah. Still babies.

Melanie Bender (26:15)

But I'm really, really excited with how we've made those decisions and how it's showing up and that really is, you know, staying true to these stories and narratives within each world and figuring out how do we make like the bite sized bites of it, how do we make it smellable on a, on a Sephora shelf, but always inviting people through, bringing them more and as they discover more it all fits, it all makes sense. It's unfolding like origami.

Sarah (26:44)

Well, it's interesting too, because if you go to the Sephora website, you know, they do this for every brand, but they pull out specific ingredients or specific notes in this case to kind of like get gauge where the customer is going to go. And so for somewhere but nowhere, it's cedarwood.

Melanie Bender (27:01)

Yes.

Sarah (27:01)

For lovely and a little twisted, it's rose milk. Sublimities is coconut water. And Des frutas is mescal.

Melanie Bender (27:09)

Yes. Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of discussion with them as to what are the right keynotes. When is it one, when it's one keynote. What's the right one when it's three? And you know, at that point, and we were talking a lot about, hey, fragrance is so subjective. Like, yeah, Sephora, like, they like to have. They like to have kind of the, the Bible. They like, like to really have that certainty as to how we talk about that together. So there was a lot of discussion around that. But, you know, ultimately it was really figuring out within the sense and the worlds that we've created, like, what is that point of connection that best represents it. And those are the ones that we, that we landed on together.

Kirby (27:46)

I want to say, just as like someone who, you know, we'll go to the fragrance aisle and pick up a bottle based on what it looks like. The l' or fragrances are so beautiful.

Sarah (27:57)

They're so beautiful. And when you sent it to us, the final with the full size, I was like, I can't get rid of any of this. I know the rope around the rope around the bottom, even the little rope up here. What's the rope. What's the rope symbol? Is there a symbolism to it? Did you just lore of the rope?

Melanie Bender (28:16)

A little. I'm. I'm like a girl who just. I love an experience. I love just like design and objects and really like, to me it's about creating emotion. I think that's everything in my life has come back to, like, how. How do, how do you, how do you like, share a feeling? The rope. I loved the tactileness to it. I loved the craftness of it, but also kind of the messiness. There's something about tying something in rope that felt a little haphazard and different. And to me, this brand, the hero brand or the brand of lore, I look at it as like, there's the brand of lore and then there's the brand of each of the scent worlds and this master brand of lore. It's Kind of intentionally brutalist. It's so paired back in ways it's like Italian luxury. So that each of the scent worlds can also have their own visual style and look and feel. And there was something that felt just like kind of brutalist and cool about tying it in this. This big rope.

Sarah (29:20)

So you scaled road. As we mentioned, you worked at Road as its first CEO, which is pretty crazy. What lessons are you carrying from that experience into Lore?

Melanie Bender (29:32)

Yeah. You know, one of the most incredible takeaways from Rhode was how Hailey thought about brand building. And I had done brands before that were very P and L driven. You know, here's the goal. We want to create a skincare business that can scale to this size in this number of years, which is, I think, a very common way to approach finding new brands. And Haley was entirely brand driven. She wanted to love what she made. She wanted to believe in each expression of Road. And that was her North Star. It was really running it like a fashion brand of obsessing about creative identity, obsessing about product design, and that was it. That was enough. And to me, that was really just kind of joyous and liberating, and I really identified with that of I just want to do cool shit that I love, and I want that to be enough. Yes. And that very much. That shaped how I approached Lore and was just so grateful that the guys, Joe and Greg, that they met me there, and that's. That's really how the whole thing came to life.

Kirby (30:43)

Is there a rule in Fragrance or the Fragrance World as We Know it that you are excited to break next?

Melanie Bender (30:51)

Ooh. I am just, like, so terrible with rules. For the life of me, I cannot follow that. So just comes naturally.

Sarah (31:00)

Rules for your Lore world.

Melanie Bender (31:02)

Right, Right.

Sarah (31:03)

I was going to ask, actually, do you. Is there a rule for Lore that you can share with us the beliefs and codes?

Melanie Bender (31:09)

Yeah. Yeah, the core beliefs. Let me quiz myself on them. Four core beliefs. Reality is not fixed. Luxury is an emotion. Ambition. Our story is not determined, and we're all invisibly connected. Those are the four beliefs. And I think why I found codes helpful is maybe because I am like. I'm so. I am so bad with rules that having, like, North Star and guidance of this is. This is what I want. And when I'm all done with this, you know, 300 hours later, I want to come back and look at these things that I've created. So, like, more guidance than rules.

Kirby (31:46)

Okay.

Melanie Bender (31:47)

Okay. Immediately break it.

Kirby (31:50)

Or is there, like, you know, right now, like you said, the fragrance market is so huge. And there's so many brands that seemed.

Sarah (31:57)

To be sort of doing a lot of the same thing.

Kirby (32:00)

Yes, doing a lot of the same thing. No shade or disrespect. Is there something where you're like, no, we're doing it this way?

Melanie Bender (32:06)

I mean, I feel like everything about us is in with that. I have always been almost, like, compulsive in the decisions that I make creatively. I can't not do it this way. Like, once the idea comes to mind of, okay, our bottle needs to be something that is an object of art that you would love to have on your vanity, but also, like, it has to be something that you just. You're driven to pick up and hold in your hand. Like, once I get attached to these ideas, I have to do it. And so, yeah, I feel like across everything we do, it is a complete rethinking of what could this be? What is the absolute best version of this that could exist for our bottle, for our seating experience? What is the most moving and incredible and unexpected and divine? Unboxing. Okay, we've conceived it. Now we need to do it. Like, that's very much how I've created. So I think every single Norman in fragrance is one that's up for discussion at Lore. Obviously, gendering the sense is something that we've intentionally not done. My two co founders are male. I identify as female. It's so fun to find fragrances that we would all wear and, like, Lovely on Jo is gorgeous. You know, and same, like, when I smell some more Brit noer on some of my most elegant female friends, it's incredible. So that was something that felt. That felt really exciting for us. I'd say, like, another one is price point, which is my least favorite thing to talk about. To me, our price point is a middle finger to the industry. Why? Because I believe that you can do things that are incredibly luxurious and beautiful and moving and craft driven, and you can also make them at a price point that people can actually wear and use, and that's just not really represented in the category in a significant way.

Kirby (34:04)

But I feel like you've also. For every brand that you've launched, that's been very true. It's always been accessible.

Melanie Bender (34:10)

Yeah. And I think that comes back to the. The idea of collective and community. Right. To me, there's no joy in making something for an elite few. To me, the joy is being able to share something and invite you to make it your own. Like I want. I think the behavior around fragrance in the US Is so Different than the rest of the world. It's this precious thing that you wear on, you know, kind of dinners out or celebratory weekends because it's so expensive that you're afraid to, you know, kind of make it a part of your day to day life, when in reality it's like the one product you can put on every day just for how it makes you feel. So for me, the. The goal is that we create this wardrobe of fragrances that unlocks different moods in people and they can make it a part of their everyday life. There is such beauty in that. And if I can do it at a price point that instead of buying one, you buy all four and you just have fun with it every morning. Like, that's what I want to do.

Sarah (35:04)

Amazing. Also, just want to note there is a Lore discovery set that you can pick up for $24.

Melanie Bender (35:11)

I suggest that discover and play.

Sarah (35:13)

I love a discovery moment.

Melanie Bender (35:14)

Yeah. And then we also have the everything set on our Lore World site where we have our four 10mls, our little discovery sizes. So if you want to get into those and try those on a little bit for I have one in every bag of mine. You're good to go.

Sarah (35:31)

Yes. Okay, we, before we let you go, we have some fast favorites that we want to ask you. These just rapid fire questions regarding fragrance. Okay. What is the scent that made the biggest impact on you growing up?

Melanie Bender (35:44)

Oh, my gosh. I already hate my answer to this.

Sarah (35:47)

No, it's a safe space.

Melanie Bender (35:49)

Is it a fragrance? Fragrance? I can give you a fragrance. Give us two. The one that I hate myself for is Victoria's Secret Love spell, because that is the scent of my teenage hood.

Sarah (35:58)

Why do you hate your secret? No, Melanie, I tell. I tell everyone this. If I had the opportunity to make a fragrance brand, my first fragrance would be an elevated version of Love Spell.

Melanie Bender (36:07)

I actually briefed that today, but I did it. I was like, you know, I can't. Like, I can't. The first. The OG love spell is just so perfect. I don't need my version of it. But that was literally. That was one of the 12 I.

Sarah (36:18)

Bought love spell recently, like last year. It's not as strong. Okay, well, that's the annoying part because I'm like, I want it to be strong. I want to walk into the room and it's a body mist. Right.

Melanie Bender (36:30)

Still strong. Such a good fragrance.

Sarah (36:31)

Honestly, I'm telling you, someone, anyone, like, I put it in like a. Just put in a glass bottle at the Victoria's Secret, call it a day. I Would love that.

Melanie Bender (36:41)

But I feel like I should have like a much chicer answer to that.

Sarah (36:44)

And I don't want to Victoria Secret life and Britney Spears curious or fantasy Pink sugar.

Melanie Bender (36:52)

Because I thought that that's what was.

Kirby (36:54)

Like cool to smell like.

Sarah (36:56)

We liked it.

Melanie Bender (36:56)

Sweet.

Sarah (36:57)

Anyway, so that is one. What's the other?

Melanie Bender (36:59)

The beach at night. Okay. There's something where in the darkness, just your senses change. And the beach at night, there's this like, wetness to it. Everything becomes so much more intense. Oh, yes.

Sarah (37:11)

What's a bottle that you love?

Melanie Bender (37:13)

Oh, Bottega Banana.

Sarah (37:15)

Yeah. Gorgeous. Stunning. Is there a favorite season you have for scent?

Melanie Bender (37:21)

I do not identify with seasons because I grew up in Hawaii where we have one.

Kirby (37:25)

So summer.

Melanie Bender (37:28)

So no, the idea of like seasons, they've never made sense to me.

Sarah (37:30)

Like I'm.

Melanie Bender (37:31)

I've got like my little. Little thong heels on and barely fall. But no, like, think where. Where what you're vibing. Where what your mood is. Sometimes you might feel like a winter in July and go for it. Yeah.

Sarah (37:44)

Okay. And then lastly, what's a note you will always go back to?

Melanie Bender (37:48)

I have like a annoying answer to this one. That to me, it's never about one note. It's always about how the notes work together. Like that's what brings something. That complexity, that tension, that interest. So it's always how they play. Amber is one thing I love to play with. Sweet and warm notes are ones I would love to play with. But I'll always finding a little bit of that tension, a little bit of that complexity.

Sarah (38:11)

Amazing. Melanie, thank you for coming on the pod.

Kirby (38:14)

You have such an incredible voice. You should do like, audiobooks.

Melanie Bender (38:17)

Ooh, it's so soothing.

Sarah (38:19)

Or like meditations.

Melanie Bender (38:20)

I was like, tell me more about these stories. I like that. I'll. I'll add to my lore. Okay, perfect.

Sarah (38:25)

Also, I was going to say, part of your lore is your last name. Melanie Bender the rules. Bender of the rules.

Melanie Bender (38:32)

Bender the reality.

Sarah (38:33)

Yeah, total reality. It's like a Game of Thrones.

Melanie Bender (38:38)

Guys, what about smelling?

Sarah (38:40)

Oh, Melanie Bender the reality.

Kirby (38:43)

There we go.

Sarah (38:44)

That's your drag name.

Melanie Bender (38:45)

Oh, my gosh.

Sarah (38:46)

Love it, Love it. Where can everybody find you online, should they want to follow your journey. Also, join her Instagram channel.

Melanie Bender (38:54)

It's so fun.

Sarah (38:55)

I feel like she's talking to me personally. And then I look and then she's. It's actually the channel.

Melanie Bender (38:59)

Where can we find you on Instagram? On IG. @ Melzy Bender. Okay. And of course, Lore World.

Kirby (39:05)

And then where can people buy Lore.

Melanie Bender (39:07)

Lore is at Lore, our website Lore World and at select Sephora locations. There is a store finder on our website if you want to find your exact store.

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