Nick Axelrod-Welk is back with a new beauty venture. This time, he’s starting with fragrance.
The entrepreneur, who cofounded Into The Gloss and Nécessaire and later helped build Homecourt, is expanding Contrapposto beyond aesthetics. He established the Los Angeles practice with his husband, Casey Axelrod-Welk, and is now building it into a broader beauty business.
On Wednesday, Contrapposto will launch its first three extraits de parfum — Melting Flowers, Musc Pétille and Lubanite — priced at $350 each, on its website and at its West Hollywood, Calif., clinic, followed by an exclusive retail debut at Violet Grey on Sept. 14. It marks Axelrod-Welk’s first entry into fine fragrance and Contrapposto’s first products, as he looks to build the company into a multicategory beauty house.
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“I wanted to start with a category where there’s nothing to hide behind, like fine fragrance,” Axelrod-Welk said. “There’s only how it smells.”
The fragrances have been in development for roughly two-and-a-half years and were created with master perfumers Frank Voelkl and Shyamala Maisondieu.
“I wanted fragrances that felt like they were melting into your skin,” he went on, describing them as an extension of Contrapposto’s approach to aesthetics, which emphasizes enhancement over transformation.
Melting Flowers combines nectarine, jasmine, gardenia and musks; Musc Pétille blends ambrette, peach nectar, magnolia and sandalwood, while Lubanite mixes marine, smoky and resinous notes including olibanum and ambergris. Two gourmand fragrances are slated to follow later this year.
Each 50-ml. bottle is priced at $350 and packaged inside a 400-page art book designed by artist and graphic designer Brian Roettinger. The positioning reflects Axelrod-Welk’s view that luxury is rooted in “craftsmanship and artistry.”
Contrapposto has been bootstrapped with support from friends and family, with spending focused on product and packaging.
“We’re not venture-backed,” he said. “We spent three years building the brand and a clinic before selling a bottle…The brands worth the most in this category all got there slowly.”
Axelrod-Welk expects direct-to-consumer to remain the core of the business, with an eventual 80-20 split between direct sales and wholesale.
“Year One is about a small number of strategic retail partners, for discovery and brand awareness,” he said.
Skin care is next. Axelrod-Welk said four products are already formulated and packaging is complete, with a launch expected in roughly a year.
He expects 80 to 90 percent of sales to come direct, with one seed round intended to fund the skin care rollout and carry the business into operating profitability in its second year.
“Anything we raise after this, we’d raise because we want to, not because we have to,” he said.