To Define: A Chinese Brand Turning Emotion and Memory into Stories of Scent

To Define（トゥ ディファイン）のワンス。感情と記憶を香りにする中国のブランド

“We have sought to express the core of local culture through a variety of styles.”

— Simin Xu

“少年游,” “光与光,” “笑忘录.” To Define perfumes have Chinese names that read like short stories. Memories of youth, the pleasure of spending time with someone, the feeling of letting go of the past. Reading these themes brings into focus the reason for creating each perfume, something a list of ingredients alone cannot easily reveal.

At this brand based in Ningbo, China, co-founder and graphic designer Simin Xu connects the stories of its scents with visual expression. Rooted in local culture, the lettering and forms of the bottles draw on contemporary design. We will follow the makers’ words to see which creations express this approach.

Essential Information

  • Brand name: To Define. Written in Chinese as “寓义.”
  • Beginnings: Co-founded in the early 2020s.
  • Co-founder: 徐宾粟 (Simin Xu), graphic designer and art director.
  • Based in: Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China.
  • Main perfume collections: I KNOW ME, Love Actually, The Hours.
  • Availability in Japan: U NOSE SHOP and NOSE SHOP online. The Love Actually Collection introduced in Japan comprises seven fragrances.

The Co-founder and the Brand’s Origins

From Scents for the Home to Perfume Worn on the Body

To Define’s journey includes experience with scents for indoor spaces. Brand head Geng Ying has said that, having identified a business opportunity in home fragrance, the brand built relationships with its first customers by sending trial sizes through online sales. It subsequently expanded into perfumes worn on the body through collaborations with international perfumers.

Rather than a house that makes only perfume, this is a brand that has considered how fragrance is used in everyday life. Candles and home fragrances, like perfumes worn on the body, touch the time people spend living. This breadth is important background to understanding its poetic names and emotion-centered collections today.

Simin Xu’s Role in Design and Storytelling

Simin Xu, one of the co-founders, works across graphic design, product concepts, and brand planning. In 2023, he was selected for the Type Directors Club’s Ascenders. He has shaped the brand not as a perfumer, but by bringing together stories, containers, and visual expression.

What matters to him is not simply making something memorable through an interesting appearance. It is ensuring that design and scent, product and story, share the same character.

“Design and scent, product and story, must share the same character.”

— Simin Xu

These words offer a way of seeing both the bottle’s decoration and the fragrance’s name as elements that help us understand the scent. First a name stirs a feeling; then we discover how the fragrance responds to it. This back-and-forth is worth attending to when getting to know To Define.

Making the Observation of Emotion the Starting Point for Fragrance

The brand’s creative process begins by observing the emotions and problems people carry. How do we relate to ourselves, build intimate relationships, or live in an uncertain environment? It selects such questions before moving into perfume development. The brand sees scent in the following way.

“Scent is an attitude you wear.”

— To Define

I KNOW ME explores self-understanding; Love Actually explores different kinds of intimate relationships; The Hours picks up on small, everyday moments of beauty. Because the collections are divided by theme, even when the same flower or wood appears, its role can be considered alongside the fragrance’s story. The idea of a “poetic core,” rooted in Chinese aesthetics and connecting thought, culture, and emotion with scent, belongs to this approach as well.

In 2023, the brand began its “Urban Nomad Project,” traveling between cities, and in 2025 developed this into the “Scent Resonance Project.” These initiatives welcome people into spaces tailored to the fragrance and its theme. Rather than simply reading product descriptions, visitors have a chance to smell the scents there and discover whether the stories resonate with their own feelings.

Commitment to Craft

I KNOW ME Bottles Consider Even the Angle from Which You Read

In the packaging design for I KNOW ME, the Chinese and English story titles are silkscreen-printed around the bottles. The design is not meant to be read only once from the front: changing the angle brings different lettering into view. The intention also includes the way light can cast those words as shadows into a corner of everyday life.

The outer box is also structured so that a form emerges at each stage of opening it. Applying the same thinking to the container, outer box, shipping packaging, and sample design extends the theme of self-exploration to the actions of holding, opening, and looking. Scent changes over time; lettering changes with the angle of reading. The design deserves appreciation for allowing these two experiences to be seen together.

“Once,” from the Love Actually Collection, by contrast, pairs a transparent polygonal bottle with softened corners with a sculptural black cap. Large lettering around the front and the fragrance name at the center catch the eye. The expression of the container changes with the collection. Viewing the brand without applying I KNOW ME’s specifications to every bottle reveals the range of its design.

Considering Both Appearance and Packaging That Works in Everyday Use

Simin Xu says that products and collections are adjusted in response to the market and that packaging structures are continually reconsidered. Specific challenges include the following.

“Reducing the cost of unnecessary materials and reducing the risk of products being damaged in transit.”

— Simin Xu

Even packaging that enriches a story needs strength for delivery and care in its use of materials. An opening experience that can be enjoyed like a ritual, and a structure that works in real-world distribution: considering both reveals the significance of having a designer as a co-founder.

Perfumers from around the world participate in creating the fragrances, but the perfumers’ names are not disclosed for the seven products currently offered in Japan. Distinguishing the founder’s design work from the work of the specialists who construct the scents makes it easier to understand how story and form come together in one perfume.

Representative Perfumes and How to Choose

Let us look at fragrances from the Love Actually Collection introduced in Japan, each pairing a different theme with its scent. Love here includes not only moments that make the heart leap, but time spent doing nothing together and the act of letting go of the past.

Once — 少年游 | Connecting Youth with Citrus and White Tea

The Chinese name of Once, “少年游,” evokes travel, play, and aspirations in youth. Inspired by a ci poem by the Southern Song poet Liu Guo, it takes as its theme a spirit that endures after youth has passed. The fragrance addresses not only nostalgia, but the youthful heart that moves one’s present self forward.

The composition includes bergamot, citron, blackcurrant leaf, juniper berry, and pink pepper, followed by gin, white tea, iris, peony, and cardamom. The base is cedarwood, oakmoss, nutmeg, and tonka bean. It can be read as a design combining the brightness of citrus with transparent elements suggestive of tea and spirits, and a warm foundation.

Rather than simply looking for refreshing citrus, this is a perfume in which to explore how white tea and tonka add their expressions to that brightness. Its intention becomes clearer if, instead of expecting a re-creation of an old perfume from its name, we see it as a contemporary composition expressing the feeling of youth.

Dolce Far Niente | Sharing Time Spent Doing Nothing

Dolce Far Niente takes the pleasure of doing nothing as its theme. Here, idleness is not merely resting alone. Time in which nothing seems to happen takes on meaning through being with someone. The fragrance explores that small change.

Mate, peach, and bergamot are layered with iris, jasmine, osmanthus, and heliotrope, leading into cedarwood, galbanum, and musk. Rather than considering its sweetness through fruit and flowers alone, it is a composition in which to notice their combination with elements evoking tea and greenery.

Compared with Once, which also contains a tea element, the choice is between a theme of youth centered on citrus and gin and shared time accompanied by peach and flowers. Instead of assuming the perfumes are similar because both list tea, looking at what is placed alongside it gives a reason to choose one over the other.

I Prefer | Flowers and Warm Sweetness, Choosing Someone as They Are

The theme of I Prefer is “偏爱”: choosing and accepting someone, rather than choosing them because they are perfect. Instead of asking them to become closer to an ideal, its story conveys the value of who they are now.

Linden, bergamot, lemon, and melon lead into mimosa, lily of the valley, and ylang-ylang, supported by vanilla, musk, cedarwood, and amber. Like Dolce Far Niente, it contains flowers and fruit, but here the foundation includes vanilla and amber, suggesting warmth. When looking for a floral fragrance, the comparison centers on whether you are drawn to a pairing with tea and greenery or to this base.

Gezelligheid | Herbs and Woods for Time with Loved Ones

Gezelligheid takes its name from a Dutch word carrying nuances of coziness and time spent with loved ones. Together with its Chinese name, “光与光,” it expresses a quiet companionship.

The composition combines bergamot, bitter orange blossom, cardamom, and mint with lavender, orange blossom, and nutmeg, leading into vetiver, woody notes, and thyme. It is worth considering as a fragrance that approaches warmth through flowers, herbs, and woods rather than relying only on vanilla and amber. Compared with I Prefer’s sweet elements in the base, this is a candidate for someone who wants to explore lavender and vetiver at its center.

Sonder | Turning the Feeling of Letting Go into Spices and Woods

Sonder is a word expressing the realization that the strangers one passes have stories of their own. Its Chinese name, “笑忘录,” echoes the title of a novel by Milan Kundera; the fragrance addresses thanking the past while letting it go in order to begin again.

Lemon, coriander, rhubarb, and ginger are layered with rhubarb root, dried mandarin peel, clove, cinnamon, and pepper, leading into vetiver, birch, cedarwood, patchouli, sandalwood, and musk. This combination of multiple spices and woods offers a different entry point from fragrances centered on tea or flowers.

When comparing it with Gezelligheid, the difference is whether one focuses on lavender and flowers or on dried mandarin peel, clove, and cinnamon, even though both perfumes include woods and herbs. Rather than assuming a gentle scent from the quiet impression of its name, this is a perfume in which to explore the expression of spices.

Flipped and Palpitate: Two Ways the Heart Is Moved

Flipped’s “某某” suggests someone whose name alone makes the heart race. Grapefruit, rhubarb, blackcurrant, and cucumber are combined with mint, orange blossom, iris, and pink pepper, leading into oakmoss, vetiver, patchouli, and cedarwood. Its composition of fruit and green elements considers the exhilaration of falling in love.

Palpitate’s “涉过深海而来,” meanwhile, tells a story of crossing the deep sea within another person’s heart. Citrus, bergamot, basil, and bitter orange leaf are layered with seawater, orchid, lily of the valley, and jasmine, supported by cedarwood, juniper berry, musk, and ambergris. A moment of elation, and the process of approaching another person’s inner world: even within love, the direction to explore differs depending on whether you want fruit and greenery or sea-like elements and flowers.

Incidentally, Coffee Also Inspires the Shape of the Container

To Define’s UTOPIA is a collection of home fragrances themed around coffee. Its inspiration extends beyond the scent. The containers incorporate a form combining a pour-over funnel and a cup. A dark wooden base, a silver-colored finish, and changing letterforms also help convey this world.

Developing one theme into scent, form, and lettering: the approach seen in the perfume bottles continues here. Simin Xu has also spoken candidly about the difficulty of creating empathy between customers and products.

“Difficulties excite us too.”

— Simin Xu

The appeal of To Define lies not only in the beauty of its poetic names. It also lies in continually considering how to turn those words into scent and into a form one can hold. First choose a theme that interests you, then look at the combination of materials expressing it. This brings the pleasure of seeking a perfume that overlaps with your own story.

Availability in Japan

In Japan, the brand is offered by U NOSE SHOP and NOSE SHOP online, where sales began on May 29, 2026. The seven Love Actually Collection fragrances introduced here are all 50 mL eaux de parfum, with a listed price of ¥24,200 including tax. By checking opportunities to try them at retailers and current stock, you can choose through both theme and scent.

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