Hiram Green: 100% Natural Fragrances Born from One Man’s Experience of Perfume Headaches

“I don’t think you should have to give anything up simply because a perfume is made from natural materials.”
— Hiram Green

Essential Information

Founded: 2013
Founder: Hiram Green
Based in: Gouda, the Netherlands
Official website: hiramgreen.com

The Founder and the Origins of the Brand

From Toronto to London: An Aspiring Artist Enters the World of Scent

Hiram Green was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. After studying drawing and painting at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), he fulfilled his dream of moving to London, a city he had admired as “the centre of the world” since childhood.

“I was born and raised in Toronto, where I studied fine arts. Then I moved to London to become an artist.”
— Hiram Green, in an interview with bynez.com

Reality, however, proved difficult. Unable to earn a living easily as an artist, he happened to begin working in a perfume shop. He soon found himself drawn more deeply into the world of scent than into painting. Before he knew it, his interest in being an artist had faded, and perfume had captivated him.

2003: Opening a “Scent Gallery”

In 2003, Hiram opened a small perfume shop called Scent Systems in central London. At the time, the term and even the concept of “niche perfume” scarcely existed.

“I thought of myself as the curator of a scent gallery. I stocked only perfumes made by living perfumers. There was very little of that kind of thinking at the time.”
— Hiram Green, Persolaise Love At First Scent ep.549

Scent Systems offered a forward-looking selection, including niche brands such as Aftelier and CB I Hate Perfume, alongside a ready-made line composed entirely of natural materials by perfumer George Dodd. Hiram later reflected that he “may have been a pioneer at the time.”

Discovering Natural Ingredients: An Insight Born of Headaches

As he encountered many perfumes at Scent Systems, Hiram began to notice something unusual in his own experience. Some perfumes gave him headaches, whereas perfumes made only with natural materials did not cause him that problem. This marked the beginning of his exploration of perfumes composed solely of natural ingredients.

Yet few brands on the market at the time offered the scents he imagined. Hiram therefore resolved that “if that is the case, I will have to make them myself.”

“So I thought, ‘I’ll start my own perfume company.’ But I didn’t know how to make perfume, and I couldn’t afford to go to school.”
— Hiram Green, in an interview with bynez.com

The “Strange Journey” of Teaching Himself

Without the money or the means to train as a perfumer, Hiram first turned to health-food shops. He bought commercially available essential oils, compared their individual smells, and experimented with combinations.

“I began with essential oils from a health-food shop. I learned the smell of rose, of lavender. When there is nobody to teach you, you go wherever you can. Only later did I realise how strange that was.”
— Hiram Green, in an interview with bynez.com

Books also became an important source of learning. One of the few references then available on perfumery with natural ingredients was Mandy Aftel’s Essence & Alchemy.

“I read Mandy Aftel’s book. It was fairly basic, but it was a wonderful starting point.”
— Hiram Green, in an interview with bynez.com

“I am entirely self-taught. I learned by reading books and gathering whatever information I could find online. But gathering information is only a small part of it. What matters is actually using the materials, and that means smelling and experimenting.”
— Hiram Green, in a 2026 interview with Fumerie

Scent Systems eventually had to close. Hiram later recalled, “I was too far ahead of my time. I was young and naive.”

Gouda, the Netherlands, and the Birth of the Brand

After leaving London, Hiram moved to the Netherlands and settled in Gouda, a small city near Amsterdam. In this city, famous around the world for Gouda cheese, he gradually began to joke that he wanted to “make it famous for perfume rather than cheese.”

After several years of research and experimentation with natural ingredients, he released his debut perfume, Moon Bloom, in 2013. The Hiram Green brand was born. Asked what motivated him to launch it, Hiram gave the following answer.

“The simplest answer is that I didn’t know what else to do.”
— Hiram Green, in a 2021 interview with smell stories

That unembellished remark seems to capture something of Hiram’s straightforward character.

What Defines the Brand

A Philosophy of Natural Perfumery Without Compromise

Hiram Green’s central commitment is to make every perfume using only 100% natural and naturally derived materials. The approach is GMO-free and cruelty-free, with no animal-derived ingredients used except for the beeswax absolute in Slowdive.

Perfumes composed only of natural ingredients have often been criticised as “weak,” “short-lived,” or “one-dimensional.” Hiram confronts these criticisms directly and has made overcoming them part of the brand’s mission.

“I don’t think you should have to give anything up simply because a perfume is made from natural materials.”
— Hiram Green

One secret to the richness of his fragrances is his generous use of floral absolutes: concentrated materials obtained by solvent extraction of the aromatic constituents of flowers. He sources ingredients from around the world without compromising on quality.

After the ingredients have been blended, the perfumes undergo at least three months of maturation before bottling. This stage is key to creating scents of complexity and depth.

Small Batches, Handcrafting, and an Almost Solo Operation

Hiram handles almost every stage of production himself. From blending and filling to packing and shipping, it is essentially a “one-man business.” Although an assistant has joined him in recent years, his practice of “making every perfume myself, putting it in the bottle, and packing it in the box” remains unchanged.

This arrangement inevitably means small-batch production, which also helps to safeguard quality.

Attention to Bottles and Packaging

The bottles use classic bulb atomisers. It is an unusual choice today, but Hiram has a clear reason for it.

“I wanted it to be what people imagine when they hear the word ‘perfume.’ Something distinctive, but with the appearance people naturally expect of a perfume.”
— Hiram Green, in an interview with The Olfactive

No colouring is added to the perfumes; their colours come entirely from the ingredients themselves, giving each fragrance its own jewel-like hue. The packaging uses unbleached recycled cardboard, and the boxes are sealed with paper stickers rather than the cellophane wrap used by many brands, among other efforts to reduce environmental impact.

The Creative Process: From Abstraction to Scent

Inspiration comes from many sources, including music, painting, and travel. Abstract ideas, emotions, and memories slowly condense into a “story” over a lengthy process. A single perfume may go through hundreds of trials before it is finished.

The Fragrance Collection

Hiram Green’s current collection, as of 2026, consists of nine fragrances.

Moon Bloom: 2013

The debut fragrance remains one of the house’s most enduringly loved creations. Inspired by tuberose (夜咲き水仙, literally “night-blooming narcissus”), it is built around the flower’s mysterious habit of releasing its scent at night. Jasmine, ylang-ylang, coconut, and tropical spices & resins combine into a rich, creamy bouquet of white flowers.

Hyde: 2018

A signature creation that won the Artisan category at the 2019 Art & Olfaction Awards. A fresh opening of lemon and bergamot gives way to the dry, burnt-wood scent of birch tar. This mingles with cassie, described as a spicy flower, to develop into a powerful leather note. Smoky labdanum, malty vanilla, and earthy oakmoss form the base. Provocative and alluring, it is a unisex masterpiece.

The award was decided through blind judging, in which the judges did not know the brand or perfume name in advance. It is especially meaningful as recognition of the fragrance on its own merits.

Slowdive: 2017

A warm oriental fragrance built around tobacco blossom (Nicotiana) and honey. A fresh opening of neroli and orange flower leads to a rich heart of tobacco blossom, beeswax, and tuberose. Dried fruit and honeyed resins seem to melt together in a sensual finish. It is the only fragrance containing beeswax absolute, and the brand explicitly states that it is therefore not vegan.

Shangri La

Named after the Himalayan utopia in James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon (1933), this is a modern interpretation of chypre, the classical fragrance style that contrasts fresh citrus with a woody, oakmoss base. A sharp opening of lemon, orange, and bergamot unfolds into a rich bouquet of peach, jasmine, rose, orris, and cinnamon, then an earthy base of vetiver and oakmoss.

Arbolé

Inspired by the poem “Arbolé, Arbolé” (“Tree, Tree”) by Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. This romantic fragrance of earthy patchouli and woods evokes an afternoon in inland Ibiza, with a dry, salty breeze moving through the trees. Cedarwood, sandalwood, vanilla, and tonka bean provide a sweet, powdery base.

Philtre: 2024

Named for the French word “Philtre”, meaning a love potion or aphrodisiac. This bewitching composition centres on carnation, the flower of love, layered with rose, jasmine, clove, spices, vanilla, black pepper, and resins.

“No powdered unicorn or dragon’s blood. A love potion made with the world’s most beautiful flowers, spices, and resins, with carnation, the flower of love, at its heart.”
— Official website

Tryst: 2024

A spring drive through an orange grove, and the memory of a kiss beneath an orange tree. This fragrance captures a scene filled with sweet air and honeyed possibilities. Orange zest, green buds, neroli, orange blossom, and honeyed resins create a bright, sensual scent. It is also positioned as a successor to the discontinued Dilettante.

“Orange flower and neroli are two of my favourite smells. I felt there always needed to be a fragrance in the collection with them in the starring role.”
— Hiram Green, CaFleureBon, 2024

Ultra: 2025

The latest release is an exuberant floral inspired by the hedonistic energy of the 1980s. Narcissus absolute forms the core, layered with neroli, ylang-ylang, jasmine, floral nectar, leather, hay, tobacco, and resins. Notably, the narcissus absolute used in Ultra was extracted with a 100% bio-sourced, biodegradable solvent rather than a petroleum-based solvent, described as a first-of-its-kind endeavour.

“The 1980s bring to mind big shoulder pads, mullets, catchy synthesiser music, and neon-coloured interiors. The intense energy, confidence, and inexhaustible optimism of that era were the driving force behind Ultra.”
— Official website

A Few More Details…

• Gouda, the brand’s home, is known worldwide as the source of Gouda cheese. Hiram has said in an interview that he intends to “make it more famous for perfume than for cheese.”
• The 2019 Art & Olfaction Awards ceremony took place at the Oude Kerk, or Old Church, in the heart of Amsterdam’s old town. One of the oldest surviving buildings in Amsterdam, it occupies a striking location in the middle of the city’s Red Light District.
• Teaching himself perfumery may have been what enabled Hiram to make perfumes using natural ingredients alone. “Looking back, I think being self-taught may actually have been a blessing.”