Scents of P.L.T.O: Turning Everyday Life and Unknown Worlds into Perfume from Indonesia

I realized that if we only played it safe, we would become just one of many brands.

Steven Yoshi

Scents of P.L.T.O is a fragrance brand born in Indonesia. Its former name was Scents of Pluto. The name Pluto expressed the idea of imagining the smells of a world not yet known. Founder Steven Yoshi, who started out collecting perfume, develops unexpected subjects into creations that can be worn on the skin. From forests on a distant planet to a familiar barbershop and banana flowers, his work moves between imagination and everyday life.

Contents

Key Information
The Founder and the Brand’s Origins
What Defines the Brand
Additional Note
References

Key Information

Brand name: Scents of P.L.T.O
Former name: Scents of Pluto. The current name has the same pronunciation
Country of foundation: Indonesia
Year established: 2024 (the brand’s official account; its company profile specifies January of that year)
Founder: Steven Yoshi. Anindita Ningtyas also participates as a co-founder
Official website: Scents of P.L.T.O

The Founder and the Brand’s Origins

From Collecting Perfume to a Brand of His Own

Yoshi was a perfume collector. He established the brand to create fragrances that suited his own tastes. His aim was not to follow other perfumes but to make scents whose difference people would notice when trying them. To that end, he chose to collaborate with French perfumers as well.

The name “Pluto” also follows this direction. What Yoshi wanted to invite was imagining the smell of Pluto. It does not mean recreating the actual planet’s scent; the name is a way to extend the imagination toward a world not yet experienced. He also looked at subjects outside conventional perfumery, such as smells recalling paint.

In other words, we want to bring imagination to the fore.

Steven Yoshi

Yoshi’s interest is not limited to choosing unusual names. Lost in the Italian Sea, inspired by the Italian seaside, depicts the sensation of sunbathing on a beach. Not That Kind of Cherry draws on a scene like drinking a cherry cocktail at a bar with a hint of smoke. Rather than isolating one material, he seeks to include the place and time surrounding it in the fragrance.

An Indonesian Brand Founded in 2024 and Its Co-Founder

The brand was founded in Indonesia in January 2024. Its spelling changed from the former Scents of Pluto to Scents of P.L.T.O while retaining the pronunciation. It now describes itself as a “Modern Asian Fragrance House.”

Co-founder Ningtyas has worked in marketing at advertising agencies and technology companies. After roles at Tokopedia and Bukalapak, Ningtyas became involved in the brand’s long-term direction, product development, and brand-building. A personal interest in scent sits alongside the work of bringing creations to people as a business.

In July 2024, Yoshi was introduced as a participant in Bank Saqu’s entrepreneur-development program, Solopreneur Academy. At the time, alongside perfumes, the brand also offered scented body washes and room sprays. It became one of three selected businesses in that year’s program. Yoshi expressed his pleasure at meeting and learning from fellow business owners and mentors.

From Jakarta’s Sales Floors to Readers Abroad

By March 2025, the brand had a physical store in South Jakarta and was also selling perfumes online. While its activities focused on the domestic market, buyers from neighboring countries also began to visit.

At present, our market is still Indonesia, but there are also many buyers from Singapore and Malaysia.

Steven Yoshi

At the ASHTA commercial complex in Jakarta, too, the brand was introduced as working with impressions of paint and jungle accords. An accord is a combination of several fragrance materials that creates a single impression. A retail space also gives people a chance to experience as actual scents ideas that can be difficult to convey through names and descriptions alone.

Yoshi values the moment when someone surprised by an unexpected smell nevertheless feels that they can wear it.

That is our territory: experimental, yet still loved.

Steven Yoshi

The brand currently has retail locations at ASHTA and Blok M in Jakarta. It turns subjects suggesting unknown worlds into perfumes for everyday use. Its work in exploring how the two can coexist is communicated both online and in stores.

What Defines the Brand

Scents of P.L.T.O has Specimen, which imagines transformed plants; Asian Archive, which explores Asian places and cultures; and Dusk, a range of hair and body mists. Other perfumes take their subjects from the seaside, sweets, a powder room, and clothing. Room and linen sprays are offered separately from fragrances worn on the skin.

Ain’t Your Typical Candy: A Sweet Scent That Opens with Citrus

Composed by Vincent Ricord, Ain’t Your Typical Candy layers citrus over the sweetness of confectionery. Candied lemon, petitgrain, and tonic orange open the fragrance, followed by jasmine and a watery fruit accord.

The heart also uses a material named EndorphinoFlor, described by the brand as a molecule designed for the concept. Vanilla, ambery woods, and coconut milk form the base. The composition moves from tart citrus through flowers and fruit to a sweet, milky foundation.

Not That Kind of Cherry: Frozen Fruit and Cherry Brandy

Not That Kind of Cherry is also Ricord’s work. Rather than confining cherry to one stage, it changes its character from frozen cherry in the opening to sour cherry at the heart and cherry brandy in the base. Fruit and alcohol come together to evoke an intimate moment after dark.

Saffron and incense accompany the opening, with cinnamon and orris in the heart. Benzoin, cistus, and boozy woods provide the foundation, adding spices and resins to the sweet-tart fruit.

Hugged in Cashmere

Jérémy Sabater composed Hugged in Cashmere around the warmth of being wrapped in a soft cashmere garment. Violet petals meet the nutty warmth of black sesame, suggesting the comfort of knitwear on a chilly evening.

Bergamot, cistus, and pepper lead into a heart of saffron, violet, and black sesame. Musk, sandalwood, and cashmere wood form the base. Seeds, spices, and woods give the floral softness several different textures.

Lost in the Italian Sea

Lost in the Italian Sea depicts an Italian landscape where sun meets sea, with Italian bergamot at its center. Although its name evokes the sea, the composition focuses on citrus, white flowers, woods, and musk.

Italian bergamot and aldehydes open the fragrance. Jasmine and orange blossom form the heart, followed by sandalwood and white musk.

The Active Project

The Active Project takes its subject from people who start a business on their own and pursue their dreams. Citrus represents the excitement of a new beginning, spices the courage to forge a path, and amber and vetiver the persistence needed to keep going.

Mandarin, bergamot, and orange open the scent. Neroli meets pepper and cardamom in the heart, while musk, amber, and vetiver make up the base. The abstract subject of entrepreneurship is expressed through a progression from citrus to spice and a woody foundation.

The Vanity Room

Set in a luxurious powder room, The Vanity Room evokes time spent caring for oneself. It opens with the herbs chamomile and clary sage, then layers in the warmth of amber and musk.

The note structure places chamomile and clary sage at the top, water and cypriol in the heart, and amber, musk, and blond woods in the base. The watery note and woody material connect the herbs with the warm foundation.

Through the Mystic Forest

Through the Mystic Forest imagines a walk through an old, densely wooded, dark forest. Italian cypress and myrtle mark the entrance, with several woods, including sandalwood, cedarwood, and rosewood, building the setting.

Rose also appears in the opening. Sandalwood and cedarwood form the heart, and amber, musk, and rosewood the base.

White Floral Bouquet

White Floral Bouquet takes its subject from a freshly picked bouquet of white flowers and a garden in full bloom. Tuberose and jasmine are central, joined by orange blossom and iris, with pink pepper and musk.

The note structure places tuberose and jasmine at the top, pink pepper and musk in the heart, and orange blossom and iris in the base. White flowers remain the focus, with spice as a small accent.

Dusk: Three Hair and Body Mists

Dusk is a range of hair and body mists identified by number. 001 opens with fig, iris concrete, and peach, followed by violet, tonka bean, and vanilla. Sandalwood, amberwood, and a milky musk form the base of a scent that evokes sunlight lingering on the skin.

002 uses a pared-back composition of anise, tonka bean, sandalwood, and cashmere wood. Moving from anise to woods and tonka, it evokes the feeling of a soft garment against the skin.

003 is inspired by cool air meeting warm skin. Cool musk and fresh flowers lead to skin-like musk, lily of the valley, and iris. Amber musk, sandalwood, and Lorenox form the base, with changing facets of musk layered among flowers and woods.

New Kind of Jungle: Depicting a Forest on an Unknown Planet

New Kind of Jungle was composed by Bertrand Duchaufour. Its subject is a forest on an unknown planet discovered during space exploration. Lemon, wet herbs, and water lily evoke the air on first entering it, in a story where waterside flowers emerge as the explorers move farther in.

The heart combines watery hyacinth, a jungle accord, honeysuckle, and blue tuberose. Crystal musk, moss, and a modern woody accord follow. Rather than reproducing an existing forest, the fragrance uses watery plant notes and woods to imagine a place not yet visited.

The form of the transparent green cylindrical bottle paired with a long silver-colored cap is also striking. The work’s name is placed simply on the front, while the contrast of green glass and metal visually suggests its subjects of plants and an unknown world.

Specimen Perfumes: Banana Flowers and Cotton Beneath Ice

Specimen: Two Studies in Botanical Transformation

Specimen 09 Banana Sambac

Specimen 09 Banana Sambac, composed by Vincent Ricord, arose from a collaboration with Sunpride Indonesia. At its center is a story of transformation in which nature merges with skin and flowers become the body. The opening places the vegetal impression of banana heart alongside lemon and blackcurrant, introducing greenness and acidity before the sweetness of fruit.

Mango, gardenia, and jasmine sambac combine fruit flesh and white flowers in the heart. Prickly pear milk, vanilla, and driftwood notes form the base. Beginning with the idea of banana, the fragrance develops through flowers, fruit pulp, and a milky texture. These successive textures express a story in which a plant touches the skin and changes its form.

Specimen 011 Cotton Juniper

Bertrand Duchaufour’s Specimen 011 Cotton Juniper imagines cotton flowering amid frost that never melts. The fiber’s combination of softness and strength suggests a cleanliness like frozen air taking shape. A flower blooming beneath ice is the starting point for this fragrance.

Mandarin, schinus, freesia, and an aldehyde accord open the composition. Edelweiss, juniper berries, cotton flower, and clean-linen notes gather in the heart, supported by cashmere wood, musk, and vanilla. Combining flowers and juniper with the impression of fabric, the fragrance explores cotton as both a plant and a fiber.

Di Bawah (Pohon): A Collaboration with a Barbershop

Di Bawah (Pohon), composed by Nanako Oda, grew out of a collaboration with the barbershop Dibawah Pohon. Its subjects include the clean feeling after a haircut, hair tonic, and leather chairs. It is presented under this name in Japan, while the brand’s current product page in Indonesia uses the name Neo-Barbershop.

Mandarin and saffron open the fragrance, leading to violet, suede, and a barbershop accord, then osmanthus and Akigalawood. The current story also includes a brush touching the nape of the neck and folded towels, translating the textures of grooming into flowers, leather, and woods.

Asian Archive: Reinterpreting Asian Subjects

Asian Archive Vol.01: Japanese Wood and Korean Fermentation

Asian Archive Vol.01 includes Inked Hinoki, inspired by Japan, and Fermented Pear, inspired by Korea. Both are 50 mL perfumes, but the former explores wood and empty space, while the latter takes change over time as its subject.

Inked Hinoki

Steve Guo composed Inked Hinoki as a restrained interpretation of Japanese hinoki. Inspired by paper, timber, and the stillness of an empty space, it seeks to express clean, dry wood through a carefully worked composition.

Pink pepper, angelica root, and cypress open the scent. Hinoki is joined by orange blossom and iris in the heart, with white musk, Ambroxan, and Thai oud notes in the base. Flowers and roots accompany the coniferous subject in an exploration of the purity of wood.

Fermented Pear

Composed by Karina Mandala, Fermented Pear draws on Korea and the changes a pear undergoes through fermentation. The brightness of fresh fruit and the depth that develops over time share the same fragrance. Fermentation provides a way to depict a process of change, rather than ripe fruit’s sweetness alone.

Ginseng and Singo pear form the opening. Rice water, hibiscus, and boricha, or barley tea, combine in the heart, followed by musk, vetiver, and orris. Fruit, drinks, and plant roots give concrete form to its Korean inspiration.

Additional Note

The year of establishment is given as 2024, following current official information. However, KONTAN’s March 2025 interview with Yoshi gives the start of sales as 2023, and NOW! Jakarta’s interview also gives the founding year as 2023. The timing of the name change and the relationship between the start of business and the brand’s founding cannot be established from this difference in years, so they have not been linked as separate events.