Xinú | The Botany of the Americas in Fragrance and Design

Xinú beats from the continent’s heart, Mexico.
Verónica Peña

An agave spirit, aromatic resin and a lush green leaf: Xinú makes perfume from the botany of the Americas. Founded in Mexico, it brings together a fragrance initiator and two designers, working with a perfumer and craftspeople to shape both scent and the objects that hold it.

Contents

Brand at a Glance
The Founders and the Beginnings of the Brand
The Brand’s Approach to Fragrance and Design
A Note on the Founding Year
References

Brand at a Glance

Beginnings: late 2016. An account giving 2017 as the founding year is discussed below.
Co-founders: Verónica Peña, Ignacio Cadena and Héctor Esrawe
Origin: Mexico City, Mexico
Official website: Xinú

The Founders and the Beginnings of the Brand

Learning the Smells of Plants in a Grandmother’s Garden

Verónica Peña remembers childhood afternoons in her grandmother’s garden: looking at the plants’ colors and learning to recognize flowers by their scents. The plants’ appearance and smell remained together in her memory.

Years later, Peña and Cadena traveled in Mexico and beyond, searching for botanical inspiration. They recognized how many ingredients in celebrated perfumes came from their own country. An interest nurtured in the garden grew into a plan to explore the continent’s plants through fragrance, with Mexico as the starting point.

Two Designers Join the Fragrance Project

Cadena grew up in northwest Mexico’s Sonoran Desert. He traces his love of monochromatic visual expression to its contrast between dry land and ocean. He went on to develop brands and commercial spaces, collaborating with Esrawe before they entered perfumery.

Esrawe is an industrial designer from Mexico City. He studied at Universidad Iberoamericana until 1992 and established his studio in 2003, expanding from furniture and objects into interiors, architecture and exhibitions. The two designers brought experience in both objects and spaces to Peña’s idea.

The project is an initiative of Verónica Peña
Ignacio Cadena

Peña leads the olfactory direction, while Cadena brings his experience in visual identity and Esrawe his approach to objects and form. Xinú began in late 2016 with these three different practices working together.

They chose Xinú, the Otomi word for nose, as the name. Cadena valued the correspondence between its sound and what it represented.

Short, simple, and deeply aligned with the spirit of the brand.
Ignacio Cadena

Making Perfume with Rodrigo Flores-Roux

The fragrance collaborator was Mexican perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux. He studied biology in Mexico before moving to France in 1989 to attend ISIPCA, the perfumery school in Versailles. He brought an interest in plants together with experience in international fragrance creation.

The early fragrances included Aguamadera, Copāla and OroNardo; Monstera was introduced in July 2017. Alongside agave, copal and tuberose came a plant with large green leaves and a distinctive fruit. Flores-Roux composed all four.

Fragrance for the Home and Expansion Abroad

By 2021, Xinú offered five perfumes alongside candles, incense, soap and hand cream. Its work with plants and crafted objects extended from personal fragrance into the scents of rooms and daily routines.

In November 2025, The Estée Lauder Companies announced a minority investment in Xinú through New Incubation Ventures, its investment arm for emerging brands. It described the transaction as its first investment in a Latin American brand.

In 2026, Xinú opened its first boutique outside Mexico in Tokyo’s Aoyama neighborhood. Its shops in Polanco, Juárez and Aoyama also express the founders’ work, using plants and materials as ways to understand scent.

The Brand’s Approach to Fragrance and Design

Different Compositions for Agave Spirits and Copal Resin

Aguamadera takes agave and its spirit, mezcal, as its subjects. The sharpness of lime and salt meets guaiac wood’s smoky impression. Cedarwood adds a softer warmth, balancing the citrus and saline elements.

Copāla centers on the aromatic resin copal. Smoky mesquite wood contrasts with a powdery vanilla impression, sharpened by pink pepper. Aguamadera connects a spirit with fresh air; Copāla moves toward resinous sweetness and wood smoke. An interest in the same continent produces two distinct expressions.

Monstera: Leaves, Fruit and Damp Earth

Monstera takes more than a leaf’s recognizable outline as its subject. It explores the leaves and fruit of Monstera deliciosa, together with the jungle around it.

A green impression like the juice of a snapped leaf meets the sharp, pineapple-like character of the fruit. Datura and orchid-like sweetness join damp earth and moss. The composition moves from parts of the plant toward an impression of its surroundings.

Blown Glass and Wood, Designed for Another Use

Esrawe and Cadena carried the botanical world into the packaging. Collage on the boxes gives the fragrances a visual counterpart. The bottles combine blown glass with handcrafted wooden lids, joining transparent glass and the texture of wood in a single object.

We always try to give the bottle a practical purpose
Héctor Esrawe

The empty vessel can find another use as a vase or incense holder. This idea appears both in Esrawe’s explanation from the early years and in the brand’s current reuse guidance. Once the perfume is gone, the object can remain in the home.

A Note on the Founding Year

The late-2016 beginning follows Peña’s 2017 interview. The Estée Lauder Companies’ 2025 announcement gives 2017 as the founding year; the reason for the difference has not been established.