Trailblazer Perfumes & Bodycare - Heaven Scent
Companion speaks to Chris Kerrigan, perfumer and co-founder of artisan perfume brand Oaken Lab
“It all began when I started tinkering around with making personal care products for my own use at home,” recalls Chris Kerrigan who co-founded Oaken Lab with his wife, Cynthia Wirjono. “We wanted higher quality, natural products, but we couldn’t find it locally. I became obsessed with making the perfect formulas, and that lead to a deeper obsession with creating fragrances for the products. At the time, 2017, we were active in our fashion retail company, The Goods Dept. By 2018, Cynthia and I decided to turn my new passion for fragrances into a brand.”
Early on, Oaken Lab was focused on high-quality body care products with unique and experiential scents, as well as a natural luxury formula using ingredients like olive oil and shea butter. Soon after, Chris and Cynthia added their perfume and home scenting lines, and shifted their focus to a full fragrance lifestyle brand.
In the beginning and through the pandemic they focused mostly online, and in 2023 opened their first Oaken flagship store in the beautiful neighbourhood of Pererenan, Bali. Just last year they opened an Ocken Lab store in Plaza Indonesia, Jakarta.
“We strive to be completely original in our style and tell stories with our scents,” said Chris. “When I’m creating perfumes it’s often very personal. I take inspiration from our experiences of travels, art, music, or just particular moments that have left an impact. Since we are lucky to be in a country with such rich resources for fragrance materials, I always try to incorporate some natural Indonesian elements like Patchouli or Vetiver into my scents. Often times I have a specific memory or scene in my mind and build the fragrance around that. Other times I smell new materials that trigger inspiration.”
Oaken Lab’s best sellers include Sanctum Eau De Parfum, Far Afield Body Wash and our Conservatory Reed Diffusers. “We design our own original scents from unique raw materials that we source from all over, rather than relying on using off the shelf perfume oils or having big perfume companies make them for us. When we started Oaken, we were the only independent, niche perfume brand in the local market. Our goal was to approach Oaken with a sense of artistry that represented our own lifestyle.”
Oaken Lab is launching an exclusive scent for 25 Hours Jakarta early this year. Chris says, “When I create fragrances for others, I think about the space that the scents will be presented in. The brand identity, design, colour, texture, and even the way light fills the space, are all taken into consideration. My goal is to create a scent that completes the sensory experience.”
One of Oaken Lab’s key messages is to follow ‘the road less travelled’. “This partly refers to the literal art of traveling and the experiences that come of it,” says Chris. “On a deeper level, it’s also about choosing to follow an uncommon path in life, not conforming to what is considered ‘standard’ and discovering the unexpected. I suppose this is how we approach creating our scents. They are not what people think of as typical perfume.” A true trailblazer.
