In the early days of the brand, before Herman and Kien left their jobs in the fashion industry (the latter being the first to make the jump) to pursue the business full-time, the pair would conceive of a person, place or poem that they loved and develop a scent that they felt encapsulated it.

“When we started, we really didn’t know much about fragrances at all,” Herman laughs self-deprecatingly, despite the fact that two of Boy Smells’ bestselling candles to this day, Cedarstack and Kush, were conceived in that debut line-up. “We’re about being genderful, rather than genderless, because we’re all about embracing every spectrum of gender and viewing gender as a garden to be explored, rather than a blank space.”

It may sound like a well-oiled Goopified Angeleno machine, but Boy Smells is not just another lifestyle brand churning millennial pink-hued Instagram catnip. The brand is intentionally crafting a sphere where queerness, on whatever end of the spectrum one might oscillate between, is not just accepted, it’s celebrated and encouraged.

“A lot of self-representation when it comes to retail for queer individuals was not very elevated or high-end when we were starting out,” Herman explains. “So, when David and I were thinking about our brand, we knew that we wanted to do something that had a lot of style, concept and represented who we are.”

Boy Smells: the queer-owned candle brand lighting up the scent sphere with its fluid flames