There has been a surge of Singapore beauty brands launching in the past few years, and few have gotten both their branding and product offerings right. It’s certainly not easy considering how saturated and competitive the global beauty market is, which is why the ones that have a winning formula truly stand out. Oo La Lab is the local brand that caught my eye this year. We first spotted them through their flagship store at NomadX in Plaza Singapura; the black and white grid-like decor with rows upon rows of bottles is like an apothecary x chemistry lab, and has all the appeal of a modern (and very Insta-grammable) store.
We love that the product line is very focused. Oo La Lab sells fragrances — popular pre-mixed formulas, as well as fragrance notes where you can work with one of the store’s Mixologists to design your own personal scent. Oo La Lab claims that there are thousands of unique combinations that can be crafted, so it’s easy to imagine spending hours in the store. There’s also the option of at- tending a sensorial workshop session hosted by the brand at their lab (you can find information on this at oola-lab.com), which can be a lovely get-together with like-minded friends.
Now if you like the idea of mixing your own perfume, the thing to check out from Oo La Lab is their Eau de Parfum Mixology Kit. This is a box containing 12 fragrance notes in individual dropper bottles, including one limited edition note per kit; a blotter booklet, which provides a template to note down your formula so you can easily recreate it; and a guided instruction manual to get you along your way.
Imagine the fun you can have crafting different scents for different moods and occasions; even designing and gifting them to your best girl or guy friends. There are two versions of the kit — they differ in the fragrance notes and limited edition ingredients within.
Additionally, they have a festive one for the holiday season that the NYLON team is really looking forward to. And we all know a person who would love to receive a box of this to play with.
Here, you’ll find 3 unique scents crafted just for the holidays — Spruce, a woody scent that’ll make you feel like you’re walking through a pine forest; Green, a fresh scent of young leaves that we feel lifts your mood; and Candy Cane, this time a unique sweet note that should remind you of this favourite Christmas confectionery. This trio of limited edition notes will certainly help put you in the mood for Christmas — if Mariah Carey’s catchy vocals haven’t already.
In fact, for our ongoing video series with Oo La Lab, we’ve asked Sandra Riley Tang to come down to our office and try out the kit for herself — you bet we had loads of fun shooting this.
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Also known as RRILEY, the musician’s no stranger to our ears, having graced local radio stations and the internet, both as a solo artist and as a member of The Sam Willows. She’s also always up for a challenge, which led her to create three scents, after dutifully sniffing out each and every fragrance note in the kit, much to our amusement.
Quite surprisingly, she shares that she’s most into sweet scents — we’d honestly expected something more dusky — which meant Candy Cane shot right up her list of favourites, among the more calming accents of Spruce and Amber. One of her final creations, and the only one we managed to feature in this video, Titania, when summed up, is simply a scent that brings her joy. We can certainly do with more of that!
The Oo La Lab Eau de Parfum Mixology Kit retails at $188, with the limited edition Christmas kit retailing at $198. Available online — hit checkout on the Fragrance Mixology Kit, a follow-up email will be sent where you can indicate which limited edition kit you’d like to purchase.
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