Sweet Anthem Handmade Perfumes

Meredith Tucker

Sweet Anthem Handmade Perfumes is the smelly vision of perfumer and designer Meredith Tucker. Though Ms. Tucker's original passion was found through writing and music, she developed an instant obsession with perfume upon discovering that each fragrance has a story to tell and a chord progression all its own.

By day a graphic designer (she built this little number herself, by the way), she moonlights in her lab as a mad olfactory scientist. Though she has been learning the art of perfume for the last few years, she believes this was in her blood: with chemical engineers and pharmacists in her background, she isn't one to shy away from strange warehouse smells or mortars and pestels.

You can read on, or check out her featured seller interview on Etsy.

Meredith Tucker » Continued

It was sometime late 2004, after a series of mundane day jobs in the graphic design field, when her good friend Karen Ziemkowski introduced her to a variety of independent perfumeries, and from there, she was hooked. She found her way around the independent beauty market easily, and has dabbled in a little of everything, from Arcana to Villainess. And, never the one to shy away from the DIY tradition, she began to devour perfume knowledge.

She started out with the noble intention of making bath products, but upon studying perfume theory, she found her calling. Originally diving into aromatherapy texts and the healing powers of essential oils, she taught herself the basic building blocks of perfume. Before she knew it, she had set aside her rather hefty stash of purchased perfume in lieu of essential oils, and started developing her own chords, accords, and blends. Then, somewhere between the familiarity of musical descriptions associated with perfume and the newness of the alchemy in the art, Meredith fell in love.

Late 2007, acquaintances in the indie perfume world encouraged her to simply "test the waters," on Etsy. She launched a small collection of four perfumes - what are now known as Angel, Dina, Karen, and Brianne - based on a completely different theme structure. As she refined her vision, ethics, and values, it became clear that she was on to something people could feel good about buying. She was briefly interrupted in early 2008 when she fell ill with pneumonia and a bacterial staff infection, and took 6 months off of life to recover, recuperate, and regroup.

Today, she continues to be happy and healthy and work in her home-based studio in Seattle, WA's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Meredith is excited about the growing aspect of the business, even if sometimes she ends up at her day job with just a few hours of sleep under her belt. Currently, "Sweet Anthem"http://www.sweetanthem.com/perfume/ is solely owned and operated by Ms. Tucker, though she has the occasional quality assurance and packaging help from her wonderful fiance.

When not completely consumed with this website, the customer-facing side of the business, research and development, or her web design day job, she enjoys exploring Seattle with the aforementioned boy, indulging in video games, card games, and fried chicken with friends, plus live music, midnight movies, and just about anything off the well-traveled path. Meredith loves music and has had a long love affair on and and off the air (especially when it involves weird, obscure indie rock, odd 60's psychedelica, and gypsy punk). She generally enjoys anything related to web comics, print comics, foreign and independent films, and, of course, yummy smelling things, and perfume.