On the 21st of August, 2014, something beautiful happened. A box left the quiet hum of our English studio and began a journey we had only dared to imagine. Inside it were bottles—small, amber, unassuming to the untrained eye. But to us, they carried everything: the years of work, the tears, the late nights, the breakthroughs, and the stubborn belief that scent could speak across oceans.

Papillon had reached America.

It wasn’t about expansion or ambition. It was something simpler, and somehow greater: the idea that our perfumes—born in a garden in Hampshire, surrounded by cats and chaos—might now find themselves in the hands of someone thousands of miles away. Someone we had never met. Someone who might lift the lid, inhale, and feel something stir.

We didn’t rush this. Every label was still applied by hand. Every bottle wrapped with the same care as those first few we ever sent. But as we placed the box onto the counter at the post office, there was a quiet shift. Papillon was no longer a whisper between hedgerows—it had become a message carried by wind and wing.

It arrived in New York first, greeted with curiosity and grace. Niche perfume lovers—those rare and wonderful creatures who seek fragrance not as fashion, but as poetry—welcomed us with open arms. Reviews followed. Emails arrived. There were strangers, writing as though they knew us, because in some way, through scent, they did.

There was joy in this. And also humility. To be received with such kindness in a place so vast, so full of its own perfume history, reminded us why we began: not for acclaim, but for connection.

And so the journey continues. From Hampshire to Harlem. From studio to skin. The Atlantic, once an ocean of distance, became instead a thread—a scented ribbon tying us to the hearts and pulse points of those across the water.

We’ll never forget that first crossing. The weight of that parcel. The breath we held. The way the world felt just a little smaller when we realised: perfume travels. It travels far, and it travels deep.

To those who welcomed us—thank you. We sent scent. And you returned it with love.

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