Company Overview! Sweet Anthem Perfumes

By Unknown

Nothing to Disclose

Sweet Anthem Perfumes helps you smell nice with style

It's okay every once in a while to be healthily obsessed. While my indie experiences might not be as far-reaching as others, I've had my fair share of, "Oh my god I want everything this company has to offer" reactions, spending hours combing through their website and catalog and making wishlists and planning purchases weeks in advance. Which leads me to this lovely indie company...

Sweet Anthem Perfumes

With a storefront in Seattle, Washington and an impeccable online presence, Sweet Anthem Perfumes offers its customers unique experiences in the form of "bottled stories" you can "read" on your skin. Originally a micro-printing house in 2001, then later an independent fragrance studio in 2007, shop owner Meredith Smith claims her love for crafting stories has been ever-present, the only thing that's changed is her medium.  Better still, all the fragrances from Sweet Anthem are free from GMOs, gluten, preservatives, and are crafted in a nut-free studio without any animal testing. 

Packaging

I love my indies, I really do. And when I say this I don't mean to rag on others or insinuate their quality is lesser because packaging is a tricky beast - it's what's on the inside that counts of course (inside the package, that is!) but there's no shame in having your products and brand dressed to the nines.

When I first arrived at the Sweet Anthem Perfumes website, I actually didn't think it was an indie company. Their online presence, the uniformity of their branding, and their overall site structure make for an impressively tight, flawless package for a shopper. Of course, some people might argue that their branding aesthetic will wind up looking dated or twee in a few years. But you can't deny that their presence and packaging exudes a sense of charismatic "high quality" charm. 

I know this is supposed to be about packaging, but I feel the brand unity of Sweet Anthem Perfumes is worth praising because it carries over into their packaging and colors the entire experience!

For physical products, their products overview page provides an excellent at-a-glance breakdown between the packaging and ingredient differences between their three main offerings. While I've only received small sample sizes, I found the packaging to be adequate and pretty leak-proof.

Selection

Sweet Anthem Perfumes offers three forms of fragrances: eau de parfum, perfume oils, and solid perfumes (for more details on how these are different, check out our beginner's guide to fragrances). However, the way they dish up their catalog is a little different and might be a bit confusing for a casual browser. Instead of keeping everything under an umbrella "products" list, you're encouraged to explore "stories" (a scent-by-scent breakdown of their current offerings) or "anthologies" (collection-based groupings), which is basically their way of categorizing. Also, you can peruse other brands outside of Sweet Anthem Perfumes under their "perfumers" section.

Like many other indie shops, Sweet Anthem Perfumes also offers custom fragrances (endearing titled "Choose Your Own Adventure") and a consultation service that bills per-hour and is separate from the cost of the finished product(s). Custom fragrances are more expensive than scents from their catalog. 

My first foray into Sweet Anthem Perfumes was their "SA List" - a seasonal subscription giving you a preview of that season's fragrances. My order arrived in a little cardboard box with a paper wrap-around label. Inside was a business card, a little descriptive note, and my sample containers secured in a small plastic bag and resting on a soft bed of padding. Their full-size containers consist of spritzer bottles, rollerball containers, and twist-up toggle applicators depending on the product. Oh, and did I mention you get a $10 voucher for each season?

The lineup of samples from my Sweet Anthem Perfumes SA List package

Samples

It was a little tricky to locate any samples on the website because they don't directly call attention to them by name. Instead, the "Short Stories" section gives you the chance to try sampler packs of each anthology and choose which kind of perfume form you want to receive. If you're looking for something more tailored, there's also the "Concierge Service" sampler pack that allows you to fill out a short questionnaire and gives you an assortment of samples.

My samples from the SA List subscription were two EDPs (eau de parfum) and one solid scent. The EDPs came in 2ml glass bottles with a small opening hole for application. My solid scent was shea butter based and roughly the size of a wide chapstick (if you've had the solid scents from OHWTO before, this is about the same size). 

Quality

The process that goes into crafting their fragrances described on the About Us page is quite the task:

Each perfume is brewed using the best essences available in batches of 4oz or less at a time, and weighed by hand and nose. Then, they’re stowed away to allow the vital essences inside to marry and cure, a process that takes about a month to allow for the best infusion possible. As needed, our perfumes are filtered by hand and again allowed to rest to reach their purest state. Only once the story is complete does our perfumer bottle, label, and wrap each product.

Just in case you were wondering if I was ever going to shut up about the impeccable branding, you can relax - the quality I've seen so far from Sweet Anthem Perfumes is just as deserving of praise. All four fragrances I've tested were unique and lasted a long time, even my solid scent. I was impressed particularly with the EDPs, as typically those don't last very long on my skin, but I got a comfortable 5 hours out of each (in some cases even more)!

Cost

Sweet Anthem Perfumes is the most expensive indie fragrance developer I've tried thus far. If you're the type of buyer who wants a million bottles of everything, this is one of those shops where I can see a full-sized purchase being reserved only for That One Perfect Scent That Speaks To Your Soul. The samples don't break the bank though, and testing and trying is half the fun!

Eau de Parfum

• $18 USD for 10mL atomizer applicator bottle (20% aromatics)
• $48 USD for 30mL atomizer applicator bottle (20% aromatics)

Perfume Oils

• $32 USD for 10mL roller ball applicator bottle (40% aromatics)

Solid Perfumes

• $12 USD for 10mL twist-up toggle applicator (5% aromatics) 

Custom Perfumery

• $68 USD for 30mL EDP
• $65 USD for 10mL Perfume Oil
• $125 USD for the Custom Perfume Suite:
• 30ml Eau de Parfum
• 10ml Perfume Oil
• 10ml Travel Perfume
• 4oz Lotion
• Traveler's Decanting Kit
• $48 USD for Evaluator's Kit 
• 12 notes
• 1ml plastic pipettes
• 3 empty vials
• tester strips.

There are other collections such as The Fox Confessor and the new Flower + Sugar collection that include different sizes and prices, but this is a pretty comprehensive overview of what Sweet Anthems Perfumes has to offer for their catalog.

Customer Service

I had a stellar experience contacting Meredith about an issue I was having with my SA List voucher coupon. Despite it being late on a Friday evening, long after business hours, she responded to my question pretty much immediately and was able to help me work through the error I was having with the website recognizing the discount code.

TAT

The website states that standard TAT for most orders is 5-7 business days. Custom items are a bit longer a wait at 7-14 business days, and if you are part of their SA List subscription, your order ships out depending on when you signed up and what group you were placed in.

Shipping

The Ordering and Payment page provides a clear breakdown for shipping prices. All orders over $75 regardless of location have free shipping. Shipping within the continental US is cheapest at $3 USD. International shipping is available.

Personal Thoughts

Oh my goodness, where do I start? Appearances play such a big part when buying indie cosmetics, especially if you're looking for perfumes. And by appearances I don't mean "What does this eyeshadow look like?" - I mean the whole package deal. Since you aren't buying these products in person (although with Sweet Anthem you totally could since they have a physical shop!) you rely on the photography and descriptions available on their website in addition to customer reviews and just hope for the best. 

I feel with Sweet Anthem Perfumes you truly get a package deal: from the physical packaging, the website browsing experience, to the actual products themselves, Sweet Anthem Perfumes does a meticulous job crafting more than just fragrances - they create an entire experience around browsing, shopping, owning, and wearing their products. This leaves a strong, memorable impression on the buyer. While I am a little sad I can't scoop up everything they sell given the higher-end prices, I can understand why things are priced as such and appreciate the quality.