Ataratma

Ataratma is a London perfume house founded by Ada Panday, its founder and chief executive, who came to perfume from a background in jewellery. The name joins two Sanskrit words, attar for scent and atma for soul, and the house presents its perfumes as scents for the soul.

The idea combines South Asian Ayurvedic tradition with research on mood and wellbeing, set inside European perfumery. The perfumes were developed with Nelly Hachem-Ruiz, Paul Guerlain, Fanny Bal, Tanguy Guesnet and Caroline Dumur, perfumers based at the IFF atelier in Grasse, and each includes active ingredients drawn from Ayurvedic practice or tested in a wellbeing programme run with IFF. The house launched in 2025 with nine perfumes in four collections: Ananda for joy, Kama for love and desire, Zakra for strength, and Atma for balance and reflection.

The style draws on the opulent materials of India, including saffron, jasmine, champaca, sandalwood, patchouli and vetiver, in pure parfum strength at 25 to 30 percent. Shakti Saffron pairs saffron with cherry, leather and moss, Tonka Bala is a nutty gourmand leather, and Rati Patchouli and Smitam Santal build on patchouli and sandalwood. The house says the perfumes are meant to perform well without shouting, so one spray gives a close aura that can be built up.

The perfumes are mixed and filled by hand in Dorset, in terracotta-inspired bottles with a screw neck designed so that refills can follow, and they are vegan and cruelty free. Ataratma sits at the luxury end of independent British perfumery, for wearers who want a rich, long-lasting scent with a wellbeing story behind it.