Liis

Liis is an independent, California-based fragrance brand founded by Alissa Sullivan and Leslie Hendin. Multiple interviews and the brand site explain that the name "Liis" is built from the shared letters in Alissa and Leslie, reflecting the partnership at its core. Both founders grew up minutes apart in Marin County, California, collected miniature perfume bottles as children, and finally met in 2009 at a wedding, where they bonded over their mutual obsession with scent. Alissa later trained at the perfumery school ISIPCA in Versailles and worked in the industry, while Leslie developed her practice as a designer, artist, and self-taught perfumer.

Entrepreneur and retailer interviews note that Liis launched its beta discovery set in 2020, followed by full-size perfumes in 2021, created in collaboration with master perfumer Jérôme Epinette of Robertet. The brand formulates in California using organic sugarcane alcohol and consciously sourced ingredients, and states on its own website that its fragrances are preservative-free, dye-free, phthalate-free, sulfate-free, vegan, cruelty-free, and allergy-tested. Liis presents a small, tightly edited collection of minimalist eau de parfums such as Rose Struck, Studied, Bo, and later launches like Choux Choux, often framed by the founders as personal narratives tied to specific places, memories, or moods.

Across brand materials and retailer Q&As, Liis positions its scents as unisex and designed for everyday wear, with compositions that aim for clarity and a clean feel rather than heavy ornamentation. The focus is on transparent structures that still maintain character, often highlighting musks, soft florals, and woods in streamlined blends. This approach, together with its clean-ingredient stance and small-batch production in California, places Liis firmly in the contemporary indie niche space, appealing to wearers who want modern, low-clutter compositions backed by clear sourcing and formulation claims.