Jacob Grainger

United Kingdom Nosu

Abstract, textural perfumery with a clear story behind each scent, built with a high percentage of natural raw materials: violet leaf and musty wood in Hides, juniper smoke and incense in Sain No More. Each perfume is paired with an original artwork by Lucy Webster.

About

Jacob Grainger is a self-taught perfumer and the co-founder of Nosu, an independent British perfume house in North London. Nosu is a partnership with the artist Lucy Webster: Grainger makes the perfumes and Webster makes an original artwork for each one, inspired by the textures and themes of the scent.

Grainger came to perfumery without a formal course. Interviews describe a background in flavours, and no school, mentor or earlier perfume house is named in any source. Nosu launched in 2025 with three perfumes, Hides, Been Trying To Meet You and Sain No More. Each is designed and made by hand in small batches in the Nosu lab in North London, blending natural and synthetic materials.

Alongside the perfumes, Nosu has made a bespoke scent for the Passengers exhibition at Parallel LDN Gallery and took part in the first Pop-Up Perfumery in London in November 2025.

The debut trio reads as abstract rather than photographic perfumery, built with a high percentage of natural raw materials. Hides takes its idea from watching wildlife from a hide and smells of violet leaf, animalics and deadened, musty wood. Sain No More starts from the Scottish Hogmanay custom of saining a home with juniper smoke and works incense, sage and juniper into a soft smokiness. The pattern is raw, textural scents with a clear story, paired with the visual world that Webster draws from them.