Mabelle O'Rama

United Kingdom Mabelle O'Rama

Small-batch, story-led perfumes that turn a place, a memory or a myth into a spare composition, from the powdery iris and white woods of Lunar Dust to the sumac and gardenia of her later work. Natural materials sit beside modern perfumery, made by hand in a London studio.

About

Mabelle O'Rama is a Lebanese-British perfumer and artist based in London, and the founder of the independent olfactive studio that carries her name. She is known for small-batch, story-led perfumes that sit between nostalgia and fantasy.

Her way into perfumery began unexpectedly during the pandemic and grew into a multidisciplinary studio, founded in 2022. She draws on the places and memories that shaped her: her Phoenician heritage, her upbringing in Lebanon, her life in London and a fascination with the cosmos. Alongside the perfumes she researches how smell, the brain, memory and wellbeing connect, and she makes olfactive art, visual pieces that diffuse a scent.

The perfumes are composed and made in small batches in her London studio, bringing together natural materials and modern perfumery. Lunar Dust (2022), a powdery woody skin scent built on iris, cedarwood, amber and white woods, received an Honourable Mention at the Art and Olfaction Awards in 2023 and later won Best Skin Scent at the Marie Claire UK Fragrance Awards 2026. Forbidden Bloom (2023), a gardenia and frangipani pairing, was a finalist at The Fragrance Foundation UK Awards in 2024. Phoenix Flame (2024) draws on the Lebanese myth of the phoenix and on sumac, a spice she has loved since childhood, and was a finalist at the same awards in 2025, when her olfactive art was also a finalist in the Innovation category.

She was named Perfume Person of the Year for 2024 by the review site ÇaFleureBon and was a finalist for Rising Star at The Fragrance Foundation UK Awards in 2026.

Her perfumes start from a story, a place or a memory and are built around a few clear materials rather than a long list. The result is personal work in which heritage and imagined worlds sit close to the surface.