FOOPE is a clean fragrance brand that speaks to consumers identity
Femi Oloruntoba, the co-founder of FOOPE Fragrances, is changing the way we think about scents.
Oloruntoba and his dedicated staff have created a self-awareness and efficacy-focused collection of clean, vegan and cruelty-free perfumes and candles that are affordable, accessible and experimental so people can smell great and feel great.
Echoing more increasingly common sentiments from “Gen Z,” Oloruntoba recognized the fact that people don’t just want any product anymore, even if the product itself fits their needs. If they are going to spend their hard-earned money, they want to put it into a product that they can use, but also one that they can feel good about.
Social media has blurred the barrier that used to exist between manufacturers and consumers, allowing for more widespread product transparency, and promoting better business practices across all industries.
However, at FOOPE, they actually put their money where their mouth is.
Oloruntoba doesn’t consider ethical sourcing and using the finest ingredients to be competitive advantages, but thinks they should be the baseline, as it’s the right thing to do to build a more sustainable future for everyone.
Not only does FOOPE highlight sustainability in their products, but also in their advocacy, using their resources to support mentoring programs for teens.
Oloruntoba explains, “We have a mission-based company, so we backed it up with this mission of creating a community that empowers Gen Z around self-efficacy and self-confidence. And this is also very important to us because we want teenagers to realize they are important.”
Oloruntoba also recognizes the challenge of how our current societal shopping habits affect how we buy fragrances, with the majority of transactions occurring online. Even with detailed scent charts outlining notes and undertones, buying scents online can still feel like an impossibly daunting task.
Body chemistry is unique, so a person never truly knows how a scent will smell and develop once it’s settled on the skin. That’s why the dedicated team at FOOPE believe in the cop or drop model – always letting a person try before they buy. A person is able to pick a scent, but it will cost $0 up front. If a person loves it, then it’s all theirs. If they don’t, then they can send the rest back so that the the experts can help them find something that they will love.
Their socially conscious business practices have proven successful for Oloruntoba and FOOPE, allowing them to sell out entirely back in August 2022 within two weeks of their beta launch.
Since then, they’ve been working diligently to raise capital and be able to scale the business without compromising integrity.
FOOPE is a client at The Forge – a business incubator funded by McMaster University, serving novel and scalable start-ups in Hamilton, Greater Toronto, and Niagara Regions.
“The support from The Forge has been awesome,” he says. “The team has been integral to have helped us launch-to-market and operate effectively.”
Find your unique scent today at www.foopefragrances.ca
