g the smell of sunkissed skin and love of the ocean, it was inevitable that Goldfield & Banks would aim to reposition the scents that had been right under Australians’ noses in a premium capacity both to local consumers and the world. “I worked at YSL in the early ’90s, when he [the company’s namesake designer] was still alive; Gucci for a few years, before Tom Ford and Cartier,” Weber told Inside Retail. Australian love story It was an opportunity to host a PR event in Australia for his company at the time that sparked the idea for Goldfield & Banks. “I accepted the invitation because no one in the office in the Paris office wanted to go as it was so far away,” he said. “Not only was I interested in hosting the PR event, but in the luxury fragrance world, we are quite familiar with Australian botanicals and Australian ingredients. “The sandalwood for all luxury fragrances comes from Western Australia – all the perfumes from Dior, Chanel, Hermes and Goldfield.” Goldfield & Banks’ newest fragrance was crafted with renowned perfumer Florian Gallo, from Fermenich, which is based in Shanghai and is “one of the most renowned perfume houses in our industry today,” according to Weber. “A lot of French perfumers are very interested in Australian natives. After all these years of talking of roses and Jasmine, it’s time to talk about Australian natives, which have much more beautiful storytelling,” he added. Goldfield & Banks officially launched in 2016 and quickly landed shelf space in prestigious retailers, namely Barneys New York prior to its bankruptcy filing in 2019, Harrods in the UK and David Jones in Australia. Today, the brand is also available in Sephora, Harvey Nichols, and Selfridges in addition to many well-aligned boutique retailers. It’s Weber’s expertise and passion for luxury fragrance, combined with his love of Australia, that drove him to build Goldfield & Banks from the ground up – with only the finest ingredients, championing unearthed local botanicals. Bush Pharmacy is an essential oil distillery that houses a pristine plantation of Kunzea ambigua, an Australian native plant that is both the ‘mystic’ and ‘bliss’ of Goldfield & Bank’s latest creation, Mystic Bliss. Bush Pharmacy Ben Backhaus runs Bush Pharmacy, a family business. He became custodian after his late father Steve Backhaus’s passing. Bush Pharmacy is a well-tended plantation of about 50 acres on Tasmania’s Flinders Island, or in Backhaus’s words, “a little sandy rock in the middle of the Bass Strait.” “I’m humbled to see Kunzea displayed on a platform like this, it’s pretty tremendous,” Backhaus told Inside Retail, about his work with Goldfield & Banks. “Traditionally, Bush Pharmacy has been more trading and facilitating sales for other farmers around Australia ,started by my father for export to international markets, predominantly Europe. “When I met Dimitri, it resonated that my father was German born, and he also really celebrated Australian ingredients, and knew that export markets really appreciated that. “It was nostalgic when I spent time with Dimitri and his passion for celebrating Australian ingredients; it really hit home.” Located 40 degrees south of the Earth’s equator, the air at Flinders Island “is determined to be the freshest air, even more so than Antarctica,” Backhaus said. “We want to be as natural as we can, and we’re trying to emulate nature as best as we can but try to be a little bit more efficient for our processes,” he said. The process to cultivate a Kunzea crop that emulates nature and wild stock began about 10 years ago, Backhaus said, “on Flinders doing very small batch installations to someone like Dimitri.” “Celebrating Kunzea and sending that worldwide in a tangible product that references the resource and the location, I really appreciate and it’s been absolutely spectacular. Some things are meant to be,” Backhaus finished.