Pete & Alia introduces the first ever rice-based solid perfume
This quarantine had us discover a variety of products that we are now learning to love and apply in our lifestyle. We are excited to share with you our most recent find that can change your perfume game for the better.
The people behind Pete & Alia — Bridge Lee, Chance Lee, and Vincent Go took things a step further and upped the quality of perfumes in the country. They came up with the first-ever rice-based solid perfume!
“For years, one of the co-founders, an avid perfume connoisseur, had been looking for a perfume product whose quality was up to par with expensive perfumes but at a student-friendly price accommodating daily use. Through the process, he found that alcohol-based perfumes were problematic to people with sensitive noses, just like his cousin, who rarely wears perfume due to this. Upon research, these liquid, alcohol-based perfumes also create problems pertaining to the longevity of its wear and its fragile and bulky bottle packaging that makes them not travel-friendly as well.”
By introducing a diverse range of solid perfume scents for a range of personalities, they found the answer to the problems of every perfume connoisseur.
“As people cannot go out to buy and smell perfume, much less have reason to wear perfume at home. Even then, we saw that every day was a reason to be your tip-top best even at home. We knew that everyone had different preferences, so we released six different classy scents on our first fragrance line, “the essentials”, to cater to everyone. Along with this, our brand hashtag #smellslikeyou denotes the unique personalities of each individual encouraging self-love and fulfillment of one’s fullest potential.”
Pete & Alia started off as a solution to the needs of just one person, but through the process, the owners understood that a brand should be bigger than that.
That is why they positioned Pete & Alia to not be just a typical lover’s story, contrary to how it sounds, but a love letter from the owners to everyone involved in the process of creating a single product.
“Our brand is founded in the concept of “Alia”, which means “others” in Latin.”
And because they wanted it to promote buying local, they chose a beneficiary for all the purchases. This way, they can give back to those who’ve planted the concept for their business.
“We feel that we owe it to our local farmers the innovations of Pete & Alia’s rice-based solid perfume. Through our products, we hope to give back to them who have opened the opportunities for us. This is why 10% of our perfume’s proceeds go to the local farmers of the Philippines with the help of Farm Coop, a non-profit organization that helps farmers from all over Mindanao, and Global Seed Saver, a non-profit organization that helps the local farmers of the Philippines by providing levels of donation, from providing starter kits, seeds, and technical education to farmers to bring the power and sovereignty of the food system back to the smallholder farmers!”
Sustainability above all
Leaving out the part where they need to test on animals just to ensure the safety of their products, Pete & Alia is proud to commit to sustainability with only eco-friendly ingredients.
“Most solid perfumes in the market are made with beeswax, a non-vegan and non-cruelty-free ingredient harvested from bees’ homes. However, being pro-life and environmentally conscious, the wax in our solid perfume comes from rice bran, a by-product of rice milling. Every Pete & Alia product reduces waste by making use of the by-products from daily Filipino rice consumption.”
Smell plays an important role in a person’s overall appearance. This is mainly one of the reasons why they have curated each fragrant with their customers’ varying personalities.
Yes, despite us staying at home for most of the day, it shouldn’t be an excuse to not be your best self.
“There is nothing like the wonderful assurance of a fragrant, personal scent that adds a boost of confidence and a layer of class to keep you going even at your own home when the level of comfort tempts you to be lazy in bed. We thus designed our scents to be daily wear, and true enough, we found that everyone who has bought from us finds a reason to wear our scents every day.”
Pete & Alia’s solid perfume specifically is formulated for the Philippine weather using rice bran wax, a better alternative to beeswax as it solidifies better even in a warm climate where wax can melt easily. With rice bran wax, a little goes a long way, which allows us to leave more room for what matters more, the scent.
The formulation is kept at 40% fragrance concentration which allows more room for quality ingredients that aid the longevity of its wear.
The essentials
Pete & Alia’s introductory products consist of six scents, which they call ‘the essentials’: three masculine scents: damon, alexander, and austin; and three feminine scents: chance, belldandy, and jasmine.
You can find their full list of scents complete with its description on their official website (www.peteandalia.com), Facebook page (/peteandalia), and Instagram page (@ pete.alia). All scents are priced at 499 Pesos each.
What to expect
Upon trying out all six, we knew for sure that we want more from Pete & Alia. Good thing, they have more in store for their growing number of loyal customers in the coming months.
In October they will be releasing their “discovery kit”, which are mini sample versions of our scents. Later in the same month, they will be also releasing a brand new collection of scents reflecting more mature notes and personalities. More details on all of this will be published in little teasers in late September.
In preparation and celebration of the holiday season, Pete & Alia will be launching the #peteandaliaholidays, which is their holiday campaign wherein they will be having different promos, discounts, more donations to different beneficiaries, giveaways, stickers and filters, and a new fragrance line.
“Our coined “12 weeks of Christmas” from October onwards will be composed of 12 different gifts we will be giving every week for 12 weeks. In light of the giving spirit, we will be releasing brand-new giftable box packaging with each purchase from the first week of October until the holidays end which includes a complementary customized Pete & Alia ribboned box and Christmas cards, ready for gifting to loved ones, which can be shipped directly to them or shipped to the customer to be gifted personally by them.”
Aesthetics and Functionality
On customer reviews, Pete & Alia present itself as a shop that values attention to detail and taking pride not just on aesthetics alone but functionality as well.
“Our solid perfumes are housed in a sleek eco-friendly tin can, designed to be compact, recyclable, reusable, and travel friendly. Furthermore, its wide-surface opening provides ease in product pick up and application, all packaged and labeled with a water-proof sticker which is high quality, scratch-resistant, and oil-proof.”
Don’t miss out on what’s new and worth the try! Check out Pete & Alia on their social media pages before you’re sorry!
