Gloss Angeles · Kirbie Johnson and Sara Tan

From Rhode to Lore: Melanie Bender on Reinventing Fragrance

·39 min·3 clips

Melanie Bender reveals how her fragrance Sublimity captures the moment time stands still inside a Hawaiian wave.

No wrong notes. Kirby and Sarah bring Melanie Bender onto Gloss Angeles after admitting they tried to pick out the notes in Lore and failed, somehow with the enthusiasm still fully intact. Very on-brand. Melanie comes in as the founder, the person behind Lore, and clearly someone the hosts already adore before the fragrance talk even starts. She says the feeling is mutual, and the conversation settles into praise, curiosity, and perfume details without getting stiff about it. Sublimity gets the clearest spotlight in the available transcript. Melanie does not flatten it into a note list. She starts with Hawaii: the beach as playground and palace, weekends in the back of a truck, cold drinks in the cooler, and beaches you could only reach by four-wheel drive. Then the scent starts to make sense. White flowers grow right up to the beach, putting sweetness into the air alongside salt, warmth, and something more alive than a standard tropical perfume brief. Sublimity ties back to the first wave you duck under with your eyes open, sun and horizon still visible, time doing that dramatic little pause. The notes stay specific: sheer solar musk, Lang Lang, coconut nectar, a little bit of sandalwood, and a warm closeness around the skin. Kirby and Sarah get the distinction right away. It is beach, but not tanning lotion, not sunscreen, not the pool-adjacent vacation scent people already know. Melanie is after something more lived-in: sweetness, salt, warm wet skin, friends, and Hawaii without the lazy shortcut. The episode also gives the practical trail: Melanie on Instagram at Mel Z Bender, Lore World, lore.world, and select Sephora locations with a store finder.

As heard by us

Fragrance is framed as memory, place, and product strategy, with a lively fan energy.

The episode treats fragrance as place, memory, and a very specific kind of fantasy. Melanie Bender moves through Lore's scents with enough detail to make them feel tangible, from Sublimity's ylang ylang, coconut nectar, and sandalwood warmth to the Americana grit behind Spice…

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Why you'd press play

For the Lore listener who wants the story behind the beach-scent fantasy, not just the founder chat.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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