How Michelle Pfeiffer is shaking up the perfume industry

Michelle Pfeiffer’s new direct-to-consumer perfume company, Henry Rose, which launched in April, is bringing groundbreaking transparency to an opaque industry. Henry Rose offers customers the full ingredient list for each of its inaugural five scents, all certified as safe and environmentally sound by nonprofit watchdogs Cradle to Cradle and the Environmental Working Group, where Pfeiffer is a board member.

Fast Company: What inspired these perfumes?

Michelle Pfeiffer: Back when people used to smoke on airplanes and on sets, I lived off a six-pack of Coca-Cola and three packs of Marlboros a day. I quit smoking, and when I became a mom, I started to read labels. I stumbled on the EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, where you can look up the ingredients of products you are using. … I started to question whether it was possible to create something (safer) that I loved.

FC: Did you ever consider signing a licensing deal with an existing cosmetics company?

MP: I explored the possibility (around 2010). In meetings, I would mention things like parabens and phthalates, and ask if we could only use trustworthy ingredients. I got nowhere.

FC: As a private person, how do you feel as the face of a company?

MP: I’m now on Instagram. I’m having more fun with it than I expected. But my name and image aren’t anywhere on Henry Rose’s packaging. If the brand is going to succeed, it has to be about more than me.