What Does Your Favorite Horror Movie Smell Like? It’s This Guy’s Job to Decide
Xyrena [is] bottling the essence of movies, giving them a sensorial new life and a new reason to celebrate beloved pieces of pop culture.Read the piece ↗
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Xyrena bottles the movies, music and moments people love.
91 features since 2015 · 72 outlets
Xyrena [is] bottling the essence of movies, giving them a sensorial new life and a new reason to celebrate beloved pieces of pop culture.
The Funko of fragrance.
I got my first surprise when I unboxed the sample Xyrena founder and creative director Killian Wells sent me to review. Inside was what looked like a VHS copy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The eye-catching retro packaging and easy-to-display case are clever touches that are sure to entice collectors.
What does a chainsaw massacre smell like? And does killer pumpkin boy Sam actually smell like a pumpkin? The company Xyrena has managed to conjure up the answer to both of those admittedly bizarre questions.
While I love the fragrance business, many aspects of it feel like the movie industry making copies of copies so I'm always excited to see anything that's truly original.
I don’t always want my products to be high-brow and minimal. Sometimes I want them to be niche and distinctive. Xyrena does just that.
I make high-quality perfumes with a very meta approach to marketing that’s honest and unintimidating—the opposite of what you might expect from traditional perfume brands.
I got to meet Killian Wells, who runs Xyrena, at Drag Con in 2017. He was like, ‘I’d love to do a Choices fragrance.’ And I said absolutely.
Every mention
2025
2024
‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ Has, Somehow, Inspired a Fragrance. I Tried It.
I got my first surprise when I unboxed the sample Xyrena founder and creative director Killian Wells sent me to review. Inside was what looked like a VHS copy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The eye-catching retro packaging and easy-to-display case are clever touches that are sure to entice collectors.Read the piece ↗
Cinematic Scent Archive Launches ‘Trick ‘r Treat’ and ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ Fragrances in VHS Packaging!
What does a chainsaw massacre smell like? And does killer pumpkin boy Sam actually smell like a pumpkin? The company Xyrena has managed to conjure up the answer to both of those admittedly bizarre questions.Read the piece ↗
2023
Xyrena CEO Killian Wells Shares Fragrance Industry Journey
While I love the fragrance business, many aspects of it feel like the movie industry making copies of copies so I'm always excited to see anything that's truly original.Read the piece ↗
2022
A review of niche fragrance brand, Xyrena
I don’t always want my products to be high-brow and minimal. Sometimes I want them to be niche and distinctive. Xyrena does just that.Read the piece ↗
2020
LGBTQ Indie Perfumers Talk Scents, Muses and Identity
I make high-quality perfumes with a very meta approach to marketing that’s honest and unintimidating—the opposite of what you might expect from traditional perfume brands.Read the piece ↗
2018
Tatianna Talks New Album and Fragrance
I got to meet Killian Wells, who runs Xyrena, at Drag Con in 2017. He was like, ‘I’d love to do a Choices fragrance.’ And I said absolutely.Read the piece ↗
TanaCon Attendees Can Trade In Their Convention Crap For Free Perfume
Even though TanaCon was a real stinker, a celebrity perfume company is hooking up disappointed attendees with free perfume, so at least they can smell good while waiting for a refund.Read the piece ↗
Tatianna Opens Up About Drag Race & Her New Fragrance Choices
One thing that’s about to happen – which is something I never thought would happen – is that I’m releasing a fragrance within the next few weeks. It’s called Choices, naturally, and I did it in conjunction with Xyrena who has worked with Trixie Mattel, Willam, and Pearl on their fragrances.Read the piece ↗
This New Fragrance Is the Scent of a Drag Queen in a Bottle
My favorite thing about Plastic is when someone approaches me while I’m wearing it. They always say ‘You smell EXACTLY as I hoped Trixie Mattel would smell.’ I would call that a success.Read the piece ↗
My Grams: Drag Queen Trixie Mattel Is the Kelly Rowland of Peru
Behind the scenes at a photo shoot for my fragrance: PLASTIC by Xyrena. We had a real life pink dog! It was fascinating that he clearly didn’t know he was pink.Read the piece ↗
Travel Secrets Unveiled: Why Does The Pirates of the Caribbean Ride Smell Weird?
Some people buy it to bring back childhood memories and others (like Disney fanatics) just love water rides and use the fragrance to feel like they’re at a park all the time.Read the piece ↗
2017
Raise Your Hand If You Feel Personally Victimized by This Basic B*tch Perfume
Although I've yet to get a whiff of this glorious concoction, it truly sounds like one of the most heavenly fragrances ever made.Read the piece ↗
You Can Now Buy An Actual 'Basic Bitch' Perfume
The Damien Hirst of the perfume worldRead the piece ↗
A Journey Through Scent
In 2015, perfumer Killian Wells modelled a scent on a commonplace smell: chlorinated water.Read the piece ↗
How Maverick Smelliers Are Reinventing the World of Perfume
Then there was my favourite, from the Brooklyn hipster-cum-musician Killian Wells. In a mock-up of a fairground photo booth, his creation – a powerful hit of chlorine and plastic – is smelt through the fabric stomach of a toy bear.Read the piece ↗
Eau de Mildew, Anyone? Meet Killian Wells, the Punk Perfumer
...one of the most important scents of the last two decades. Wells is the bad boy pioneer - a self styled punk perfumier.Read the piece ↗
The Science -- and Art -- Behind Perfume
From the introductory room we’re taken into the main event, bringing us right up to the bleeding edge of perfumery with 10 scents by the likes of Daniela Andrier, Mark Buxton and Killian Wells.Read the piece ↗
Somerset House Spotlights Cult Perfume With Latest Exhibition
Among the highlights is an installation inspired by the water-themed rides in Disneyland, translated into a photo booth where visitors can take selfies with stuffed animal toys scented with chlorinated water notes.Read the piece ↗
The Eccentric Scents Changing the Way We Think About Perfume
A young perfumer called Killian Wells was sharing his creations: one perfume called Dark Ride caught my attention, not least because the liquid was bright green. It was the scent of log-flume rides such as Disneyland’s Splash Mountain, and carried notes of chlorine and mildewed water. It was the most bizarre fragrance I’d encountered. I couldn’t get enough of it.Read the piece ↗
Marijuana Now In Cologne: Skunk Heavy Scent of Smoke Bud Anyone?
Xyrena is the brainchild of established fragrance wunderkind Killian Wells who knows his way around the more avant garde regions of the scentverse.Read the piece ↗
Smell Like Weed All Day With These Cannabis-specific Perfumes
Back in the day people used to put perfume or cologne on to mask the smell of weed. In 2017, people are finally embracing the skunky smell of the sticky icky.Read the piece ↗
The Many Ways the Cannabis Industry Lacks Traditional Marketing Expertise
There is less of an incentive to build strong brands as they're currently left vulnerable to infringement,” explains Killian Wells, CEO of Xyrena, whose Reefer Madness Collection (including Blue Dream & OG Kush fragrances) contain terpenes naturally found in cannabis but no controlled extracts. “Due to the legal hurdles involved in properly branding cannabis, many businesses choose to simply focus on the sale of their products as a commodity as opposed to a future household name.Read the piece ↗
2016
2015
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