From Rhode to LORE: What makes a brand worth following?
A closer look at the visuals, curiosity and creative choices behind the fragrance brand I keep saving.
I’m always paying attention to what’s new. Launches, rebrands, new products. A visual that makes me stop because I haven’t seen anything quite like it before.
I love discovering things and learning how they were created. What was the reference? How did they get there? Who thought of that?
There are brands I save and share as references way too often.
LORE has become one of them.
What first caught my attention was how little of my experience with LORE seemed to revolve around the perfume itself. I kept encountering visuals that felt FUN and intriguing. Each gave me a little more to be curious about, without explaining everything.
Before I was thinking about a fragrance, I was paying attention to a world.
So I wanted to break down what caught my attention, and what beauty and wellness founders might take from it.
The pleasure of discovering something
Lore world Lore world Lore world
All images belong to Lore
There is something satisfying about a discovery, especially when it feels like it was created just for you.
An image that catches your eye. A colour combination you immediately save. A few words that stir something inside.
One detail leads you to another. You visit the profile, scroll a little further, open the website. Somewhere along the way, you begin to recognise the brand’s way of seeing things.
That is how LORE has unfolded for me.
It also raises an interesting question for beauty and wellness founders: what makes someone want to spend time with your brand before they make a purchase?
We need product information. We need to understand what something does, how to use it and whether it belongs in our lives. But there is also the moment before those questions, when something captures our imagination.
I think that moment deserves more attention.
A visual can be a reason to pause. A surprising reference can send someone exploring. There is value in creating something people enjoy encountering, even when shopping wasn’t on their mind.
There’s a point of view behind it
instagram: @melzbender
Melanie Bender, Rhode’s former CEO, co-founded LORE with Joe Cloyes, Greg Gonzalez and Mazdack Rassi. Between them, they have helped build some of beauty’s most recognisable brands.
For LORE, their references included Hawaiian landscapes, Americana and surrealist art, starting points for the feelings behind the fragrances. Business of Fashion
I love learning about this part of the process. The things people collect before there is a finished product. Images, memories, objects, something seen years ago that somehow stayed.
But what interests me most is what happens next.
How does a reference become your own?
A picture of the sea could lead to a hundred different brands. It depends on what you see in it. The colour? The movement? A childhood memory? That slightly strange feeling of looking into something you can’t see the bottom of?
Those choices give you somewhere to go creatively.
And this is what I keep thinking about with LORE: the feeling that there is more to discover because there is a particular perspective behind it.
A note for founders: when you save a reference, write down what drew you to it. Go further than “I like this.” That little explanation might be the most useful part.
The details are doing a lot of work
Then there is the bottle.
In a conversation with LORE, designer Jérôme Laurendeau describes working through around 40–50 form variations and 150 colour variations. References included sea glass, André Thuret’s blown glass and worn European steps.
Bender describes wanting hard materials to feel warm and intimate. LORE’s bottle interview
That last detail stayed with me.
“Warm and intimate” gives a designer something to explore. You can start imagining how an object might sit in your hand, how its edges might feel, how you would want to pick it up.
It also helps explain the work behind something we might scroll past and immediately love.
We see the finished bottle. Behind it are versions, adjustments and conversations about details most of us will never consciously notice. Yet those details contribute to the impression we take away.
For me, this is where brand building gets interesting: when an idea starts affecting the actual thing someone will hold and use.
A note for founders: choose the feeling you want to create, then look for it in the details. Where would a customer actually experience it?
Let people meet the person, too
Another detail I enjoyed reading about was Bender’s presence in LORE’s broadcast channel and Instagram comments.
Beauty Work Friends describes informal exchanges with followers, including a conversation about her favourite kind of potato. A small, everyday moment alongside the more poetic brand language. Beauty Work Friends
It made me smile because it feels familiar. You can care deeply about design and fragrance and also have a strong opinion about potatoes.
Those moments give people another way into a brand. A sense of who is there, what they find funny, what they are curious about.
For founders, I think there is room to be a little more conversational. To share an observation or ask a question you actually want answered. To let some of your interests become part of the experience.
What I’m saving from LORE
If I were putting my takeaways into a little formula, it would look like this:
Catch my eye → give me something to explore → make the details connect → give me a reason to return.
That is how I’ve experienced LORE.
The visuals got my attention. Learning about the references and creative decisions gave me more to think about. Now I’m curious about what comes next.
For a beauty or wellness founder, that leaves a few useful questions:
What would someone save or share from your brand?
What can they discover beyond the product information?
Which details express your point of view?
What makes the next visit worthwhile?
I’m looking at this as someone who keeps noticing the brand, saving it and sending it to other people. That is the response I can speak to.
And perhaps that is why LORE keeps coming back into my references.
Every time I look, I find another detail I want to talk about.
Hey, before you go
If this got you thinking about your own brand, I’d love to hear what you’re building.
At Hunter & Florence, we work with beauty and wellness founders on brand strategy, storytelling and creative direction, helping you connect what makes your brand special with how people actually experience it.
Whether you’re refining your positioning or looking for an ongoing creative partner, explore how we can work together.
And if you enjoy these little dives into brands, culture and creativity, join our newsletter for more.
See you in the next one, Paula
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