Inside the Viral Phlur Perfume That Smells Like Someone You Miss
On the latest Live & Well podcast, Phlur founder Chriselle Lim shares how its viral scent Missing Person turned personal heartbreak into a cultural moment that redefined emotional beauty.
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In episode 3 of the Live & Well from LA Times Studios, host Melissa Magsaysay sat down with Chriselle Lim, entrepreneur, content creator, and founder of the modern fragrance house Phlur, to talk about how a bottle of perfume became a viral therapy session.
When Lim’s Missing Person first appeared on TikTok, people filmed themselves crying after one spritz, describing it as “the scent of someone you miss.” For Lim, that reaction wasn’t accidental. “Scent is so deeply tied to emotion,” she says, describing it like “bottled nostalgia.”
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From Breakup to Bottle
Lim never planned to lead a fragrance brand. When the opportunity to acquire Phlur came along, she was in what she says was “one of the darkest, hardest moments” of her life, her divorce. “I was feeling so lonely,” Lim says. “I asked myself, what does loneliness smell like? What do people feeling lonely want to smell like?” That question became the foundation for Missing Person. “I wasn’t thinking about it as a perfume,” she says. “I was thinking about how it felt to wake up missing someone.”
Upon the launch, Missing Person sold out within days. “If we could sell maybe five, I’d be happy,” Lim says. Instead, the website crashed, and a giant waitlist formed. The viral wave was fueled not by advertising but by real people bringing light to the fragrance on social media. “People want to be seen, even in their beauty routines,” Lim reflects. “The scent became more than a scent. It became an opportunity to talk about something deep, maybe even painful. It gave them permission to self-express.”
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When Emotion Meets Virality
The viral success of Missing Person wasn’t an orchestrated reaction but organic and emotional. ““We didn’t tell people how to react,” Lim says. “We just told a true story.”
The fragrance launched in 2021, just as the world was emerging from pandemic isolation. “People were still nervous about coming back into society,” she says. “They were looking for something to help them reconnect with themselves and with others. Fragrance gave them that. It gave them a little self-confidence like turning the page to a new chapter.” For many, Missing Person became a kind of emotional reentry, an invisible layer of connection for a world learning how to feel again. Lim sees that moment as proof that vulnerability can resonate more deeply than perfection. “Fragrance isn’t just chemistry,” she says. “It’s storytelling. People don’t want to be sold anymore. They want to feel something real.”
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Storytelling Through Scent
Every Phlur fragrance begins with a story, a scene, a song, or an emotion that sets the tone for the entire creation. “We think about how it will make someone feel before we think about what it will smell like,” Lim says. The packaging, visuals, and even music in Phlur’s campaigns all stem from that same emotional language. The name of the scent even plays a powerful psychological role. “It’s the first impression that sets the expectation,” Lim says. “Before you even smell it, the name already tells your brain how to feel.”
This blend of intimacy and storytelling became Phlur’s signature and its strategy. Lim saw a gap between the intimidating prestige of designer fragrances and the accessibility of mass-market body mists. “We’re the middle person between high luxe and mass,” she says. “We still offer a beautiful luxury experience at a more approachable price point.”
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The psychology of scent, Lim says, lies in its connection to memory. Her first fragrance was CK One by Calvin Klein. “It made me feel a little cooler, a little more confident,” she says. “I wasn’t the popular kid, but when I wore it, I felt like I belonged.” Another scent that instantly transported her was her mother’s baking. “She made cookies every day after school,” Lim says. “I didn’t appreciate it then, but now that’s the smell of home for me. Maybe that’s where my love of gourmand scents started.” These associations of confidence, comfort, and belonging are what she hopes Phlur can evoke in others, she explained. “Scent lets us express what words can’t,” she says. “That’s where the magic is.”
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Looking ahead, Lim sees fragrance as both art and therapy, and she wants to share that globally. “We’ve only tapped into the U.S. and Canada,” she says. “There’s so much opportunity in Asia, the Middle East, Australia, Mexico. We want to keep creating scents that move people emotionally, in unexpected ways.”
As Phlur grows, she plans to hold onto the vulnerability that started it all. “We’re entering an era where fragrance is less about status and more about sentiment,” Lim says. “Scent is personal. It’s how we connect, how we heal, how we remember.”
Listen to the full conversation with Chriselle Lim here on the ‘Live & Well’ Podcast
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