Ami Adrian: A New Fragrance Brand

The Podruzhka beauty store chain (owned by L’Etoile Group) has opened nearly 600 stores since its founding in 2005. For more than 12 years we have been working on Podruzhka projects, and in 2023 the Mildberry team became the partner for the chain’s transformation and its full-scale rebranding.

Brand Strategy

Since the beginning of our collaboration, we have been helping Podruzhka develop a broad portfolio of private-label brands Our main goal in such projects is not just to create private labels, but to build full-fledged brands that can successfully compete with leading names across various beauty categories.
 

Ami Adrian is a new fragrance brand in the retailer’s portfolio, developed in partnership with the Mildberry team.
 

By the time the project began, the market had already seen rapid growth of auteur (niche) fragrance houses, known for their complex, metaphor-driven scents, a strong philosophy, and a signature perfumer-creator. Such brands often feature unconventional bottle forms and many experimental design solutions compared with the mass-market segment. Nevertheless, their appeal is limited: exotic, intricate formulas are not always understood, and distribution via “short shelves” (own boutique, concept store, sometimes a D2C site) cuts off a significant share of consumers.
 

The strategy of Ami Adrian is to play by the rules of auteur perfumery while offering original yet softer and more relatable fragrances for retailer’s broad audience. During development we challenged ourselves to find the perfect balance between the familiar and the extravagant, between niche and mass market.
 

The Mildberry team developed the brand concept, name, visual identity, and packaging design for both the main collection and the limited edition line.

Brand Idea

One of the most recognizable codes of perfumer-led perfumery is the use of the perfumer’s name in the brand. We played with the image of a next-generation female perfumer, giving her the name Ami Adrian.
 

The brand’s signature symbol is the fox. The image of the fox-friend references “The Little Prince,” the allegorical novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Depending on the collection, the fox’s character is transformed in the design.

Limited Edition

The limited Hidden Souls collection features more innovative unisex fragrances. Ami Adrian allows itself to experiment with scents, but in a much more restrained way than typical niche players. In the design concept, surrealistic narratives reinterpret classic English vintage motifs.

Ami Adrian fragrances are already available in Podruzhka stores, as well as in the retailer’s online shop and mobile app. The brand continues to evolve, regularly adding new scents to both its core and limited-edition lines.