The Science of Scent: How Nicola Elliott Scaled NEOM into a Global Wellness Powerhouse

0:00My mum said, you don't look after yourself. You don't do the basics. You need to think about what you're eating. Think about getting out in the sunlight. Think about moving. Think about what you're doing and putting on and in your body. And that was step one of the journey. It started on a kitchen counter with a stressed out magazine editor blending essential oils in an effort to find a moment of peace. Nicola Elliott traded her fast paced career in London journalism to launch Neon. It just really opened up a whole world to me of wellness because we didn't use the word in the same way that we do now 20 years ago.

0:34What began as a bootstrapped four-candle side hustle blossomed into a global wellness powerhouse, pioneering the science of scent therapy and disrupting the home fragrance industry. I'm going to create the ultimate blend for myself that I can create this haven of calm when I come home. Nicola is here to share how she scaled a luxury brand, transitioned from a scrappy hands-on founder to a global creative director, and the secrets to finding success even when you don't feel like you've made it. I'm Adam Levinter, and this is Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and scaling a business. Nicola, welcome.

1:12Thank you for having me. It's great to talk to you. What do you mean by you don't feel like you've made it? well you know I don't ever really feel like that and I think there's moments the other week for example we won like five CEW awards and everyone was saying oh my god like does it fit does today feel like one of those moments and look it did for an hour but I think if you're a founder you kind of train your brain to constantly be looking for the things that need changing and actually you have to be really careful with your team that you, you know, you give them enough praise and kudos for all the good stuff because you do recognize it, you do see it, but your brain is constantly looking for the ways in which you can improve.

2:03And so whether I'm looking at a shop window or some new packaging that comes in or, you know, a new way of doing anything, I'll always attune myself to look for what I can elevate. And so I think when that's your mindset, you never sit back and go, oh, check me out. We made it. It's just not. I mean, I feel like this is a chronic sickness with founders, though. I agree. This idea that you can go, I mean, in your case, 20 years, the company has been around, founded in 2005, that you can still feel this way in 2026, like that things are so uncertain that you can't really celebrate these small wins or you can, but those feelings like last an hour or two.

2:48Like what is it that makes this the case with founders, do you think? Separate that from you not enjoying the brand. I love the brand. I love my days. I've, you know, just spent all morning filming with brilliant people and going over Christmas windows that I love. I get a buzz and I love the work. But I think what you asked is, do you ever sort of sit back and have this feeling that, you know, you've made it. And I don't think it's as, there's never anything that feels as finite as that because the nature is growth and pushing on and development and newness. And so I think that's very different.

3:34Totally understand. Okay. So for listeners that aren't familiar with Neom, let's go back to the beginning. So even before this became a business, you were in magazines, right? You were working in journalism and you worked with some big names, the likes of Glamour and Style, Mary Claire, before Neon was born. What's the origin story here? Journalism is such a brilliant training ground because you have this kind of direct conversation with people every hour of every day and you kind of get to know what I suppose turns them on. You know, 20 years ago, obviously very different to the social media today, but you're constantly aware of, did a cover line work?

4:14Did a cell work? Did a promise work? You know, do people want 500 handbags or they do want 200 handbags on a cover line? What's the difference between that? What's the psychology? How do you make something interesting, click, sticky? I think it is a brilliant training ground for creating a brand. And so I did that for eight years. I absolutely loved it. It was brilliant. But I worked on the celebrity desk and we had to fly from New York, LA, London, back and forth, back and forth. And I just got really burnt out, I suppose. We call it anxiety now, but anyone who's listening to this, who remembers 20 years ago.

4:57That was not a word, you know, and I remember my mum saying, you're just shoving too much in. And so I didn't go out to start a brand. I'd come from an entrepreneurial family, but I actually became interested in essential oils that I found in a small health food shop, which was, again, very crusty because it was 20 years ago. And I started creating little blends and there was, that was, if there was a light bulb moment of sorts, that was kind of where I had the idea for creating something that I thought I could reposition in a way that would suit modern women, particularly to start with, because I was working for women's magazines, modern women who were at a point in their lives where they were feeling the effects of stress, sleep, lack of energy or mood.

5:44And it was very much at a time where beauty used to always present, still does in some ways, but, you know, present like the dark skinned model, the redhead model, the fair model, or they do combination skin, you know, oily skin, dry skin. And I thought, wouldn't it be interesting if there was a brand that spoke to the needs that you had? So not is your hair color this or your skin type this? Are you feeling stress? Have you got a lack of sleep? Have you got a lack of energy. That's what took me from magazines, I think, and the skills to Neon. But as you're tinkering with these recipes for essential oils, is it you yourself that is struggling with burnout at the time?

6:28Like, are you creating this brand for yourself? Are you the first customer? How are you thinking about it? Yeah, myself and my friends. So my issue was the anxiety that I think I was suffering from just modern life. You know, I can't really blame it entirely on the job. But But again, working 60 hours, being 27, not seeing the light of day. Again, back 2020, 2005, no one went to a gym. I lived off pasta pesto. It was a typical 27-year-old's lifestyle, but probably even worse than you would see. Well, definitely worse than you would see with today's Gen Z. And so my issue, I think, was in looking after myself in any kind of way.

7:13And that was manifesting itself in anxiety. And I was having panic attacks. So, yeah, my mum said, you're just shoving too much in. You don't look after yourself. You don't do the basics. You need to think about what you're eating. Think about getting out in the sunlight. Think about moving. Think about, you know, what you're doing and putting on and in your body. And that was kind of, that was step one of the journey, I think, in me thinking, yeah, I've got to do something proactive to look after myself. And so I went on a macrobiotic cookery course, became very interested in what I was putting on my body, became very interested in what, sorry, in my body, also became interested in what I was putting on my body.

7:55and it just really opened up a whole world to me of, I suppose, again, I say I suppose wellness because we didn't use the word in the same way that we do now 20 years ago, but self-care and the blend that I created for myself, which is still one of our best-selling fragrances, was real luxury and it had 24 essential oils in and I would come home and tinker with this blend. I thought, and reading all the books about the essential oils, how they could really help me stress and anxiety. And I thought I'm going to create the ultimate blend for myself that I can create this haven of calm when I come home.

8:32And I will use this in the bath and I will, you know, use it around the home. And that was the first blend. But at the same time, friends of mine, I remember noticing everyone seemed to have a problem with if not stress and the ramification of it in some other way. Mine obviously was anxiety, but different ways. Poor sleep was the other one, lack of energy or mood. And that was really the thinking behind it, that all my friends fit into one of those four categories. It's not as if you're doing yourself a favor, though, with the anxiety thing by jumping right into entrepreneurship. It's not the quintessential anti-anxiety, I wouldn't think.

9:13Yeah, well, where were you with the advice in 2005? Not there. Right. I mean, for you, Nicola, do you decide that you're going to quit your job? And you're going to leave journalism for this path of entrepreneurship? Like, when does this become a real business for you? No. So I did it on the side. Again, it was something, and I would always say, if I'm asked by anyone else starting something, wait until there's some green flags. I mean, God, that really would have given me anxiety. You know, I had a job that was paying me money that I enjoyed and security. So absolutely not. But doing something on the side, And again, this is pre-kids, so, you know, you're not going home to do bath time and all that kind of stuff.

9:57But I would go into the toilets and make phone calls, lunchtimes, evenings, weekends. And then I then thought, I'm going to do this great brand, very much like we are today. I had that vision. And of course, that was then stopped because I didn't have the cash, you know, didn't have the cash to create the products to launch a brand. So we had to really kind of narrow in on, okay, what one product, because we can really afford one in a few different fragrances, which one product are we going to launch with? And the candle was actually the kind of obvious one because 97 % of candles were and actually still are made of paraffin wax.

10:42Figures barely changed. And they were since that scented with synthetic fragrances. So the idea was, what if we could create something that when it burned and it filled the room with these fragrances and you breathe them in, the therapeutic effects would work. That felt like something that was a really powerful story and something that everybody else was doing in a far more inferior way that we could really raise the game on the product and tell this great story. um and also people would hopefully try it in a way that would be much harder to get them to swap from i don't know a moisturized or beauty product that they become very sort of attached to so that was the thinking behind starting with the with the candles so when you say you didn't have the cash uh my understanding is that at some point you make a 15 000 pounds i was going to say dollars a 15 ,000 pound bet that seeds the first version of the company.

11:44Your co-founder, Oliver Minnell, who is, I believe, a private equity analyst, also matches your 15 ,000 pound bet and becomes your co-founder. Is this true? What happened? Well, no. So nearly true. So I think he was like 25 at the time. I mean, we were maybe even younger and we both had£7 ,000. So together, it was just shy of£15 ,000. I had a car, so sold the car. He had some savings. We put them together. I was like, can you add up? He's like, yeah. I was like, I can kind of create a story. I went to magazines. I mean, we had no skills, let's be clear. That was it. But we were hard workers. And I think we had a shared vision of something that we could really make special.

12:39And we were pretty gung-ho, I think, when I think back. And again, it was before families. So I think it's a good time. There's loads of great reasons to start businesses at different ages. I don't think there's a best time, but a great part of starting a business young was that we didn't have any dependence. And I suppose we both thought, well, we'll just, what's the worst that can happen? We're pretty good at our jobs. We'll go back. I mean, you're hitting on a really important point that I think gets glossed over a lot of the time when it comes to founderhood and entrepreneurship, this idea that timing really plays a role and calculating sort of where you are in the cycle of life is critically important, right?

13:28I mean, if you're going to take a swing, whether it's 15 ,000 pounds or 15 million pounds, the question of, you know, kids and mortgages and your age and all sorts of other things, I think, factor in. As you think back, do you think you would have made the same bet if you were starting out today, for example? All I can speak to is my life experience, but I would say there's been two points that were bigger, more obvious openings. One was before kids and one was when they got a bit older. In now is, you know, would also be quite a more fertile time because, you know, you've paid down a bit of your mortgage, you've got a bit of a career behind you, you've got contacts, you could again pick it back up.

14:19The time where I would have probably on reflection found it the hardest, but actually it's funny because I think a lot of people come to it, is when the children are very little. Like I sometimes hear women saying, I'm going to start something on my mat leave. And I'm like, oh, are you? That would have been like hard. So, you know, that's not to discourage people. I just actually quite the reverse. I think the beauty of getting older is when you look back, you kind of see there are times life ebbs and flows, doesn't it? And if you're in a hard spot, then generally an easier one will come. But then if you're an easier one, a harder one will come.

14:58So that's just the way life works. So I think that there are distinct times where it might be a bit easier. And it is like running a marathon. It doesn't matter how, if you're well funded. It doesn't matter if you've got a great idea. It doesn't matter if you hit the market at the right time. It is still like running a marathon for many, many reasons. And so I think you do want to give yourself, be fair to yourself and know that there is quite a long way to go. Most people aren't a success in two or three years. And so you want to look down the barrel of that time and think, will I have the energy?

15:38Will I still be interested in this? Can I, am I in a spot where I'm prepared to take the knocks for quite a few years. I don't mean that to put people off. I actually mean it to be encouraging. It's just what's right for you. Timing, as you say, is important. So you're 21 years into the business now. You're truly a multi-channel brand across retail, wholesale, e-commerce, and others. Was the first channel that gave you that quote-unquote green flag. Was that spa boutiques? Where did you get the early traction? Yeah, it was spa boutiques. And actually there was a twofold reason for that. So first of all, I've always run the business from what I've seen as the customer insight.

16:22What is our customer thinking and feeling? And then product develop around that or think of the channel around that or think of the way you market something. And for me, I thought, actually, where people are really aware of the fact that they're stressed more than anything, or they're not sleeping well, or their wellness is taking a hit, is when they go into a spa, they're going in and they're spending money on a treatment. And actually, if we could piggyback onto that when they come out and get the receptionist to say, hey, you can keep this feeling going at home by lighting this candle. And we gave them some really, some really kind of like cool data, I think, which was again, at the time, you know, if you, there's about 20 treatments in this candle and therefore it costs, you know,$3 per treatment or something.

17:16So it kind of made sense. So that was one reason. And I still think, you know, where you have sort of smaller, really passionate, quite often owner operated places, might not be just spa, but stores or whatever, those people really act as marketeers for you. They tell the story. And so that was one reason. And then the other reason was obvious. We couldn't get into the big stores. No one knew us. So the way to build it was obviously in a brick by brick fashion was to go into the smaller independents and try and build the story and the love for the brand in that way. So I want to shift into product and just pick your brain on product expansion a little bit because, you know, what started as a quote unquote candle brand has really expanded into full blown wellness.

18:12So you're selling all kinds of different products related to wellness way beyond candles, essential oils, bath and body, magnesium, skincare. there's a whole whack of product categories that are available to the consumer under the neon brand how do you decide what product categories to expand into like what's the strategic thinking behind what's next so there's always a bit of an ebb and flow where product development is concerned but how do we decide you look at a whole host of things i try not to be too trend focused because, you know, we are not a fragrance brand in a way that, you know, we follow fragrance trends or perfumes or whatever, but we will look at how people's lifestyles are changing.

19:00And I follow my own lifestyle a bit where that's concerned. So we launched a product which is doing very well, which is called a calming pen. And we launched that because actually, as my children became older, I realized that actually as you're that very busy, multitasking mom, you need those wellness products on the go. So it's kind of how are the areas of your life that need servicing through wellness? So I think about it, not through a trend focus, but through what is the pattern of my life and how can I get that wellness working from a.m. to p.m.? And that's kind of how I think about it. And where are the holes in that?

19:42And then you're constantly testing on, yeah, is there an appetite for something that can work alongside the fragrances like magnesium or vitamin D that can amplify our story? It's got to be always true to our story. What can further help with sleep? Well, magnesium can help with that. What can further help with stress? Well, magnesium can help with that. What can help with mood boosting more vitamin d is great in that area so what are new elements that we can put into products that can further make them richer and more um more helpful to our wellness um and yeah how do they how can they be used in our lifestyle on the go as much as half an hour to spend in the bathroom so that's kind of how we think i'm very curious to understand like what percentage of your customer base are male.

20:33So as you're talking, Nicolette feels like this is a female brand, but I mean, men are into wellness. Men should care about these things. Men have these same pain points around sleep or stress or anxiety or overwork. Like, is there a cohort? I don't know. Is there a but here? What's going on? There is a but. The but here is that in the UK, today, 87 % of all household shopping is done by the women. So the customer insight for us is how do we get the woman to buy primarily and use on the whole family? And so all of the messaging is always done with the whole family in mind. And we'll also think through not just partners, but we'll think through children and elderly parents and exam times and, you know, workplace tensions, all of that, all of those kind of life moments that don't just affect you, but affect your family.

21:43And Pillermist, for example, we sell more in packs of four than we do in one. So we know that what you're saying is true, yet we still don't see as many straight men coming and buying the products off their own accord, but all the data will show that they typically will say, oh, that really works. I love that. Can you buy some more of that preliminist or actually get that candle lit because we've all had a stressful day or a mother saying, I'm going to put that in your exam for children or whatever it may be. So we think through what you're saying very much, but actually she is generally that person who's in charge of the purse strings.

22:28It makes sense. You actually have redefined the meaning of science of scent therapy. It's not just a tagline. This is an actual in-store experience, right? My understanding is there's a diagnostic test that customers can go through. What is this all about? Well, this is really cool. So we started doing our sort of scent tests years ago. And what we would find was we would ask people to have a smell of the candles and the way that essential oils work is that your brain, your hypothalamus will relate, will simply just like, be attracted to the oils that your body needs most. And so that was really interesting because I'd see people come into the store and they'd be wandering around and I'd say, listen, you need to do our scent discovery test because we're not a fragrance brand in that you shouldn't like all the fragrances in here.

23:19You should actively dislike at least half of them. And they'd go, that's kind of weird. And I go, well, that's how aromatherapy works, right? So your body's going to reject the fragrances it doesn't need. And by the way, as a founder, even creating the fragrances at any one time, half of them were like, I don't want that. Whereas the other half I'm really drawn to. And that changes different times, different seasons, different, you know, life cycles, et cetera. So I would say, I would explain this to them and they'd go, that's kind of weird. And I'd say, well, come and do our little scent test and we can find out what your underlying wellbeing need is.

23:50And quite often someone would come and they would say, oh, I know what I need. I'm not sleeping well or whatever. And we'd go, well, the scent test reveals that actually you're very stressed. So why don't we try and create you a de-stress toolkit? And then let's see if that in turn helps you sleep. And actually we had some amazing results in the UK and in our 11 UK stores. We found that actually the vast majority of people their underlying wellbeing was very, very different to what they thought it was. So we try and do that even on a smaller scale. Now we're doing events with Ulta all the time to try and do this little scent test and people love the personalization of that, you know?

24:29Yeah. I was just going to ask you if they accept or reject the diagnosis, right? When you say, in actuality, this is telling me you're incredibly stressed out. Do they say, no, no, no, I'm really not stressed out or they're like, oh my God. Sometimes, no, they do accept. But sometimes if you say, we have to be careful with the happiness thing, we have to sometimes say, I think you need a bit of a mood boost. You know, it's difficult sometimes to say to someone. You can't say, you're really unhappy. Then with their friend or their partner or something, you have to go, you could just do the little mood boost right now.

25:03Do you know what? It's really, it's quite emotional at times. I've had dozens of people in tears with me. Oh my God, how did you know that? I'm going through a divorce. My mom just died. I lost my job. Our stores, when we are recruiting people to work with Neon, I'm always very mindful of, forget whether this person is a great salesperson or not. Can they sit with you and have a cup of tea if you're going through a problem? Because we are not selling lipsticks where we go, oh, pink looks nicer than read or whatever. We're talking to people really within just a few questions about something really quite personal to them.

25:41And it cracks open this really amazing conversation, but yeah, it can be quite a thing. Fast forward, you're into the US. When you look back, are you surprised that you've been able to grow the brand in this way? Well, you know, America was kind of tricky for us because I kept coming out. I kept thinking, you guys have totally got wellness sewn up, like you're ahead of us in the UK by country mile. And then I'd come out and speak to press and influencers and go around the stores. And I would see that actually whilst the sort of top end knowledge of wellness is very well served, you know, the goop girl is alive and kicking and, you know, buying all the amazing smoothies and gadgets, et cetera, et cetera.

26:35The customer, not Gwyneth. Yeah, exactly. Right. You're referring to the goop, the goop archetype. Exactly. Exactly. Actually, when you really speak to a demographic of women who maybe is a bit more like me is a bit more real. There is nothing. It sort of falls off a cliff, the offering that you have. It kind of, you have some nice scented products, but you have no wellness that I think is a bit more user-friendly in that way, is a bit more, it feels a bit more for everyone. And so actually I thought, gosh, it's really funny how this sort of upper section is very well served. And then it kind of seems to fall off a cliff.

27:21So really, that was what gave us the green light to come out to America and say, actually, I think that we really can serve an awful lot of customers and do it in a very sort of easy way that they understand. It's sort of almost simplifying. It navigates quite simply. You know, you come in, you understand what the four wellbeing needs states are. You find the one for you. It makes sense. You can use it in your home. It's not something that's overly complicated or fussy. So that was kind of, that was really the reason why we came out. So for a while I was like, nah, it's not going to work. It's not going to work, but it took off a lot better than I thought.

28:01And also I think because wellness in general is being spoken about, again, we were kind of too early to the concept and it took me a long time trying to explain what wellness is, why you would care, why natural ingredients work in a way that are going to help your wellness, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But actually now we've sort of entered the market in the US and poof, it's just really took off because the appetite's there. What goes into the decision around opening up your own store? So obviously this is a huge capital expenditure. What's the calculus here? What were you thinking about when you were deciding?

28:39Well, we don't really look for stores to be money makers because, you know, Regardless of the fact that they don't barely make it, they all, we try to make them all profitable. They don't all work in that way. That's the reality of it. Most stores, you'll get one that's really good, one that's fine, and one that's less fine. It's not an exact science. You can get some data on the customers that live around at Sharp and then will come and maybe second purchase online. So that's a nicer, richer picture. but essentially we don't look at them as a profit center as long as they are not losing money we look at them as somewhere where that brand experience should be a marketing and brand experience where you should see a lift in the area around and as I say that might not just be online that might be about knowledge of the brand it's really important that we introduce the brand told our story, made that kind of introduction and told the richest story that we could in a relatively short amount of time.

29:44And I think if you want to do that, a shop front is still very, very useful investment. And if you can do that without losing money, even if it's just breaking even, then I think it's been a really, really interesting marketing proposition. So you've got to look at it. You've got to look at it from that point of view. It's absolutely not something I would ever advise somebody to do in the first about five years of a brand. By the way, maybe they would do. Maybe they decide they want to go heavy and they want to open 10 stores and they work as kind of 3D billboards. I want to ask you about the B certification thing, because this is a big deal and it puts you in really good company, right?