Ben Bennett’s The Center acquires digital-first clean beauty brand Phlur, adding to its stable of brands.
WHO: Phlur was launched by husband-and-wife team Eric and Cynthia Korman out of Austin, Texas, in 2014. The brand is a digital-first fragrance company that reimagines how customers buy, wear, and learn about scent. A Certified B Corp, Phlur provides transparency into its ingredients and processes, using an intentional balance of materials derived from botany and from the lab to create stunning scents that are safer for skin, and safer for the planet. Phlur offers customers fine fragrances, body care, and candles, and recently launched a line of natural deodorants under the brand Explore Naturals. The brand is available at Credo, Sephora, and direct-to-consumer.
The Center was started by industry veteran Ben Bennett as an incubator and investor following his exit from HatchBeauty in April of 2019. Along with Phlur, The Center’s portfolio currently includes brands Naturium, Make Beauty, and an up-and-coming addition Bennett has yet to disclose.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “The former owners of Phlur did a phenomenal job at building awareness and were really pioneers in the concept of transparency in fragrance,” Ben Bennett, founder of the Center, told WWD.
“Phlur was really one of the first brands to say, you know, ‘We understand that this essentially gives other perfumers the recipe to re-create our fragrances, but we’re OK with that. We think it’s more important to fully disclose every ingredient in our products including in the construction of fragrance oil,’” he continued.
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