Jasper Li
Jasper Li did not arrive at perfumery through the conventional route. Trained as a painter at university, he spent his formative creative years working in color, texture, and composition before discovering that scent offered a parallel language entirely his own. A Hong Kong native, Li pursued formal training at Perfumers World while continuing to paint, refusing to abandon one discipline for the other. His background in fine art proved decisive: where many perfumers think in notes, Li thinks in atmospheres, in the way light falls differently across a surface. In 2020, he co-founded TOBBA Parfums with Adrian Yu, establishing what would become the first Hong Kong-based fragrance house to achieve retail presence in the United Kingdom. The achievement landed quietly, without fanfare, but it marked a genuine threshold. Li had crossed from artist with a compelling private practice into someone shaping how an entire region enters global fragrance conversations. His self-taught intensity and fine art sensibility give his work a visual quality that reviewers consistently note, even when describing something they cannot see. He remains based in Hong Kong, where he continues to paint and compose fragrances in equal measure, treating each as a separate but related act of making.
The hits
Notable creations
The signature
How Jasper composes
Li's style resists easy categorization, but certain characteristics appear across his work. His compositions tend toward restraint rather than projection, favoring depth and evolution over immediate impact. He gravitates toward natural materials with complex character, ingredients that shift and reveal themselves over time rather than delivering their full message in the opening seconds. His fine art training shows in his attention to balance and negative space within a fragrance. He is drawn to textures that feel almost architectural, structures with weight and intention. His work with the TOBBA Roots collection demonstrates this approach, building fragrances that develop slowly and reward sustained attention. The Serendipity piece in particular reveals his preference for organic transitions between phases, moving from one emotional register to another without jarring the wearer. He works with master perfumers to translate his vision into finished compositions, serving as creative director of his own olfactory language rather than working entirely alone.
Philosophy
What drives Jasper
Li approaches fragrance as an extension of painting. He has said publicly that he views perfume as an artistic expression rather than a commercial product, and this distinction shapes everything from his selection of materials to the way he names his work. He is drawn to compositions that feel resolved rather than calculated, pieces that hold together as totalities rather than accumulating effects. His introspective nature means he spends considerable time in solitude with his materials before bringing work to collaborators or consumers. He does not chase trends. He is not interested in fragrance as market category. He is interested in scent as a medium through which he can make something true, something that reflects the particular quality of attention he brings to the world. This philosophical commitment explains why his output remains deliberate and unhurried despite commercial pressures. Each fragrance represents an extended period of consideration before it ever reaches a bottle.
The houses
Maisons Jasper composes for
In the same league