Serena Rivera
Serena Rivera grew up with the Pacific fog rolling over Santa Cruz’s cliffs, a backdrop that taught her to listen to subtle shifts in air. After earning a chemistry degree at UC Santa Cruz, she apprenticed in a small boutique lab where she learned to translate raw materials into scent stories. In 2015 she co-founded There/Then Perfumerie, a studio that blends scientific rigor with a love of coastal wildflowers. Partnering with Rachel Latimer of Dane Fragrance, Rivera crafts each composition in a shared studio, testing blends on the spot and refining them until the balance feels inevitable. Her first public release, First Light, arrived in 2017 and earned praise for its crisp green top notes that melt into a warm amber heart. Since then she has added five more scents to the catalogue, each reflecting a moment of quiet observation—whether a sunrise over the Monterey Bay or the scent of pine after a rainstorm. Rivera’s work has appeared in independent boutiques across the West Coast, and she mentors emerging noses through workshops at local art schools. She continues to explore the chemistry of memory, believing that a well‑crafted perfume can anchor a feeling as firmly as a photograph.
The hits
Notable creations
The signature
How Serena composes
Rivera favors a minimalist approach, stripping away excess to let core ingredients shine. She often begins with a single botanical—such as California sage, coastal eucalyptus, or wild rosemary—and layers it with a modest amount of ambergris or lab‑created musk to add depth. Her signatures include crisp green accords, subtle marine minerals, and a warm, slightly smoky dry‑down that lingers without overwhelming. She prefers cold-press extraction for fresh greens and employs low-temperature distillation to preserve volatile top notes. In the studio she works by hand, measuring each drop with a glass pipette and documenting changes in a leather‑bound notebook. This tactile method keeps her connected to the material, ensuring each perfume feels as honest as the moment that inspired it.
Philosophy
What drives Serena
Rivera treats perfume as a laboratory of memory. She starts each project by gathering a single sensory trigger—a sea‑spray breeze, a cracked wooden floor, a burst of citrus from a nearby orchard. From that anchor she builds a palette of natural absolutes and synthetics that echo the original impression without copying it. Her process prioritizes contrast: bright top notes meet a grounding base, allowing the scent to evolve on skin as the day unfolds. Rivera believes that fragrance should serve the wearer’s inner rhythm, offering clarity when the world feels noisy. She writes each formula as a conversation between ingredients, letting the chemistry speak louder than any marketing narrative.
The houses