The Heritage
The Story of Ellis Brooklyn
Ellis Brooklyn creates modern American fragrances that feel like a quiet moment in a bustling city. Founded in 2015, the brand blends clean‑synthetic and natural ingredients to craft scents that are both approachable and memorable. Each bottle carries a story of everyday places – a walk in Williamsburg, a summer day on the beach, a quiet kitchen table. The line includes playful milkshake‑inspired aromas such as Lychee Milkshake (2025) and Mango Milkshake (2025) alongside more grounded notes like Sand (2023) and Sea (2023). All products are vegan, cruelty‑free and packaged with recyclable materials, reflecting a commitment to sustainability without sacrificing olfactory richness.
Heritage
Bee Shapiro spent more than a decade writing beauty features for The New York Times before she turned her editorial eye toward perfume. In 2015 she launched Ellis Brooklyn from a walk‑up apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, motivated by a desire to make clean fragrance accessible to a broader audience. The first launch, Florist, arrived later that year and quickly earned a reputation for its bright, garden‑inspired profile. By 2016 the brand expanded its catalogue with Salt, a mineral‑driven scent that hinted at the brand’s willingness to explore unconventional notes. In 2018 Ellis Brooklyn introduced refillable glass bottles, a move that reduced waste and set a new standard for eco‑conscious packaging in the niche market. The following year the company debuted its first rollerball, allowing customers to sample scents on the go while keeping the product travel‑friendly. 2020 marked the release of Miami Nectar, a bright, citrus‑laden fragrance that captured the spirit of a sun‑soaked city and demonstrated the brand’s growing confidence in regional storytelling. 2021 saw the brand receive a Green Beauty Award from the Sustainable Beauty Awards, confirming its leadership in environmentally responsible perfumery. The ten‑year anniversary in 2025 was celebrated with a limited‑edition batch of rollerball scents, including the fan‑favorite Lychee Milkshake and the tropical Mango Milkshake, both launched the same year. In 2026 Ellis Brooklyn introduced First Date, a fragrance designed to evoke the nervous excitement of a new romance, signaling the brand’s continued focus on everyday emotional moments. Throughout its decade, Ellis Brooklyn has remained a privately held company, reinvesting profits into sustainable sourcing and transparent ingredient disclosure, while maintaining a small, Brooklyn‑based team that handles formulation, design and customer service in‑house.
Craftsmanship
Ellis Brooklyn formulates each perfume in a Brooklyn studio that doubles as a laboratory and a design space. The team works with both natural extracts – such as sustainably harvested sandalwood and responsibly farmed citrus – and high‑purity synthetics that replicate rare notes without depleting natural resources. Ingredients are vetted for ecological impact; for example, the brand sources vanilla from Madagascar farms that practice agroforestry, reducing deforestation risk. Production runs on a small‑batch scale, allowing perfumers to adjust accords in real time and maintain consistency across each release. Quality control includes third‑party testing for allergen levels and stability, ensuring that the scent remains true from the first spray to the final month of use. The refillable glass bottles feature a silicone gasket that prevents leakage and can be reused indefinitely, a design choice that reduces plastic waste by up to 80 percent compared with single‑use containers. All packaging inks are soy‑based, and the outer boxes are printed on FSC‑certified paper. The brand also partners with a carbon‑offset program that funds reforestation projects in the United States, aiming to neutralize emissions generated during shipping and production.
Design Language
Visually, Ellis Brooklyn balances minimalism with playful color. Bottles are clear glass with a simple, rounded silhouette, allowing the fragrance’s hue to become part of the design. Labels feature a thin black sans‑serif typeface set against a pastel background that hints at the scent’s character – a soft pink for Lychee Milkshake, a muted teal for Sea. The brand’s marketing imagery often shows everyday scenes – a handwritten note, a sun‑lit kitchen counter, a Brooklyn street mural – reinforcing the narrative that perfume lives in daily life. Seasonal campaigns use hand‑drawn illustrations rather than glossy photography, underscoring the handcrafted ethos. The website mirrors this approach with generous white space, easy navigation, and clear ingredient lists, inviting visitors to explore scents without feeling overwhelmed. Overall, the aesthetic feels like a curated notebook of moments, each page dedicated to a distinct memory captured in scent.
Philosophy
Ellis Brooklyn views scent as a bridge between the ordinary and the extraordinary. The brand’s creative vision centers on translating familiar environments – a kitchen, a shoreline, a city street – into aromatic experiences that feel instantly recognizable. Bee Shapiro emphasizes ingredient transparency; every component appears on the label, and the company avoids animal‑derived materials. Sustainability guides every decision, from sourcing raw materials that meet Fair Trade standards to choosing packaging that can be recycled or refilled. The brand also believes that fragrance should be inclusive, offering a range of concentrations and formats so that anyone can experiment without feeling intimidated. By focusing on clean chemistry and thoughtful storytelling, Ellis Brooklyn aims to shift consumer expectations toward products that are both responsibly made and sensorially engaging.
Key Milestones
2015
Bee Shapiro launches Ellis Brooklyn from a Williamsburg apartment and releases the debut fragrance Florist.
2018
Introduces refillable glass bottles, pioneering waste‑reduction in the niche fragrance market.
2020
Releases Miami Nectar, expanding the brand’s regional storytelling portfolio.
2021
Earns a Green Beauty Award for its sustainable sourcing and packaging practices.
2025
Celebrates ten years with limited‑edition rollerball scents Lychee Milkshake and Mango Milkshake.
2026
Launches First Date, a fragrance that captures the excitement of new romance.
At a Glance
Brand profile snapshot
Origin
United States
Founded
2015
Heritage
11
Years active
Collection
1
Fragrances released
Avg Rating
4.3
Community sentiment
Release Rhythm