The Heritage
The Story of Nest
NEST New York is a fragrance lifestyle brand founded by Laura Slatkin in 2008. The company began with scented candles and expanded into reed diffusers, room sprays, perfumes, and body care. Slatkin previously co-founded Slatkin & Co. with her husband Harry in 1992, building expertise in luxury home fragrance before launching NEST. The brand offers a range of scents spanning citrus, floral, woody, and oriental categories, with Grapefruit and Holiday standing as signature offerings. NEST New York operates from New York City and distributes through specialty retailers and direct-to-consumer channels.
Heritage
Laura Slatkin spent her early career on Wall Street before pivoting to fragrance. In 1992, she and her husband Harry left their finance careers to open a home-fragrance shop, eventually establishing Slatkin & Co. as a respected name in prestige home fragrance. The company developed original collections with what Slatkin described as a focus on sophisticated scents, though Slatkin eventually sought to reach a broader audience. In 2008, she founded NEST New York, bringing her expertise in fine fragrance formulation to a new consumer-facing brand. The company launched with a range of scented candles and quickly expanded into reed diffusers and room sprays, building a reputation for strong scent throw and clean-burning formulations. The early success established NEST as a notable presence in the home fragrance market, with multiple retail partnerships forming within the first years. The brand later extended into personal fragrance and body care, marking a significant evolution from its candle-focused origins.
Craftsmanship
NEST New York develops its fragrances with a team of perfumers including Christophe Laudamiel, Patricia Choux, Mathilde Bijaoui, Jérôme Epinette, Gabriela Chelariu, and Rodrigo Flores-Roux. The brand uses proprietary formulation techniques developed from Slatkin's decades of experience in the prestige home fragrance market. For candles, NEST employs a premium wax blend designed for clean burning and consistent scent throw, with fragrance oil concentrations intended to deliver noticeable performance. The personal fragrance collection spans different concentrations, including traditional spray perfumes and concentrated perfume oils introduced around 2021. The perfume oils utilize higher fragrance loads for durability and depth. NEST's body care line incorporates fragrance into formulations designed for daily use, maintaining scent consistency across product categories. Ingredients span global fragrance traditions, with notes including yuzu, neroli, mandarin, clementine, oud, and various rose compositions sourced through established fragrance suppliers.
Design Language
NEST New York presents a clean, modern visual identity across its product lines. Candle vessels feature minimal frosted glass with simple black or colored labels, creating a restrained aesthetic suited to contemporary interiors. Perfume bottles employ sleek rectangular or cylindrical forms with understated typography, avoiding ornate detailing in favor of architectural simplicity. The brand's color palette shifts by collection, with soft pastels for citrus and floral lines and deeper tones for oriental and woody offerings. Photography and brand imagery emphasize lifestyle contexts, showing products in styled residential settings rather than isolated product shots. The overall impression is polished and accessible, avoiding the heritage aesthetic of older European fragrance houses in favor of a distinctly American modern sensibility. Packaging maintains visual consistency across home and personal care categories, allowing the range to function as a coordinated collection rather than disconnected product lines.
Philosophy
NEST New York positions scent as a tool for mood elevation and everyday transformation. The brand believes fragrances should transport the senses, evoke memories, and bring intention to daily routines. Rather than limiting fragrance to special occasions, NEST designs scents for morning rituals, work-from-home moments, and evening wind-downs. The collection emphasizes versatility, with complementary notes that allow wearers to layer or switch scents based on mood. NEST describes its approach as celebrating scent as part of a complete lifestyle rather than a luxury afterthought. The brand's diverse fragrance range reflects an interest in drawing from nature, travel, and art for inspiration, creating compositions that range from bright citrus to deep oriental. NEST maintains that a signature scent serves as a personal declaration, something that radiates beyond the skin and leaves a lasting impression. This philosophy shapes how the brand approaches both home and personal fragrance categories, treating them as unified expressions of atmosphere and identity.
Key Milestones
1992
Laura and Harry Slatkin leave Wall Street careers to launch their first home-fragrance business, eventually establishing Slatkin & Co.
2008
Laura Slatkin founds NEST New York, introducing a new collection of scented candles with formulations informed by her prior experience in prestige home fragrance.
2012
NEST expands beyond home fragrance with its first perfume collection, marking a significant category extension for the brand.
2013
The Body & Soul Spray line launches, bringing NEST fragrances into the personal care category with a format combining fragrance and body moisturization.
2021
NEST introduces perfume oils, adding concentrated fragrance formats to its personal fragrance portfolio alongside spray options.
2024
The brand releases new signature scents including Turkish Rose and Seville Orange, continuing its diverse approach to fragrance categories.
At a Glance
Brand profile snapshot
Origin
United States
Founded
2008
Heritage
18
Years active
Collection
1
Fragrances released
Avg Rating
4.2
Community sentiment