The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
More Than The Stars arrived in 2015 from Julie Wray's atelier, a perfumer who built her reputation on compositions that prioritize intimacy over projection. The name reads like a wish you whisper at the window after the lights go out. Stargazer lily, almond, gardenia floating into vanilla and skin-close musks. Wray's body of work centers on fragrances that assume the wearer isn't trying to fill a room. They're quiet, deliberate, made for the person wearing them rather than the people across the table. More Than The Stars sits squarely inside that philosophy: a hushed composition that reveals itself slowly, note by note, and never raises the curtain louder than it has to.
Two materials anchor this composition that make it worth pausing on. Gardenia is one of perfumery's most distinctive florals, lush and creamy with a lemony edge that can read almost tropical in the right hands. Its presence here is restrained rather than declarative, and that's partly the almond doing quiet work at the opening, where the nutty lactonic warmth gives the composition a softer landing and keeps the gardenia from veering into sweetness.
The evolution
The opening belongs entirely to almond, and not the kind you'd recognize from a bottle of extract. Not marzipan, not baked, but the raw nut scent, almost creamy, the way stone fruit smells before you bite in. There's a softness to it that reads almost lactonic, like the ghost of milk without any sweetness attached. It settles on skin and stays close, refusing to project, and that quality sets the terms for everything that follows. The gardenia arrives next, bringing that lemony-waxy creaminess white florals do best, opening the way a flower head opens when cupped in your palm. The stargazer lily surfaces alongside it, adding a green almost-tropical sweetness that lifts the composition off the skin and keeps the florals from collapsing into each other. You notice the lily most when you move, when a breath of warm air pulls it forward for a second.
Cultural impact
More Than The Stars arrived in 2015 from Olivine Atelier, Julie Wray's independent house, and it landed at a moment when almond had begun showing up more confidently in niche fragrance circles. The composition treats the note with uncommon seriousness, building it from the raw, unprocessed scent of the nut itself rather than the marzipan shorthand that often flattens it. That choice sets the terms for everything else in the bottle.
The House
Olivine AtelierOlivine Atelier is a Seattle-based independent perfumery founded by Julie Wray, known for hand-poured perfume oils and Eau de Parfum created with a focus on clean formulations. The brand emerged from a boutique established in 1993 before launching its signature fragrance collection in 2007. Wray's creations frequently feature delicate white florals like gardenia, paired with warm vanilla and skin-close musks that prioritize intimacy over projection. The atelier operates across multiple platforms, including its own website and an Etsy shop that has accumulated over 17,000 sales since 2013. Each fragrance carries evocative titles drawn from nature and memory, from the airy Bluebird to the oceanic Amongst the Waves.
The Creator
Julie WrayWray's work favors lush florals anchored by warm woods and skin-like musks. Her signature scent "More than the Stars" pairs stargazer lily and gardenia with almond, Egyptian musk, and sandalwood, a combination that feels both romantic and intimate.
