The Wild Ride of Creating a New American Fragrance

Hello,

My name is Joseph Erwin, and I’m the perfumer and founder of Onycha Fragrance Co., here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And I wanted to take a minute to welcome you to this space and share a bit about who I am, where I’ve been, and why I do what I do.

It’s not a typical path to perfume-making, but I guess that’s why it’s my path.

I grew up on a large quarterhorse and cattle farm in Arkansas, surrounded by wide-open fields, horses, trees, and a kind of freedom you can’t find anywhere else. I was the kind of kid who spent his time climbing trees, doing chores on the farm, reading things I wasn’t supposed to read…. and sticking out like a sore thumb.

After high school, I headed off to study vocal music, but life and a broken heart led me to make a big shift: I joined the U.S. Army. In the military, I studied laboratory medicine. I didn’t know it at the time, but those years spent learning how to measure things with precision were laying the foundation for what I do now: perfumery.

But the turning point came when I was hit by a drunk driver.

I had a near-death experience that completely altered my perspective on life…when I returned, nothing was ever quite the same. I spent a year in a wheelchair, and I discovered that, due to the injuries I had sustained, my way of perceiving everything had shifted. In a way, the old Joseph died that day… the person I was after my brush with death was completely different, and the way I perceived myself and my place in the world was forever altered.

That shift gave me the strength to finally head out into the world and truly start my life, escaping the unforgiving and rigid nature of rural Southern life at the time.

I moved to Texas, worked as a lab tech, but kept feeling a pull toward something else… something I didn’t have the words for yet. That pull led me to spice blending, and eventually, perfumery. I spent years traveling, diving deep into the world of tropical florals and aromatics.

Mexico became my second home, and it was there, sitting in an old Spanish house by a slow-moving river, that the idea of Onycha was born.

When I finally moved back to the States, it was with a new mission in mind: to create something different. To craft fragrances that weren’t just inspired by tradition, but ones that took a completely new approach.

I settled in Chattanooga, found a workshop, and dove into experimentation.

I spent 18 months refining my creations, figuring out what it meant to build a fragrance from the ground up, with ingredients sourced from all over the world.

The world of perfumery is built on a traditional system of fragrance families: chypres, fougères, etc… But I believe it’s time for something new. I’m developing a completely different way of categorizing and constructing perfumes, something that doesn’t rely on old systems.

This new framework, which I’m calling The Onycha Method, takes a new approach to composition, one I’ll fully delve into on my new Substack.

American perfumery is the “Wild Wild West.” It’s still unpredictable and full of possibilities... That’s the space I want to exist in. On the frontier, where we can explore, innovate, and discover new ways of thinking about fragrance. I believe there’s huge potential for American perfumery to break away from the established systems and forge its own path!

I have developed a new concept that expresses perfumery as energy… it uses an idea that I call a “directional flow field”. It is based upon a realization that I had: the sense of smell is electrical in nature, and our noses are energy field detectors.

Another realization that I had was that perceived beauty in fragrance is a result of interesting arrangements of energy flow. When I stopped chasing smells and started seeing the true nature of fragrance, it all clicked into place for me. I now build fragrances as circuits… the proper flow of energy is what matters more than anything else. In a matter of a few intense weeks I developed my system into a working model, and I began reformulating my favorite formulas using this new understanding.

I started with Velvet Sambac, transforming it into a true powerhouse fragrance that told a story that felt inevitable. That feeling of inevitability is now a trademark feature in all Onycha fragrances. Fragrances built using the Onycha Method have superior performance, extreme beauty, that feeling of inevitability that I mentioned and a strong and iconic character.

I can’t wait to share my first 8 reformulated fragrances with you… here are a few sneak peeks:

Velvet Sambac A fragrance built on the concept of “Three Rooms” of a house: The introduction is the street window: a bright, loud jasmine opening with some fruity and citrus lift that grabs attention right away. As we descend down to the Heart, we find the same jasmine softens into jasmine tea, honey, and a light custard warmth. Still floral, but now calmer, rounder, and more comforting.

As we encounter the Base, we enter into the cellar: the floral heart slowly picks up roasted cocoa, rum, vanilla, and woods, until you arrive in a final room that smells like a dark, gently smoky cocoa-rum amber on skin, with just a faint memory of the jasmine you started with. This fragrance is an interesting take on Jasmine, as a gourmand with three distinct faces that flow into one another beautifully. This fragrance is part of the new Lindeno family that I’ve created… stay tuned for more Lindeno fragrances.

Emerald Slice

This is what I call a “chromatic” fragrance. It rotates from a vivid, wet green intro, down to a glowing golden-orange heart, and then on to a gorgeous dry red base. The effect is stunning, and the Heart holds a thin filament of purple-blue that acts as a shocking contrast to the golden glow of the Heart. Experimental in nature, this fragrance is a stunner that effectively demonstrates the power of contrast.

Blue Winter

This fragrance was built upon the idea of glorious Winter. It uses the delicious pairing of Tibetan Rhododendron with Hyacinth… through clever bridging and an insight into the nature of open and airy space, I was able to produce the much sought-after “flicker effect”… in one moment you might detect a note of Yuzu, and the next a bit of Hyacinth, or addictive Blue Spruce… it rotates through these facets mysteriously, using the human mind’s response to airy, blank space to maximum effect.

Perfumery has always been secretive, and while I’m not trying to reveal everything, I do want to pull back the curtain a bit. I’ll share my process, my experiments, and the breakthroughs I’m working on.

But I also want to leave room for personal discovery. The magic of perfume creation lies in those moments of experimentation and revelation, and I respect that journey for everyone, including myself.

If you want to follow Onycha, we’re on instagram, tiktok and Substack.

See you there!

Talk soon,

Joseph Erwin

Perfumer & Owner, Onycha Fragrance Co.