Fresh Founders Pause The Maker Fragrance Brand to Focus on Hospitality
The Maker, a fragrance brand launched by Fresh co-founders Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg, has suspended operations to prioritize its namesake luxury hotel. According to Beauty Independent, the brand has closed its digital and wholesale channels, despite previous distribution at Sephora and Bluemercury and recent capital from True Beauty Ventures.
Context from Industry Pulse
The suspension of The Maker’s fragrance operations illustrates the volatility of the niche perfume market, even for seasoned entrepreneurs like Glazman and Roytberg. While their previous success with Fresh provided significant industry leverage, The Maker faced the high overhead of luxury glass, complex logistics, and manufacturing transitions. The brand joins a list of second-act ventures from prominent beauty founders trying to replicate past exits in a modern retail environment. The decision to prioritize the hotel suggests that while lifestyle extensions can build brand equity, the core hospitality asset currently offers more stability than the capital-intensive beauty sector, which is currently grappling with increased production costs and heavy competition in the gourmand and artisanal scent categories.
"With rising costs of everything from raw materials to packaging to shipping, it’s becoming increasingly hard in general to run a business."
The Maker has officially ceased its e-commerce and wholesale operations as the company pivots resources toward its hospitality business in Hudson, New York. As reported by Beauty Independent, the brand has not set a specific date for a potential return, though its founders have left the possibility of a revival open. The shutdown follows the departure of several key executives, including the chief marketing officer and the general manager, signaling a significant wind-down of the beauty division.
Launched in 2021, the fragrance line served as an olfactory extension of The Maker Hotel. The collection featured six scents and three candles created by senior perfumers from Firmenich and Givaudan. Despite securing shelf space at high-profile retailers like Goop and Mecca, the brand recently faced operational challenges. Beauty Independent notes that wholesale delays occurred in late 2024 due to quality control issues following a change in manufacturing sites.
Industry observers suggest the brand struggled to translate its luxury hotel atmosphere into a standalone fragrance business that justified its premium price point. While the hotel remains a popular destination, the fragrance products reportedly faced difficulty connecting with a broad consumer base due to abstract storytelling and high costs for raw materials and shipping. Sephora has recently marked down the remaining inventory of the brand online by thirty percent.
Financial projections cited by Beauty Independent previously estimated the brand could reach up to five million dollars in sales by 2026. However, the founders have now decided to concentrate on the hospitality side of their portfolio, which includes the hotel and a nearby bakery. This move highlights the difficulties faced by even veteran beauty entrepreneurs when navigating the crowded and increasingly expensive fragrance market.
The Industry Pulse Bottom Line
The Maker’s closure demonstrates that heritage founders and venture backing cannot always overcome the logistical complexities and high customer acquisition costs currently defining the premium fragrance market.