Kerosene
Smell unique.
Kerosene was founded in 2011 by John Pegg, a self-taught perfumer and video blogger from St. Clair, Michigan, whose aesthetic grew directly from the automotive and industrial landscapes of his upbringing. Growing up near assembly plants and working on motorcycles, Pegg built an olfactory vocabulary around oil, raw metal, earth, and cold air - materials that recur throughout the Kerosene catalogue in the form of warm ambers, dense woods, and smoky resins. Each bottle is hand-painted with automotive-grade paint and stamped with a metal plate label, making the physical object as deliberately crafted as the fragrance inside. Pegg works alone, composing by accretion - adding one note at a time until the desired result emerges - rather than following classical perfumery structure. The approach produces fragrances that read as personal statements rather than commercial products. Sold through the brand's own site under the tagline 'Smell unique,' Kerosene occupies the independent niche market with prices positioning it in the mid-niche range. The house is based in Michigan and distributes internationally through select online retailers.
DNA over time
Each column is an era. Each colored band shows that family’s share of accord weight across every perfume the house released in that window. Bigger band = the house leaned harder on that family.
