A small American fragrance house with one foot in the Gulf.

Born in El Paso, Gonzalo spent the early 2000s as the buyer for a regional chain of independent perfumeries across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. He kept hearing the same two complaints from his own shop owners: nobody in the United States could deliver traceable, ungraded-down oud at a price that made retail sense, and the importers who did carry it would not take their phone calls.

In late 2013 he flew to Dubai with a notebook. He spent three weeks in Deira's Perfume Souk talking to producers, then another two in Muscat. In early 2014 he leased a small suite in Las Vegas, brought back a single 20-foot container, and started cold-calling every indie perfumery west of the Mississippi.

Eleven years later he still picks up the phone, still flies to the Gulf twice a year, and still personally signs off on every new buyer's first order. The company is deliberately small. It is meant to stay that way.