There’s something wildly inspiring about people who dare to walk away—not from failure, but from comfort. From safe salaries and titles. From routines that look good on paper but feel dead in the soul. That’s the part of the Le Labo story that hooked me, and why I believe it’s not just a brand, but a philosophy.
Eddie Roschi and Fabrice Penot were not rookies when they birthed Le Labo. They were insiders. Seasoned creatives in the perfumery world, working under the sleek umbrella of Giorgio Armani. They were meeting with Armani himself, every month, absorbing the nuances of design, taste, and refined decision-making. It was, as Eddie said, “extremely good training.”
But it wasn’t freedom.
In an interview, Eddie shared a line that slapped me awake:
“Let’s try to envision a future in which we’re not constantly bitching.”
Oof. That sentence, casual and cutting, reveals the quiet rebellion brewing inside every creative person who’s ever had to water down their vision to fit into a corporate mold. The kind of daily soul-numbing that happens when profit gets prioritized over passion, and politics over purpose.
Eddie and Fabrice realized they were spending more time complaining than creating. And that was the sign. Not failure. Not drama. Just a slow, constant ache in the soul that said: This isn’t it. So, they did what most people don’t dare—they made a new world.
Le Labo was born not from a perfect plan, but from the refusal to keep shrinking.
It was their answer to mediocrity. Their stand against dilution. Their commitment to unfiltered, unhurried creation.
They didn’t want mass production. They wanted intimacy. Craft. Integrity. Perfumes that weren’t made in anonymity, but in collaboration with the people who wore them. Scents that were mixed by hand, labelled with names, born from memory and mood—not marketing.
And isn’t that what we’re all aching for in our own way? To live lives that smell like us. To build things that hold our soul, not just our skills. To stop bitching about the world we’re stuck in and start birthing one we can belong to.
So, here’s the question for anyone standing at the edge of their own creative frustration:
What could be born from your refusal to settle?
What beauty might come if you said no more to the watered-down version of your life?
What would it look like if you stopped surviving the system and started inventing your own?
Maybe your Le Labo moment isn’t a perfume house. Maybe it’s a book, a podcast, a coaching practice, a workshop, a home, a wild new chapter. Whatever it is—start with the truth. Let the frustration speak. And then create the antidote.
Because something beautiful happens when you stop complaining… and start creating.
“Share this if you’re birthing something of your own” or “Tag your co-creator—your Fabrice—to remind them you’re in this together”?
Salima
Just me thinking out loud, over here
To Know more about Le Labo, click https://www.lelabofragrances.com/