The Pursuit of Happiness: A Fragrance for America 250

The pursuit of happiness is one of those ideas we all recognize, but it isn’t easy to define. It isn’t a fixed destination, and it doesn’t mean everything is perfect. To me, happiness can be much simpler than that. It can be time with family, a summer afternoon by the pool, a cocktail in your hand, or fireworks going off over the Jersey Shore.

When we began creating a fragrance for America 250, that was the feeling we wanted to explore.

The Pursuit of Happiness began with an open brief given to Chris Undi of Cult of Kaori. We knew the fragrance would celebrate America, and we knew red, white, and blue would be part of the visual language, but that wasn’t enough to make the project meaningful. We weren’t interested in creating a generic patriotic perfume. We wanted to understand what the pursuit itself could smell like, and what it meant for Perfumology to create this fragrance here in Philadelphia as the country marked 250 years since the Declaration of Independence.

That question took us through multiple formulas, fragrance accords, bottle designs, caps, packaging samples, and plenty of revisions. Just like the idea behind its name, The Pursuit of Happiness did not arrive in one perfect draft. Curious? Keep reading.

More Than Red, White, and Blue

The original direction gave Chris a lot of freedom. Celebrate America. Think about red, white, and blue. Then see where the memories take you. His inspiration became personal very quickly.

He thought about Fourth of July celebrations at the Jersey Shore, fireworks in the sky, and sitting beside the pool with a gin and tonic. Those are familiar American summer moments, but they also feel specific enough to belong to a real memory. Do you recognize the distinction?

A perfume about America could easily become too broad. The country is too large, complicated, and varied to reduce to one smell. Instead, we focused on a lived experience of happiness. The kind you recognize while you’re in it, surrounded by people you care about, with summer happening all around you. The Declaration of Independence gave us the language, but the fragrance needed to give that language a feeling. 

The phrase “the pursuit of happiness” also felt connected to the way perfume is actually created. The Declaration itself did not emerge without discussion, revision, and compromise. Neither did this fragrance. A finished perfume may feel effortless when you smell it, but there is usually a long process behind that final impression. Materials are adjusted. Accords are rebuilt. Ideas that sound good spoken aloud don’t always work in the formula. You keep returning to the original intention, asking whether each new version brings you closer to it.

In that way, the pursuit is the work. The revisions, the decisions, the failures, the return to the idea again and again. Maybe that is the part that feels most American to me. Not the promise that happiness is finished or guaranteed, but the belief that it is still worth chasing.

Building Happiness One Accord at a Time

The fragrance was developed in pieces before those pieces became one complete composition. We explored watermelon, fireworks, pool water, gin, blue cypress, citrus, woods, and musk. Each accord had its own job, but they all needed to belong to the same experience.

The opening brings the celebration first. Ruby red grapefruit and sparkling citrus meet juniper berry and a fireworks accord, creating brightness with a flash of something unexpected.

Then the fragrance settles into the poolside memory. Watermelon, dry gin, and a pool water accord give the heart a cool, familiar feeling. It isn’t meant to smell like a literal glass of pool water! It is the atmosphere around it, the sunlight, the movement, and the feeling of being outside with nowhere else you need to be.

Cedarwood, sandalwood, and beach towel musk give the fragrance its foundation. They bring warmth back to the skin and ground the brighter, more playful parts of the composition. That balance was important. Happiness isn’t one note, and it isn’t only brightness. The fragrance needed energy, but it also needed something familiar and comforting underneath it. For us, that is where the meaning lives. The Pursuit of Happiness is not trying to describe a perfect life, but rather capture a moment when life feels good.

A Bottle That Carries the Story

The fragrance was only one part of the development process. Chris also helped design the project from the inside out, including the bottle and its visual direction. What customers see now is the final version. What they don’t see are all the bottle samples, cap options, packaging concepts, and decisions that came before it.

Did you know we explored NINE cap options from only a few initial directions?! Different materials and shapes could change the entire personality of the bottle. Some ideas looked right on their own but didn’t work once the full package came together. Others brought us closer, but still needed adjustment.

The same thing happened with the box and bottle design. We kept looking at the project as a whole. Did the outside reflect what was inside? Did it feel celebratory without becoming novelty packaging? Did it connect to America 250 while still looking like something Perfumology would create?

The final bottle carries the Declaration of Independence on the back. That was our way of connecting the finished object to the language that inspired it and to the origins of the country it celebrates. It also brings the story home to Philadelphia. Perfumology is creating this fragrance in the city where the Declaration came to life. For us, that connection is not abstract, but quite literally part of the history surrounding our shop and the city we experience every day.

Two Formulas, One Pursuit

At one point in the process, I added a curveball. We had been working on the fragrance, and I asked Chris to develop a second formula. That decision led to two expressions of The Pursuit of Happiness: an ongoing Standard Edition and an America 250 Limited Edition created in a run of only 250 bottles.

The Standard Edition was developed to remain in production. We still wanted it to be phenomenal, but it also needed to be made responsibly at a more accessible cost so the fragrance could continue beyond the anniversary.

The Limited Edition was our no-holds-barred version. We used the finest materials we could and allowed the formula to go further, adding greater depth through materials including black pepper, pink pepper, olibanum, Italian lemon, white grapefruit, green mandarin, and Australian blue cypress.

The two formulas share the same idea, but they express it differently. The Standard Edition carries the brightness, ease, and summer memory at the center of the fragrance. The Limited Edition expands that structure with more weight, texture, and natural materials.

Creating exactly 250 bottles felt right. It gave the limited version a direct connection to the anniversary while allowing us to make something especially ambitious for the occasion. Neither formula was an afterthought. They are two conclusions reached through the same pursuit.

From Curating Perfume to Creating It

At Perfumology, we spend most of our time evaluating, curating, and telling the stories of other perfume houses. Creating The Pursuit of Happiness allowed us to once again step further into the process ourselves. That came with a different level of responsibility.

When you curate someone else’s fragrance, you decide whether the finished work belongs on your shelf. When you create your own, every decision belongs to you. The formula, the materials, the bottle, the cap, the box, and the message all have to come together. For a small business, a project like this takes real effort. It has been months and years in the making, with more revisions and decisions behind it than most people will ever see.

I’m incredibly grateful to Chris Undi for helping shape the fragrance inside and out. His work brought the accords, memories, and visual ideas together into something we can finally share. And sharing it is the last part of the pursuit.

Happiness means something different to everyone. I don’t expect one perfume to define it. I only hope The Pursuit of Happiness reminds people of joy, family, celebration, and those moments when life feels exactly as it should.

Visit Perfumology in Old City Philadelphia to experience The Pursuit of Happiness in person, or explore the Standard and America 250 Limited Editions at Perfumology.com.