Reshaping the Fragrance Industry

Pura's Chief Fragrance Experience Officer Mara Dumski is leading the way in the home fragrance sector. Joining Pura in 2019 as VP of Fragrance and now serving as Chief Fragrance Experience Officer, Mara Dumski is passionate about exploring the possibilities of scent in Utah's unique landscape. With over 25 years of experience across various fragrance categories, Mara's expertise in fine fragrance, beauty care, personal care, and air care has earned her numerous awards. She brings finely tuned sensory skills to her role, enhancing both the skin and spatial olfactory experiences.

1. What does innovation mean to you?

Innovation can mean many things, but for me, it starts with a vision or idea and creating something new that pushes and challenges normal conventions and boundaries bringing about positive change. Pura has accomplished this with smart technology playing in the fine fragrance space.

2. How does your team generate new ideas?

The goal is to create an emotional connection between a consumer and a scent experience. Our internal fragrance, creative, and technology teams work closely together on fragrance formulation, smart technology, trends, ingredients, and data platforms. We leverage experience and partner with world-class perfumers to create disruption with our ideas always looking to the future.

3. What are some rituals you rely on to reset creativity?

All I have to do is look outside my window at the beautiful Utah mountains and scenery to inspire creativity. The feeling of movement extends into wellness. At Pura, we believe that life is better when it smells good and focus on bringing this personal touch to people.

4. What is the biggest challenge you face while innovating?

It’s important never to hear “no”! Your brand is everything, and you should identify holistic control. Pura built our marketplace and could have only created our own fragrances, but we partnered with brands instead of cannibalizing. We embrace risks and failures as part of the creative process and modernize the way fragrance is created, welcoming the challenge to do things differently.

5. How does Pura's combination of premium fragrance and smart technology enhance the consumer experience, and what sets it apart from traditional scent products?

The quality of our fragrances, using premium ingredients that are clean and safe, partnering with master perfumers, and bringing smart technology in the fine fragrance space sets Pura apart from others, and our brand representation of our marketplace is a great strength. Artistry and science as one, and the craftmanship and detail are so unique and modernized. We are transforming this industry in a completely new way. We are for everyone, but still a personal scent experience staying true to that and being human.

6. Has another industry ever inspired innovation at Pura?

It’s been said that we are the Keurig to the coffee industry in the fragrance space. Keurig built a marketplace where all the best brands people know, and trust have pods that work with the coffee machine, similar to what we do at Pura. We collaborate with companies to create a fragrance marketplace that utilizes the brand’s relationship with retailers. We wanted to build a marketplace of fragrances that people know and trust that would be compatible with the technology we created. Some brands include NEST New York, Capri Blue, LAFCO, Anthropologie, Illume, and Disney.

7. Could you elaborate on Pura's partnerships and collaborations with brands like Disney, Capri Blue, and Anthropologie, and how these collaborations contribute to the company's mission and product offerings?

The retail space is important so that we can get the physical product in front of more people, making it easily accessible to them and helping them to understand what Pura offers. We are focused on uplifting our brand partners and making sure they are a highlight of what we offer, giving fragrances from brands people know and trust. This also helps to expand our retail footprint and use relationships with partners to uplift and benefit one another, instead of competing against each other. This has been beneficial to the industry as a whole and is a key part in its large growth.

8. What inspired Pura's founders to create a platform that empowers people to control the scent of their homes remotely, and how has this vision evolved since the company's inception?

Pura had a pure and simple start with two entrepreneurs, CEO Bruno Lima and Co-Founder Richie Stapler, who had the idea of creating a device that you could control with a smart app, set schedules, and most importantly, partner with premium brands to create a marketplace unlike any other. A first in the air care arena! We are giving people an elevated experience and telling stories. Fragrance is not just about the ingredients that go in it, it’s the whole story. We are a marketplace for scent and our belief in our brand is what resonates with people. Scenting is for everyone, and we wanted to give people the ability to customize and create the spaces they want to be in. Pura strives to be human, uplifting, remarkable and simple – giving people the tools to create a safe, comforting space for themselves.

9. Can you discuss Pura's commitment to using responsibly sourced ingredients in its designer-grade fragrances, and how this commitment aligns with the company's overall values and industry standards?

At Pura, we are a clean brand and use only clean, safe ingredients. Everything starts with an oil but it is all about what is in the oil and what is in the solvent being used. Pura has some of the strictest regulatory/tox requirements in air care for liquid electric formulation. We are taking air care into the future with eco-friendly, safe, clean fragrances that are made with transparency and sustainability in mind so that they can be enjoyed with everyone all the time. Ingredients with neuroscience claims and benefits that are shown to boost moods making your home healthy and pure are of importance to us. We sell something that we love and believe in, and hope that we can share how powerful fragrance really is to uplift your life!