Raihan
BekasiScroll to sunrise
“My name is Raihan, and I’ve heard it means ‘fragrant,’ so maybe this was always my path.”
Seven years away,
then home.
I spent seven years in Poland studying IT and graphic design. I also worked as a cook, which taught me a lot about smell and taste, and later as a quality assurance specialist at a marketing company, where I learned to pay attention to details. When I came back to Indonesia, perfume became more than a hobby. I started reviewing everything, from local bottles to niche ones, and then taught myself how to make perfume. Now I’m building my own brand, Rhen Atelier.
IT & graphic design
“studying IT and graphic design”
A cook
“taught me a lot about smell and taste”
Quality assurance
“where I learned to pay attention to details”
More than a hobby
“perfume became more than a hobby”
Everything
“from local bottles to niche ones”
Making, not only smelling
“taught myself how to make perfume”
Rhen Atelier
“Now I’m building my own brand.”
Part devotion, part study,
part responsibility.
“My relationship with fragrance is part devotion, part study, and part responsibility. That’s why I believe criticism should be honest about being subjective.”
His full answer, in his words, sits across the three cards above.
Two places,
two kinds of air.
YEARS
Poland.
Seven years is a lot of scent memory: winter air, wood smoke, a bakery, linden trees in bloom, the inside of a tram.
Is there a smell that instantly puts you back there?
HOME
Coming home to Indonesia.
Rain on hot asphalt, kretek, frangipani, a pasar in the morning.
Maybe a smell you didn’t notice until you’d been away.
Something salty and mineral when the heat sits heavy on the city, then a soft cup of tea when the evening slows down. Lately I keep choosing quiet scents over loud ones, which usually means I need a little calm.
Before the notes,
a prayer.
-
I · First
Fajr
“the obligatory Fajr and the sunnah ones around it.”
-
II · Then
A few raw materials
“I sit with a few raw materials and just smell, with no notes and no goal.”
-
III · Both
The same practice
“slowing down long enough to notice what’s in front of me.”
My mornings start with prayer: the obligatory Fajr and the sunnah ones around it. Then I sit with a few raw materials and just smell, with no notes and no goal. I’ve come to see both as the same practice, slowing down long enough to notice what’s in front of me.
Curious
before judgmental.
To me, good taste means being curious before being judgmental. It means smelling something on its own terms first, then deciding how I feel. The best reviewers I know aren’t the ones with the most expensive collections. They’re the ones who still get surprised.
Your nose is the only opinion that matters for you.
Press play,
read on.
Rhen Atelier,
the atelier.
Not a school.
Not a lab.
Just an empty desk.
Not a school. Not a lab. Just an empty desk that I filled with curiosity and raw materials to learn from. The question was simple: how is a perfume actually made?
For over a year, I slowly bought raw materials, one small bottle at a time, until that once-empty desk was full. A lot of it failed. The scents turned strange, the materials clashed, and the result didn’t know where it was heading.
- The scents turned strange.
- The materials clashed.
- The result didn’t know where it was heading.
I joined a few small classes, met friends just as curious as me who helped answer my questions, and learned to calculate dilutions down to two decimal places. I have no chemistry background, so I learned everything from zero.
“learned to calculate dilutions down to two decimal places.”
Try your own numbers. A desk tool, not a formula.“A good perfume isn’t the one with the most in it, it’s the one where every material has a reason.”
After Sunrise came from a moment I live every day: the blue sky before the sun appears, on my way to work.
I didn’t start with a note list. I started with the feeling, a small stillness before the day gets busy, and built the formula to serve that feeling.
After Sunrise.
Crossed out.
Recalculated.
It wasn’t smooth. Some versions were too spicy, others too sweet underneath. I crossed things out, recalculated, and deliberately held back materials I love but that didn’t suit a morning mood. Until version 3.0, when I smelled it and said: this is it.
Frosted Citrus
White Floral, Rose Petal
Sandalwood, Tonka Bean, Musk
The morning,
layer by layer.
The materials he kept are the ones with a reason to be there. Tap a layer.
Drawn on paper,
to the millimeter.
I made the bottle for the same reason. I drew the plan on paper down to the millimeter, chose a solid bottle so it feels intentional in your hand, then shaped the cap myself by hand, based on my mood at the time.
- A plan on paper, to the millimeter.
- A solid bottle, intentional in the hand.
- A cap shaped by hand, by mood.
This is Chapter One from Rhen Atelier. Not a perfect fragrance on the first try, but one that’s honest about its process. I hope you can feel the morning I tucked inside it.
There is more to come sooner than you know! I’m so excited for you guys to try every single one of them.
Indonesia,
telling its own story.
Patchouli
Vetiver
Clove
Sandalwood
“I hope Indonesian perfume keeps growing and one day stands proudly on the world stage. We have amazing natural materials like patchouli, vetiver, clove, and sandalwood. Many of the world’s perfumes already use them. Now it’s time for Indonesian brands to tell that story themselves.”