Every journey needs a first step. And of course, it took us so many steps to get where we are now.
Let me tell you the story of how we started La Parfumerie.
The showroom is where we started La Parfumerie. It was inside my own townhouse that I purchased with my husband in 2019. I dragged all my friends here, organized parties, and made cool presentations.
This was such a great time! Our ideas just went wild. And I lived on creating something unique.
I only had a few clients, but my life was very creative and interesting. When all my friends finally got acquainted with my products, I had to move on. I quit my regular job (Chanel at that time) and moved into a self-employed journey.
The first place I went to, was a Korean cosmetics store. I rented about 200 sq ft. We continued to do our wild events, but the place was in the outback and was visited very rarely and only by those who knew that I was there.
At the very moment when I made a huge order with the NICOLAÏ brand, they let me know that the place where my space was located was unfortunately transferred to another tenant. It was hard to take it and roll it up like that, but it was harder to stay with unsold goods. So I immediately started looking for the next place.
So I ended up in an expensive women's clothing store Marta’s. It was the first and last time when I was crazy about the union of two incompatible women (Russian-Polish Union). By the way, my ex-husband was Polish. In general, we merged into one and we were even called the “death duo” because we just bombed in sales. We were often called sisters. Together we went through a pandemic, through the death of our loved ones, we cried and laughed, disagreed, and argued in many ways, but we were cool under the same roof. After my dad died, I knew it was time for me to leave. Marta’s store moved to another location, and I moved back to my showroom. I worked from home from January to May and made deliveries around the city. During that time I managed to take care of my health 👍🏻and buy and return tickets to Russia. 😭😭😭 Raleigh, the city where I live, is so peaceful and quiet, that sometimes I want to go outside and shout ''Is anyone alive?''😅��😅It's an ideal city to live in but not to build a business. Why do we decide to move to Crabtree mall despite many people trying to discourage us from that idea? I don't know any other better place in Raleigh where you can meet many people at once. And I really love being around people. I said to myself ''It's either Crabtree or nothing''🤷🏼♀️ I am very happy to say that we made the right choice. This location is perfect for us and we hardly ever get a break. Have you ever been in a situation when everyone said ''No'' and your intuition said ''Yes''? Do you listen to your intuition or others' opinions?
Love, Viktoriya