AMNIENS Founder Interview: Creating Mood-Boosting Perfume Oils

Meet Jonas, the founder behind AMNIENS with whom we sat down to talk about how it all started — from moving four times in five years and losing himself in the process, to creating four scents rooted in his own memories of certain emotions. About why using a roll-on applicator instead of a spray. Why rituals shouldn't feel imposed and why scent can be both functional and beautiful. It's the story behind the oils, told in his own words.

AMNIENS isn't just perfume. So what is it, really?

Jonas: AMNIENS is a wellness brand. We create what is called functional fragrances — perfume oils designed not just to smell beautiful, but to improve your wellbeing.

When we developed each scent, we didn't just ask "what smells good?" we asked "what promotes calm? What energises you? What brings you clarity and joy?". We then found ingredients that contain the molecules to support these feelings. Colpo dell'onda, for example, is built around bright citruses because they contain limonene, which we know energises us.

It's a way of bridging aromatherapy with classic perfumery. Historically, scent has been quite binary — either functional through aromatherapy, which uses single essential oils, or purely aesthetic through traditional perfume, which is more for pleasure, for vanity in a sense. None of those two categories really overlapped, even though scent has the ability to both be functional and smell really beautifully. That's what AMNIENS does.

The name itself is quite unique. Where does AMNIENS come from?

Jonas: AMNIENS is a portmanteau of two Latin words: amnis, meaning stream, and sentiens, meaning sentience. Together, it means "stream of sensations."

The idea is that when you roll on the oil, a stream of calm, energy, joy, or clarity starts flowing. But it's not just the emotions that start flowing — it's the flow of the body, the flow of your rituals, the flow of your life. Even the oils themselves, the way they roll on, they flow.

Let's go back to the beginning. How did this whole thing actually start?

Jonas: AMNIENS started from a very personal place. Between 2015 and 2020, I moved four times — London to Paris, New York, Milan and back to Paris — following my husband's career. Each move meant uprooting, rerooting, uprooting, rerooting. Struggling with cultural differences, languages, bureaucracy, and visas. It was this whirlwind that left me without my own footing. Somewhere in all of that, I lost myself.

In Milan, I started asking: what about me? What am I going to do? When I talked to friends and family, I realised we all have this feeling of losing ourselves in our daily lives. Some due to kids, some because of family, others with work, but no matter the reason it always came down to a lack of prioritising ourselves, or self-honouring, I guess we can call it.

That's when the idea took shape: to create something that helps us reclaim those small moments throughout the day, to help reclaim our own wellbeing and prioritise ourselves, even if it's just for a few minutes at a time. One reason why I chose scent was because, within wellness, there's so much focus on physical wellbeing — skin, gut health, muscle recovery etc. But emotional wellbeing still has a long way to go. Scent supports this beautifully. The other reason was because I grew up with it — my mum practiced aromatherapy, my dad was a doctor so scent has always been part of my wellness cabinet. It wasn't very foreign to me to follow this path.

So scent was always part of your life. But how did you actually create these specific scents?

Jonas: I've always known aromatherapy works, but the singularity of the scent profiles felt limiting. I didn’t necessarily want to smell of lavender if I'm going out, or of any other essential oil. I wanted to experience the symphony you get from classic perfumery — where notes amplify each other, where notes morph into something completely new and evolve on your skin. There's so much more storytelling, so much more poetry in that.

Each scent started with a functionality — calm, energy, joy, focus — and then I dove into personal memories. Nebbia all'alba is me biking to school on a misty morning in the Danish countryside. The mist makes your world feel a bit smaller, and the humidity in the air makes sound travel differently, so everything around you just feels softer and calmer. Colpo dell'onda is the ocean's momentum, how waves build energy and release it when they crash onto shore. I've always had a fascination with this power.

I worked with Yosh Han and Domitille Michalon. We described each scent through all five senses — how would it taste? How would it feel if you could touch it? How would it sound? How does it look? And of course, how does it smell? It was a really profound process. It felt really emotional.

I think linking them to real memories keeps them rooted in sincerity, rooted in reality. When you smell them, you feel like you could come across this in real life. Not something man-made. And scent is transportative. Wherever it takes you, that's where you're meant to be.

Most perfumes come in a spray. You went with a roll-on. Why?

Jonas: Two main reasons. First, scent works through the sense of smell, which is more emotional, but it also works through transdermal absorption, which is more physical. And this is where traditionally things have been very divided — you apply aromatherapy topically, you spray perfume. But it works both ways. Why not get both the emotional benefits and the physical effects?

By using a roll-on oil base, we could also incorporate other beneficial ingredients like CBD, which helps balance the body, and you get the benefits of the oils themselves — the hydration, the skin barrier support, all of these things.

The second reason is the ritual. There's something more intentional about rolling it on, feeling the connection with your skin, the movements of the rolling, the application. Maybe you even extend the ritual with a massage tool afterwards — if you've rolled it on your neck, you can give yourself a little massage.

You talk a lot about rituals. What does yours actually look like?

Jonas: I don't have just one ritual, and I think that's important — rituals shouldn't feel imposed or scheduled. They need to fit naturally into your day. One day, a specific ritual might fit perfectly with your mood and energy. The next day, it just doesn't fit because you don't have the time or you're not in the right place. So you pull out another type of ritual.

On mornings when I don't go to the gym, I wake up early and read for 30 minutes to an hour, drinking my coffee slowly. It's such a nice contrast to my busy gym mornings. In the evening, I try to get off my phone 30 minutes before bed — sometimes reading, sometimes listening to an audiobook with my eyes closed. It's a nice change from visual stimulation, which I feel we get so much of throughout the day.

And of course, I often use Nebbia all'alba after my skincare routine. But I also have mini rituals, for what I call the "in between" moments — rolling on an oil between meetings, while making a cup of tea, commuting on the metro etc.These are the easiest ones, because you don't have to carve anything out. You already have the time.