Queer-owned business spotlight: Meet Boy Smells co-founder Matthew Herman

Founded in LA in late 2015, Boy Smells was born from two fashion creatives, Matthew Herman and David Kien, looking to blur the lines on gender and offer true fluidity with their candles. From beautifully packaged, complex scents in the form of candles, to their expansion into intimate apparel, home and even fine fragrances and body care, the brand continues to evolve.

Available in over 750 retailers across 35 countries and six continents, Boy Smells shows no sign of slowing down. And, with scents like the iconic Cowboy Kush, Les, Snap and many many more, there's something for everyone at Boy Smells.

Fluidity is apparent in Boy Smells' branding. They promote a feeling that they call "genderful" rather than genderless, because it's not about lacking in gender but rather embracing all parts of yourself. Meant for anyone who appreciates beauty, Boy Smells products are a tiny luxury easily added into anyone's daily routine.

It's important to support good brands led by good people, and during this Pride Month, we thought it imperative to include Boy Smells in our spotlight interviews. We spoke with Boy Smells co-founder Matthew Herman about the importance of supporting LGBTQ+ communities, their take on gender, and how important it is to have a voice for yourself and those around you.

Reviewed: I always find it easier to support a brand when you know a little bit about the people behind it. I love brands that value transparency and don't take themselves too seriously where they shout out their customers for being a part of the experience. Boy Smells seems to really value customers by using their testimony and feedback to create products that people actually want to use. How has that helped your business to grow?

Matthew Herman: Every brand is a relationship between the customer and the people behind it. The brand stands for self-expression and being vocal—so it's only natural that our community is active in sharing feedback and letting us know what they like and don't like. It's something we encourage. It provides us with valuable information on how we tackle new products and limited editions collections. That has allowed us to expand upon some of our best products—like translating a couple of our fan-favorite candle scents into genderful fine fragrances and releasing travel sized versions of those fragrances to suit the lifestyle of our customers.

Reviewed: What about your business are you most proud of?

Matthew Herman: Our genderful values. We always aim to mix traditionally masculine and feminine scent notes together. Masculinity and femininity are shared spaces for all genders—and we are at our best when we are tapping into both. Boy Smells always creates scents that pull together fragrance notes in new and unexpected ways. They reflect modern self-expression. We call this Genderful rather than Genderless.

Reviewed: The Kacey Musgraves candle collaboration was such a hit in 2020 and the Grace Jones collaboration has been getting rave reviews—was there anything specific that you were looking for when you were looking to collaborate or did it just work out that you paired with two iconic women?

Matthew Herman: Kacey is a strong, vocal woman, writing her own music, and reinventing what it means to be a woman in country music. This is in its own way very radical.  We aim to celebrate anyone who is shifting institutions to be more inclusive.

Grace Jones is the original genderful icon. She has seamlessly emoted masculinity and femininity for decades, and inspired generations of LGBT creatives. She is the MOTHER of genderfulness.

Reviewed: What's your current favorite scent?

Matthew Herman: I love our fragrance Woodphoria—It is the perfect universal all day scent. It's so pleasant, unexpected, and sexy at the same time. I get stopped and complimented on it constantly.

Reviewed: Boy Smells donates 1% of every purchase to causes like Point of Pride, Reclaim!, The Ali Forney Center, and The Trangender Law Center—and best of all they let you pick where it goes. What does supporting your community mean to you?

Matthew Herman: Supporting our community is essential. I'm lucky to have the privilege of living and working in safe environments with a supportive community. I feel it's a responsibility to help those in our community, who may not have those same options.

Reviewed: Any advice for those in the LGBTQ+ community who might be looking to start their own businesses?

Matthew Herman: Do it. We need more LGBTQ+ business. The more we are out there, the more visibility we have. Nothing should feel off-limits. So, go for it.

And, please employ as many queer people as possible in the process.