ILLUME

Before it was a brand, ILLUME was a vibe—but one that had gotten buried under sameness. Once a standout in the early 2000s, it had drifted into the sea of ‘nice enough’—a brand with beautiful bones, but no clear heartbeat. We brought it back to life by returning to its roots: an artist-founded, artist-led brand where olfactive meets expressive. With a sharpened identity and a new core collection built around signature scents and handcrafted details, ILLUME found its way home. We embraced the studio spirit, letting artistry lead everything from vessel design to fragrance curation. The result? A brand that looks, smells, and feels like no one else on the shelf—grounded in creativity, not category conventions.

April led the reinvention of ILLUME’s flagship brand, repositioning it as a modern, design-first collection rooted in its 30-year legacy of artistry. She spearheaded the transformation from a fragmented private-label portfolio into a cohesive brand universe centered on the idea of where art and fragrance mix. This included narrowing the assortment, elevating packaging, refining brand language, and introducing a signature line entirely created in-house—by hand—by the team she built, mentored, and led. Under her leadership, ILLUME reemerged as a category-defining brand beloved by retailers and consumers alike, anchored in the ethos: artist-founded, artist-led.