N.C.P.

N.C.P. is a Swedish fragrance brand based in Stockholm, founded in October 2017 [7]. It was launched by the actress Noomi Rapace together with the hairdresser Steve Terry, the former skier Jonas Nilsson, and the music manager and songwriter Ash Pournouri [9][13]. The brand built its identity around fragrance layering: a library of numbered, unisex scents designed to be worn alone or combined, rather than a single fixed signature. Originally introduced as N.C.P. Olfactives, it is made in Sweden and France and sells across the Nordics, parts of Western Europe, and South Korea.

The acronym's meaning is not stated consistently across sources. The brand's own FAQ expands N.C.P. as "Now Collective Products" [7], while trade press at launch reported it as "New Collective Products" [9]. The four founders describe themselves as a collective and deliberately play down the celebrity connection; in Rapace's words to WWD, "It's not about celebrities, it's not my name or anyone else's name. We are a collective creating products."

The brand grew out of Rapace's long-standing preoccupation with scent, including a habit of changing perfume between film roles. She has described the practical anxiety behind it — "If I lost the perfume, I was always in a panic before a red carpet, because I needed to smell me" [9]. Rather than commission a celebrity-name fragrance, she assembled a group of friends from outside the perfume industry: Terry, an international hairdresser; Nilsson, a former international skier and personal-care executive; and Pournouri, a record manager and producer [11].

The fragrances were developed with the fragrance house Givaudan. According to the brand, the French perfumer Yann Vasnier of Givaudan designed the original collection and serves as N.C.P.'s head perfumer [11]. The early scents were composed in Paris, and each was built from roughly 15 to 20 notes rather than the 40 to 60 found in many conventional perfumes — a deliberately simpler structure intended to make the scents easier to combine [9]. All seven were formulated to be mixed together, so a wearer could build a personal blend instead of choosing a single bottle.

N.C.P. launched on 7 October 2017 with its first range, sold at NK department stores in Stockholm and Gothenburg and at selected Kicks locations in Sweden [10]. The company raised early backing the same year, including a seed investment from the state-owned fund Almi Invest, with reported seed funding of around 120,000 US dollars [13].

In June 2019 the brand reached Selfridges in London, its first expansion outside Scandinavia [9]. For that launch it introduced eight additional, more concentrated scents featuring oud, musk, and wood notes, positioned a step above the original collection.

N.C.P. frames fragrance as a tool for personal expression rather than a fixed identity, a concept it calls "self-branding." The company says it set out "to disrupt the world of self-branding through a brand new fragrance experience with daring layering." Its three stated pillars are layering, unisex wear, and vegan formulation. The approach is explicitly rule-free: in launch interviews Rapace encouraged wearers to ignore convention and follow their own nose, framing a personal scent as a form of liberation. The company also presents fragrance as something close and protective rather than decorative, quoting Rapace's description of perfume as "an extension of me."

This positioning sits within a wider movement of Scandinavian niche and unisex perfumery that grew in the late 2010s. The brand presents its scents as gender-neutral by default, summarised in Rapace's line that "the way forward is unisex." Numbering the fragrances instead of giving them descriptive names reinforces that neutral, system-like framing.

The founding range, the Seven Facets collection, consists of seven unisex fragrances identified by number rather than name: 101 Clementine & Violet Flower, 201 Apple & Driftwood, 301 Jasmine & Sandalwood, 401 Lavender & Juniper, 501 Iris & Vanilla, 601 Amber & Gaiac Wood, and 701 Leather & Vetiver [10]. The numbering corresponds to a system of seven olfactive families — citrus, fruity, floral, fougère, chypre, woody, and oriental — and the brand has since extended the catalogue with further lines, including an oud-focused Gold Facets range and a darker Black Facets range.

A recurring design element is the striped bottle. According to the company, the stripes act as a guidance system, with their intensity signalling where a scent falls on the spectrum from light citrus to dark oriental. Beyond fragrance, N.C.P. also offers skincare and discovery sets. Its hero materials span oud, musk, sandalwood, jasmine, vetiver, amber, cedarwood, and vanilla.

N.C.P. states that all its products are vegan, free of animal-derived ingredients, and not tested on animals [3]. The company says its formulas avoid phthalates and artificial colours, that its packaging is recyclable, and that production takes place in Sweden and France with selected partners. The brand reports membership of KOHF, a Swedish cosmetics and detergents industry body. No third-party certifications are listed.

The brand's tagline describes it as "Award-Winning," though no specific awards are documented in available sources. Its 2017 launch was covered by Swedish beauty media, and the 2019 Selfridges debut was reported by the trade publication WWD. The perfume site Fragrantica also reviewed the original collection at launch.

N.C.P. remains active. Its website is operational and lists a catalogue of around twenty fragrances, with distribution across more than a dozen countries [6]. Stockists include Selfridges in London, Printemps in Paris, Magasin du Nord in Copenhagen, Alsterhaus in Hamburg, and Sephora in Seoul, alongside Nordic retailers such as Kicks, Lyko, Åhléns, Douglas, Notino, and Matas. The brand is available in all four Nordic markets.