The 7 Virtues

The 7 Virtues is a Canadian clean-fragrance brand based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and formally trading as The 7 Virtues Beauty Inc. It was founded by journalist, author and activist Barb Stegemann, and built around a "peace through trade" idea: sourcing essential oils from countries rebuilding after conflict. The company remains independent and active, with the venture arm Unilever Ventures taking a minority stake in late 2023 [6].

The brand's own materials give two founding dates. Stegemann traces the beginning to 2009, when she sourced her first cup of orange blossom oil from Afghan farmers and launched on her credit card out of her garage on International Women's Day [3]. Other accounts, including the company's B-Corp page and trade coverage, date the founding to 2010, the year the business was formally set up with roughly CA$20,000 [8]. The 2010 figure is used here as the formal company-founding year, with 2009 marking the initial sourcing and launch.

Barb Stegemann was a journalist who, in her own telling, never set out to make perfume. The turning point came when her friend Captain Trevor Greene, a soldier serving with the Canadian military in Afghanistan, was wounded during his deployment. According to the company, Stegemann took on what she describes as his mission of peace while he recovered, sourcing legal orange blossom and rose essential oils as an economic alternative to illegal poppy crops for Afghan farmers.

The brand grew out of Stegemann's book, The 7 Virtues of a Philosopher Queen, which gave the company its name. It has been run as a family operation, with her husband Mike Stegemann in an operations role. Weeks after launching, Stegemann pitched on CBC's Dragons' Den, where investor W. Brett Wilson put in CA$125,000 for a 25% stake — the deal, per BeautyMatter, made her the first woman from Atlantic Canada to secure a venture agreement on the show [8].

A significant step came in 2017, when The 7 Virtues joined Sephora's Accelerate program, which the company credits as transformative for its growth. The brand went on to become a fixture at the retailer: by 2024 it was stocked in more than 1,500 Sephora doors across 19 countries [7].

In November 2023 the company raised its first institutional financing, led by Unilever Ventures with True Beauty Ventures as co-investor [6]. In 2024 it appointed James Park, formerly president of skincare brand Herbivore, as chief executive, and opened its first flagship store on 1 July in Halifax at the Queen's Marque development [7]. Stegemann stepped back from the CEO role to focus on product development, education and storytelling.

The 7 Virtues is independently owned. Its first outside institutional investment came in November 2023 from Unilever Ventures — described as that firm's first investment in fragrance — alongside True Beauty Ventures [6]. The size of the stake was not disclosed, and the round was a minority investment rather than an acquisition. The company said it would use the financing to open a New York office, expand its team and grow its Sephora presence.

The company frames itself around a mission Stegemann has summarised as making "rebuilding more exciting than destruction," carried out through perfume [3]. Central to that positioning is the idea of "harnessing women's buying power to build peace," with ingredients sourced from nations rebuilding after conflict. The brand markets its fragrances as clean and hypoallergenic, using the tagline "Good for the World. Good for the Soul."

Fragrance is the brand's core category, alongside discovery and layering sets, travel sprays and accessories such as scarves and tote bags. Its hero ingredients include orange blossom from Afghanistan, upcycled rose, sandalwood from Sri Lanka and vanilla. According to BeautyMatter, the fragrances are third-party tested for up to 24-hour wear, made possible by a 22% fragrance-oil concentration [8].

Signature scents include Vanilla Woods, described in trade coverage as one of the top-five bestselling fragrances at Sephora Canada and cited with 19.7 million TikTok views [8]. Other named products include Santal Vanille, Lotus Pear, the Layer Cake Collection, and Cherry Ambition, a 2024 launch positioned as the first clean cherry fragrance at Sephora. The brand's most recent noted release, Buttercream Haze, arrived in October 2025 [9].

The 7 Virtues centres sustainability and social sourcing in its identity. It says it uses upcycled rose rather than pure rose oil, which it describes as halving waste while retaining the oil's character, and it sources leftover sandalwood in Sri Lanka in a way that donates offcuts to local incense-makers [4]. Secondary packaging is described as recyclable and FSC-certified.

The company holds Leaping Bunny certification for cruelty-free status, and describes its products as vegan and gluten-free. It also states that it was the first fragrance brand at Sephora to become a certified B-Corporation [5]. Through a partnership with Days for Girls, the brand has tied product launches to period-equity work, saying the launch of Lotus Pear would help end period poverty for 700 girls and young women in Nepal.

The 7 Virtues is an active and growing brand. It has continued to launch products into 2024 and 2025, appointed a new chief executive, opened its first physical store, and maintains wide distribution through Sephora across 19 countries [7]. Its audience skews young and predominantly female, which the brand associates with Gen Z and younger millennial customers.