What Makes a Viral Perfume? Tips for Long-Lasting Scent, Perfume Layering and an In-Person, Custom Fragrance Atelier with The 7 Virtues’ Barb Stegemann
Breaking Beauty Podcast
Dear Media, Jill Dunn and Carlene Higgins
4.7 • 996 Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Barb Stegemann is back to inspire us once more, just in time for Mother’s Day! Also known as the “Philosopher Queen,” Barb is a longtime friend of our show and a complete force to be reckoned with in the beauty business.
Barb launched The 7 Virtues fragrance brand out of her garage in Halifax, Nova Scotia on International Women’s Day back in 2010, after her best friend, Capt. Trevor Greene, was wounded in Afghanistan by the Taliban while serving there.
Barb then sowed the seeds of what would become a historic social enterprise and commercial success story, buying fair-trade essential oils from farmers in war-torn regions to make perfumes for peace — and now The 7 Virtues is in 2,000 Sephora stores around the world.
Tune in to hear about:
- What makes a viral moment: why The 7 Virtues “Santal Vanille and “Amber Vanilla” were the clean perfumes to pop off on TikTok
- Why “Vanilla Woods,” launched in 2018, was years ahead of the gourmand trend, and what makes it the brand’s bestseller to this day
- What makes a fragrance “clean” anyway? Barb explains fragrance load, organic sugar-cane alcohol and a 24-hour wear test
- Why “Strawberry Jam” is the biggest launch in brand history, and why Barb believes everyone wants to smell like layer cake at this moment in time
- Inside The 7 Virtues Atelier on the Halifax Waterfront, and a major scoop on Barb’s expansion plans for the custom fragrance concept store
- The Sephora full-circle moment: from taking part in Sephora Accelerate in 2018 to mentoring the next class of Sephora Squad creators in 2026
- “Dragons’ Den,” redux: the original pitch that landed Brett Wilson's $125,000 investment (a reported 56-fold return), and what it felt like to return as a guest dragon for the show's 20th anniversary
- Why being underestimated is a gift, and the Marcus Aurelius wisdom Barb has repeated to her kids since they were small: “Be prepared to meet the angry, the lost, the jealous, the jaded. Now lead.”
Get social with us and let us know what you think of the episode! Find us on Instagram, Tiktok,X, Threads. Join our private Facebook group. Or give us a call and leave us a voicemail at 1-844-227-0302. Sign up for our Substack here. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to watch our episodes!
For any products or links mentioned in this episode, check out our website: https://breakingbeautypodcast.com/episode-recaps/
Related episodes like this:
- The 7 Virtues Founder Barb Stegemann (original airdate in 2017)
- What Bite Beauty Founder Susanne Langmuir is Banking on Next
- “Perfume Princess” Mona Kattan On Kayali’s Meteoric Rise at Sephora, The Secrets to Fragrance Layering and Is Your Signature Scent Overrated?
PROMO CODES: When you support our sponsors, you support the creation of Breaking Beauty Podcast!
Lightstim
LightStim Elipsa is an FDA-cleared device used by thousands of professionals to simultaneously treat wrinkles and acne. It has 868 professional LED lights and delivers the same collagen-stimulating results as a treatment at a doctor’s office—and it’s now available for at-home use. Use our code BEAUTY to SAVE 10% at lightstim.com.
Merit
Right now, Merit Beauty is offering our listeners their Signature Makeup Bag with your first order at meritbeauty.com.
Vivier
Building on their legacy of Vitamin C innovation, Vivier recently launched their most
advanced formula to date—Vivier Serum 30, designed to visibly brighten the skin, refine tone, texture and support a more radiant, even-looking complexion. Visit VivierSkin.com and use code BEAUTY15 at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase.
Nutrafol
Let your hair be one less thing to worry about. See visibly thicker, stronger, faster growing hair in 3–6 months with Nutrafol. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you visit nutrafol.com and enter promo code BREAKING.
Dove
Discover the new Dove Serum+ Oil Body Wash at www.dove.com/ca now available on Amazon and in stores nationwide.
*Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, all products reviewed are gratis media samples submitted for editorial consideration.*
Hosts: Carlene Higgins and Jill Dunn
Theme song, used with permission: Cherry Bomb by Saya
Produced by Dear Media Studio
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The following podcast is a dear media production. |
| 0:08.2 | Welcome to Breaking Beauty, the podcast, all about the breakthrough people, products, and moments in beauty. |
| 0:14.1 | We're your host, Jill Dunn and Carleen Higgins. |
| 0:25.9 | Hello and welcome to Breaking Beauty podcast. I'm one of your co-host, Carleen Higgins, |
| 0:32.6 | and I'm here with my lovely co-host Jill Dunn. That is me. And hello, Carleen. Hello, Podfam. |
| 0:39.2 | And of course, we are to longtime magazine beauty editors turned beauty podcasters. We're in your feed each and every Wednesday sharing the breakthrough, people products, and moments in beauty. And this week, |
| 0:44.2 | we're thrilled to welcome back a friend of the podcast and someone who I consider to be a mentor. |
| 0:50.5 | She's a fellow Canadian, a kick-ass entrepreneur, and founder of the Seven Virtues, Barb Stegman. |
| 0:56.5 | Yay, welcome back. |
| 0:58.1 | Thanks for having me. |
| 0:59.0 | Of course. |
| 1:00.2 | And Barb was one of our earliest guests on the show, everyone. |
| 1:04.0 | She has this phenomenally inspiring story for her brand. |
| 1:08.2 | She is a humanitarian at heart. |
| 1:10.3 | There's so much heart with so many Canadian brands, |
| 1:12.4 | and Barb really exemplifies that. We're going to link to the first episode that she was on. We're |
| 1:17.0 | going to link to that in our show notes so you can hear her full backstory. But to recap, Barb |
| 1:21.9 | launched the seven virtues out of her garage in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 2010 International Women's Day with a visa card and a dream. |
| 1:29.8 | And it was all in honor of her best friend, Captain Trevor Green, who was wounded in Afghanistan by the Taliban while serving there. |
| 1:38.7 | Yes. And after that devastating and life-changing incident bar began the seeds of what would become a historic |
| 1:45.7 | social enterprise come commercial success story, buying fair trade essential oils from farmers |
| 1:52.3 | in war-torn regions to make perfumes for peace. She's not just an entrepreneur, everyone. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dear Media, Jill Dunn and Carlene Higgins, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Dear Media, Jill Dunn and Carlene Higgins and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.