Fragrance house

The 7 Virtues

The 7 Virtues was founded in Canada in 2010 by entrepreneur, author, and activist Barb Stegemann, who launched the perfume company from her garage on International Women’s Day. The brand grew from her 2008 self-published book, The 7 Virtues of a Philosopher Queen, whose framework of Wonder, Balance, Truth, Courage, Justice, Wisdom, and Beauty informs its identity. After her friend Captain Trevor Greene was wounded while serving in Afghanistan, Stegemann pursued his peace mission by sourcing legal Afghan orange-blossom and rose oils instead of relying on illegal poppy cultivation. The 7 Virtues built its public identity around clean aromatherapy perfume made with natural, organic, fair-trade, sustainably sourced, and upcycled oils, linked to communities rebuilding after war or strife. Its social mission also includes women’s empowerment and ending period poverty, through partnerships including Days for Girls and Charity: Water. In 2017, Sephora’s Accelerate program prompted a creative reset, bringing more colorful packaging and higher fragrance-oil concentrations. The Peace Perfume collection launched at Sephora in the United States in 2018. In November 2023, Unilever Ventures led the brand’s first institutional financing round, while Stegemann remained its majority shareholder. Vanilla Woods is a defining fragrance and was the top-selling clean perfume at Sephora in the United States and Canada in 2022.