Waupaca perfumer turns travel memories into scented success

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

November 10, 2025

WAUPACA – Andy Colden, owner and sole perfumer of Wanderlust Scents, said he “nose” a thing or two about igniting memories through sweet-smelling fragrances.

Since its founding in 2015, Colden said his Waupaca-headquartered fragrance house has been formulating destination-inspired scents featured in a wide variety of personal and homecare products.

“I try to recreate destinations through scents,” he said. “The majority of the business is personal body care, like perfumes, roll-ons, sprays, lotion, body wash, that kind of stuff. But, I [also] have the candle line, reed diffusers, room sprays, wax melts, bar soap, hand soap – a little bit of everything.”

Scaling his business through its online presence and wholesaling, Colden said it wasn’t until 2021 that he opened the first Wanderlust Scents storefront – located at 215 Jefferson St. in Waupaca.

“Four years ago, a little historic building became available for rent in downtown Waupaca, and my wife [said], ‘Well, why don’t you just go for it?’” he said.

A former longtime general manager for “a local food manufacturer,” Colden said it only took six months of operating his storefront before he decided to take Wanderlust full-time.

“It was doing well enough that I left my full-time, salaried job,” he said. “So, I am the only employee. My wife helps out, but she has a full-time job.”

Now, with the business and the storefront, respectively, celebrating nine and four years in operation – and with a few of his adult children expressing interest in pursuing perfumery – Colden said he and his family are looking to potentially expand Wanderlust Scents.

“We’re looking into possibly doing a franchise, but we’re also looking into three different spots in Wisconsin where we may open a second store in the near future,” he said.

Olfactory history

As a child, Colden said “scent was always a huge thing” for him, as his grandmother – whom he lived with – was “born without a sense of smell.”

“I had a huge [cologne] collection,” he said. “As that grew, I started getting into niche colognes that are $300 a bottle… The artist in me came out and said, ‘I want to try creating my own stuff instead of putting all this money into these big companies.’”

Though Wanderlust was his official step into professional perfumery, Colden said his aromatic experience predates the business by more than half a decade.

“I started in 2009,” he said. “I always wanted to have my own fragrance house. So, I started playing around [by] creating my own scents, and, at the same time, I started playing around with trying to make a non-toxic soy candle.”

Gifting his scents and candles to friends and family, Colden said “after six years of trial and error,” he not only felt ready, but was repeatedly encouraged to start his business.

“I felt [my process was] pretty much perfected, [and] I had enough people telling me ‘you should be selling these,’” he said.

When he first started creating scents, Colden said employing the destination-inspired niche, which is now central to his business, wasn’t an intentional decision – though, it helped him decide on the Wanderlust name.

“I have a love for travel, and I guess I unintentionally started trying to recreate places I had been,” he said. “One thing led to another, and one day it just clicked, ‘Oh, Wanderlust!’”

As its sole employee – and because he’s a “little bit of a perfectionist” – Colden said his “set of hands makes every single product” sold by Wanderlust.

“I started in my basement, 15-16 years ago, and continued [to work out of] my basement – even when we had the storefront for a while – and then I transitioned [to, now], a super small building,” he said. “It’s tight, and I don’t think two people could work there [because] it’s so small.”

The smell of success

Though it was “never [his] intention to create a company,” Colden said Wanderlust Scents has grown into an international business with no sense of slowing down anytime soon.

“I have a couple hundred stores that carry [my products], and we’re [available] in eight different countries now,” he said.

At the time of his interview with The Business News, Colden said a representative of a popular gift shop chain commonly found in airports had recently reached out to Wanderlust, inquiring about custom scents for each of its airport storefronts.

“This person buys [merchandise] for a gift shop that’s in a lot of airports around the country,” he said. “Obviously, I would need a larger [workplace] area, [more] employees, etc. – [because] that would be a lot of growth… I can still [personally] create everything myself, but at some point, that might have to change as we’re growing.”

In addition to wholesaling, Colden said Wanderlust creates private label products for other local, Wisconsin-based companies as well.

“[They have] their own signature scent, [and I’m] labeling it with their brand or their cities,” he said. 

Though a majority of his business is “still done online and through wholesaling,” Colden said the Waupaca storefront is proving to be an “enormous success.”

Offering a refill program – “[customers] bring back their empty product, and I refill it for 20% off” – a make-your-own scent wall and candle classes, Colden said the Wanderlust retail location is a “destination” in and of itself.

“The storefront is doing very well, [which is why] we’re looking at expanding,” he said. “We’ve pretty much outgrown the building we’re in.”

Each Wanderlust scent, Colden said, “tells a story” – both in its aroma and its label, which he personally designs.

“The label tells a story, [and] they’re all different,” he said. “The dates on the passport stamps are specific to that location, whether it’s sentimental or historic.”

The most sentimental of all his scents and labels, Colden said, are the ones dedicated to each of his and his wife’s seven children.

“We have seven children blended, none together, but all of our children… have their own scent and the passport stamps, on a lot of them, are their birth dates,” he said.

For more on Wanderlust Scents, its products and storefront hours, visit its website – wanderlustscents.com.