Some brands are built from strategy. Others are built from feeling.
Verden belongs unapologetically to the latter.
The story begins on a quiet stretch of coastline in Zealand, north of Denmark, where Charlotte Semler retreats to a modest beach house framed by pine, heather, and the soft churn of the Baltic Sea. The air there—part woodland, part wild salt, part something deeply personal—became a scent memory she could never quite leave behind. Verden, she says, was her way of “bottling that grounding, that sense of belonging.”
It’s a philosophy woven through Semler’s life. Raised in Vedbaek until her teenage years, she later crossed to the UK, graduated from Oxford, and set out to build a series of ventures defined by quiet sophistication and considered sensuality. One of her earliest successes, the cult-favorite luxury lingerie label Myla, was founded with Nina Hampson. “It was risqué and risky,” she recalls. “We were building a category and a brand simultaneously—while trying to raise capital as female founders.”
Her next chapter would become even more defining.
The Birth of Votary: A Devotion to the Skin
In 2014, Semler joined forces with makeup artist Arabella Preston, famed for her meticulous “skin first” philosophy cultivated during her years assisting Kay Montano. Together, they created Votary, a natural-ingredient skincare brand rooted in the belief that healthy skin begins with respect, nourishment, and ritual.
“Votary means a devout advocate,” Semler explains. “It captured our zeal perfectly.”
Their debut product, the now-iconic Rose Geranium Cleansing Oil, immediately established Votary’s DNA—gentle but potent, luxurious yet pragmatic, transforming daily cleansing into a slow ritual worth savoring. It remains the brand’s bestseller, flanked by modern essentials like Super Renewal Serum, Super Seed Facial Oil, and Radiance Reveal Mask.
Preston continues to refine the brand’s quietly transformative approach. “Sensitive skin types often miss out on the more powerful side of skincare,” she notes. “We wanted to change that.” Her latest innovation, the Sensitive Resurfacing Peel, features 10% lactic acid balanced by Lactobacillus Ferment, Horse Chestnut Seed Extract, and Chia Seed Extract—a cocktail designed to exfoliate without irritation. It’s equal parts science and sensitivity, created for those who crave results without the risk.
From Skin to Scent: Verden’s Emotional Alchemy
If Votary is the brand that taught us to treat our skin with reverence, Verden teaches us to treat our emotions with the same care.
“Verden means the earth in Danish,” Semler says. “That northern beach is my favorite place in the world. When I inhale that air, I feel grounded in a way I don’t feel anywhere else.”
The brand’s aromatic hand, body, and air-care collections—Herbanum, D’Orangerie, and Arborealist—reflect this sense of elemental calm. Their candles and diffusers extend the experience into the home, enveloping spaces with notes of forest, citrus groves, and windswept dunes.
“Fragrance is incredibly personal,” Semler says. “Verden is about intimate rituals—scents that quiet the mind, reconnect the body, and bring you closer to nature. It’s not about how you smell to others. It’s about how you feel.”
Nature, Ritual, and the Art of Breathing
This season, Verden appears in Liberty’s Beauty Advent Calendar, featuring a Votary Super Renewal Serum Retinol Alternative and Verden’s new Magnesium Night Balm, scented with the brand’s nocturnal fragrance Nocturne—a dreamy blend of lavender and soporific herbs designed to usher in rest.
The brand also extends its wellness ethos beyond fragrance. The Verden Breathwork App, free on iPhone and Android, is a natural evolution of Semler’s grounding philosophy. “Our fragrances are reminders to breathe deeply and slowly,” she says. “The app expands that intention with accessible breathwork tools and a four-week induction program.”
It’s a modern approach to wellbeing—fragrance as anchor, breath as medicine, ritual as daily luxury.
A New Era of Emotional Beauty
Together, Votary and Verden form a rare pair in today’s beauty landscape: one brand immerses us in devoted skincare, while the other reconnects us to the earth through scent and breath. Both share the same refined simplicity, the same commitment to craft, and the same belief that luxury can—and should—feel deeply personal.
For Semler and Preston, beauty is not merely topical. It is sensory, emotional, and grounding. It is a way of returning to oneself.
