Vorravit Siripark on building Panpuri around Thai heritage—and what’s behind the brand’s first alcohol-free eau de parfum

You’ve said your first real encounters with mindfulness were small, almost accidental moments—a bath, a few minutes of applying moisturiser—in the middle of an otherwise punishing schedule. Do you still have a ritual like that now?
Very much so. In New York, wellness wasn’t something I consciously made time for. Sometimes the only quiet part of my day was taking a shower or applying moisturiser before bed. It might have been ten minutes, but those ten minutes belonged entirely to me. That idea has stayed with me.

Today, I still find well-being in very small rituals. My morning usually begins quietly. I take a few moments for myself before the day starts, and fragrance is often part of that. Applying a perfume oil or fragrance, breathing it in and allowing myself to notice the scent creates a small pause before moving into the day.

Over time, I’ve come to believe that well-being doesn’t always require a retreat, a treatment or an hour of meditation. It can exist within the things we already do every day—bathing, caring for our skin, applying fragrance, preparing ourselves for sleep. For me, a ritual is really about bringing intention to an ordinary moment. Sometimes just a few minutes of being completely present can change the way you enter the rest of your day.

When you develop a blend, where does the process start? Has modern testing ever contradicted something a traditional Thai formulation assumed, and how do you handle it when the science and the heritage don’t agree?
We don’t usually begin with a traditional formula and try to recreate it. We begin with an intention—what we want someone to experience, how we want [users] to feel, and what role the product might play in their everyday ritual. From there, we may look to ingredients, practices or knowledge that have been part of Thai and eastern well-being traditions for generations. But we approach them through contemporary formulation science, testing and safety standards.

For me, tradition gives us a way of thinking; science gives us the tools to carry that thinking forward. When the two appear to disagree, we follow the science. I don’t see that as abandoning heritage; traditions evolved through observation and experience over generations, and I think respecting them means understanding the intention behind them rather than simply reproducing them.

That balance has always been important to Panpuri. Our roots give us a particular perspective on well-being—one that sees the senses, the body and the inner self as interconnected. Science allows us to express that perspective in products that belong to the way we live today.

Is there a technique from Thai herbal or spa tradition that’s central to Panpuri but that most western luxury fragrance houses wouldn’t recognise or use?
I think it is less about one particular technique and more about the way we understand fragrance in relation to the body. In Thai and eastern traditions, scent has long been part of a much broader experience of well-being. Aromatic herbs, flowers and oils are used through bathing, massage, the home and personal rituals. Fragrance is experienced together with touch, water, breath and the body rather than as something that exists on its own. That perspective has shaped Panpuri from the beginning. Our very first product was a body and massage oil inspired by my memory of jasmine and my grandmother, and oils remain an important part of our fragrance language today.

It is also why we naturally think beyond how a fragrance smells [to] how it makes you feel—whether it brings a sense of calm, comfort, clarity or simply helps you slow down and become more present. We think about how it feels on the skin, how it becomes part of a ritual, and how scent can gently shift your mood or the atmosphere around you. For me, that holistic relationship between scent, body, emotion and ritual is perhaps the most distinctly eastern idea at the heart of Panpuri.

What’s a formulation decision you made that costs you more—in time, sourcing or money—that a guest or customer would never notice, but you insisted on anyway?
There are many decisions the customer will hopefully never notice, because if we have done our job properly, they simply experience a beautiful product.

One of the biggest examples is what we choose not to put into a formula. We established our ZeroList [a list of more than 7,200 ingredients the brand pledges never to use] because meeting the minimum regulatory requirement was not enough [to reach] the standard we wanted Panpuri to represent. That can make product development considerably more complicated. There are ingredients that could make a formula easier to stabilise, easier to manufacture or more cost-efficient. If they don’t meet our standard, however, our formulation team has to find another solution—and sometimes reformulate repeatedly until we achieve the texture, performance and sensorial quality we want.

Most customers will never see that process. They won’t know how many versions existed before the one they are holding, or that a product may have taken longer because of something we decided not to use. For me, those invisible decisions are often the ones that matter most. They reflect the care we put into creating something, even when nobody will ever know the extra time or effort behind it. I’ve always believed that if something carries the Panpuri name, that care should be there in every detail, whether you can see it or not.

Care Eau de Parfum moves the brand from concentrated perfume oils into your first-ever alcohol-free, water-based scent, one built around actives like vegan ceramide and organic aloe vera water. Are you deliberately blurring the line between a perfume house and a skincare house?
For us, the innovation wasn’t simply about removing alcohol, it was about rethinking what fragrance could be. I’ve always believed that fragrance and care belong together. They don’t need to exist as separate categories or separate routines. They can become part of one gesture—something that smells beautiful, nurtures both your skin and hair, and supports how you want to feel throughout the day. That thinking led us to create Care Eau de Parfum, our first alcohol-free, water-based fine fragrance, designed to be worn generously across the skin, body and hair.

I wouldn’t describe it as deliberately blurring the line between a perfume house and a skincare house. It comes from the broader way we have always thought about well-being at Panpuri. Fragrance, skin, body and the senses are all connected. Care Eau de Parfum allows us to bring those ideas together in a new way. You are still wearing a fine fragrance, but the experience becomes more intimate and personal—something that stays close to you throughout the day while becoming part of how you care for yourself.

Each of the ten new fragrances is built around a specific emotional state—stress relief, inner stillness, deep relaxation. How do you recommend users approach choosing a scent?
I would begin by asking how they want to feel. Perhaps they are looking for calm at the end of a long day, a sense of clarity in the morning, or simply a moment to reconnect with themselves. Scent has an extraordinary relationship with memory and emotion. When we repeatedly associate a particular fragrance with a certain moment—winding down before sleep, beginning the morning, or transitioning from work to home—it can gradually become a sensory cue for that ritual.

With Care Eau de Parfum, each fragrance was created around an emotional intention. I would encourage someone to choose the scent that intuitively speaks to how they want to feel, apply it to the skin or through the hair, and take a few seconds to breathe and experience it rather than simply spraying it and moving on. What they should expect is something subtle: a pause, a shift in atmosphere, a moment of presence. Fragrance can become part of how we create those moments for ourselves. And over time, as scent and memory become connected, that personal association can become very powerful. For me, that is how fragrance becomes part of well-being. It can help us slow down, become more present, and create a small moment of care for ourselves within the day.

When it comes to “immersiveness” in a retail context, where’s the line between an experience that deepens someone’s understanding of the ritual, and one that’s just theatre around a product?
For me, immersive retail is about creating a space that changes the way you experience the brand. It should invite you to slow down, engage your senses and spend time discovering rather than simply shopping. That is why our boutiques are designed around scent, touch, water, material and light. You might discover a fragrance at a scent altar, experience a body-care ritual at the ritual sink, or simply take time to explore different textures and scents. Each element has a purpose: to bring you closer to the product and the ritual surrounding it.

The distinction between immersion and theatre is whether the experience adds meaning. A beautiful installation may capture your attention, but, for us, design should help you feel or understand something more—about the fragrance, the ritual or even how you respond to the space. I want someone to leave a Panpuri boutique having felt something. Perhaps they slowed down, discovered a scent differently, or simply experienced a few moments of stillness in the middle of a busy day. That sense of discovery and connection is what immersive retail means to me.

Hong Kong was Panpuri’s first flagship outside Thailand, and you’ve since expanded to three distinct boutiques here, each with its own narrative. Is this bespoke, location-by-location or even city-by-city reinterpretation a core approach as you deepen your presence across Asia?
Yes, very much so. I believe a brand should be sensitive to the place it inhabits. When we enter a new city, we want to understand its culture, its rhythms and the way people experience it, and allow that to shape how Panpuri is expressed there. That dialogue is what creates cultural relevance and a genuine sense of place.

You can see that across our boutiques in Hong Kong. Perfumist’s Chamber at K11 Musea brings elements of Thai architectural heritage into conversation with the energy of Hong Kong, Skyline in Frame at IFC responds to the city’s vertical landscape, while The Vessel of Scent at Harbour City draws from Hong Kong’s relationship with its harbour and maritime history. In Macau, The Teahouse of Scent takes inspiration from the unhurried ritual and atmosphere of the traditional teahouse.

We are taking the same approach as we expand across Singapore, Japan and mainland China. Panpuri is rooted in Thailand, but we express that identity through a contemporary and international design language. What remains consistent are the values at the heart of Panpuri—our understanding of well-being, craftsmanship, the senses and ritual—while the expression evolves from one place to another.

For me, cultural relevance comes from being curious about where you are and allowing your own identity to enter into conversation with it. My ambition is for each Panpuri boutique to feel unmistakably Panpuri while belonging naturally to its surroundings, with a sense of place that could only exist there.

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