Brown Sugar Babe: The Secret to Smelling Good
Exclusive: The Besties Behind Brown Sugar Babe’s New Drop Are Letting Us In
- Brown Sugar Babe was founded by Maekaeda Gibbons to provide calming, feel-good scents for mental, physical, and emotional wellness.
- The 'Fragrance & Friendship' collection captures the power of scent and sisterhood, with each fragrance reflecting an emotional moment.
- The brand aims to deliver high-quality, elevated fragrances at an accessible price point for its community.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the hack to smelling good is simply Brown Sugar Babe. Ever since I was introduced to the brand by beauty expert Kayla Greaves, I have been in love. From the titles of the scents to the undeniable notes, BSB has cracked the code.
The Black-owned skincare brand was founded by Maekaeda Gibbons. It began as a personal journey into aromatherapy and self-care. She found that calming fragrances eased stress during a demanding time. Gibbons created the brand to help others access those same benefits. BSB believes self-care doesn’t have to be complicated. It uses scent to support mental, physical, and emotional well-being. What began as small batches has grown into a trusted brand. BSB remains committed to quality, customer feedback, and its core mission. That mission is creating effective, feel-good products that help people pause, reset, and truly be well.
Their latest itiration, Fragrance & Friendship, plays on the power of scents and sisterhood. Fortunately, we had the opportunity to speak with Maekada and Blake Newby, half of one of the bestie duos featured in this dynamic collection.
The “Waiting to Exhale” Creative Direction
In the film, the “exhale” represents a moment of release. Which fragrance in the collection do you feel best captures that specific moment of finally letting go and being yourself with your friends?
Maekaeda: Rebirth feels like the truest expression of that “exhale” moment. It captures that shift where you’re no longer holding anything in. You can show up fully as yourself, without explanation. That’s what friendship at its best offers: a space to release, reset, and just be. The scent itself reflects that emotional lightness. It’s airy, clean, and softly warm, almost like the feeling of taking a deep breath after you’ve let something go.
What does “playing” in this classic film mean for the modern Black woman’s luxury experience? How are you reclaiming or evolving that narrative for a new generation?
Maekaeda: Referencing Waiting to Exhale was less about nostalgia and more about honoring a cultural moment that centered Black women choosing themselves. What we’re doing now is evolving that narrative to reflect where we are today. For us, luxury isn’t just about aesthetics, it’s about softness, ease, and having the space to exist without constant pressure.
This collection reframes friendship as part of that luxury experience. It’s about investing in the moments, the rituals, and the people that allow you to feel grounded and seen.
The Scent & Memory Connection (such a good concept!)
Scent is famously tied to memory. Is there a specific note in one of these fragrances—like the chocolate in Timeless or the sea minerals in Agua Davina—that reminds you of a real-life moment you’ve shared together?
Blake: The seaweed in Agua Davina is such a nostalgic note for us. We spoke about this at the Atlanta launch event, but our first vacation together was to Mexico. For three straight days, we just relaxed by the beach, sipped margaritas, and enjoyed girl time. We know that vacations often make or break friendships. It’s where you figure out who enjoys traveling in the same manner as yourself — and it was there that we realized yet another synergy in our vibes. We’d also like to add that we have traveled to Miami together 4 times and have remained friends each time. LOL
When developing these four distinct profiles, how did you translate abstract concepts like “Perfection” or “Rebirth” into specific olfactory notes?
Maekaeda: We approached each fragrance from an emotional standpoint first, rather than starting with notes. We asked ourselves what “Perfection” or “Rebirth” actually feels like in real life—how it shows up in your body, in your relationships, in your everyday moments.
From there, I picked scent profiles to mirror those feelings. For example, “Perfection” is less about flawlessness and more about balance, so it combines more refined, elevated notes with warmth to keep it grounded. “Rebirth,” on the other hand, leans into freshness layered with skin-like warmth, capturing that feeling of starting over while still feeling like yourself. The goal was for the fragrances to feel instantly recognizable on an emotional level, even before you can fully describe why.
If you had to assign one of these four scents to a specific “era” of your friendship, which would be which?
Blake: Timeless is truly the fragrance that we’d assign to the current era of our friendship. With us becoming friends later in life, we’re now 100% in the era where we’re realizing that this is definitely a forever thing. She’s stuck with me, I’m stuck with her, it’s Timeless.
Business & Collaboration
You both navigate the beauty and media industry at high levels. What did you learn about the chemistry of fragrance during this process that surprised you?
Blake: While both of us have witnessed the fragrance process up close throughout our careers, this is the first time that we’ve so intimately experienced that process from a Black woman’s lens. Learning more about Maekaeda’s intricate approach to crafting BSB’s oils, while also being able to pick her brain on the sophistication of her nose, proved that fragrance isn’t just sensorial; it’s also cultural.
With a price point of $65, these are positioned as accessible luxury. Was it a conscious decision to make high-end scent profiles—like caramelized fig and white tea—attainable for a wide community of women?
Maekaeda: Absolutely. That is the basis of my entire business. The oils are typically priced at around $65 for each launch. It was very intentional to create something that feels elevated while still being accessible to our community. There’s often a perception that high-quality fragrance has to sit at a certain price point, and we wanted to challenge that.
By incorporating more traditionally “luxury” notes like caramelized fig and white tea, we were able to deliver a scent experience that feels rich and layered, without making it feel out of reach. For us, luxury is as much about how something makes you feel as it is about the formulation, and we wanted more women to be able to access that feeling in their everyday lives.
Individual Fragrance Deep Dives
On Timeless: The combination of fruit and coffee is bold. What kind of “shared moment” does this scent represent—is it a morning coffee catch-up or a late-night gala?
Maekaeda: Timeless really lives in that in-between space. It captures those moments that start one way and evolve into something else, like a quick get together that turns into hours of conversation, or a day out that lingers longer than expected. The fruit brings a brightness and ease, while the coffee adds depth and a bit of intrigue. Together, it feels familiar but slightly unexpected, which is very reflective of those shared moments that end up meaning more than you planned.
On Agua Davina: This seems like the most “grounded” scent with the sea minerals and ginger. Was this intended to be the “vacation” scent of the group?
Maekaeda: Agua Davina definitely carries that sense of escape, but it’s less about a physical vacation and more about a mental reset. The sea minerals bring a clarity and openness, while the ginger adds a subtle warmth and energy. It’s grounded, but still expansive.
We thought of it as the scent you reach for when you need to step away and recalibrate whether that’s with your friends on an actual trip or just carving out a moment of stillness in your everyday life. It’s about creating that feeling of space, wherever you are.
On Rebirth: Why was it important to include a scent focused on “Rebirth” in a collection about friendship? How do friends help us through our personal reinventions?
Maekaeda: Rebirth felt essential because friendship and transformation are so deeply connected. The people closest to you are often the ones who witness your evolution in real time, they see you through changes, challenges, and new chapters.
Including a scent centered on Rebirth acknowledges that growth doesn’t happen in isolation. Your friends are part of that process, they support you, reflect you back to yourself, and create space for you to become who you’re meant to be next. The fragrance mirrors that duality of newness and familiarity, capturing the feeling of stepping into something new while still feeling fully grounded in who you are.
Exclusive: The Besties Behind Brown Sugar Babe’s New Drop Are Letting Us In was originally published on hellobeautiful.com
