A Business Point of View

From Philosopher Queen to World Class Perfumer

I first met Barb Stegemen in my living room with a group of concerned individuals that became Citizens for Halifax. Barb had spent some time in British Columbia where municipal politics in Vancouver were based on civic parties. At the time, Halifax’s municipal government under then Mayor Peter Kelly was foundering, spending too much time on chicken and cat by-laws and not enough on building the city. This was during a period where there hadn’t been a single commercial building built in the downtown core since amalgamation, a period of nearly twenty years. Citizens for Halifax provided a catalyst to challenge the status quo of municipal politics at the time. The election of Mike Savage as Mayor completely changed the trajectory of the city and she credits Citizens for Halifax for the change in direction for the municipality. At the time, Barb struck me as ambitious and forward looking at the time and filled with energy.

The Early Beginnings

Barb, by her own admission, came from a poor but loving family in Antigonish. If nothing else, her tough early circumstance instilled in her a strong desire to succeed and succeed she has.

Barb initially had the idea to use essential oils from war torn countries to produce perfumes. This idea was inspired as a result of the severe injury of a close friend of hers, Trevor Green, while serving in Afghanistan. By purchasing orange blossom oil from Afghan farmers, the hope was to move farmers from the production of opium to the production of these essential oils. Unfortunately, the return of the Taliban ended this endeavour. This led to the creation of Seven Virtues Perfume in 2010, a name taken from her best-selling book she had written called “The Seven Virtues of a Philosopher Queen”, first published in 2008 and is now in its ninth edition. Her business philosophy is largely based on her book and one of the reasons that she is proud that 7 Virtues has qualified and is certified as a B Corp, as a company recognized for high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.

Dragons Den Experience

Her business took off after her appearance on the Dragons Den in February of 2011, when she received an offer from then dragon Brett Wilson to provide her with equity of $125,000 to build the company. That investment provided with a fifty-six-time return on capital for Wilson. At the time, she was the first Atlantic Canadian woman to secure a deal on Dargons Den and went on to become the Top Game Changer in the history of the show.

Only Canadian Perfume with Sephora

In a recent Insights Podcast, Barb talked about her entrepreneurial journey and her business strategy, how she secured Sephora as her distributor in 2018 and her plans to double the business in the next five years. Her perfume is the only Canadian perfume in Sephora stores. For context, 7 Virtues sold about 500,000 units in the past year with the average retail cost of more than $100 per unit.

The company has about eight core products, having just released its most recent perfume called “Buttercream Haze”, which launched as the number one selling perfume across Sephora Canada outselling every perfume at the company’s 150 store chain in Canada. Barb was all in on the launch, dying her hair blonde to match the perfume. She refers to her core products as “hero” fragrances because of their market stability in terms of repeat sales. At the same time, the fragrance industry is changing to the development of more “rapid fire” products, where perfume companies are launching many more new fragrances per year than the past, a trend that she expects to follow.

Currently, the 7 Virtues fragrances are sold in 2,135 Sephora stores in 19 countries, but the company’s biggest market is the United States which accounts about half of the company’s sales. The company’s products are hypoallergenic and use sustainable ingredients.

Launching a Retail Experience

The company recently opened (July 2025) its first “Atelier” (French for workshop) on the Halifax waterfront, where customers can develop their own fragrances. The early success of this venture will see two more Ateliers opened in the near future, one in at the Fairmount Royal York in Toronto hopefully by Mothers Day and one at Penn Station in New York in time for next year’s tourism season. The plan is to expand the retail business to a dozen or so Ateliers over the next five years.

One of the more important moments for the company was the investment by Unilever Ventures and True Beauty Ventures in the company in November 2023 to provide growth capital to expand the company’s team, marketing and product development.

Barb is about to have a full circle moment in the New Year, as she will become a Guest Dragon on the Dargon Den and the first Atlantic Canadian to become a dragon. It is a well-deserved recognition of her entrepreneurial journey and her resilience as an entrepreneur. And yet another example of what is possible in Atlantic Canada with ambition and preservance.