Latest news with #RaquelBouris
News.com.au
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Who Is Elijah CEO hits back as ‘feud' with Sarah's Day goes viral
A popular influencer has ignited a public 'feud' with a well-known Aussie brand after claiming a brand deal she was working on for two years was axed – prompting the CEO to clap back. Sarah Stevenson, best known as Sarah's Day online, attracted over 1.2 million views with a video announcing she was no longer working with Who Is Elijah, an Australian fragrance company owned by Raquel Bouris and her husband Adam. In the 1-minute clip, Stevenson tells her 1.2 million followers that her collaboration with the beauty brand was 'no longer happening' after two years of work, explaining she was 'frustrated' as she had no idea why the partnership was binned. But after Stevenson posted the video captioned, 'not the update I anticipated but onto bigger and better thingsï¸�', Ms Bouris said she was inundated with messages from random people online, causing the CEO to respond. is not suggesting Stevenson had any knowledge or involvement with the messages, nor that she encouraged them. 'It's disappointing to see this false narrative about myself and my brand,' she told 'The decision to pause the planned perfume collaboration was not made lightly and certainly not without reason. 'As our brand expands rapidly across international markets, we have had to make some tough strategic choices to protect our global distribution plans and long-term vision. It wasn't a reflection of Sarah or the project itself.' However, Stevenson's video – in which she pleaded with fans to 'wipe it' from their memories and repeatedly stated 'I'm fine, I'm fine,' – had already sparked an onslaught of speculation on social media, with many suggesting Who Is Elijah was making a 'huge mistake'. The avalanche of social media commentary following Stevenson's video led Ms Bouris to post her own public statement in which she addressed what she claimed was a 'false narrative'. 'We ended a contract well within the agreed terms, there was no breach,' she stated. 'The decision to end the collab was sent by me personally to the other party via email … and I left the door open for further discussion but what I received in response was unprofessional.' She went on to explain that if the collaboration had gone ahead, Who Is Elijah would have been 'responsible for everything including fragrance sampling, product manufacturing, logistics, compliance and global registration. In contrast, she said Stevenson's 'involvement stopped at the sampling stage'. She also claimed that any marketing shared by Stevenson on the jilted collaboration was done off her own back, insisting she was not obligated to at that stage of the process. 'What is being said is deeply misleading and is harmful to the brand,' Ms Bouris concluded. 'This was a business decision, we offered for the project to continue under the party's own brand with our full support, but that offer was declined. 'There's no scandal here, no villain. Just a strategic decision for the future of my business, one I fully stand by.' Ms Bouris also claimed the fitness influencer's suggestion she had done 'two years of work' on the now-axed fragrance was 'simply untrue' as the pair only began communicating on the potential project in May 2024. In a statement to Stevenson disagreed with Bouris' characterisation of when the work started. 'One of my main roles and obligations within our contract was to 'organically promote the product' which of course I was excited to do,' the 32-year-old said. 'I was documenting and creating content in good faith that this collaboration would come to fruition and the finished product would be accessible to my audience. 'Our contract allowed either party to terminate on 6 months given notice. Ultimately I did not see this coming after working on this together for such an extended period of time.' With the public battle lines drawn, the videos have gone viral causing some social media users to weigh in on the 'feud' and declare the situation 'salty'. One brand expert explained on TikTok that since launching overseas, Who Is Elijah has become a 'clean, luxe brand that has been able to translate to the celeb spaces'. Whereas in contrast 'Stevenson is a mum influencer from 'straya' and simply is not the brand's target market anymore. Stevenson, who found online fame in the mid 2010s and has been at the centre of several social media controversies over the years, said she now just wants to move on from the ordeal and didn't anticipate the reaction. 'This is a collaboration that obviously wasn't meant to be and that's OK. I truly wish Who is Elijah the best in their future endeavours and I'm excited to be focusing on upcoming projects of my own,' she told Stevenson also stressed her initial video announcing the cancelled collaboration was 'was in no way malicious'. Ms Bouris launched her 'luxury' perfume brand in 2018 after recreating a scent she uncovered while attending Coachella festival the year before. Fast-forward seven years and the genderless fragrance company now has 15 different scents and is reportedly worth a cool $20 million.
Herald Sun
17-06-2025
- Business
- Herald Sun
‘You've got to learn': Young Aussie reveals how a simple idea turned into a multi-million dollar business
Raquel Bouris has built up a multimillion-dollar perfume empire, but even she still makes mistakes that can cost her six figures. Ms Bouris, 31, is the founder of Who Is Elijah, a genderless fragrance brand that describes itself as 'bold, timeless and unapologetic' and has been widely successful since its launch in 2018. Well, almost since launch. When Ms Bouris originally launched the brand on Shopify, she made 'zero sales,' which ended up being both the making of her and the business. 'It was one of those garage to global stories,' she told MORE: Australia's fastest growing salaries Who Is Elijah came to be after Ms Bouris attended the Coachella music festival back in 2017 and met a woman who she said smelled amazing. It was so good that even after she returned to Australia, she couldn't stop thinking about the other woman's perfume. It prompted her to track down the smell, which the fellow Coachella-goer said was from India, and once she started wearing it back in Sydney, she began getting constant compliments. 'I had over 100 people asking me what the fragrance was,' she said. MORE: A guide to the average salary in Australia The compliments she received on the fragrance made her realise how much Aussies craved a good scent. The 31-year-old found an Aussie perfume partner to work with and then launched her fragrance on Shopify – to zero sales. If anything, the failure motivated her because she knew the product was good, so she started hitting the pavement. 'I just started walking into stores and introducing myself and nine out of ten times they'd start stocking the fragrances and I very quickly built up stockists,' she said. Two years later, she quit her full-time job, and at that point the Who is Elijah brand was being stocked in over 50 stores. 'I was making $20,000 a month in revenue,' she said. Ms Bouris said when quit her job she is 'embarrassed to say' she didn't fully understand the business yet. She didn't even know the difference between profit and revenue, but she did see that her perfume business was bringing in money. 'No one was teaching me what profit and loss was. I quit right after I got into David Jones, and then around that time, I got a bookkeeper and accountant,' she said. From there, the business just boomed, from making $1 million a year to $10 million a year, and last year, it made $20 million in revenue. It's the kind of crazy success people only dream about but Ms Bouris said it comes with making so many mistakes. For instance, this year, they've focused on scaling back rather than growth. They went from being stocked with over 600 stores to only 100. The business founder said she wants to focus on getting the 'structure right' and that being stocked in fewer stores hasn't impacted revenue. Perhaps what separates Ms Bouris from her peers is that she's prepared to acknowledge a mistake and rectify it rather than keep going down the same path to avoid admitting she was wrong. She's also recently regretted 'paying ridiculous, like six-figure amounts of money' to people to do something that she should have just done herself. She wants to be open about that though, because in her opinion growing a business doesn't involve getting everything right. 'When I first started and I'd listen to other founders and I'd look up to them so much and I thought they were amazing, and then I got to know these people, and they'd come to me for advice,' she said. 'I'm very honest with our journey, and it has stuck with me that people in business don't like to admit that it is hard and they've made mistakes.' Ms Bouris said she feels like the last six years of business have ultimately been about learning 'lesson after lesson' but that is part of it. 'I started this when I was 23, I knew nothing about owning my own company. You've got to learn and there's a lot to learn.' Originally published as 'You've got to learn': Young Aussie reveals how a simple idea turned into a multi-million dollar business
News.com.au
17-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
‘You've got to learn': Young Aussie reveals how a simple idea turned into a multi-million dollar business
Raquel Bouris has built up a multimillion-dollar perfume empire, but even she still makes mistakes that can cost her six figures. Ms Bouris, 31, is the founder of Who Is Elijah, a genderless fragrance brand that describes itself as 'bold, timeless and unapologetic' and has been widely successful since its launch in 2018. Well, almost since launch. When Ms Bouris originally launched the brand on Shopify, she made 'zero sales,' which ended up being both the making of her and the business. 'It was one of those garage to global stories,' she told Who Is Elijah came to be after Ms Bouris attended the Coachella music festival back in 2017 and met a woman who she said smelled amazing. It was so good that even after she returned to Australia, she couldn't stop thinking about the other woman's perfume. It prompted her to track down the smell, which the fellow Coachella-goer said was from India, and once she started wearing it back in Sydney, she began getting constant compliments. 'I had over 100 people asking me what the fragrance was,' she said. The compliments she received on the fragrance made her realise how much Aussies craved a good scent. The 31-year-old found an Aussie perfume partner to work with and then launched her fragrance on Shopify – to zero sales. If anything, the failure motivated her because she knew the product was good, so she started hitting the pavement. 'I just started walking into stores and introducing myself and nine out of ten times they'd start stocking the fragrances and I very quickly built up stockists,' she said. Two years later, she quit her full-time job, and at that point the Who is Elijah brand was being stocked in over 50 stores. 'I was making $20,000 a month in revenue,' she said. Ms Bouris said when quit her job she is 'embarrassed to say' she didn't fully understand the business yet. She didn't even know the difference between profit and revenue, but she did see that her perfume business was bringing in money. 'No one was teaching me what profit and loss was. I quit right after I got into David Jones, and then around that time, I got a bookkeeper and accountant,' she said. From there, the business just boomed, from making $1 million a year to $10 million a year, and last year, it made $20 million in revenue. It's the kind of crazy success people only dream about but Ms Bouris said it comes with making so many mistakes. For instance, this year, they've focused on scaling back rather than growth. They went from being stocked with over 600 stores to only 100. The business founder said she wants to focus on getting the 'structure right' and that being stocked in fewer stores hasn't impacted revenue. Perhaps what separates Ms Bouris from her peers is that she's prepared to acknowledge a mistake and rectify it rather than keep going down the same path to avoid admitting she was wrong. She's also recently regretted 'paying ridiculous, like six-figure amounts of money' to people to do something that she should have just done herself. She wants to be open about that though, because in her opinion growing a business doesn't involve getting everything right. 'When I first started and I'd listen to other founders and I'd look up to them so much and I thought they were amazing, and then I got to know these people, and they'd come to me for advice,' she said. 'I'm very honest with our journey, and it has stuck with me that people in business don't like to admit that it is hard and they've made mistakes.' Ms Bouris said she feels like the last six years of business have ultimately been about learning 'lesson after lesson' but that is part of it. 'I started this when I was 23, I knew nothing about owning my own company. You've got to learn and there's a lot to learn.'
