Koyia
Where Time is the Currency
- ArtistYlva Nestmark and Therése Bohlén Kinn
NICKLAS HULTMAN This is a brilliant example where nature becomes both the destination and the proof of a brand’s values.
Koyia pushes nature-driven luxury to a new frontier by placing the brand experience directly in the environment that inspires it. Their pop-up store has no physical address - only coordinates to guide you there: 57°16'08.3"N 14°10'45.6"E. In the perfumery deep in the woods, the brand offers two fragrances, Wood and Pine, crafted from pure forest ingredients and essential oils - toxin-free by design. And now to the real value shift: instead of paying in SEK (Swedish kronor), visitors pay with 599 SEC, seconds of presence. A ritual of slowing down, breathing in, and letting the forest amplify the product story. Koyia shows how brands can move beyond selling products to offering a meaningful pause in a distracted world.
The Story of Koyia
In a culture obsessed with speed the Swedish brand Koyia takes a markedly different stance. It asks people to slow down. Not as a trend or a wellness slogan but as a way of living.
Founded on a deep connection to the Nordic forest Koyia creates alcohol free perfume oils inspired by the natural atmosphere of evergreen landscapes. Spruce pine and fir release aromatic compounds known as phytoncides and these form the backbone of the brand’s scents. Rather than projecting outward the fragrances sit close to the skin intended to be noticed by the wearer first.
The forest is not used symbolically. It is central to everything Koyia does. It shapes the ingredients the mood and the pace. The brand’s philosophy grows from the idea that nature offers a counterbalance to modern life and that scent can be a quiet tool for grounding focus and presence.
Time as the True Currency
This thinking reaches its most tangible form in Koyia’s forest perfumery in Småland Sweden. Hidden among the trees and reachable only by coordinates the unmanned off grid space is open around the clock. There is no staff and no price list. Visitors do not pay with money. They pay with time.
To receive a scent oil one must remain inside the perfumery for 599 seconds sitting breathing and doing nothing else. The act of waiting becomes part of the product. Time replaces currency and the purchase becomes a ritual rather than a transaction.
A Quiet Form of Luxury
Inside the space the design is deliberately sparse. A seat a surface the scent and the surrounding forest. The absence of distraction reinforces Koyia’s core belief that presence is valuable and increasingly rare.
As a brand Koyia resists the language of urgency that dominates contemporary retail. There are no calls to buy now or limited time offers. Instead there is an invitation to pause. To choose slowness. To value time over accumulation.
Koyia’s perfumes are not made to impress a room. They are made to change a moment. In doing so the brand offers a quiet rebellion against fast consumption and a reminder that sometimes the most meaningful luxury is simply time to slow down.