POLLET BOTTLED CONFIDENCE
By SIMON MAKGOGA
Perfume is not the last thing you put on. For Pollet Lelaka, it is the first thing people remember.
From a small workshop in her Block W home in Soshanguve, she hand-blends fragrance oils with perfumer's ethanol. Luxury-inspired. Pocket-friendly. Unforgettable.
Her customers do not walk away with a bottle. They walk away with confidence.
Scented Shades is now more than perfume. It is diffuser oils for reed diffusers, room diffusers and car scents. Every oil is chosen for strength, quality and staying power.
"I saw an opportunity to give people luxury without the luxury price," Lelaka says. "Passion pushed me to build something of mine."
And she built it.
What started in February 2023 as a door-to-door hustle has grown into a brand built on trust, consistency and sheer grit.
In Soshanguve, that matters. Soshanguve is one of the largest townships in the City of Tshwane, in Gauteng. Jobs are scarce. Small businesses keep families alive. When one woman builds something, a street feels it.
A perfume oil must be strong enough to last the day, from a taxi at 6am to church, work, or a stokvel meeting at night. If it fades by 10am, customers will not come back. Pollet tests for that. She measures. She blends. She listens.
Today, Scented Shades owns two shops. The BB Mall shop manufactures and sells. The Thorntree View outlet in Block XX sells finished products. Four young people now earn a living because one woman refused to wait for permission.
Four jobs may sound small to a big company. In a township, four jobs mean four families eating. Four young people learning how to serve a customer, handle cash, mix a product, and show up on time.
She is not stopping there. Three months ago, she hit the road, researching, testing and improving her product, hunting for new markets in Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
Those two provinces border Gauteng. Many people there travel to Gauteng for work and shopping. If Pollet can build trust there, Scented Shades can grow beyond Tshwane without losing its township roots.
"It is a matter of time," she says. "Those two provinces will feel and witness the improved Scented Shades."
In December 2025, she took her biggest leap yet, a mini factory to power production and supply raw materials for Scented Shades and for aspiring perfumers entering the industry.
She is not just selling perfume. She wants to supply other young people who want to start their own perfume businesses. A mini factory means she can make more, faster, and keep the quality the same in every bottle.
"I want Scented Shades to become a trusted household name," she says. "A national brand."
Pollet did not wait for luxury. She bottled it.
Find Scented Shades at BB Mall and Thorntree View in Soshanguve, or catch her on TUT FM 96.2's Kasi Entrepreneur show next week Tuesday, 19:30 to 20:30
