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11 September 2026 Wiener Seife: A Vienna Story Told Through Scent
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• A mixed press day at the Sky Bar of STEFFL brought together new products from Austrian and German businesses. A press day with a Viennese scentYesterday, 10 September 2026, the mixed press day at the Sky Bar of STEFFL on Vienna's busy Kärntner Straße offered a look at products from Austrian and German businesses. Among them was Wiener Seife – a name that needs little introduction to anyone familiar with Vienna's contemporary lifestyle and its blend of craftsmanship, nostalgia and understated design. The soaps have moved beyond the bathroom into Vienna's wider cultural landscape. Amour N°62, for example, is currently sold through the Wien Museum shop, where its orchid, vanilla, bergamot and blackberry composition sits among objects connected with the city. That makes the elegant Wiener Seife boutique at Herrengasse 6 an interesting stop for visitors. A bar such as Wiener Rose or Blaue Donau works as more than a conventional souvenir: it can become an olfactory reminder of Vienna after the trip has ended.From Favoriten to lemon meringueAt the press meeting, Sonja Baldauf and her husband Christoph Hegglin answered journalists' questions about the company and its fragrances. One scent attracted particular attention: N°71 Citron Meringue. A journalist recognised it immediately as the former Favoritin. Baldauf confirmed the connection: the soap was created around the move of the manufactory to Vienna's 10th district, Favoriten, as a tribute to its new neighbourhood. The scent translates that story rather playfully: fresh lemon zest meets sweet meringue and pastry-like notes. The company describes it as fruity, sweet and nostalgic. Favoriten itself is one of Vienna's most culturally diverse districts, and that urban setting provides a fitting background for a fragrance that moves away from the more predictable image of imperial Vienna. The important point, however, is that the scent is not presented as a literal geographic perfume. It is an interpretation of place through taste, memory and atmosphere.Ideas, craft and the Weiss legacyBaldauf is the creative force behind the development of new scents and products, while Hegglin brings his expertise in the traditional craft of soap making. The company was founded in 2006, following the death of Friedrich Weiss, who had worked as a soap maker in Vienna's Stadlau district. Wiener Seife continues his tradition while also creating new compositions. Baldauf develops the ideas and olfactory concepts, working closely with perfumers to translate her fragrance visions into the finished compositions.Four operas, four MeisterstückeThe company's 20th anniversary has brought the historical Weiss recipes back into focus with the Meisterstücke: Aida, Carmen, Othello and Don Carlos. Their names and basic recipes go back to Weiss, while the current versions have been adapted to contemporary cosmetic requirements. Their scent profiles form a small opera in themselves: Aida is citrus-led and lively; Carmen combines floral and nectar notes; Othello moves towards wood, musk and leather; Don Carlos is green, herbal and tea-like. The box takes its visual cue from Viennese Modernism, using geometric structure and fine copper-coloured lines.Fashion.at left the press day having met two people who bring Vienna's soap-making tradition together with an individual approach to scent. With their daughter Caroline Baldauf continuing the story in Switzerland, the family business has also become a cross-border piece of Viennese craftsmanship. And perhaps that is what makes these soaps more than souvenirs: they turn a place into a memory that can be opened again, simply by catching its scent. Image: Sonja Baldauf, founder and creative force behind Wiener Seife, presents the 20th-anniversary Meisterstücke edition at the mixed press day in the Sky Bar of STEFFL, Vienna, on 10 September 2026. © Fashion.at |