Annie Oakley Natural Perfumery, located in Ligonier, has been around since 1980, but its beginning goes all the way back to when Renee Gabet, the company’s owner and founder, was on a shopping trip with her mother and grandmother and found herself inside Wolf & Dessauer department store in Fort Wayne. She was only eight years old at the time.
“They took off to the women’s department, and I went over to the perfume department and was able to smell all these wonderful, beautiful, natural fragrances,” Gabet recalls.
From that moment, she was hooked.
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Renee Gabet, founder and owner of Annie Oakley Natural PerfumeryIn the 1970s, Gabet was making jewelry and selling it at a boutique, when she came across some perfume oils during a trip to New York City. She mixed those oils and sold them to customers.
Gabet still had a lot to learn about making perfumes, but she wasn’t sure how she could learn—that is, until a customer put her in contact with a natural perfumer who, in turn, introduced her to Harry Hugar, who had been the chief perfumer for the famed
Elizabeth Arden company.
Hugar had retired early from Elizabeth Arden and opened up a shop called the French Connection in Nashville, Indiana. Gabet asked him if he would teach her what he knew about making perfumes, and he agreed—thus, she became an apprentice of sorts for Hugar.
“He recognized that I definitely had a nose, and he helped develop it and gave me direction,” says Gabet. “For almost a decade we were friends.”
Hugar died in 2004, but thanks to his mentorship and tutelage, Gabet became a real perfumer. She traveled across the United States and the world to trade shows and marketed a perfume blend that she and Hugar had worked on together. That blend was so successful that it even sold to customers in Europe.
‘Annie Oakley’
Once Gabet knew how to make perfume and had found success, she needed a name for her company. An idea came to her during dinner with her brother at a restaurant in New York City in the late 1970s.
As she recalls, the punk rock and heavy metal scenes were very popular at the time.
“I remember looking out the window at dinner and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh! What happened to wholesome, natural, clean?’” she says.
Gabet and her brother began to reminisce about their childhood and watching Annie Oakley on television. Oakley performed in “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” show, and numerous actresses have portrayed Oakley in various Westerns since.
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Custom blend oils at A studio tour at Annie Oakley Natural Perfumery.The fond memories gave her an idea. From New York, she contacted a trademark lawyer in Fort Wayne about using the name “Annie Oakley” for her business, and when she got back home, he told her it was hers to use.
“It had gone into the public domain in only the past three months, so I was able to—boom—pick it up,” Gabet says.
Expanding and adapting
With a name established for her perfumery, things took off. Gabet began her perfumery by mixing fragrances at her house, and in 2010, Annie Oakley moved into its current studio in Ligonier.
“We did about 27 shows a year, and we ended up in 3,400 stores,” she says. “We were actually in every zip code in the country at one time.”
Unlike brands such as Elizabeth Arden, which could and can be found at department stores nationwide, Gabet found a niche for Annie Oakley in tourism-related stores and Western stores. At one point, Annie Oakley perfumes could be found at Walt Disney stores, Knott’s Berry Farm, and stores along the Oregon Trail, the Smoky Mountains, and Martha’s Vineyard. Annie Oakley perfumes can still be found at the famous Wall Drug in South Dakota, as well as Das Dutchman Essenhaus in Middlebury.
During this heyday, Gabet rubbed shoulders with country music stars such as Garth Brooks and Kenny Rogers at Western shows where she marketed and merchandised. At the behest of her licensing attorney, she even flew to California to meet with Roy Rogers at his ranch to explore the possibility of making a fragrance for him. Ultimately, Rogers died shortly after their visit, and Gabet did not make a fragrance for him. Still, she holds that time with him as a precious memory.
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A customer tests a scent from A studio tour at Annie Oakley Natural Perfumery.When Walmart began selling Western wear and even tack and saddle equipment, many of the Western stores that sold Annie Oakley perfumes began to go out of business. After terrorists struck the United States on September 11, 2001, tourism suffered mightily, along with tourist-focused stores that stocked Annie Oakley perfumes. Annie Oakley perfumes can no longer be found at stores in every American zip code, but the business is still running strong in Ligonier.
Today
“For the last 40 years, I’ve pulled some of the best oils and raw materials together to make perfumes,” says Gabet.
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A studio tour at Annie Oakley Natural PerfumeryIn addition to Annie Oakley women’s perfumes such as Annie, Cherry Blossom, Honeysuckle, Citrus & Honey, and more, other products sold by the company include men’s fragrances, body wash, hand sanitizer, and home scents. Customers can visit the Annie Oakley storefront in Ligonier and blend their own perfumes at the mixing bar.
“They can mix anything together, and it smells just beautiful,” she says. “It all comes down to personal preference. I let their nose do the walking. We give some direction—if they want something made up, we can take the top note, middle note, and bottom note, and then take it from there. We’ve helped thousands of guests create their own scents.” In addition to customers being able to mix their own scents, they can also take tours of the business.
A key selling point for Annie Oakley perfumes is that they are natural, relying on essential oils and natural fragrances, as opposed to department store perfumes, many of which contain chemicals.
As Gabet looks back on her journey in perfuming, she is proud of what Annie Oakley has become. “A long time ago, someone said, ‘You’ll never stay in business.’ Well, 40 years later, we’re in business. We’re still creating the same brands. We’ve added new brands, but the originals, they still sell—all day long.”
In 2012, Annie Oakley was the recipient of the Innovator of the Year award, presented by Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly. In 2022, Annie Oakley was featured in a Good Housekeeping article titled “25 Best Factory Tours in America for Families Who Love to Go Behind the Scenes.”
Public tours are available every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Annie Oakley studio, located at 300 Johnson St, Ligonier, Indiana. The price for the tour is $5 but each tour participant also receives a coupon worth $5 off merchandise. Studio business hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Appointments are not required.