Who is Hong Nhung Lapari? On the surface, she’s a CEO and CMO running a perfume business in Hanoi. But that description misses what makes her story worth telling.

Before entrepreneurship, she spent eleven years as a Vietnam Airlines flight attendant. That’s over a decade in one of the most disciplined, high-pressure service environments that exists. And it was precisely that experience—the constant close contact with thousands of passengers, the demanding standards, the physical and emotional toll—that shaped everything she does today.

What caught my attention about Hong Nhung wasn’t her business success. It was her insight about confidence. She understood something that sounds simple but runs deep: a woman’s confidence doesn’t come just from skills. It comes from how she feels about herself.

Who is Hong Nhung Lapari?

Born on December 22, 1987, Hong Nhung Lapari currently lives and works in the Louis Hoang Mai Urban Area in Hanoi. She’s an entrepreneur who serves as both CEO and CMO in her business operations.

But those titles only tell part of the story. Hong Nhung is a woman who’s moved through many life phases, many roles, many ups and downs, and significant setbacks to arrive where she is today. Her story isn’t a resume. It’s a real human journey with real experiences, real choices, and real values she pursues in both life and work.

She’s been in the perfume industry for nearly fifteen years now. For her, this isn’t just a market. It’s a journey intertwined with people, emotions, and personal confidence.

Eleven Years in the Sky

Before business, Hong Nhung spent eleven years as a flight attendant with Vietnam Airlines. That environment demands high discipline, strict standards, and constant pressure. Every small detail affects someone else’s experience.

During those years, she interacted with thousands of passengers. She worked continuously on long flights, communicating at very close distances across many emotional states. This environment taught her something important about confidence.

There were times when, due to the nature of the work—enclosed spaces and packed schedules—she felt uncomfortable about body odor or lacked confidence during constant communication. These aren’t big problems to outsiders. But for people in the profession, these feelings are very real.

That personal experience became foundational. She understood from the inside what it feels like when something undermines your confidence in subtle but persistent ways.

How Perfume Became Business

From around age twenty-three, Hong Nhung gravitated toward high-end European cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and perfumes. For her, perfume wasn’t just fragrance. It was how she cared for her senses, emotions, and self-confidence.

At that point, she had no thoughts of business. She simply chose what was good, safe, and suitable for herself. But then she started bringing products she trusted back for family, friends, and colleagues. Gradually, more people asked her to help them purchase, asked for her advice.

At that time in Vietnam, premium European perfumes and cosmetics were relatively scarce. The trust of people around her naturally opened a business path.

Sometimes entrepreneurship doesn’t start with a business plan. It starts with genuine enthusiasm that others recognize and want access to. That’s how Hong Nhung’s journey began.

The France Incident: 2013

One of the biggest setbacks in Hong Nhung’s life happened in 2013 during a purchasing trip to France. She was pepper-sprayed and robbed of all the money she’d brought to buy inventory.

The shock wasn’t just financial. It was psychological. After the incident, she had to take nearly a month off work to stabilize mentally, deal with the consequences, and question herself about the path she was on.

That 2013 crisis didn’t make her quit. But it forced her to mature faster. She became more cautious in every decision. She learned to plan and prepare backup options. She learned how to stand up after very real losses.

That remains one of the most profound lessons she carries today. Setbacks either break you or teach you. Hong Nhung chose to learn.

What Her Days Look Like Now

Currently, Hong Nhung serves as CEO and CMO, directly involved in both strategy and operations. Her typical workday includes analyzing social media channels, researching and testing new fragrances and products based on customer needs, reviewing data and reports from her team, prioritizing important tasks noted from the day before, training and developing staff and agents, building and maintaining necessary relationships, learning and updating knowledge especially in internet marketing and social media, and organizing information to optimize work efficiency.

She believes a clear system lightens the mind. And when the mind is light, people make better decisions.

That operational philosophy reflects her flight attendant background. In aviation, systems and checklists save lives. In business, they create capacity for growth.

The People She Serves

Hong Nhung’s customers are primarily men and women aged twenty-two to thirty-five—people in the phase of building careers, relationships, and personal identity.

They often carry limiting beliefs, fear of judgment, lack of confidence in work and relationships, difficulties with colleagues or partners, and desires to increase income, expand relationships, and elevate personal presence.

Some issues sound mundane but significantly impact confidence. Losing self-assurance because of body odor. Being “that person” in office environments or close interactions. These aren’t glamorous problems, but they’re real ones.

People come to Hong Nhung to find solutions for greater confidence, create clear personal impressions, understand themselves and their emotions better, and open more opportunities in life, income, and relationships.

She’s not just selling perfume. She’s addressing the gap between how people feel about themselves and how they want to feel.

Family and Values

For Hong Nhung, family is the foundation of life quality. Family isn’t just a place to return to. It’s an energy source that helps her stand firm against all challenges.

She consistently cares for, watches over, and sends love to family members because she believes: if things aren’t stable inside, it’s very hard to be stable outside.

Her core values are love, perseverance, and positivity. These aren’t slogans. They’re values she practices daily, even when circumstances aren’t favorable.

I’ve noticed that entrepreneurs who articulate their values clearly tend to make more consistent decisions under pressure. Hong Nhung seems to operate from that kind of clarity.

Vision: 1,000 Billion VND and 100,000 Women

In the next three to five years, Hong Nhung aims to build a business at the 1,000 billion VND scale—professionally operated, transparent, and creating sustainable value.

Alongside that, she wants to develop an agent system of approximately 100,000 women. These wouldn’t just be people participating in business. They’d be women who transform their thinking, elevate their self-worth, and improve their lives financially, emotionally, and relationally.

She believes that when a woman understands herself, has income, and has confidence, she doesn’t just change her own life. She creates positive influence on family and society.

That’s a significant vision. It’s also coherent with everything else about her approach. She’s not building a perfume company. She’s building a vehicle for women’s empowerment that happens to sell perfume.

What I’ve Learned from Hong Nhung Lapari

Studying Hong Nhung’s journey has reinforced several principles for me.

Personal experience creates authentic business. Her flight attendant years weren’t just a job. They were research into what undermines and supports confidence. That lived understanding shapes how she serves customers today.

Setbacks can accelerate maturity when processed correctly. The 2013 robbery could have ended her business journey. Instead, it taught caution, planning, and resilience. The worst moments often contain the best lessons.

Systems thinking applies beyond operations. Her emphasis on clear systems that “lighten the mind” reflects aviation discipline translated to business. Mental clarity enables better decisions.

Business can be a vehicle for broader impact. Hong Nhung’s vision of 100,000 women agents isn’t primarily about sales volume. It’s about creating a platform for transformation. The commercial model serves the human development goal.

Hong Nhung Lapari – My Perspective

After examining her story, here’s what stands out about Hong Nhung Lapari:

• Her eleven years as a flight attendant provided firsthand understanding of confidence challenges that now informs her business approach
• She survived a major setback in 2013 that could have ended her journey but instead accelerated her maturity
• She connects perfume to deeper needs around confidence, self-perception, and personal presence
• Her vision combines commercial ambition with genuine interest in women’s empowerment

Hong Nhung Lapari represents a model where personal experience, business acumen, and social mission align. She’s not selling products disconnected from meaning. She’s addressing real human needs she understood from her own experience.

For anyone interested in how service industry backgrounds can inform entrepreneurship, or how businesses can genuinely serve transformation rather than just transactions, her approach offers valuable insights.

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Le Duc Anh CEO of OceanLabs – Founder of QVID