Latest / Skin Anarchy / Blending Design, Storytelling, and Scent with The Maker Fragrances

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Blending Design, Storytelling, and Scent with The Maker Fragrances · Skin Anarchy

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Hey guys, welcome back to the skin and this is the Fragment and amazing brand of the book today.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: I am such a huge fan of their work and all of their creations.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Many of you might have heard of them, and they've really kind of, I think, in my opinion, taken over the niche fragrance space in such a beautiful way because every single fragrance in the collection hits home.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's just something that you want to keep forever in your collection.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: So without further ado, I want to introduce you guys to Lev Glasman and Alina Reutberg, who are the founders of The Maker.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, guys.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited to host both of you.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Acta.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having us.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, great, great to be to be here.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you again inviting us.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, it's an honor to host you both.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I I am such a fan of what you've created and the whole idea, right, behind the hotel and then the um the fragrances and the inspiration.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: I can't wait to dive into all of that.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I I want to actually get started with kind of maybe one of you could walk us down memory lane and tell us about where did this inspiration really originally stem from, you know, for the maker overall.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, it's been it's been years in the making, uh, you know, uh, from Alina and my experience, uh traveling one experience in and passion towards uh design.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: As we sort of like as Fresh became a little bit more mature brand, and we started thinking about like how we can take a next step and and bring something to the forefront where we can create a uh create a place that could bring people in and they can really be in our environment.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, hotels was always something that we loved in our traveling, but we always were very picky where we would stay and which property we would pick up.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we're always look for something that off the beaten path, some something that's very special, that's highly curated.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we felt also that in in the world of hospitality, something that was more difficult to find is is property that's very unique and they don't follow sort of like the standard uh way of how the hotel needs to be.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like the rooms have to be the same, every single room uh uh you know it it it things are getting more standardized.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, don't misunderstand me.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's some hotels are very beautiful, but we felt like especially when you're traveling and you want to experience something that will be very, very special.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh Alina and I started talking about it many years ago and and said, what if we would open a hotel?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: How would it look like?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And and and for Alina and I it's always the dynamic is that when we start talking about something, it's almost the seed is plenty planted, and and and the conversation is keep on going and going and going until it gets to the point where you're asking, ask actually asking yourself, can you actually do it?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and then and and and then when you start crossing this line and thinking, oh, maybe I can, and and and then you start galvanizing the idea and the concept in your head, what that could be, and and uh we started thinking about okay, well, we can open a hotel, but we also can it could be an amazing platform for us to be able to create a great uh sort of like it's it could be like a lifestyle brand, but also to create fragrances and and have a this amazing platform for that.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so we started sort of like dreaming in that direction, and all of a sudden things started making sense because everything that we like and passionate about, and it felt like it was start falling into place and start making a lot of sense.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like puzzle pieces started coming together.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's right.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, it's also it's interesting because when we started fresh with a shop, we opened a store, and it was like this kind of a dream to create a certain world that we were dreaming about creating.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that the you know experience of retail is that you know people open the doors and they come into your world and you share with them what you're excited about and what should have.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I think as the time progresses and a lot more design designing different stores and having this experience and really understanding what true hospitality for people coming into retail could be.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that the vision grows because eventually you feel like what is the ultimate, you know, world to build it is a hotel, because people not only come in, not only they eat and drink and they sleep.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: So you really take an incredibly um active audience into the world that you want to build.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's such a fascinating, actually, the whole concept to me, when I first learned about the hotel itself, I was incredibly mesmerized because very rarely do you get to see concepts that really bring home the idea of like true hospitality.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you look at anyone's home, right, no room is the same, no part of that entire building is the same.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: There's an experience that you have everywhere that you go in that space.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I've always wondered that actually myself, with a lot of the hotels I've stayed at, is like, I shouldn't, why is everything exactly the same?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't feel right.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think the entire idea when as a consumer, when you're looking at it and what you guys have built, it actually resonates much more than just the place you're gonna stay on your travel.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: It becomes this idea of like it's a whole experience that you're having, you know, and and you're building memories.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: So that's very, very beautiful to me as a consumer just looking at it.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I can't imagine how beautiful it was to build that concept and really bring it out.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's wonderful.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: I want to talk about the fragrances because I know that you guys truly have such a wonderful cult following, and you know, I'm definitely one of the biggest fans.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: But you you describe your fragrances as rooted in fantasies, like liberation, confidence, sensuality.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: What made you want to tell the emotional stories through scent rather than through traditional olfactory pyramids?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, scent was always a huge part of my life, you know, ever since I was a little kid, you know, growing up in Russia.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time when I was growing up in Russia, I mean I left Russia when I was 10 years old, but uh at the time it was an iron curtain.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: So there's not a lot of fragrances available uh on the market.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you had one fragrance that's available on the market was made by one of the Russian factories, it was one for men, one for woman called Red Moscow, and it was pretty horrible.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the problem is that I always refer to it to this fragrance, is that if you take Chanel number five, this which is very well respected fragrance, and you but you add Lysol into it, this is literally the way it smelled.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and and the problem was is that because it was the only fragrances available, everybody smelled like that.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and I was always sensitive to the smells, and particularly uh, you know, being surrounded by sort of like I felt like this is basically how the world smelled.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is what it is, until one day my mom took me to the black market to buy a fragrance that was smuggled to the country from France by a smuggler, and these black markets would be popping up, and a lot of young ladies and other people, men, and would be going there and buying things that were brought from overseas because Russia didn't have much to offer in that way.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so I remember when my mom took me, it you know, those sort of like black markets, they're popping up and they go.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's like you have half an hour to run in, and because they close very quickly because it's a criminal offense at the time to do it in Russia.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember when we were standing in line to this uh person that smuggled the fragrance, and my mom was very concerned that we might be running out of uh she might be running out of the fragrances, and and and she wanted it so badly.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: So when we finally got closer to this box that he was selling it out of, uh he uh, you know, she grabbed she grabbed the box, she paid him 120 rubles, and 120 rubles were equivalent to one month's rent as salary.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we used to pay in our communal apartment that was shared with other families 22 rubles a month in rent.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: So so she paid a phenomenal amount of money to buy that very little fragrance.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And and I remember when she took me aside and she sort of like opened the box and uh pulled the fragrance out and put it on, you know, started applying it on herself.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was at the moment we were both transformed.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, my mom, I was looking at my mom, and I I I could see sort of like the the that sparkle that that that that joy that like on her face, and I myself felt transported because I never smelled something beautiful like that.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and and for me, this was when uh the seed was planted, and fragrance became my way of dreaming, my way of memorizing things, my way of experiencing certain moments.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: I started truly clearly understanding that fragrance is very transformative and it could take you places, it could take you to places that you've been to, and and you you you sometimes capture it in in your memory through a scent.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh I was fascinated with the fact that I would be coming home and um my mom would not be there, but I could smell her fragrance, her spirit would be there.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was so fascinated with that, and that give you know it gets my endorphins going.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's like it you really have uh you know, sort of like emotional and physical and sensorial reaction all at the same time, and and remembering people, you know, somebody who you intimately involved and you've fallen in love with, you start remembering it by their scent, and becoming very arousing.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and so so fragrance became a huge part of me growing up and exploring that world.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's why, you know, when Maker came into the picture, you know, Zalina and I would discuss said it could be just as I said it earlier on, it could be an amazing, amazing platform to sort of like express it.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm going back to fantasy to your question, is that it's is the the fantasies in particularly when you go to places, when you travel, when you're outside of your home and you go away and you're in a very neutral zone, you put everything behind, and you walk into a place that is extremely inspiring.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's so treat, it it it it has so many textures and and it affects your visuals and and and it's just a beautiful world.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And and I started imagining what could happen inside this world, and what kind of I started fantasizing myself, what kind of interactions people have will have with others, between each other, and and what can actually happen in some of these spaces, and uh particularly as the hotel being very sort of like sensual and sultry, it it's sort of like it leads you to this place of like some fantasies and moments that you can experience in this place.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and and the fragrance helps me a lot to take some of those stories that some of this experience that happened or could happen, some of my personal experiences, and start imagining some of those stories that could be associated with these moments while you're there.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think your brand is one of the few brands for me, specifically as a consumer that I I mean, I fell in love with it as soon as I smelled your first fragrance because I know exactly what you're talking about, you know, when you say it brings you into a place of not only like, you know, you remembering something, you know, because a lot most of the fragrances in the collection I for me, I can say only speak for myself, but they do bring me back to some sort of a memory, whether it's like my childhood or something that I experienced um, you know, in my own life.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: But then they also do bring me into a place of what I would imagine something to be like, you know, if I was there.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was, I think, you know, when I first tried them, the libertine became my favorite, like immediately, because I love how it brings you to a place of just, you know, it's fresh, but it's also very, I think, it's like being doused in the in the freshness of it, you know.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so it makes you want to actually be in a in a location that's going to remind you of like, you know, fruits and and beautiful things like, you know, summertime and springtime.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it just, I don't know, it really does bring you there very quickly.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas a lot of times with fragrances, I think it takes time for them to dry down and then you start really experiencing them.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's not what I had with with the maker.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: It was like immediately when I spray the fragrance, I'm there, you know, I'm captivated, my senses are involved.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to ask, what was a moment maybe that was inspired like in a moment at the maker hotel that led to the creation of one of your fragrances?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: If you can give us like an example of one of them.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give you an example of the first fragrance.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's interesting because the ideas were coming to me as the spaces were completed.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: The hotel was opened in in uh in in different, you know, in stages.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: So as I was working to complete one space, I uh I was starting to I was starting to imagine to myself the space popular it with people, and and and I had to start activating it because to me, as building the hotel, uh we were building it and designing it together with with the fragrance in mind and and what each one of the space spaces uh that could trigger that inspiration in me.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: So so as we were completing our lounge, which was the first one that opened, it's a it's a beautiful bar.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: When we were going so almost to what completing almost towards the end, I started thinking, I could see this couple sitting in front of this beautiful fireplace.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and having this sort of like they have like this intimate moment when they having a great drink together.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: There is this music of Billy Holiday plays in the background, there's a clinking of glasses.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: I actually started imagining even smoke of tobacco, and and and because it's you know from the fireplace.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: I start to imagine, you know, how do I make it not to smell like just like like burned wood, but also like something that has like an even more sensual appeal to it.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and how and and these two people, they sort of like the world, the world is there and and they in the public space, but they yet so intimately connected in a moment to each other.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: They they smell each other because their closeness, that they could smell, they could smell each other, they and they interacting in in a very intimate way when they're sharing some things that they their expressions towards each other and and their moment of true true happiness, where your endorphins and dopamine shoots right in, and you you feel like you separate from the world, though you're still in a public space, but you you you're really in that incredible, beautiful bubble with that person that you're with.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's the the first fragrance I start imagining.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's why you have the Juniper Berry in that you know, which is coming from the gin, and and and and you have sort of like some of the smokiness, you have the beautiful vanilla bourbon that that is there, that that is sort of like very rich vanilla, it's very, very addictive.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so so I started sort of like imagining all of these elements and that will go into the fragrance to sort of like capture that that that moment between those two people.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's so lovely, and it's so beautiful to hear that.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think that one of the things that stands out also for me is that all of the fragrances in the makers collection are beautifully genderless and they're very immersive.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to ask, you know, do you approach each scent like a character or like a place or both?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's for me when I think about the fragrance, it has to be a story.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: It has to be, I have to imagine the story.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's either the story that I in some ways experienced in in this type of setting, or whatever the moment, whatever that memorable moment in my life, or I can fantasize about it.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's always starts, it's to me, it's always starts with a story.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's the only way I can imagine it.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: It it you know, it's a place, it's it's whatever, wherever you were at the moment, it's it's always starts with that.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: It it I don't wake up and say, Oh, I could smell rose and I can smell jasmine, I can smell this, and this is what I want to do.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: No, there is always have to be a story.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: There has got to be, in order to create an emotion and a fragrance, you literally have to have a story that's also connected to some emotion.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: No, that makes a lot of sense, actually.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Always, always is.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: No, you know what's really fascinating to me, and I I think this is such a beautiful part of your brand, is that you both have created something that everybody can enjoy, you know, and I think that's very unique because in the world of fragrance right now, what I see as a consumer is a lot of fragrances that are just either their price point is just too high, you know, and normal people can't experience them, or they're just outside of the scope of like, you know, understanding or connecting with people, right?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's just too much going on, it seems sometimes.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, where was that balance for you with your creations where it was like, you know what, we want this to evoke the this kind of response?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: We want people to exp, like with lover, for example, you uh when you beautifully described the experience of two people connecting, you want people to feel that, but then you don't want it to be something that is only very niche to a few people, right?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's universal, it's something everybody can get behind.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: What is what was that balance like?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, what what does it take to really strike that balance when you're creating?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I wouldn't talk about the creating the juice, but I just want to say conceptually, yeah, you know, I think the part is that you know, and this is what's kind of incredible, is that you know, generally you come up with something in your head and you don't necessarily have real destination.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: I think the fact that there is a living, breathing source of inspiration is like a great beginning and then it allows you to fly.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: Because you know, when you think about people experiencing things when we travel in hotels and you know, whether you take on your own identity or where you do a hidden part of yourself, but you know, when you kind of have a possibility of a challenge or a new experience, you know, that is an incredible endorphin, you know, you get excited, you know, your heart great fastens, you know, you're ready to accept and experience new things, and whether that was something that will change you eventually, or whether it's something that you know in some way turns maybe the flow of your life or your mood, etc.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I think having that as like a base, you know, line of idea, like the place, whether it's real or imagined, you know, yes, there's a real Maker Hotel, but it will be very easy to imagine how you feel or felt in a place that you had an incredible memory of.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think this is like when you think about that, your palate is really painted with that when you have already a built-in interest to explore certain things that you can not just when you like, you know, went out to walk your dog, right?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: You take away the prosaic.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think this is a very universal idea.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: I think all of the people can really come to connect.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter what type of hotel, for example, somebody traveled with, you know, but if they had experience in the museum room service or a certain like touch of service that just made it remember, or maybe it was just a memory of being somewhere with somebody special, even when you were there by yourself and just rethinking about the experiences you had.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: All of these are really emotional aspects of what makes us human.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I think with the olfactory nerve being such an important sense of our like living, it's not as complex to tune into it, but to tap into it when you can activate something that really turns somebody's brain on, right?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, and if you paint a beautiful picture that is offset by like a very unexpected sensorial experience, I think you are creating a very particular home, a very specific niche of how you would really express and carry and wear that fragrance.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think that's beautifully said, and it's very fascinating to me because I think we we're living in a world right now where everything's so fast, you know, it's so fast-paced.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's everybody's running around and rushing around.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I think what when I look at your the brand you you're creating and the space you're creating, I see it as you're giving people the time and it's like allowing people to take a minute and experience everything.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that's where like the concept of having the hotel and then having the fragrances with it and this whole package deal, I mean, it really evokes this idea of like.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: You need to pause in life, you know, and like take a minute to experience whatever it is that you're in.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so I want you to speak, Alina, a little bit to that concept, if you don't mind, about this idea.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, can I add just one more thing?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Question is want to give an example.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we have, you know, a fragrance, for example, like naked, right?
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it was very much inspired by because I started by telling you about the first fragrance called Fire and that couple and in the fireplace, and they having this amazing time with each other.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then it could be them who the night preceded, and it be you know, the magic continued, and they interacted intimately with each other and continued this incredible sort of like a moment that they shared together and and and took it further.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and it started something that I think a lot of people could relate to when you when you with somebody and you embracing somebody and how your senses are inter start getting to being intertwined, how the sheets that you're wrapping both of yourself into sort of absorbs your smell and and and sort of like the exchange of of these pheromones that happening with the two individuals, it creates its own concoction.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that was in the fragrance like naked.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is exactly the moment that has inspired me.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's it's particularly, and if you read the story, it's called even the stories associated with that is is read as such is that the cool light of dawn melts past the edge of the edge of the curtain and we come alive together only here, right now, between these sheets like velvet in this magical moment in my memories forever.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: So this is where I refer to.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: So even if somebody who was not there or never and ever will be in in in the hotel, but but that that story that sort of like triggered that for that moment happening there, I believe that it happened to a lot of people and they can somehow relate to it and start them imagining it.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And said, okay, well, um now I'm wondering what does it smell like.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: I I love that.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: I really love that.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think it's very, very rare to actually see someone being able to describe.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, all of the fragrances are so beautifully, like kind of, you know, the words really depict this beautiful scene in everyone's mind.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, when you read it, you can really understand like this is what I'm experiencing when you smell them.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: So the the senses are tied very closely together, you know, with the description and then also the experience you have, like the whole factory experience you have.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: I know that recently you launched a new fragrance, right?
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: The revel is new.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: So um, can you talk to us a little bit about that?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: What inspired Revel?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Revel is another, you know, so so so because I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm thinking it first of all in Revel in in at the Maker, yeah.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And because that's a big source of uh inspiration, people always celebrate things, always, and the maker is becoming sort of like the hotel, uh the destination where people propose to each other, celebrates anniversaries, we had weddings in there, very beautiful, very, very special, very intimate weddings, birthdays, every special occasion for people.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen it all in so many times.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: You could in every weekend, it would be either somebody proposing, or it's a big anniversary, or there's always that celebration that's happening there, and people always treat it as a very, very special place as a destination to celebrate it.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so so that's one, but also if somebody that uh was about to get married, and that beautiful young lady, she wanted to have a special fragrance for her wedding.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, taking sort of like the cues of like what I see at the maker and also what that I create something for the wedding, with fragrance that starts that feeling very uplifting and and and and bring sort of like true joy.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: I made a fragrance for her and she absolutely loved it.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that that started sort of like for me going into that story of like, yeah, I'm experiencing it here myself.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people actually can can have a fragrance that can sort of like commemorate their their moments of celebrations and and and bottle it, something that's so joyful, but it's very much was inspired by that celebratory moments that I see at the maker all the time.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and and for me, start to think, I started thinking, okay, well, how do I make that fragrance that's really going to come across as being joyful and happy and sunny?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: And and yet it's in the end, the fragrance that I created for this uh young young woman, it's not the same fragrance.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: It had the inspiration, but it's not the same.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's have similarity, but it took me way further after I've done it.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the inspiration was again, you know, the maker and and what's happening inside.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: I love it so much.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, one I have one last question, and this is uh I think very important to a lot of us, you know, consumers, because I love to layer fragrance.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's something that, you know, for me, when I grew up, I grew up in a household where fragrance was very central, you know, to how my mother did things and you know, just the way my house smelled and everything.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so layering comes very, I don't know, it's like second nature to me with everything, right?
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so, with right now, the way the fragrance world is, there's a lot of people who are coming out with all-in-one fragrances.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think when you think you can layer something, it just turns out to be not great.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: But I I've noticed with your collection, the the entire collection of perfumes, they're very layerable and they work beautifully together.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: They work like almost synergistically, you know, when you layer them.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: Was that intentional?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Or how did you, I mean, how is that aspect created?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and and it's a it's a very, very good question.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, it's it's interesting, you know, we're calling it layering.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: I like to carry it pairing of a very particular way, how I always like to mix fragrances, because very rarely I wear one, I wear more than one.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: But but the way I do it, I never layer it one on top of another because that never works.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: That never, for my opinion, it would know what never perfectly works.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, because you take two compositions and you're mixing them together, and it could be very disproportionate, and you never know where it's going to land in terms of the dry down.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: So typically the way how I do it is that I spray one on one side of my shoulder, the other fragrance on the other side of the shoulder, one on the back of my neck, one one, one on my chest area, and I'll let the those two fragrances to start communicating with each other, and it creates an aura.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, to me, that is, I find it to be the best experience of mixing fragrances.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Second, it's when I designed the collection, I wanted to do it in such a way that each fragrance will have its own individual personality, but there's always a thing that's going to be weaved through the whole collection, and that is the sense, you know, the sensuality of the expressions of the note.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: They have to be very sensual, and it means is that they have to be anchored always with beautiful woods, but some great spices, you know, uh firmone, all of them have that.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why when you mix them, and this is exactly what it is, it's it, yes, in some ways it was done on purpose because I wanted to make sure that the collection is very much interconnected, although each one of the fragrances is very different.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: But in our collection of fragrances, it's very easy to mix them with other, to layer them, to to layer them with other.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because of that, because again, there's a some common denominator, particularly on the dry down, that that works all the way across.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: And and you can layer any fragrance within the collection, whichever way you want, and it's always going to end up working because uh because of particularly the bottom part of the notes, which is the dry down, which has that.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: I always spend a lot of time on that to make sure that it grounds it in a certain way, one, but it really keeps the sensuality of the fragrance alive.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I've never I've definitely noticed that.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've definitely noticed that when I've tried them and I've I've played around a lot, you know, with all of them, and they're so beautiful to layer and they come through in such a unique way.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, when you layer certain fragrances, sometimes it just doesn't, I don't know, it it mixes in a way where if you are somebody who likes like a more fresh citrusy or you know, kind of like the uplifting notes, if you layer it with something else, those kind of things go away in a lot of times, but it doesn't happen with your collection.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's very much cohesive and it works together beautifully.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I I really appreciate that as somebody who is a consumer of the fragrances and I love them so much.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: To have some of these, you know, picks and left suggestions on pairings through some of our you know digital communications just to kind of drive people towards like the right idea of how to pair fragrances, you know, why you would you know add this one to this one in order to create the character that may take you further.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: But I think the it's it's really in that.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, the part obviously I've I've worked with Lev for over 30 years, and you know, the one thing that I discovered just when I met him personally in the beginning, and then knowing and looking through this is that you know, because he has a very, very unique sense of smell that actually he can visualize the smell, you know.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think it's fascinating.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's like really speaking the language of fragrance, truly beyond the idea, beyond the story, but truly like where the ingredient and like the sensorial experience is connected to that.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: I asked, and I know I'm talking about you left in front of you, but thank you.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's like I always wonder when he's working with you know he's working with different perfumers across the industry.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, he's known for his sense of uh smell and his sense of direction and architecture fragrance and the design of that.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, like it's like how do you know when you go into so many you know, work how do you know when something finally is right for what you know you're creating?
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, like he imagined this is in his head and he knows what it would smell like, and when it comes to his nose when he actually smells it, that's when he knows it.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that is just such a crazy thing because it's so abstract, you know.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of times, you know, when a certain fragrance comes and the ideas, it's not like okay, but you know, this is this is very different.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: This isn't like you're creating a fragrance, you know, a lemon fragrance, you know what I mean?
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: You create uh something that makes you feel free and deliberate routine and doing whatever you can and something that's flighty, and all of the ideas were like the story and the notes are so interconnected.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: So even before we as a team start smelling what he's working on, you know, a lot of times like we're surprised because we don't know what to expect, but then somehow it makes so much sense that that's the direction, you know.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's what makes the maker fragrances so unique and have a very particular language, it's a really particular style.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the industry had noticed that too, so it is really great.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, Ecta also that there's in in in terms of the fragrance, the way how it's funny the way it works in my head, and maybe because part I used to dream a lot about things, and of course I dream about the when I dream about the fragrance, I actually could dream it in color.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: How I I could measure the I I could see the fragrance as a color, and then I start seeing it as what notes could need to come to the fragrance, and it's in my head.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: So when I brief it and I work with different perfumers, we have a very unique way of working together because I actually bring to the table.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of the times I actually bring some suggested compositions in the fragrance because I could smell it in my head.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: I know what the fragrance needs to smell like.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: And until I don't hear it right, I hear it like where it's in my head, the journey is going to continue.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: The research, the development is going to continue until like I remember the lover, I worked on it for a year.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: I was obsessed with this fragrance.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted it to be very, very particular.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: I want it to be like all of our fragrances, as you know, they uh gender inclusive, they for everybody.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I wanted to make sure that it's in such a place, it really could be loved by people and people could really relate to it.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I worked for it.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: I had like, I don't know, maybe 200 submissions uh from different perfumers and and and so forth.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: And and I remember when Frank, the perfumer that I worked with very closely, uh, he's um did some amazing fragrances during his great career.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: I remember I sprayed the fragrance on a blotter and like my head was like that this is it.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is what I smell, and that's that's just how it works for me.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's wonderful.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's it's very, very unique.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're a set savant, then I I guess you could say when you can imagine that well, it's very it's very cute, but I cannot, and and it's to me, it's sort of like it's very it makes me very restless in many ways because I feel like I'm there, but I'm not there, I'm almost there, but I'm not there.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is the other thing I need to tweak in order for that to be there?
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you try it, you know, put the process go through process of elimination, you know, take one thing out, put something back, and it's uh it could be a very long and very detailed thing because I just smelled in smell it in a certain way in my head, and I can't take it out.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: So every time I smell something that it's not fully there, it's close enough, but it's not there in my head.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no, that's not it.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's not it, that's not it, until it just hits it right.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, I really appreciate that because there are too many, I think we like I was saying earlier, we're living in a society now where people are just bringing things out, you know, just like launching product by after product after product, and the thought gets lost when you do that, you know what I mean?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so when you when you're doing what you've described and you're taking it to the point of like, no, now I'm happy with this, and now I will bring it to the rest of the world, that is so valuable.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I know it with as consumers, all of us, I know many of you listening can resonate with that because it is what truly makes you appreciate a fragrance.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the difference between the the bottle I have, you know, and I keep for two years versus something I use maybe three times, right, in a lifetime.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's the difference between that is like how much thought was there behind the scenes and how much time was taken because that will come through, you know.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_01: And Alina, it's like kind of what you were speaking about, where the olfactory nerve and the way that it interacts with our brain is so powerful that we can't ignore quality when it comes to fragrance.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: You can't, even if you want to, you can't ignore it.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's that's so beautiful.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I I really appreciate what you guys have created, what you're creating.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's truly remarkable, and I can't praise it enough.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I really can't as a consumer.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's very, very kind for your kind words.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's from the heart, and for everyone listening, if you haven't already checked out the maker, please, please do so.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: You're going to be blown away.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but thank you so much, Alina and Love.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: This was such an honor to host you both and to learn from you.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's been wonderful.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, thank you so much, I appreciate it very, very much.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_02: It was great.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's always such an interesting conversation to have, you know.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's so much beyond the product, you know.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right, absolutely.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: Hey guys, so I hope you love that episode.
• 38:39
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• 38:44
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• 38:46
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• 39:01
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• 39:22
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• 39:27
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• 39:32
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• 39:39
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• 39:44
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