68. The Perfumer Bottling Our Collective Scent Memories Through Her Own (w/ Perfumer Maya Njie)
Perfume Room
Emma Vernon
4.9 • 619 Ratings
🗓️ 4 October 2022
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Maya Njie (of Maya Njie perfume) is a self-taught, London-based perfumer who combines her own scent memories, Swedish and Gambian roots, imagination, and design background to translate photos into scents. And not just any photos— ones from her own family’s archive. Drawing on inspiration from the 60s and 70s and the unique color palettes of those decades, she color picks family photos from this era and re-imagines the color palettes, moments, times, places, and people as scents.
FRAGS MENTIONED:
Diptyque Orpheon, Marissa Zappas Annabel’s Birthday Cake, Hanae Mori, MCM Ultra, Maya Njie: Nordic Cedar, Mugler Angel, Vanilj; Annick Goutal Duel, Maya Njie: Tobak, Voyeur Verde, Les Fleurs; Cacherel LouLou, Coty Exclamation, Salvador Dali Eau de Dali, CK be
SHOP MAYA NJIE: mayanjie.com & www.museexperiences.com
FOLLOW: @maya.njie.perfume
FOLLOW PERFUME ROOM: @perfumeroompod (IG) @emma_vern (TT)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the perfume room. My scent of the day today is Dipteak Orphion, and you guys know how much I love that scent. And while I don't have a signature, I would say that is one of the closest |
| 0:21.0 | in my collection to a signature. The reason I don't have a signature scent is because, number one, |
| 0:26.1 | that would just simply be tragic, but two, also impractical based on the collection that I have amassed. |
| 0:32.5 | And there are just simply too many scent profiles that I love to boil down my tastes |
| 0:39.5 | to one singular fragrance. |
| 0:41.9 | With that said, Orphion is definitely one of the closest. |
| 0:44.5 | It is a go-to and I love the nonlinear, |
| 0:48.7 | multifaceted journey of this scent. |
| 0:50.5 | It opens in a sort of powdery, |
| 0:52.5 | but in like almost like a fresh snow powder way, |
| 0:54.6 | less like powder, but a powdery ginantonic way, then the woodiness comes out. And then in the |
| 1:00.3 | dry down, you really get that subtle, sweet jasmine floral sea. And I just, I love everything |
| 1:06.7 | about the scent from beginning to end. I wore it to a wedding this weekend and contrary to how I |
| 1:12.3 | normally pack, which usually entails a minimum of five fragrances, I actually only brought Orphion. |
| 1:18.0 | And I have a revelation to share, okay, because people always seem to want to know what my boyfriend's |
| 1:22.8 | favorite sense that I wear are. And while he is a sucker for gourmand fragrances, looking at you, Annabelle's birthday cake and Hanamori, maybe something is in the water. I don't know, but this weekend he could not stop smelling me and complimenting me on Orphiom. Like we would go to the bar and he'd be like, oh my God, you smell so good, I can't get over it. Anyway, he's always liked Orfeon, but suffice to say, I have never received more compliments |
| 1:45.0 | from him than when I wore Orphion this past weekend. It's obviously very personal. It speaks to both |
| 1:50.0 | of our tastes. I will say I'm also working on a campaign with MCM right now on their newest fragrance |
| 1:55.7 | Ultra, so I was wearing it on Friday just to sort of like get a feel for it. And he complimented me on that |
| 2:02.0 | one as well. Loved it. I don't know. Sometimes it feels silly to report on these little musings of our |
| 2:06.3 | relationship, but I feel like inquiring minds want to know. So there you have it. Anyway, let's get to |
| 2:12.0 | today's guest because she is wonderful and so are her fragrances. Today I am chatting with the lovely Maya and |
... |
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