Welcome to the perfume room. My scent of the day today is a bit complique, because you know what, folks, when it comes to layering, do as I say, not as I do.

What I've learned from past guest on the podcast that I have tried to pass on to all of you is to layer the siage of your fragrances rather than your fragrances themselves. In other words, if you want to smell like a combination of multiple fragrances, don't spray them on top of each other because you'll be ruining the formulations. Instead, spray them on different parts of your body so that as people pass you by, they

get a little overview of everything you've got going on.

And you know what?

Most times I do do that, but this morning I was just feeling like smelling like a lot of different

scents.

So I started with Orphion, then quickly added Irish Putre, and then topped it all off with our

side desk.

And what I will say is that Orfion was just

hitting the spot so nicely that this evening, as I reapplied before I went out, I opted to go

solely with Orphion. It is one of the closest sense I have to a signature and today reminded me

why. Let's get to our guest today. I am so excited to be chatting with Yusuf Sala, who is currently

a student at Isipka, which is one of the world's leading perfumery schools. Though in hindsight,

it seems quite obvious, Yusuf could not have imagined that his chemistry degree, lifelong

love of fragrance, and experience working as both a Somalié and drag artist would make him

the perfect candidate to become a perfumer. But lucky for us, one day in the middle of the

pandemic and several hours of YouTube videos in, everything clicked, and Yusuf knew it was

exactly what he was meant to do. Now almost a year into perfume school, Yusuf feels sure of his path. Today we chat about

everything from what he's studying, to the techniques he uses to commit raw materials to memory,

to who he hopes to become as a perfumer and his vision board for the types of fragrances he will

someday create, and of course, the scents and the people who wear them that have been most

formative to his olfactive tastes and memories. Here is Yusuf. Yusuf, welcome to the perfume room. Coming live from Paris. How are you doing today? Hi, Emma. Thank you so much for having me. It's actually such an honor to be here as an avid fan of the podcast. And an avid listener, I have to say it's an extreme honor to be a guest. Thank you so much. I'm good. How are you? I'm so excited. I'm great. I'm so excited to have you. And it's funny because I remember when you started following the podcast and like sometimes we would DM and then I think I looked at your Instagram one day and I was like, oh my God, this guy's in perfume school. Like this is, I was just, it's, it's, it's fun to to talk to someone who's going through it. Yeah, you are officially going through it. You are a student at Isipka, right? Indeed, yes. Okay, let's settle this debate once and for all because I've had other Isipka guests. Isipka? How are you pronouncing it these days?

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