a perfume OF ONE’S OWN
MEET THE SCENT-SAVVY WOMEN DISRUPTING THE MALE-DOMINATED FRAGRANCE INDUSTRY
THE EDITOR Nedahl Stelio
Like many clean-beauty converts, former magazine editor Nedahl Stelio found herself looking a little deeper into the ingredients she was using on a regular basis and was horrified by what she found. “So I gave it all away and started from scratch with natural beauty,” she says. And while she loved using formulas she could trust, there was a distinct lack of luxury on the natural fragrance scene, so she launched her own beauty brand, Recreation Beauty. Keeping things natural isn’t the only difference in her process: contrary to many of her fragrance-formulating counterparts, she often envisions the final product and works backwards from there. Her scents, such as Stardust (woody), Sun-kissed (citrus) and Call Me Venus (rose), are housed in stylish bottles with pared-back labels. Her latest is This Love Of Mine – a sultry blend of gardenia and jasmine. 1. This Love Of Mine, $109 for 50ml, RECREATION BEAUTY, recreationbeauty.com.au
THE NOSE Christine Nagel
Hermès’ first female nose may be paving the way for women, but Christine Nagel didn’t always want to be a perfumer — she wanted to be a chemist. It wasn’t until Geneva-born Nagel began to work at fragrance giant Firmenich that she became captivated, though getting a foot in the door proved difficult. “People said, ‘Absolutely no, you are a woman and you do not come from the south of France.’” So she took her untapped talent to Italy, where she was creating scents for Versace and Fendi within a year. She admits falling in love with every formula she creates, but recovers quickly: “When one story is done, another begins.”
2. L’ambre Des Merveilles Natural Spray, $230 for 100ml, HERMÈS, myer.com.au
THE FLORIST Saskia Havekes
When it comes to flowers, no-one is more sought-after than Grandiflora’s Saskia Havekes – and her floral authority has given her fragrance line the edge in a scent-saturated market. Mentored by late perfumer Sandrine Videault, Havekes creates scents that draw on her intimate knowledge of a flower’s life cycle. “My desire has always been to capture the nature of the flower in two stories: the first is reminiscent of the bloom beginning to open and the second when she is fully flowered.” Her latest and most personal scent, Saskia, celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Grandiflora flower shop.
3. Boronia, $145 for 50ml, GRANDIFLORA, grandiflorafragrance.com
THE GURUS Alanna Quinn & Madeleine Whitter
Ayu began with two friends and a transformative trip to India. It was there, while studying Ayurvedic teachings, that Alanna Quinn and Madeleine Whitter became fascinated by the relationship between scent and mood. “So we began to explore this connection by blending oils,” says Quinn. Their first scent, Souq, combined notes of rose, jasmine, musk and sandalwood. “We knew we were on to something when people began to ask what we were wearing,” she adds. Fast-forward six years, and Ayu’s perfumed oils are some of the most popular on the market. Quinn and Whitter still have an intuitive approach to scent creation. “We begin with a simple idea, like a scent that takes us back to a moment, and we then bring that memory to life,” says Quinn. Their latest, Sage, has patchouli, sandalwood and amber to evoke the feeling of returning to India.