Today we’d like to introduce you to Miss Layla.
Miss Layla, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started in the Artisan Perfume business and how the journey has been so far.
I guess you could say I entered the fragrance industry through the ‘side door’. I was a professional cook before I became a Perfumer. The beginning of my fragrance journey actually started with food and my deep connection to nature and gardening. These building blocks became the foundation to how I perceive the world and consequently how I live life ‘through the nose.’
I grew up in Montana for a time during my childhood. When I was there, my whole world changed with an education of plants, herbs and the wilderness. My siblings and I were taught from an early age how to grow our own food, how to harvest, store food for the winter months and even were shown how to kill and clean animals for consumption. Because of these childhood experiences, I cultivated a deep connection to nature and its creatures. I learned how to feel and smell the earth, and to taste when certain plants were ready for harvest. Our garden and the wilderness of Montana was alive with an orchestra of aroma. It was truly a remarkable place to grow up.
I learned how to cook as early as six years old. I was always in the kitchen with my siblings making salad dressings from scratch, pasta from scratch, sauces, soups, bread, jams- you name it! It’s because of this connection I fell in love with aromas, cooking, tasting and consequently, perfume.
Retronasal olfaction, or mouth smell, is the ability to perceive flavor dimensions of food and drink. It is a sensory modality that produces flavor. In short, about 80% of what we taste is what we are smelling. This is inherent in how I comprehend and create perfume. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-twenties that I discovered I had synesthesia. I can taste shapes. In addition, I can smell shapes too. This gives me an advantage when formulating fragrances. Looking back, it’s clear to see I always had a proclivity to surround myself with anything related to aroma and taste.
As a young adult in the early 2000’s, I held down various jobs in order to pay rent on my own in Los Angeles. I spent years trying to find myself and where I belonged as an artist. At one time I was a woodworker, a master certified professional picture framer, I worked craft service in the entertainment industry and cooked and bartended at restaurants. In addition, I got a job at a body care manufacturing company.
This was when everything changed for me and where my future as a Perfumer began. Essentially, my job at the manufacturing company was to mix fragrances into base products, such as body creams, soaps and treatment oils. It was my first time experiencing plant essences that were concentrated in a bottle- like lavender essential oil. It was as if I was smelling the soul of the plant. Something in me just snapped… I was like, “I want to see what lavender smells like in combination with yuzu oil!” It was a spiritual experience, an awakening.
From there, I started to experiment; just like I did in my own kitchen growing up. I became a fragrance freak- and as the saying goes, “the rest is history.” I started to make perfume and I didn’t even know it. In fact, I began to realize that food is its own perfume and that I had been working with scent and aromas my whole life. It came naturally to me. I set on the belief then and there, that: If you can cook well, you can make perfume. I started sourcing my own raw materials from suppliers, built a perfume organ in my apartment and began figuring out how to make authentic perfume.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I don’t know a single Independent Perfumer who would say the journey of creating perfume is a smooth road. I think the struggles are unique to the individual as well. For me, my struggle has always been financial. I didn’t (and still don’t) have the money for a formal perfume education. The most difficult challenge was teaching myself. My first obstacle (besides my shoestring budget) was access to aromatic materials. Quality perfume materials are very expensive, especially when you purchase in small quantities. Most industry suppliers will only sell to me in kilo minimums. For perspective, a single kilo of Moroccan rose absolute can cost an upwards of $2500. In the beginning, I struggled to find suppliers that I could purchase small quantities of materials from.
Secondly, there is no instruction manual out there for how to make perfume. Not many people know this, but the perfume industry is very secretive and has been under lock and key for centuries. Perfume formulas are not published and navigating the fragrance industry takes a lot of dedication, passion and research. The perfume industry is especially hard to break into because there is little to no information about it. I think the allure of the secrecy was even more attractive to me, so I kept at it and ultimately taught myself how to make perfume. It has been an extremely rigorous learning curb and has taken me years to get where I am today. There is a lot of trial and a lot of error. The more I learn, the more fascinated I am. I am currently nose deep in the technical aspects of perfume formulation, along with safety and regulatory compliance. My journey as an olfactory artist has unexpectedly taken me into the realm of science and botany.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about FŪM AKA: Fūm Fragrances. – what should we know?
My company is called fūm. It was started as a creative endeavor to link my aptitude for culinary arts and my appreciation for all things aromatically beautiful. I am playfully known among my friends as the “Perfumer who cooks”.
Rather than thinking of perfume as a cosmetic accessory, I believe perfume is Olfactive Art.
I use my distinct culinary palette and life experience to create unique and authentic perfumes that connect communities through fragrance culture and olfactive art. As I traced the lineage of how perfume began, I realized my own connections to scent and aroma was deeply linked to my core being; my memories. I found that scent is identity, it makes up such a big part of who we are. I believe scent bonds individuals and connects communities.
What sets my olfactive art apart from other perfumes is my fascination in connecting with individuals through the medium of scent. Like food, I found that fragrance transcends communication and cultural barriers and allows for a true authentic connection between individuals, no matter where they come from. fūm invites you to re-connect with your senses, make memories, live in the moment, and discover the ineffable world of scent.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Without a doubt I can say that I am a very enthusiastic and dedicated person. When I am passionate about something, I throw myself into what I am doing with the entirety of my being. I don’t do anything half asked and I don’t give up on myself, no matter what. I always find a way to keep going and continue improving. I am a life long learner. I’ve been told that my enthusiasm, creativity and passion for life is infectious! If there is a characteristic or quality that I feel is essential to success, it’s finding that passion and evolving with it. As Bukowski aptly put it, “find what you love and let it kill you.”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fumfragrances.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fumfragrances/
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