September 29, (THEWILL) – Catherine Tope Omai, an international perfumer and bespoke fragrance creator, speaks with IVORY UKONU about her fragrance line, ‘Contagious,’ how she got the international community interested in her products and sundry issues I have always loved to smell good, but I dabbled into fragrances properly in my adult years as a passion, more for my own well-being. As a student, I liked to smell nice, but I didn’t have the money to buy the kind of perfumes I wanted. I had tried but it later became an expensive habit.
So, I wondered if there was a way one could create a personal fragrance without buying expensive readymade ones. So, I searched Google and discovered all the studios where one could create unique fragrances. I picked one in Central London, went there three times to create my own unique scent.
By the third time, somebody who had noticed my passion for fragrances and the creation process, encouraged me to attend a three-day fragrance creation experience in France. And that was how the journey into fragrance creation began. This got me more interested and curious, and I attended more courses.
When I returned to Nigeria and got a job, my boss, who noticed how I always smelled nice, encouraged me to turn my passion into a business. I wasn’t even thinking of turning it into a business at that time, but I followed his lead, nonetheless. At that time, creating niche perfumes wasn’t really something people were excited about.
There were a fe.