We have experienced the three fragrances. Do you combine the three when you have to go out? I’m a layered girl. I believe that the best way to experience fragrances 100 per cent is by layering them.
So, I always layer them. And because I always go with the flow of different seasons, just like you, there are times when ‘Dive’ is like my favorite perfume. I think the perfumes also go with my mood.
There are days when I feel lighter, everything is airy-fairy, and I just want that floral scent that transcends and translates the way you’re feeling. So, Dive is the go-to. There are days when I feel like a baddy and I walking in a room, and everyone knows that I’m there.
For that mood, I think ‘Vogue’ does that for me. There are days when I just want to feel like I own the space and I am who I say I am. I want to feel deep; I want to be immersed in the perfume, I want to feel strong, bold, confident; then I wear ‘Intense’, because clove, as a scent, is one of those ingredients that just does a lot to your senses and just makes me believe that I am that girl.
Are the three different scents some sort of representations of your mood? If you’re a real perfume lover, you go through seasons, where you wear one particular scent for minutes, and then it changes over time. So for me, it goes with my mood. Like, if I wake up in the morning, and I’m really, really excited that day, I feel light and I don’t want to wear florals.
I want to walk in a room and feel sweet. I want people to hug me and just feel the presence of how I feel; and Dive would be that day. There are days like today, I felt like I made this, this is my baby and I created this.
I’m coming to sit with my colleagues and members of the press. Of course, I wore some ‘Vogue’ and I layered them on top. It does have to do with how I feel, so I don’t get bored, as well.
Perfume is art for me. You play around with the scents and you never know what you will come up with. I absolutely love the fact that people can’t pick out what exactly you’re wearing.
So that’s why I layer a lot. As one of the most wonderful perfume collectors, how many do you have in your collection right now? I think literally, I am sitting comfortably between a 1,200. I give out a lot, as well, because there are scents that I have from five years ago.
There are scents that I have that are nostalgic to me. There are scents that I have that are gifts, that I never want to give away. So for me, when it gets to a certain part of the bottle, I keep it and start on something else because I can always relive the experience that I’ve got when I had that one.
As I said, it’s art. You know, I’m the girl who spends six hours, perfume shopping. Literally, my friends are going for clothes, shoes, and I’m on the perfume floor.
I get lost in there because I’m smelling. I love going to Harrods and I ask them for what’s new. They talk to me about the perfumes, the person who made the perfumes, what it smells like.
Which one should I take and how to go about starting my journey with this bottle of perfume. It’s always very interesting for me because I fell in love with perfume from when I was at the University of Lagos. A guy gave me Narciso Rodrigo’s.
I think for Valentine’s Day and that was my very first bottle of niche perfume. It was actually the Flower Bomb perfume. I remember I was in arts department at University of Lagos, and every time I went into class, everyone would tell me I smell nice and it just made me feel really good.
There’s nothing that feels as good as a compliment that says you smell nice. That was where my relationship with perfume started. How long did it take you to create the perfume line? We started this journey three to four years ago.
I would say most certainly, that three and a half years ago, the idea was born. First came the idea. Then, I had to think I could do this.
Then, I started traveling around France and visiting lots of perfume houses, finding developers, finding perfume geniuses, talking to people that knew the business and I just wanted to know how to go about creating my first line. So yeah, about three years in the making. How do you feel that your perfumes is being incorporated into this? I’m really excited about this collaboration.
I think the very first time I ever heard of Seinde signatures was from my friend, Jimmy. He had asked me to pick out a bottle of perfume for him and I forgot and he told me not to worry about it. That he will get it at Seinde Signature, and I asked what that was.
He said, it was the only place they sell authentic perfumes in Nigeria. So, that was the very first time I heard about them. So, I guess their reputation outlives even the team.
Distribution was one of the key reasons why we did this because you’ve got to respect a brand that has its roots all around Nigeria. We didn’t want to work or stock at stores where we only cater to the elite or the people who tell you they live on the Island. What about those in Ikeja? What about people in Port Harcourt? What about people in Abuja? My brand is very massive.
It’s very aspirational, which was also influenced heavily in the creation of these perfumes. I didn’t make the perfumes for me. I made them for every person out there who wants to smell good.
For every person who loves perfumes and who just wants to collect perfumes as well. It was important for me to collaborate with the store that I know that people won’t just be asking on our website alone but they can come in here, experience the perfume and then make their purchase. What has the reception been like? It’s been mind-blowing.
I was very nervous. We sold out immediately for the first batch. I know the first batch of perfumes we had in Lagos alone was about 450 to 500 bottles of all three.
We had in Ghana and we completely sold out once we launched. I was very nervous when we wanted to launch this because no one has done this at this scale before. I mean, people tell you they love perfumes but do people really love perfumes? Would they really come out to a perfume launch and would they actually love to own a perfume by a Nigerian person? I was totally mind-blown and could not believe how supportive Nigerians in Diaspora and at home have been.
It’s really sort of fired me up onto the next bottles and next collections that we’re definitely going to be creating. I definitely know that people care about how they smell, and how they look regardless of what is happening in the land. So, I think we’re right in the middle of all of that.
How involved were you in the creation process and how long? From start to finish, I was very much involved. I was very much hands-on and I think the most difficult part about creating this was my indecisiveness. There were times that I woke up and I thought that I had created the one and three months would pass of me wearing it and I will think there is something missing.
It was also important for me to detach my personality from it because I’m a deep scent lover. With all these you have achieved, would you call yourself one of Nigeria’s star or that you succeeed because of your celebrity status? To be very honest with you, I suffer the most from impostor syndrome and I don’t really see myself as a star. I feel like I’m just a girl who is experiencing life and doing the things she loves.
I fail at so many things and I win at so many things as well. But the ones that I win at, I loud the trumpet louder than the ones that I don’t. I think that as a businesswoman, it’s never really about being a star.
It’s really about including people on the journey and I’ll talk to anyone about what they think about the perfume, what they think we could do better because I’m always open to listening, as long as it’s constructive and it’s not from a hater. Do you think the reason for your first wave of success is because of your fame or the perfume quality itself? I definitely think it’s a bit of both, if I am going to be honest. Every time we read about Toke Makinwa, it’s always something crazy and people actually think that I am this girl but I’m a thorough business woman.
There were literally four customers I had in mind when I was creating this; the people who love me and will jump on anything that I create. Those who are curious and don’t necessarily care so much about who made it. There are the perfume lovers whom regardless of who made it, love the smell and will buy it.
Then, there are those who are counting on me to fail. They’re just buying it because they want to be able to say it’s rubbish. So, I made sure that across all boards, it was a 10.
I’m yet to see someone come out and say the product is bad. I’m yet to see a perfume lover critique the perfume. I mean we have constructive criticisms that have taken on board as feedback and obviously moving forward we’ll definitely create things that will be better and we hope that you guys will accept them all.
What is the highest amount you have spent for a perfume? I’ll be modest. The cheapest one is still like $2,000 pounds actually. A friend actually asked me before the business came together whether in my other life, someone told me I smelt, because I’ll buy one last week and soon after, I am buying another one to try it.
I’m always trying to get all my friends into the culture of scents and I think so far, I’ve won about 80 per cent of them They care more about the scents they wear. They’re eager to use perfume and even start collecting. What’s your preference, Niche or Regular perfumes? I’m a bit of everything, to be fair.
I love niche perfumes but I’m not a niche person. So, I love everything. My brand is very much premium luxury.
So, it sits parallel to being niche but I’m also someone who will pick up a general bottle of perfume if it’s good and I will wear it. What exactly inspired the designs of your bottles? People have asked me why I wrote my name twice. There are lines like Maison Crivelli, for instance and he’s French.
I don’t know him from anywhere but I love the perfume. So, I learnt how to spell his name. So, I want the white man to also stop and learn to pronounce Toke Makinwa as well.
My hope is it will definitely be in stores across the world as well and I want people, who do not even know anything about my brand to pick up a bottle and actually feel like they can have it sitting in their living rooms, in their closets, in their cars, without feeling it’s too girly or too manly. I just wanted something that’s aesthetically pleasing as well. Also, the crest of my initials is there, so that wherever you go and wherever you see it, you know it is TM.
Do you have role models in the industry, people or someone that inspires you? I think there’s quite a number of people that I’m really inspired by their journey, but I would definitely say Kim Kardashian and Rihanna. I absolutely love them. I feel like for Kim, she’s obviously overcome every obstacle that has been thrown her way and somehow turned over her lemons to lemonade and I feel like that resonates deeply with me, and I love how business savvy she is.
I love that she’s always the underdog that people do not necessarily think much of her. We see her in fashion and she loves appearing naked on the internet. Well, she’s built an empire and a billionaire from doing things that she loves.
Also with Rihanna, from someone who is from Barbados, sort of topping the charts all around the world, not just through her music, but always thinking more. I always say to my colleagues in the industry, God being faithful to me, and as hard as I work, I have 10, 15 years left of being the baby girl for life but what happens afterwards?. I love the fact that Rihanna has been able to evolve from being a musician to being a businesswoman and to also creating products that are closer to the grassroots as well.
Everyone will be able to buy one thing from Fenty, even if it’s lip gloss. She’s just very versatile like that and I think I admire that. In Nigeria, I don’t have anyone I am inspired from because, no one is doing what I’m doing.
So, I would say myself. Whats a day like once you wake? I’m currently filming three movies back to back and I had a day off recently. So, I watched so much TV that day, and it felt so good.
I hadn’t done that in a while because sometimes it gets crazy. Switching between characters can be a bit mental and I try to really not do much socially because one of the characters I’m playing is really going through a lot. So, I’m trying to stay in character.
A lot of people haven’t heard from me in a minute and it’s because of that. I am always working. Once I am done with the media stuff, there’s always, messages from TM Luxury, TM Beauty, and just putting out fires from morning to night, literally, but I love it.
I would absolutely do it all over again, every single day. What are your expectations from collaborating with Seinde Signature? I’m hoping many more Nigerians get to experience Toke Makinwa Perfumes at Seinde Signatures. Seinde’s wings are spread far and wide.
So, they can distribute online as well. I’m also hoping that we get to create at least a signature line together. So are you going to Seinde’s other branches soon? There are definitely events that we’re putting together where people can join me or meet me at different branches, not only in Lagos, but also in Abuja, Port Harcourt, and the rest of them.
Among all that you do, what gives you the most fulfillment? Radio used to and radio would always be my first love. I don’t do it anymore but I have a podcast now. Radio literally was the foundation that every other thing came through and I will never ever take that for granted.
I feel like my time as a radio presenter lives with me and I breathe it. I am not sure if I would ever go back, because the reason why I left radio was to be able to afford the time to do these other things. Maybe, one day, I’ll own my own radio station.
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