Several years ago, an electrical engineer from Vladikavkaz, Fatima Gaeva decided to make her passion for perfumery a profession. Today she is the author of about 25 exclusive fragrances, which she produces under the Embrace brand. The main line of the brand includes five products in the form of eau de parfum. Fatima sells them through her website and Instagram - sends them by mail. Offline her perfume can be purchased at two retail outlets in Vladikavkaz. For a 50-milliliter bottle of perfume from Fatima, buyers will have to pay from 4,300 to 7,500 rubles. The girl does not regret that she quit "serious work" for this, but admits that it makes no sense to expand production.
Self-taught perfumer
- When people find out what I do, they often ask questions, and if you make a rating of the most annoying ones, then the victory will be won: “Have you read“Perfumer?”” I read, of course, that's why I decided to become a perfumer. Just kidding.
I am a self-taught perfumer and I believe that in the modern world you can learn everything. I am an electrical engineer by training. Not even a chemist, I had a C in chemistry at school, which is now very disturbing. Having received a specialty, she worked in a large production, then decided to go into design and then at the same time began to engage in perfumery, however, she did not tell anyone about her hobby. I was embarrassed or something. In my serious profession, perfumery seemed to be something completely ephemeral. She told me only when she created a certain amount of fragrances - and only to her close circle. Although they still perceive my work as a temporary insanity. I just didn't share how long, how seriously and how deeply it touches me.
It was not easy to make a choice in favor of perfumery, leaving a stable job. The spouse supported, but the parents did not understand, but they saw that she was burning with this, and did not resist. And when I already opened my own company, there was more understanding.
I have five years of perfumery experience, the first two years were experimental. And another one and a half years of maternity leave. At that time, I was very much afraid that I would have to part with the perfumer profession forever. Serious hormonal changes made it impossible to work at all. I perceived smells differently during pregnancy and for some time after the birth of the child. Fortunately, everything returned to normal.
How fragrances are created
- I use ready-made perfume components. I put them in a composition, that is, I collect a bouquet. I measure, dilute with ethyl alcohol, taste the smell, measure again. According to the rules, aromas require aging - at least two weeks after mixing the components. In order to open correctly. A perfume can change its scent - and the whole process will start over until it becomes clear: this is it. Creating a scent is not a quick process. Several weeks pass, a month, maybe even two.
Essential oils can be natural or synthetic. It is often said that a decent flavor can be created using only natural products. Not entirely true. Synthetics are different, there is low quality, and there are more expensive natural ingredients.
Unfortunately, most of the constituent aromas are not produced in Russia. In Crimea, they grow wonderful lavender, some roses, but this is a drop in the bucket. Almost everything has to be purchased abroad. The same goes for quality packaging - it's hard to find a good bottle.
A scent in honor of the ancient Alans
- The first fragrances remained unnamed, they were very funny, completely unlike the perfumes made from ordinary pharmacy "ethers".
The first fragrance, which received a name instead of numbering, was "Allon" (translated from the Ossetian "earthly" - Ed.), As the ancient Alans called themselves. I was hooked by how easy our ancestors treated themselves. And the created fragrance seemed just as simple, earthy.
Each fragrance has its own story. I'll tell you about Embrace Freedom. I didn’t wait for the next fragrance to ripen, I needed it right now, today. I put it on myself and walked in it all day. By the evening I realized that this is what I need. This is how the full-fledged version of the fragrance was born, which was named "Today". Then I began to hear reviews about him - that he is a little rough, heavy, too masculine for me. And I realized that I would wear exactly what I like, I don't want to create the impression of a “tulip girl”. And in this choice I am free. Hence the new name Embrace Freedom was born.
In general, I do not like to divide fragrances by gender. For example, the perfume Farna has been written for a long time "feminine", but men also like the scent. I thought: why make people choose as I see fit? I decided: let them be guided by their feelings, so I declare the fragrances as unisex.
Smell in my head
- I work at home, for me this is the most comfortable zone. I can work on a whim and at different times of the day, and the laboratory will oblige me to a certain regime. When everything is sealed and the room is ventilated after work, there is almost no smell. And if there is, it is muted and quite pleasant. True, once I came across low-quality droppers for working with essential oils, that was a disaster.
Sometimes they ask: how are smells born? First - in the head. For example, we know how rain smells in summer, freshly cut grass - our memory stores many aromatic pieces. For a perfumer, each such "piece" is a material for production. I begin to think: how and in what dose the components can be beaten and mixed. This is a mental process.
As a rule, I know how the scent will turn out in the end. I like to give a simple example: the hostess comes to her kitchen and wants to cook chicken. She knows that black pepper goes well with this dish, but would coriander do? And she roughly knows how the seasoning will "fit" and what the taste will be. Likewise, the perfumer analyzes how the ingredients fit and make friends with each other and what the aroma will be. It is important to understand what will sit down, where will be the beginning of the fragrance, how it will unfold, what will become the base. This is already a certain level of knowledge and the work of the olfactory - olfactory - imagination. Good memory is also important. You need to keep in mind a large number of components, to know how they smell and behave.
"Expensive is Dior"
- I am a very bad economist, poorly guided in numbers and quite often lose. Mainly because of the high cost of the components, the ones I love. It happens that I wait six months for the ingredients of future perfumes, or even more, which should also affect the price. But as soon as a precious package falls into my hands, I forget about the benefits, I start pouring, and I want people to get acquainted with the product as soon as possible. Therefore, I sometimes lower the cost.
And about "expensive-cheap" Some clients ask: "Why is it so cheap?", Others: "Why is it so expensive?" The last one to answer: "Expensive - this is the Dior that you buy, although it has penny components, and the cost is made up of one advertisement."
I'm not chasing scales. It is difficult to do good things when production is on stream and there is no way to control the whole process. Even if the technology is fully monitored, a large number of high-quality components do not exist in the world - only one kilogram of essential oil is obtained from several tons of raw materials.
Therefore, no matter what financial advantages mass production promises, I am not interested in it. So far I have created about twenty-five fragrances, and only five of them are included in the main collection. The rest contain such rare components that I release them in limited quantities.
Don't follow fashion
- In Russia, I know very few indie perfumers, this is from the word independent - independent. Independent, including from fashion. I do not follow her tendencies, I am afraid that they will influence me. And so it was already. When green scents sounded as a trend, I caught myself wanting to create one, but immediately realized that this desire was imposed on me from the outside. Several people in the world set the tone: how we should dress, how we smell. And a year later they say something else.
Those people who do not blindly follow fashion and are no longer afraid of complex compositions, as a rule, do not return to luxury. Such connoisseurs were found not only in Russia. My fragrances have been bought for a long time in Germany, for some time - in Belgium and Hungary, recently the perfume flew to Malaysia and the Netherlands. How do customers choose from a distance? It's simple: they pre-order a set of samples, then - the perfume you like.
Perfume must be worn correctly
- There are many myths about how to apply the fragrance correctly. The most important advice - please don't overdo it! Any aroma can become unpleasant from an overabundance.
You can apply it anywhere, except for mucous membranes, of course. You just need to remember: the lower we apply the aroma, the more voluminous its sillage. The molecules of the substance, breaking away from our skin, rise upward. So, if you put perfume on the neck area, then only people above you can smell the scent, or if they stand very close to you. The wrist will smell great - the fragrance molecules will spread from the waist up. From "pulsating points" - these are the bends of the arms and legs, whiskey - the aroma evaporates faster, but it will also sound more intense.
Personally, I love to put scent on clothes. Although - I will surprise - I hardly use perfume. I am so involved in fragrances that I get tired of them. The exception is when I wear out a new scent and need to know the degree of its persistence, how it will unfold, what trail will remain.
It is also important at what time the fragrance will be worn. It used to be that a fragrance bought, say, in the summer, disappointed customers. I always advise in such cases - try in the fall or winter. It will open up in a different way. Indeed, often a person fell in love with a fragrance at other times of the year. The same is about day and evening.
How to choose a perfume
- People often wonder: is it true that the same scent is heard differently in different people. I am sure that this is so. Somehow I didn’t recognize one of my fragrances. On one girl, he opened up with flowers that were not in the composition. This surprised me a lot. Therefore, I always say: do not choose a scent "from a friend", choose "from yourself."
And preferably for yourself. I do not recommend giving perfume. Although on this score I have a double conviction: experience says one thing, reason - another. Reason convinces: it is not known how the aroma will unfold, what associations it will cause. If a man is offered a perfume similar to the one that his unloved mother-in-law smothered with, he obviously won't like it. Therefore, I advise you not to give. On the other hand, I can remember many cases when those who received our perfumes became regular customers of Embrace. Usually spouses guess with the scent for each other. By the way, my husband wears only my perfume. And this is his personal perfume, which I will not include in the main collection, for me it is precisely “his fragrance”.
In general, when we apply our favorite scent, the one that is truly our own, the person seems to be in the arms of the perfume. That's why I named my brand Embrace - embrace.
