INTERVIEW: How to make your perfume last longer – Perfumer

The year has just begun, and many Nigerians are gearing up for a fresh start. In like manner, Olufemi Olaseinde, managing director of Seinde Signature, has revealed some intrigues about the dynamics of perfumes
and fragrances.

He also founded what has been described as Nigeria’s first perfume museum. This first-of-its-kind edifice allows fragrance lovers to sample over 1000 unique fragrances from different brands and perfumes before purchasing.

In this PREMIUM TIMES interview, the avid perfume collector who has transformed his hobby into a profitable business delves into the world of perfumes and showcases his collection of over 1500 scents while at it.

Excerpts :

PT: How can you tell if a perfume is good? Most of the time, the more expensive it is, the better we think it is.

Seinde: Some people make the mistake of thinking that the most expensive fragrance is the best, but it has to do with the ingredients; it has to do with the formulator; some regular perfumes are merely chemicals. They can harm an individual’s health and the skin. The natural-based perfume ticks all the boxes, so I stopped buying the regulars.

PT: How does our skin react to perfumes?

Seinde: Most perfumes have their days and act differently on different skins. We have different skin types; some have dry skin, and others have oily skin. Perfumes are also chemicals; when you put them on your skin, they may last longer. But there are some hacks you could use to make it last longer.

PT: What are some of these hacks?

Seinde: Applying a cream on your body before spraying your perfume would make the fragrance last longer. But like many Nigerians, when you spray your perfume and rob it with your hand, you have reduced the performance of the perfume. You are generating heat, which would make it wear off fast.

PT: Where are the best places to apply perfume on the body?

Seinde: I will say the warmest parts of the body, better known as the pulse points. They include the neck, the wrist, behind the knee, the foot and the abdomen. These warm spots on your body emit extra body heat, which helps to diffuse a scent naturally. When applying perfume on your pulse points, spritz or dab it (remember, don’t rub), and it will last all day.

PT: As a perfumer, what is your routine with perfumes?

Seinde: After bathing and applying my cream on my body, I wear my perfume before I wear my clothes, and when I wear the clothes. Later in the day, I touch up on the clothes, which will last the whole day; people encounter me at 8 pm and still say I smell nice.

PT: What about oil perfumes?

Seinde: Perfume oils don’t carry alcohol content. So, when you wear perfume oil, it is not until I hug you that I know you are wearing it because the alcohol transmits the smell to the next person. Unfortunately, most of the perfume oils they sell in Nigeria are not original because authentic perfume oils are expensive.

PT: As a perfume collector, tell us a brief background of the history of perfumes.

Seinde: In those days, you were rich when you bathed thrice a year. So people don’t bathe; they use perfume to cover their body smell, and in most cases, because they wear leather, leather is the dead skin of animals; they use perfume to kill the leather scent. So, perfume became the kind of thing only the royals use.

Then, after some time when, the ladies started wearing those giant fibres with cossets that would tighten them, and they were fainting, so they were using Lavenda oil to resuscitate them. That is why the Yorubas call perfume ‘Lofinda’ instead of ‘Lavenda’.

So perfume has existed since immemorial, but it was only for the elites. After some time, when couples, husbands and wives started to wear the same perfume, they decided to put gender to it. It is all a marketing gimmick because perfume does not have any gender.

PT: Most of your products are niche perfumes. What differentiates niche from regular brands?

Seinde: Niche companies make only perfume; they don’t make bags or fashion gear, so special attention is given to their ingredients, how they perform, and everything else.

What differentiates niche from regular brands? Regular or designer perfumes can be cheaper than niche perfumes but are mass-produced and can be of lower quality.

These regular brands have deficient quality and are chemicalised and mass-produced, so every airport, every supermarket, and everywhere in the world would have something to draw that traffic. We are the only store in Nigeria that sells niche perfumes.

PT: As a perfume collector, what effort would you say goes into creating perfumes?

Seinde: People who create perfumes are called noses, and, in the world, there are only 50 certified official noses. Before you become a nose, you must identify about 2,000 scents, and only 50 people have passed that exam. A lot of work goes into perfume making than we know.

PT: Are you a Nose?

Seinde: I am not a Nose; I am just an enthusiast; I love perfumes; it makes me happy; it is like my fetish. When I am unfortunate or I feel down, I do perfume shopping. I am a collector, and I have over 1,500
collections.

READ ALSO: The Politics of Nosemask, By Udeme Nana

PT: Why are they called Nose?

Seinde: Nose is a term used to describe a perfume artist capable of portraying moods, emotions and concepts through fragrance. They are responsible for some of the world’s most distinctive fragrances.

The term is derived from the body part, the nose, and as we all know, we use our nose to smell, but the challenge is that we use our noses differently; some people have sensitive noses. It is peculiar to a scent they have been exposed to.

So, noses are trained to identify and differentiate smells. To become a nose, you must undergo extensive training to become an expert; it takes up to seven years of study – and (mostly) qualifications in chemistry.

PT: Tell us more about your perfume museum.

Seinde: It is a first-of-its-kind that allows fragrance lovers to sample over 1000 unique fragrances from different brands and perfumes before purchasing. Seinde Signature is a world-class company that specialises in niche fragrances. We created this brand in 2020 in October, and this is our third year; we have several branches in Nigeria in Delta, Abuja and Lagos, and to celebrate it, we are educating our customers about perfume. We are also taking some of them to the source of some of these perfumes. There have been three exciting years of growth for Seinde Signature Salon de Parfum. Last year, we took five people to Milan so they could have first-hand experience of perfume-making.

PT: Nigerians need to learn more about fragrances; how do you sensitise your customers about the world of scent?

Seinde: To educate people, we flew five perfumers into the country in the first year. In the second year, we took five people from Nigeria to Milan, so this year, because of the economy, we are only taking two customers and a staff member on an all-expenses paid trip to the magical niche fragrance-focused city of Milan, Italy, in March 2024. There we will attend the spectacular Esxence Perfumery Fair and have plenty of exciting activities together.

PT: How will customers partake in the Scentiversary 3?

Seinde: Entries began on July 1st, and customers bought fragrances worth 500k to qualify for a raffle ticket. On 28th December, right before the new year, we selected our lucky winners!