What I love about scent
Long before there was Ukwimi, there was my love for perfumes. After college, I took control of my personal expenses and nervously watched bank balances dribble down. Once in a while I was thrilled when the balance had settled long enough for me to buy a ‘cheap and cheerful’ scent.
I loved the body sprays stocked by The Body Shop and Bath and Bodyworks, opting for those as daily scents. If perfume can be used as a memory tool in the same way as a music soundtrack, then those body sprays were the scent-track of my summers in DC and London. I distinctly remember events laced with a light citrus-fragrance; I remember being with friends at a particular place, the air mixed with floral hints rising from my skin.
I graduated to buying more complex fragrances as the years went by.
My husband has gifted me many scents over the years. Some of my favourite moments during travel were wandering through duty free shops sniffing bottles to choose which I would give him. In my closet is a box of empty perfume bottles, the vessels of memories. I like to sit with the box before me and breathe in the scent from that empty bottle and remember where I was, who was with me and what we were doing when that perfume swam around me.
In my early days of perfume creation while Ukwimi was being birthed, my son and daughter would come over to my bench, eager to mix their own blends. I was happy to share this with them. The recipes for their blends are still in my notebook, ready for when they want them packaged. Sharing this with them has been a gift, too.
The perfumes have always been with me.
And now Ukwimi is with us all.