Perfumes are part of our personality. Our smell characterizes and defines us. Since time immemorial humans have found ingenious ways to distill essences from natural elements and plants around us and used these precious elixirs for health, healing and religious rites. Although many other animals have a keener sense of smell, as humans we can associate particular smells with particular events, places or people, and these special fragrances can transport us back through time, triggering pleasant memories and sensations. The perfume we choose is a matter of personal taste, an expression of our inner self.
Each perfume is carefully crafted to reflect the concept behind it and express that concept through aromatic interpretation. Unlike more static art forms, such as a painting for instance, a fragrance is an artistic creation that is in constant flux as it warms on the wearer’s skin and gently wafts through the air. Each perfume changes subtly as time goes by, but the succession of scents must maintain a unity that remains true to the concept behind the fragrance and distinguishes it from other perfumes.
The first nuances of a perfume last about 20 minutes; this is the strongest aroma. Afterwards, another smell stays on the skin. This constitutes the heart of the perfume and lasts at least 6 hours. This gives way to the last scents, the deepest notes that can linger for days. A good perfume should subtly interpret each of these aromas and combine them to create a full-bodied, harmonious fragrance that is perfectly balanced.
Perfumes react with our skin to reveal unique nuances, and even how long each aroma lasts can vary from person to person. This is because we all have our own characteristic smell and skin type with a specific pH and balance of oils. Emotionally, too, we all relate to a perfume in a personal and individual way, a connection we feel intuitively based on our own interpretation of each fragrance.
Lola Karmimova-Tillyaeva, the inspiration behind the fragrance
Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva is a philanthropist born in Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent. Recognized for her remarkable work with Uzbekistan's needy children, together with her husband Timur Tillyaev who shares her vision, she runs several charitable projects. Alongside her social work, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva now runs her own perfume house, too, The Harmonist, a unique brand guided by an ethos in harmony with Lola’s own vision of life.
The Harmonist
Perfume houses usually launch collections centered around a specific concept, and from there, they choose the ingredient that will make up each perfume. However, few perfume collections show such an innovative concept as Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva's The Harmonist, which bases not just a collection but the entire brand on a unique concept: the ancient oriental philosophy of Feng Shui.
The Harmonist’s ethos focuses on the Eastern philosophy of Feng Shui, a profound worldview that recognises five essential elements that govern the Universe: water, earth, air, fire and metal. Together with the pair of opposite yet complimentary forces of Yin and Yang, these elements constitute everything that exists, including humans. For each individual, one element of these five is particularly predominant.
Lola Karimova describes the process of making perfumes as an art form similar to making music, where every note must be perfectly harmonised to create a beautiful melody. Together with the renowned French perfumer Guillaume Flavigny of Givaudan, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva created ten signature perfumes for The Harmonist, each one representing one of the five elements in both a Yin and Yang nuance. By choosing one of these ten signature scents, the customer can find a fragrance best suited to their own particular element and harness the power of smell to harmonize with their inner and outer energies.
Moon Glory
Now, four years after The Harmonist began, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva and Guillaume Flavigny have recently launched their new fragrance Moon Glory, a scent twinned with Sun Force to form the brand’s new Prequel Collection, two gorgeous perfumes in keeping with The Harmonist’s ethos of working with nature to craft perfumes that can create a sense of harmony and well-being for those who wear them.
Nature is not only part of the concept behind the brand; nature’s bounty is also a vital part of the ingredients. Arabian jasmine (pikake), Queen of the Night nocturnal cactus flower and ylang-ylang form some of the perfume’s top notes, the initial aroma that captivates you with the night's strong essence. Moon Glory then envelops you with passionflower and lychee, evoking the sensual, mystical mood of the night, to culminate with fragrances of honey and balsam that echo the initial shades of passionflower and jasmine while witnessing the dawn that marks the Moon’s farewell yet reminds us of it.
The moon represents Yin energy and has inspired people throughout history with its beauty and power. Mysterious, inaccessible yet ever-present in our night skies, the moon is an eternal muse for all artist and creators. And this new fragrance is no exception; Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva wants to infuse her collection with the mystique that surrounds the moon's glow, capturing its essence to transmit it through Moon Glory, a hypnotic perfume that leaves no one indifferent.
The new collection comes to The Harmonist with the best traditions and top quality of French perfumery, and the fragrances find their place in perfume houses with strong, distinctive scents. But unlike many heavy sillage perfumes, Moon Glory radiates the calm and strength of the moon, taking you on a scented journey through all the moon’s many facets, harmonizing its enigma in a single perfume.
