The fragrances of Maya Njie are blended as recollections of memory; scents that seek to capture the essence and preserve the spirit of the intimate and personal. Elusive moments and subtle details, those that would otherwise have slipped from consciousness, are remembered. The tones are of a time and the accords nostalgic, yet the end products feel profoundly contemporary. Memories from Maya’s dual Scandinavian and Gambian heritage are reconstructed by way of scent.
As a self-taught perfumer, her practice was developed through experimentation; the blending of raw materials with a variety of essential oils, aroma compounds and resins; nature and science combining in autobiographical fragrances. Maya’s olfactory identity draws inspiration from her upbringing, as well as an archive of intimate family photographs from the 1960s; the small Swedish summer house surrounded by mercurial forests, the visits to her grandparents’ sparsely furnished flat on Sunday afternoons, Uncle Lars' and Aunt Erene’s wedding. A bottling of a time, place and spirit.
Founded in 2016, Maya Njie Perfumes continues to explore the intertwining of scent and memory in high-quality artisanal perfume blends. Extracted, filtered and bottled are personal moments, through which the wearer creates their own feeling, attachment and meaning.
I get asked a lot about different fragrance strengths and about varying oil contents in perfumes so I thought I'd elaborate a little on this. When shopping for a new fragrance you'll come across many different categories - these usually draw a parallel between the fragrance strength in the bottle and the price tag that it carries (sometimes the name it carries too of course!). Lets have a look!
Cologne
2% – 4%
Cologne was traditionally worn by men and used a splash on to freshen up. It would mostly consist of citrus top notes that are volatile by nature and therefore evaporate quickly. As we all know Colognes can be worn by both men and women and its simply down to preference. It's perfect way to wear a light fragrance during the summer months that you don't want to linger.
Eau de Toilette
4% - 8%
This is a weaker version of the Eau de Parfum and many perfume houses like to offer it to customers who wish to wear something lighter. It's not always made up of the same EDP counterpart notes and can have a slightly different structure.
Eau de Parfum
8% - 20%
This is the most common perfume category that you'll come across and should last you a good few hours to a day.
Parfum / Extrait de Parfum / Pure Perfume
15% - 30%
These are the strongest of them all and often the most expensive. It can be oily on the skin and last all day, not uncommonly past this too! It will never consist of 100% fragrance as it needs to be diluted to be safe to put on your skin.
All of these categories cross over somewhat in terms of percentages and will also vary from one person to another. Our own skin and it's oils will play a certain part in what stays, fades and creates a sublime sillage (the distance the fragrance travels once applied). The combination of base, mid and top notes is also important to achieve staying power in a fragrance. Fundamentally it's up to us to search for and discover where our preferences lies when wearing perfumes and I am very happy to try and help you along the way.
All of my scents are labelled as Eau de Parfum even thou they exceed this oil content. As they work differently on people I advocate trialling them personally and see what they do for you. The Discovery Set is a great way to go if you're curious!
Thank you,
Maya