"Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can."

- Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic

Aysha Hansen is an independent Australian perfumer with an uncompromising focus on exceptional quality, detail and sensorial elegance. Born in Geelong and raised in the coastal town of Torquay, Aysha's approach to perfumery is largely inspired by memories, daydreams and adventures. As an artisan perfumer, she draws on her passion for nature, history and travel to create fragrances that transport the wearer through evocative storytelling. Aysha conducts custom perfume workshops from her studio in Geelong, and has launched her eponymous luxury perfume collection in July of 2025.

This episode welcomes back perfumer Aysha to reflect on a breakthrough year, including a finalist nomination at the Institute of Art and Olfaction's Golden Pears, an unforgettable trip to Athens, and the craft of turning memory into scent. The conversation explores community in perfumery, the restorative power of Aysha's workshops, and a book pairing with Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic that helps frame Aysha's first three fragrances: Golden Thread, Ghost Lover and Ambrosia.

Fragrances mentioned:

Golden Thread

Ghost Lover

Ambrosia

Book discussed:

Practical Magic - Alice Hoffman

Find Aysha at:

Instagram:

@ayshahansenfinefragrance

Website:

www.ayshahansen.com

Theme music for the show was created by Raul Sanchez I Jorge. Check out his solo work on Wild Animal Records

Australian listeners — the Geelong Fragrance Fair is on from 11–13 September 2026, and tickets are on sale now. It's a great opportunity for the Australian fragrance community to get together — come and see me pair books with Lore Perfumery live on the Saturday!

Tickets & info: geelongfragrancefair.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“In the secular night you wander around

alone in your house. It’s Two-Thirty”

- Margaret Atwood, In the Secular Night

Regina Mamou is a research-based installation artist whose work sits at the crossroads of history, ideology and scent. Raised in a multiethnic household, her mother Polish-American, her father a Christian Chaldean priest who fled Iraq for fear of persecution. Regina's practice blends fact and fiction to interrogate belief systems, particularly communism and totalitarianism. Since 2020, she has been the first artist-in-residence at The Wende Museum of the Cold War in Los Angeles, where she investigates Iraqi-Soviet bilateral relations through an immersive, experiential installation. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and completed a Fulbright project on mapping and memory in Amman, Jordan.

In this episode, Regina shares her unique work at the crossroads of olfactive art, history and political memory, and how scent can evoke powerful narratives and personal histories. We talk about her use of tincturing, and materials like gypsum, ash and bitumen, to conjure historical and cultural memory, and the delicate process of capturing vapour in immersive, scent-based installations.

We dig into the role of surprise, secrecy and the unexpected in her work, echoes of surveillance and propaganda, and how her Iraqi heritage threads through pieces exploring Middle Eastern history and identity. Regina's piece "Hang Our Gods" was a finalist at the Institute for Art and Olfaction's Golden Pear Awards, and we talk about the audience reactions it provokes. We also pair the conversation with Margaret Atwood's poem "In the Secular Night," exploring its themes of solitude, loss and spirituality alongside Regina's own meditations on memory and belief.

Works mentioned:

Hang Our Gods (Institute for Art and Olfaction Golden Pear Awards finalist), Iraqi-Soviet relations installation — The Wende Museum residency

Poem discussed:

In the Secular Night - Margaret Atwood

Find Regina at:

reginamamou.com

researchbermudatriangle.xyz

Theme music for the show was created by Raul Sanchez I Jorge. Check out his solo work on Wild Animal Records

Australian listeners — the Geelong Fragrance Fair is on from 11–13 September 2026, and tickets are on sale now. It's a great opportunity for the Australian fragrance community to get together — come and see me pair books with Lore Perfumery live on the Saturday!

Tickets & info: geelongfragrancefair.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”

― Lois Lowry, The Giver

Bawo Ijirigho is the founder and creative force behind Ilé Olomu, a fragrance house rooted in West African heritage and storytelling. A great-grand nephew of 19th-century Nigerian agricultural pioneer Nana Olomu, Bawo draws on his family's legacy and a modern artistic vision to bring the spirit of Nigeria into fine perfumery, co-developing each fragrance in Zürich alongside master perfumer Andreas Wilhelm.

In this episode, Bawo takes us through his unexpected path from music into perfumery, and the meaning behind the name Ilé Olomu — Ilé means "house" in Yoruba, a deliberate departure from the French "Maison" tradition. We talk about how the Nigerian diaspora and indigenous flora, from the yellow trumpet to native lilies, shape his creative process, and the story behind Verdant, a fragrance built on memory, plantain and home, as well as the winner of the People Choice for the Gold Pear awards in 2026.

Food and celebration run through the conversation too, with plantain, ginger and even a nod to Milo finding their way into his fragrance concepts. We also pair this episode with Lois Lowry's The Giver, exploring how storytelling and memory intertwine in both literature and scent, before Bawo shares his ambitions to take Ilé Olomu global and build lasting cultural connection.

Ilé Olomu fragrances mentioned:

Milora

Verdant

Atalẹ Gold

Books discussed:

The Giver - Lois Lowry

Find Ilé Olomu at:

Instagram:

@ileolomu

Website:

ileolomu.com

Theme music for the show was created by Raul Sanchez I Jorge. Check out his solo work on Wild Animal Records

Australian listeners — the Geelong Fragrance Fair is on from 11–13 September 2026, and tickets are on sale now. It's a great opportunity for the Australian fragrance community to get together — come and see me pair books with Lore Perfumery live on the Saturday!

Tickets & info: geelongfragrancefair.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.