By Yulia Leonovich
Belaya Rus #5 has been launched by Sophia in Minsk, who calls it a gift for her compatriots. Born in the village of Lyubcha, in the Novogrudok District of the Grodno Region, young Sophia gained her first ‘perfume’ experience as a child, accompanying her mother to the market. With her great sense of smell, she always chose the freshest products.
I was 15 when my parents decided to leave Belarus and move to Poland. I still often think of our little house and the violets that grew around it. Our family was poor so flowers replaced toys for me. All my life, the sweet fragrance of violets has been associated for me only with childhood. This is why it’s no surprise to find it as the basis for ‘Belaya Rus’ fragrance. I chose this flower.
Has the price of the fragrance already been announced?
I can’t reveal anything yet but sales don’t bother me. I’ve done my job in creating the fragrance, which sums up my feelings towards the country in which I was born.
When buying famous branded perfumes, we tend to give credit to the designer rather than the true engineers of the fragrance. Does this offend you?
The world has few true perfumers and their names are usually unknown to the public. As a Soviet йmigrй, it’s wonderful for me to work in the global fashion industry and, moreover, to become one of the leading perfumers.
How would you define your professional style?
Competitors accuse me of excessive partiality to rose scents but show me a perfume that doesn’t include rose! It’s universal: present everywhere. You may like my fragrance, or not, but I know one thing: it has character. I create chords, based on simplicity and clarity. Of course, a perfume should not be monotonic. I’m not interested in scents which spend their entire force on the first note, and then quickly fade. I prefer them to develop gradually.
Modern women are becoming more pragmatic, yet still buy perfume, which we might say is useless.
Ladies buy perfume not to please men but to create a certain mood: lightness, freshness, mystery and so on. I’ve always wanted perfume to help women forget problems for at least 15 minutes.
