Catherine Tope Omai of Catherine Omai Fragrances is an award winning and an internationally recognised perfume maker. Her fragrances are inspired by the culture, landscape and tradition of the people of Africa, as the fragrances are carefully crafted to evoke memoirs of the people’s diversity, strength and passion. Bringing forth the tradition of her people, Catherine Omai’s fragrances encapsulates love, passion, strength and courage. In this interview with IFEOMA OKEKE-KORIEOCHA, she takes us through her journey in the perfume industry and how she is gaining traction in the international markets through her fragrances.
You mentioned that you are the pioneer of fragrances in Nigeria, how do you mean?
I am the first person that started perfume creation. I started creating in 2009. Then, there were people selling perfumes, there were people selling imitation fragrances but there was nobody that had the artistry and experience to create a perfume from scratch in the lab. This is not about mixing things together and saying you are making a perfume. I mean someone that understands each material, the formula, the science behind it and then creates a full bottle of perfume. There was no one before 2019 when I started. Presently, there are only a few people I can count doing this now. Only a few people that I can attest to their craftsmanship are perfumers in Nigeria. The ones I have come across are only three. I just have to ask you a few questions and I’ll know if you are a perfumer. A person would come to me and give me a brief and say ‘this is the kind of perfume I want, please create it for me.’
During the process, I’ll let you know materials I would like to add and get your opinion about it before going ahead. You would be involved in the process but you are not the one behind the scene.
How did you fall in love with making perfumes?
I have always been plus size and big. In primary and second school, there has always been this thing about big people smelling in certain ways. So, in my subconscious, I was very determined not to fall into that category. So, I would go to my dad’s table as he had a collection of perfumes and my mum too. So I’ll take a small bottle and take it to school to use. I was not allowed to spray perfume in the house. One day I got into trouble with the CRK teacher who said I was trying to entice boys with perfume. They ceased the small bottle and said I should not be wearing perfumes again. But it has always been in my subconscious just to constantly smell good because I didn’t want that narrative to be in my narrative. I was very playful and rough and the tendency of that happening was slightly high. So, when I moved to the UK to study, my own thing was to always smell nice. As a student, my money was limited. I’ll still try to buy some perfumes and then use them. It got to a stage where I started getting bored of people telling me the perfumes I wore. I will then buy three or four different perfumes and layers. It got to a point where it was genuinely something I could no longer afford. So, one day in my hostel I googled ‘how to get a unique fragrance for cheap’. Then all these studios where you can create your own fragrance popped up. So I went to a studio in Central London. Then it was 125 pounds for a 50ml bottle. I got in there and they talked me through the process of creating your own fragrance and the DNA. I was happy. After a few months, I went back there and a lady there told me I seem to be very interested in the materials and love fragrances. She advised me to go to their company in Paris as there were more materials there and get the experience. When I went there, I fell in love with the world of perfumery. My curiosity became bigger and I kept going back until a point when I decided I needed to study this. Even then, I wasn’t looking to do it as a business. It is something I was passionate about. I was doing my Masters in Oil and Gas Management, Renewable Energy with the hope of coming back to Nigeria to change the way things are done. But when I came back to Nigeria, I didn’t get a job. For one year, I was still looking for work in the oil and gas sector. There was nothing. I later got a job as a receptionist. Today it’s a different story. I went back to what I have always loved, perfumes.
I started this journey about 14 years ago. When I started fragrances, I came back from the UK, thinking I could come and sell my brand to people and say I am a Nigerian with a UK experience but I met a lot of resistance. A lot of people were asking why they should buy my perfumes when there are other known brands. Also I’m not a celebrity or social media influencer. So I decided that instead of me trying to sell fragrances to people, what I needed to do was to give people the experience to create their own. Which was why we started the business and the name of the brand at the beginning was Mystiquee Bespoke Perfumery. The reason we chose this name was because I wanted a sense of mystery around people who would wear the perfume because one thing I wasn’t particularly happy about was because people could predict the perfume I wore. The whole concept for me was having something unique for yourself and having a sense of mystery behind it. Last month, we launched our 10th year anniversary of the store opening. So, it took me four years of selling my business and my brand and doing door to door, going from one person to the other and one recommendation to another. I would carry my fragrance case from Surulere to Apapa and from Apapa to the Island. I was just moving around doing the hard work and going from door to door to sell what I was doing. Although some people weren’t very receptive, I still had some encouragement from some people.
What were some of the not so good moments you experienced during this journey?
While I was selling my products, I encountered someone who told me my products and packaging was great but complained that I was meeting him at a bar where drinks and food are sold instead of a boutique where customers can experience the brand. This hit me very hard. I went into my car and I was crying. I took that as a driving force to push more for the brand. Initially, I wasn’t thinking whether I needed a store or not but that encounter with that person pushed me into looking for a place and we eventually found somewhere which is where we are now. After four years of door to door and sales, we found somewhere. At the time when I found the place, the money wasn’t available. So, one of the people that had met me on my door to door sales contacted me. The lady had met me at the reception and asked me what I was doing there and I explained to her. I told her if she has someone who has a space for a store that I would be interested in. I was told there was a lady that wanted to get a place in Lekki. It is a whole building but she doesn’t need the whole space. But when I came and they told me the price; I thought to myself that God will have to provide. Not too long from that, I got a phone call from the lady that saw me at the reception and she said they are having a board of directors meeting and they would like to give something unique to their board of directors. There were about 25 of them. She said the bespoke perfume seemed like a perfect gift for them. So, she called me to come and do a presentation to her team and I did. The boss was in love with the idea and that’s how we got our first bulk million to be able to secure this space. We will sell perfume and then go to buy POP and we will come back. The POP people will wait after materials finish, then we would wait for another sale of perfumes to put the store together.
What are some of the challenges you have encountered ?
The journey since then has been challenging. There are a lot of challenges with bringing things into Nigeria. There were no raw materials in Nigeria then to create fragrances. However, there is now a huge market for buying oil and other raw materials. Because then, the quality available wasn’t the kind of quality I could use.
I have gone to a School of Perfumery in France and I knew the quality and what fragrances should smell like. There was a time I ran out of sandalwood and I decided to contact a local vendor and when they brought the sandalwood, it didn’t smell anything like what sandalwood should smell. I just knew that buying from the Nigerian market wasn’t an option for my brand. I was very intentional about the kind of materials I would use and my packaging. It was important for us to do things the right way and because I had the knowledge of how to do it, I wanted to do it well. The challenges of bringing things; NAFDAC, customs and the rest were challenging. Sometimes, customs would cease the materials and we would pay extra to get them back. As much as Nigeria was very challenging, it helped me in a way that I was able to restructure my knowledge about perfume creation.
How has Nigeria helped you restructure my knowledge about perfume creation?
The DNA for most fragrances is top, middle and base notes. This is how to create a fragrance all over the world but I met a lot of Nigerians that challenged my knowledge on how to create. There are certain materials that are base notes materials because they are heavy. You can’t use them as top notes because top notes last for just eight hours and some people will insist I start with it. And I’ll be asking myself if what they are asking for is even possible. They would test me and push me. My fragrance creation DNA started changing from what I had learnt to what suited the Nigerian market and that really helped me when I was going international because it was now something very unique for them to experience. Because of the way I’ll blend these materials and all the years of experience I had from creating perfumes for very intentional Nigerians, I started gaining traction home and abroad. I also wanted to prove to people that this is something that can be done here in Nigeria and you’ll get good qualities. A lot of my customers and clients are people that have experienced fragrances and many of them would come with their knowledge and want to see if I really know what I’m doing. I found it a bit challenging and exciting at the same time.
At what point did you decide to take your brands to other markets outside Nigeria?
After doing this for about 10 years, I felt I needed to spread my wings beyond the Nigerian market. The reason why I wanted to do that is that when you go to France, Italy and other countries that are into fragrances, there is a history with them being perfumers. The House of Creed has been there for about 100 years. These are people that know and appreciate Fragrance materials and are able to know construction of fragrance creation. For me, if I’m not able to work within that environment and get thumbs up, I didn’t feel I have gotten it right. In the perfume industry, there is no accreditation or certification to make you a master perfumer. What makes you a master perfumer is the skill you bring into your creation and the years of experience you have that people have experienced. So, as a perfumer, you would create for a certain brand, you would have your own brands as well and create for people. So, the work you put out and the way you create will determine the way the industry would perceive you. So, I felt I needed to get into that space. In Nigeria, I felt I had reached the peak.
In Nigeria I am the pioneer of perfume creation. There was nobody to challenge me and it was getting a bit boring for me. I wanted to just test myself by entering the international market, speak to perfumers and know what they say. I’m not going into this market as a commercial fragrance person. It is a niche market. The fragrance market is extremely competitive and I didn’t want to put out a fragrance that anyone would perceive and say they have smelt that before or that has smelt like a certain brand. This is what you get in the commercial field. I had to create that independence as the first West African perfumer to exhibit at Pitti Fragranze in Italy. This is done every year. I exhibited in 2019 and it was so mind-blowing the reception I got. I was the only black person at that exhibition in 2019, just before COVID and I’m still the only black person since then. They do it every year, so COVID happened and two years straight, there was no exhibition. Everybody from around the world comes to that exhibition. It’s like New York fashion week for fragrances. Everyone comes there; from journalists, to buyers, store owners and this was how we got into certain countries. We are in Australia, France, Saudi, Dubai, the United States and Germany. Entering the US market is a very big deal. I did not even lobby for it. I wasn’t even looking to go into the U.S market. They contacted me based on the reviews they have been hearing about my business. This was in 2021. It took about a year plus to conclude it. This happened after my exhibition. So, the wave and noise within the fragrance industry of my work was what attracted that.
What were the unique statements people made about your works?
Because of the materials that I use and the quality of the oils that I use and the story behind the brand; they were just so happy with the craftsmanship. When people smell the first fragrance we launched into the market, they say it smelt like their rich uncles. Some said it reminded them of one person or another. This fragrance is an all-base fragrance. So the DNA of the fragrance is different; from the top middle and base and the market is used to. This was another thing; the craftsmanship behind the creation. When people that understand the artistry of perfumery smell it, they spot the uniqueness. The smell of the fragrance takes you through a journey as though you are sitting under a tree where you are listening to folktales from your parents or grandparents. That’s the story around it.
