0:00

Hey guys , welcome back to Skincare Anarchy

0:02

. This is Fragrance Friday . I'm your host , Ekta

0:04

, and I'm really excited today because the brand I'm

0:06

going to introduce you to . I've been really loving

0:08

the fragrances because they're very , I think , everyday

0:11

wear and just kind of transport you I

0:13

don't know if you guys love traveling , but I'm always trying

0:15

to find scents that help me remind of places

0:17

that you know I've been , or like just journeys

0:20

I've been on , and I feel like this whole lineup

0:22

of all the scents that I've tried by this brand really

0:24

resonated with me on that level , so I can't wait

0:26

to dive in . So , without further ado , I want to introduce

0:28

you guys to the genius and the perfumer

0:30

behind Day 3 Fragrances , Michael

0:33

Paul . Welcome to the show .

0:34

Michael , hey , how's it going ? Thanks so much for having me .

0:36

I'm really excited to dive in . I would

0:38

love to learn a little bit more about you because I know you have

0:40

a really cool background that led you

0:42

to creating a line in perfumery

0:44

and it's a really cool journey . So if you could walk us

0:46

down memory lane , I'd love to learn more .

0:48

Yeah , definitely . For many years I was actually

0:50

a close-up magician . I would travel

0:52

all over the world doing close-up magic and

0:54

at one point I had

0:56

a trick in my act where

0:59

I would at the end of the trick , I

1:01

would fold up a cocktail napkin into

1:03

a rose and I would give it to the person

1:05

that was helping me out . And it was pretty funny , because

1:07

every time I would fold

1:10

up this rose and hand it to my spectator

1:12

, she would take the rose and she would smell

1:14

it . It's what you

1:16

do , right ? Somebody hands you a flower , you smell it . And

1:18

so the joke became sorry , it doesn't smell

1:21

like anything , it's just a napkin , and the audience

1:23

would get a little chuckle out of that . But then I started

1:25

to think what would it be like if , when

1:28

she went to smell the flower , it smelled

1:30

like her favorite flower ? And so I

1:32

worked that out . And in order to make

1:35

that happen , magic wise , I

1:37

needed to become aware of the sense

1:39

of different flowers , because

1:41

not everyone's favorite flowers rose

1:43

, and if my spectator says something like

1:46

my favorite flower is lily and

1:48

she smells the flower , it has to smell

1:50

like that . And so that started

1:52

sort of a hobby in perfumery

1:54

, and for me . That was very

1:56

, very relaxing . Learning about

1:59

perfumery and the scent of different flowers

2:01

and how to create the scent of various

2:03

flowers was really relaxing

2:05

. So I would use it as sort of a meditation

2:08

when I didn't want to think about magic or

2:10

if something about magic was giving me trouble

2:12

, I was creatively stuck . I would

2:15

just turn to perfumery and I would do

2:17

something with that . And so when

2:20

COVID happens , I basically went

2:22

out of business . I couldn't perform anywhere

2:24

. So we're sitting around the

2:26

house and my daughter picks up a strip

2:29

from a perfume that I had made and

2:31

she said why don't you just sell these

2:33

? And like a good adult , like a good dad

2:35

, I gave her all the reasons why that's

2:37

completely impossible . It's just not practical

2:40

. I told her hey , we

2:42

don't have a team , I don't have a marketing

2:44

budget , it costs money to open a fragrance

2:46

house and we can't compete

2:48

with all these other companies that are on the market . And

2:51

she was young at the time , I think she was

2:53

12 years old , and she looked

2:55

at me and she said why do you have to compete

2:57

? And I said that's interesting . What do you

2:59

mean by that ? It took me back a little

3:01

bit and she said well , what if someone

3:03

just wanted to buy this perfume , would ? It took me back a little bit

3:05

and she said well , what if someone just wanted to buy this perfume ? Would you sell it to them ? And I

3:07

said well , yeah , I guess so . And she said just do that . And so Day 3 Fragrances

3:10

was born .

3:10

That's brilliant , your daughter's brilliant

3:13

. Yeah

3:19

, kids say the darndest things . Speaking for the recording and talking

3:21

a little bit about how it makes sense

3:23

, right , like the magic side of perfumery

3:26

, I mean for me as a consumer , I can tell you , you know

3:28

, my experiences have always been somewhat magical

3:30

. You discover that perfect scent . Or

3:32

when you finally resonate and you really incorporate

3:35

a perfume as your everyday wear , it's part

3:37

of your everyday , you know , and it's

3:39

because it elicits something in you , whether that's

3:41

emotion , whether that's happiness or joy

3:44

or whatever that neurocognitive

3:46

response we have is . You know , it's just

3:48

, it is magic , and so I just feel

3:50

like it sounds crazy at first , but then it makes

3:52

so much sense . You know that you have this background and you've

3:54

created these because all of the fragrances

3:56

that you know , like I was saying , I think they're such

3:58

great daily options because they're not

4:01

overwhelming . But it just goes really well with

4:03

my fragrance profile , personally speaking

4:05

. So I want to ask you a little bit about that what

4:07

was the motivation behind and the

4:10

vision , I guess , behind what you wanted

4:12

to create overall as the fragrance

4:14

profile in your brand ? Did you have

4:17

a preference for stronger scents versus

4:19

not ? I mean , if you could walk us through that , Sure .

4:21

So when we first launched , I

4:23

had a couple of perfumes that I had made just

4:26

based off of various scent memories

4:28

that I had . And it's interesting

4:30

you say perfume is like magic because

4:32

when you smell a perfume it

4:34

can really take you back to an experience that

4:36

you've had in your life and you can really relive

4:39

that moment , good or bad , when

4:41

that smell triggers that memory

4:43

. And so it's so powerful

4:46

to be able to create a perfume or a scent

4:48

that elicits a positive

4:51

memory , and so I was working from scent

4:53

memories that I had , and then I did a fragrance

4:56

for my mother-in-law and

4:58

that's really kind of what kicked off

5:00

the day three hype train , if you

5:02

will , because I

5:05

had an experience where I just didn't

5:07

have a relationship with my mom and

5:09

when I met my wife my wife is Dominican-

5:12

and . Dominican families are . Well

5:14

, they're very family oriented . That's

5:16

just the culture . And so

5:18

whenever we would

5:20

go over to her mom's house , her mom

5:22

sort of would take me in and make

5:24

me part of that family , and we

5:27

would go over to the house and she would sit me down and she'd serve

5:29

me a coffee with some Dominican cake

5:31

and with brown sugar . And I began

5:33

to associate these smells with the feeling

5:35

of a mother's love , like having

5:37

a mom again . So for me it was really powerful

5:40

and I decided let's do

5:42

a perfume for your mom . And so we created

5:44

La Tacita de Cafe , which is our

5:47

coffee fragrance , and it's based on

5:49

the scent of her house

5:51

and her coffee . And

5:53

we decided we love this perfume

5:55

so much , let's enter it into

5:58

a contest . There's these art

6:00

and olfaction awards and they're

6:02

like the Oscars of perfumery . We

6:04

really didn't expect to become a finalist

6:07

even , but just for the heck of

6:09

it , let's submit . And we became a finalist

6:11

. We went out to LA and we ended up

6:13

winning the Art and Olfaction Award for

6:15

this perfume , and so that's

6:17

when people started to discover us and

6:20

know our names . We had people calling

6:23

from magazines and blogs and so

6:25

on and so forth , and it was a little overwhelming for us

6:27

really , and then what we really

6:29

saw was that there's so much in the

6:31

Dominican culture , so many scents

6:33

and so many really awesome fragrances

6:35

that haven't been explored in perfumery yet

6:37

, and so that's sort of been our company

6:39

mission is to take these scents

6:42

from Dominican culture and people and

6:44

just sort of translate them into perfume , and

6:46

so far it's worked out really well for us .

6:48

Yeah , I mean I would say you're really killing it . It's

6:50

interesting what you explained , like that story , because

6:52

it's like it reminds you , like the sense that

6:54

I've experienced . For example , say Less is

6:57

one of my favorites in the line , by the way . I love

6:59

this fragrance and I because I gravitate

7:01

more towards citrus and fresh scents , and

7:03

so when I experienced Celeste for

7:05

everyone listening it's a citrus opening

7:07

right , really really light and airy , and it

7:10

reminds me I spent a lot of time in the Caribbean

7:12

, so it reminded me a lot about what people

7:14

smell like down there , like just in their homes

7:16

, that watery vibe of the Caribbean

7:18

, but at the same time the culture of there

7:20

too , and I haven't smelled anything like it

7:22

since there . That's

7:28

why I'm mentioning this , because it's very different . You know , I've lived a lot of places where

7:30

it's by the water , but it's never been the same . And I think when it comes to certain environments

7:32

, those scents really do come

7:34

with you as you go , places you know , and you

7:36

can compare and contrast and like , for me

7:38

, say less reminds me specifically

7:40

of that area , you know . So that's why I'm like

7:43

I

7:49

get it with the analogies that you gave , because it becomes cultural at one point . Perfume , you know

7:51

, and it becomes this part of you that's more than just , oh , I really like the scent , or I really like

7:53

citrus notes or sweet notes or whatever . No , it becomes a part

7:55

of you know . Where does this make me resonate ? In terms of

7:57

where I've been in life , you know whether that's geographical

8:00

or emotional , and so , on that

8:02

note , I want to ask you I know you said Dominican

8:04

, but what was the thing you wanted to really bring

8:06

to the forefront ? Did you want a more

8:08

cleaner vibe or did you want a nice

8:10

array of different , you know kind of scents ? Like

8:12

, how did you approach that ? Because I think

8:14

a lot of times perfumers stick to one thing

8:16

. That's what I've noticed .

8:17

Yeah , what we really wanted to do was be

8:20

authentic as far as

8:22

taking our emotions and

8:24

translating them into perfume

8:27

, and one of the advantages of doing

8:29

that is that you stand

8:31

out from the crowd . You become a little bit different

8:33

. If I was a perfumer and

8:36

I said , okay , I want to develop a

8:38

jasmine fragrance Well

8:41

, what goes great with jasmine ? And I start

8:43

thinking about the notes and what would go good together

8:45

and what would smell good , and it'd be very likely

8:47

that I'd come up with something that smells

8:49

like something else that's already been on the market . But

8:52

then if I start from a place of inspiration

8:54

and I say , for example , my mom's

8:56

coffee smells like this and she serves

8:58

it with this kind of cake and this , then

9:01

I'm going to end up with a perfume that

9:03

smells completely different , unless

9:06

some other perfumer somewhere started with

9:08

exactly the same inspiration . And

9:10

so what you find through the line is that some

9:12

scents are a little bit darker and more

9:14

dramatic , whereas others are lighter

9:17

and fruitier , because they're all based on

9:19

different scent memories and they're all

9:21

based on different inspirations , and

9:23

so sometimes you get where

9:25

a perfumer starts to develop a

9:28

particular style . You can almost

9:30

smell a perfume and know who

9:32

the perfumer is because of the

9:34

notes that he used or his style

9:36

, but I feel like , if you go through our

9:38

line , each fragrance is really different

9:41

from every other fragrance . It's

9:43

almost like you don't get that house feel to it

9:45

. Sort of everything is completely different

9:47

and that's good , because we like to think that there's something

9:49

in the line for everybody .

9:50

Yeah , that's actually why I asked you was this

9:53

idea that it's great when perfumers

9:55

usually do get this one

9:57

thing like a vibe , like the thing

10:00

they're doing , and that a lot of things end up smelling

10:02

kind of the same not the same exactly

10:04

, but there's like a rendition Right , and that's a wonderful

10:06

thing . There's nothing wrong about that . I'm

10:13

not saying anything negative . But what I really noticed about um , you know your lineup

10:15

, is that there is something here for everybody , you know , and it's not something where they're extreme

10:18

sense , they're really everyday , wearable

10:20

sense . You know . Just , you feel

10:22

comfortable in them . You know what I mean . Like it

10:24

feels like . It's like homey

10:26

, you know , that's the best way I can describe it

10:28

. It's like home . So that's that's

10:31

why I'd asked you that . But you know

10:33

, I'm curious because I know that you

10:35

didn't start from this like big , you know

10:37

, network that you've had in the fragrance

10:39

industry and you know just a lot

10:42

of people that you knew that kind of guided you from

10:44

the get-go . So how was that ? Trying to

10:46

navigate on your own , figure out this

10:48

world of fragrance ?

10:49

That's a great question . It should have been really

10:51

difficult . Perfumery is notoriously

10:54

difficult to get into . A

10:56

lot of perfumery is kind of gatekept

10:58

, so it's not just

11:01

acquiring materials but also acquiring

11:03

the techniques can be very , very difficult . But

11:07

I'm really kind of obsessive

11:09

about when I get locked down to a subject , learning

11:12

everything about it , and

11:14

so I started my journey years and

11:16

years ago while I was still a magician , and

11:20

so I have had a long time

11:22

and a lot of study to get

11:24

familiar with perfumery itself

11:26

. And then when we won the Art

11:28

Nullifaction Award , that's really

11:31

kind of what put us in the spotlight for the rest

11:33

of the industry , so that

11:35

kind of broke us in . It

11:38

should have been much more difficult , but

11:40

we're just very blessed to have won that

11:42

award and sort of the industry found

11:44

us , you know , instead of us having to work

11:46

into it .

11:47

Yeah , no , that makes sense . And I think it's because you've created

11:49

something great , you know , I mean , obviously . I mean I

11:51

think there's still room in the fragrance

11:54

. When I do look at the fragrance industry , it's not so much

11:56

saturated like the beauty industry is , in

11:58

my opinion , because I feel like a lot of beauty brands

12:00

, they struggle because they create something

12:02

and they're like it's . You know , it's hard

12:04

to find that white space if I , if you

12:07

know what I mean , and I know it is in the fragrance world

12:09

as well but I feel like

12:11

in the fragrance world there's still leeway to

12:13

where , if you create something really , you

12:15

know , for lack of a better term magical , you

12:17

know , and it's going to resonate with people

12:19

, it's going to catch their attention . And that's exactly

12:21

what I felt . You know , like I was mentioning

12:23

, say less , earlier , which is literally my

12:26

favorite scent in the whole lineup that I've tried

12:28

, and the first time

12:30

I smelled it I was just like this is perfect . You

12:32

know , even the dry down is so

12:35

homey . It feels like something you've

12:37

worn for many , many years , you know

12:39

. And so that's where I think it's

12:41

just amazing what you've created , you know , yeah

12:44

, I'm glad that you mentioned that .

12:53

One of the things that we really lock onto here at Day 3 is that

12:55

the perfume has to be easy to wear and it has to be quality . When

12:57

we release a scent , we want it to be really authentic to

12:59

the inspiration that we had

13:01

and we want the perfume to be very wearable . There's

13:06

just no sense in releasing something just for the sake of releasing it , or releasing something

13:08

that's not complete or something that's not going to resonate with the market . We

13:11

never feel any pressure like we have to put

13:13

out a certain number of releases per year . If

13:16

we have a great inspiration and

13:18

we can really nail it , then we'll do a release

13:20

, and if not , there's really

13:22

no pressure on us . I'm willing to wait as

13:24

long as it takes for the inspiration

13:27

, because at the end of the day you'll buy something

13:29

from day three and we want to make sure that you

13:31

love it and wear it , because

13:33

we don't really do any kind

13:35

of advertising . Everything is sort of word

13:37

of mouth and if you get

13:39

a day three perfume and you don't wear it

13:41

, you're not going to talk about it .

13:43

We sort of rely on people falling in love with the

13:45

fragrances and then yeah

13:49

, that makes sense actually , because you know , I think

13:51

that's how I've discovered my favorite scents as

13:53

well . Now that I think about it , if somebody

13:55

recommended them or you know , it's like

13:57

kind of word of mouth . Now I mean , I'm

13:59

interested though , because a lot of times

14:01

like niche perfumery and niche

14:04

brands , like there's a

14:06

difference in cost , right , and

14:08

so I was wondering if you could speak a little bit from the business

14:10

side . You know why that's there and what

14:12

really goes into that . You know that number

14:15

? Oh , definitely .

14:17

Yeah . So

14:28

at the end of the

14:30

day , as you could probably imagine , there's

14:33

like a fashion brand and

14:35

they decide you know what ? I need something

14:37

else to sell my customers as sort

14:39

of an add-on product . And

14:41

so a lot of these big name fashion

14:44

companies will go to a perfume

14:46

house and hire

14:49

a perfumer to create a perfume for

14:51

them , and then they write what's called a brief

14:53

, and so they'll put in this brief

14:55

. They'll say , okay , I want this to appeal to as many

14:58

people as possible and it has to come

15:00

in at a particular budget and

15:02

it has to be easy to sell . And

15:04

so the perfumer doesn't really

15:06

have the freedom to do whatever he

15:08

wants to do as an artist . He just

15:11

has to put together the most likable

15:13

thing for this fashion

15:16

company , who doesn't really care about the scent

15:18

to begin with . They just need something else to sell . And

15:21

then he has to meet that budget . And so

15:23

you're not getting a lot of the high

15:26

quality oils that are

15:28

imported from all over the world . You're not

15:30

getting the best of the best . You're just sort of getting

15:32

what you can put together so

15:34

that someone can make a profit on their end . And

15:36

so it's funny . Sometimes you'll see people say

15:39

well , I went to the mall

15:41

and I smelled this high-end brand

15:43

and that high-end brand without

15:45

really realizing that that company didn't produce

15:47

the fragrance . They hired somebody else to

15:49

do it for a huge profit

15:52

. Niche houses are a little bit different . Niche houses

15:54

, they give more control to the perfumer and

15:57

the perfumer is allowed to be an artist

15:59

and so he'll take the most beautiful

16:01

sense , regardless of the cost

16:03

, and put together

16:06

something magical . And so

16:08

you definitely pay the price difference

16:10

between niche and designer

16:12

, pay the price difference between niche and designer . But

16:14

it's just funny how the market is . People

16:22

are so familiar with the designer names and the names of the fashion

16:24

brands that they really believe that's the top of the top . And so a lot of people don't

16:26

realize that niche world exists

16:28

. And it's such a cool thing to watch somebody

16:31

discover a niche perfume and they

16:33

smell it for the first time . You can see their eyes get wide and it's like

16:35

a cool thing to watch somebody discover like a niche perfume and they smell it for the first time . You can see their

16:37

eyes get wide and it's it's like a whole experience . They go wow , this

16:39

is perfume yeah

16:41

, yeah so that you know that there's . The

16:43

difference is that you know one side is

16:45

letting the perfumer be an artist and

16:48

the other is just looking for something to sell that's

16:50

yeah , I think that's so on point , because

16:52

it is it's like an experience

16:55

with niche perfumery .

16:56

It's absolutely like like what I

16:58

was saying earlier . Like you know , it really does transform

17:01

. Like your , your whole experience is like very

17:03

multifaceted . You know you're not you're really

17:05

experiencing what the brand

17:08

founder or the perfumer wanted you to actually

17:10

feel , because they've poured themselves into

17:12

it . You know , I

17:17

think that goes with like anything , right , it's like people always say like people cook with love

17:19

, versus if you go to some you know giant restaurant that's used to making the same

17:21

thing on the menu in 50 different locations

17:23

, right , I mean , it's a different quality that you're

17:25

dealing with there and I think it definitely

17:28

shows , I mean , I think from what I've tried

17:30

, you know , in terms of niche perfumery

17:32

, it's always been very different . It's never

17:34

felt like , oh yeah , I smelled this , you know , by

17:37

such and such a designer , like five years ago

17:39

. You know it's not like that . Yeah , I

17:41

want to . I want to actually ask you about this terminology

17:44

thing because I know with marketing things can get a little

17:46

crazy and I see it a lot in skincare and like

17:48

beauty and this is the word like

17:50

, for example , clean exists in

17:52

. You know a lot of these different industries

17:54

and I I'm curious in terms of fragrance

17:56

, what does natural or like clean

17:59

, like these words , what do they really mean ?

18:01

from the but we understand what people

18:03

are asking for when they ask

18:05

for a clean fragrance . Other

18:14

people will ask are your fragrances natural

18:16

? Some people will say are they sustainable

18:19

, are they organic ? And

18:26

everyone's kind of asking the same

18:29

thing Is the quality going to be high

18:31

enough so that it's going to be safe

18:33

for me and maybe even

18:35

good for me

18:38

, as opposed to being toxic ? They

18:41

want to know that you put enough care into

18:43

the product so that it's skin

18:46

safe and good for them . But

18:49

as far as being clean or

18:52

natural , the words don't really have

18:54

a definition . Like , if you ask somebody , well

18:56

, what do you mean by a natural fragrance or what do you mean by

18:58

a clean fragrance ? They're never really

19:00

quite sure , you know . They'll

19:03

say , well , I want something without chemicals

19:05

in it , which , as you

19:07

realize , that's kind of funny actually

19:09

, because everything is made of chemicals . You know

19:11

Exactly . Kind of funny actually , because everything is made of chemicals . You

19:13

know , like a rose oil , for example , is is made

19:15

up of more than 400

19:18

different chemicals that are all

19:20

kind of come together to to

19:22

make this rose oil . Right . And

19:25

so so you can't have anything without

19:27

chemicals . Literally , I'm drinking a bottle of water

19:29

right now and it's literally made up of

19:31

hydrogen and oxygen .

19:32

Like everything , everything is chemicals but but yeah , I think , and it's literally made up of hydrogen

19:34

and oxygen .

19:34

Everything is chemicals . But yeah , I think it's

19:37

a good thing . I think it's a good thing where

19:39

the market is going and where the trend is at , where

19:41

people are becoming more conscious of what they're putting

19:43

on their skin and what they're putting in their bodies

19:46

. I think that's fantastic because

19:48

you're going to get a more educated consumer

19:50

. We're not there yet , to be honest with you , as

19:53

far as the education is just not available

19:55

for the public yet , but

19:57

we're getting there . We're trending in the right direction

19:59

.

20:00

No , I think you're absolutely right . It's great to

20:02

ask those questions , but you know , what's funny

20:04

is when I first heard clean in

20:06

terms of fragrance like clean fragrance I

20:08

literally didn't know what people were talking about , because I've

20:11

always used that word to describe like . I

20:13

guess now people say more aquatic fragrances

20:15

. I used to say clean , like

20:17

something that smells like you just

20:19

stood in the rain or you just walked out of

20:21

a shower and you smell amazing . That's what I

20:23

used to say was clean fragrance . And

20:25

then all of a sudden , this thing came onto my , you

20:28

know , into my periphery of this oh no , it's

20:30

an actual term , now you know . And it was

20:32

like OK , but

20:34

my perfume of this oh no , it's an actual term , now you know , and it was like okay . But

20:36

when you use a perfume or a fragrance , I mean you should know right , it's a chemical , I mean

20:38

it has to be . There's many , many chemicals

20:40

coming together . I just don't understand , at one

20:43

point , where marketing takes over

20:45

. You know , I think everything . There's a

20:47

there's definitely a justifiable cause for

20:49

like asking these questions , but I think I lean more

20:51

on the side of like . I'm here for the

20:53

experience . You know what I mean and I understand

20:55

that and I don't know why that has

20:57

to be hindered by marketing jargon

21:00

that just it doesn't really

21:02

mean anything , you know , because you can't regulate

21:04

it .

21:05

Right , and you know that's the unfortunate part is

21:07

that a lot of bigger companies have kind

21:09

of taken notice of the fact

21:12

that people are interested in something that's better for

21:14

their skin and so they use this term clean or

21:16

they'll use the term natural , they'll slap

21:18

it on their bottles . And what's funny

21:20

is a lot of these companies that produce

21:22

clean fragrance

21:24

what they're doing is they're kind

21:26

of watering down their fragrances and they're making

21:28

it , like you said , kind of more

21:30

aquatic and it smells like laundry

21:33

, because people will naturally assume , okay

21:35

, that must be better for me because

21:37

of the way it smells . And

21:39

it's unfortunate that it's becoming more of a marketing

21:42

term than something

21:44

with a real definition attached to it . We

21:47

are IFRA compliant and IFRA is

21:49

the organization that sort of handles

21:51

the regulations for Europe and

21:54

we're in the US , but

21:57

we're voluntarily IFRA compliant

21:59

and so we stick

22:01

to the science and we use all skin

22:04

safe materials . We use natural materials

22:06

wherever we can , but there's

22:08

just some fragrance where

22:10

if you use a particular natural

22:12

, it's not good for your skin , just some fragrance

22:15

where if you use a particular natural , it's not good for your skin . So , for example , you know we can't

22:17

use grapefruit oil because if you put grapefruit oil on your skin

22:19

and then you go out in the sun , it will burn you

22:21

Like it's just not good for your skin . And

22:24

so then what we do is we'll turn to something

22:26

that was made in a lab but that is

22:28

really safe and really

22:30

easy on your skin . So you get the same

22:32

scent but it's safer for you . The

22:35

other thing we'll do is , instead of using

22:38

natural musks , we'll

22:40

use musks that were created in a lab

22:42

, because we don't want

22:44

to see any animals harmed and

22:46

we don't think it's good to obtain

22:48

material from an

22:50

animal source if we can avoid it , and

22:52

so we'll use like a synthetic musk

22:55

. But when you , at the end of the day

22:57

, when you get the product , you have something where

22:59

the perfumer has thought through every

23:01

step of . You know what's safe for your skin

23:03

, what's sustainable , you know

23:05

you're getting a quality product .

23:07

So I want to ask you something that I've always been

23:09

curious about , and I feel like this really

23:11

does kind of play

23:13

to the word , you know magic , because at

23:16

the end of the day , I find

23:18

perfumes that have these synthetic ingredients

23:20

Right , but then there's also perfumes

23:22

where I feel like they just smell synthetic

23:24

, like you know what I mean , like well , you can tell

23:26

like it's just not the level of quality that I

23:29

want . So I guess my question is like what is that

23:31

balance like between using

23:33

synthetics ?

23:40

you know what I mean . And then natural sense . Yeah , there's very little difference in that . Some

23:42

of the synthetics , the way that they're obtained is you take a natural

23:44

material and you isolate

23:46

out a few different chemicals from

23:49

it and you use those chemicals . And

23:51

like rose is a great example because , as

23:53

I was saying , there's so many chemicals that

23:55

are present in rose oil but

23:58

let's say I don't want all 400 of those

24:00

chemicals in my formula . Maybe

24:03

I'll just take out the phenyl ethyl alcohol

24:05

, which is one particular

24:07

chemical that's in the rose oil that

24:09

smells of roses but

24:12

it has a very particular smell to it

24:14

. So I have that isolated out and

24:16

I use that in my formula . Well

24:18

, someone may see the name phenyl-ethyl

24:21

alcohol and just go , wow , that's scary

24:23

, that's like a long chemical name . Is

24:26

that good for me ? And yeah , it was present

24:28

in rose oil the entire time . I just

24:30

decided to use that part of the

24:32

rose oil and what

24:34

happens is depending on how you blend

24:37

those things together . You have either

24:39

a softer , smoother , more well-blended

24:42

smell , which a lot of people will tend

24:44

to associate with being natural , or

24:47

you have something that's a little bit more harsh

24:49

and screechy , if the

24:51

perfumer has something that's out

24:53

of balance or something that's just

24:56

hitting your receptors in kind of

24:58

a weird way and we would

25:00

say like , oh , that smells synthetic . So

25:02

the irony is you could have something made

25:04

of all naturals and it can smell very synthetic

25:06

, believe it or not . Or you can have something that's

25:09

completely synthetic and

25:11

can smell very natural , depending on the

25:13

skill of the perfumer .

25:14

That's so interesting . I love how you

25:16

. I love the word screechy , by the way , I feel

25:18

like I need to use that now because that's perfect

25:20

in describing what I was referring .

25:22

Right , yeah , how's that feel .

25:24

It's so good , it's so satisfying to now

25:26

have that word Thank you . But no , I

25:28

feel like you know that's where I'm . I'm

25:30

always so confused because I don't want

25:32

to say synthetic . You know what I mean , that it smells

25:34

synthetic . I don't want to say that because I know there's so

25:37

much quality that's made , you know , from the synthetic

25:39

side of things where , yes , you have

25:41

kind of isolated the scent that you're

25:43

going for , you know , like you had mentioned with the

25:45

rose . But it's also something that makes

25:48

me wonder , like you know , when you do naturally

25:50

extract something , like you know , again

25:52

the rose , do those other chemicals

25:55

play a role in how the actual

25:57

aroma of a rose comes out ? You

26:00

know what I mean For those back to your palate .

26:02

Part of what we do in perfumery is we'll

26:04

put together accords , so

26:07

a number of different materials together

26:09

, that when they come together they smell

26:11

like something else , or something

26:13

where the sum is greater

26:15

than the parts . Does that make sense ?

26:17

Yeah , yeah .

26:18

So a rose accord might include

26:20

something like phenyl , ethyl alcohol , citronellol

26:23

, geraniol and maybe a rose ketone

26:26

like a damascone , and you

26:28

put all these things together and you go , wow , that smells like

26:30

a rose . But now if I'm working

26:32

with a perfume and I say , okay

26:35

, I'm fitting this rose accord into

26:37

my perfume , but I want it to lean

26:40

a little bit more fruity

26:42

and jammy instead of being

26:44

just straight rose , I

26:47

can kind of increase and decrease

26:49

the different ratios of the chemicals

26:51

in that accord to change and

26:53

shape the way that that rose smells

26:56

so that it fits in and it blends

26:58

with my perfume . And

27:00

this happens with a lot of different flowers

27:02

. And what's very interesting

27:04

is there are a number of notes

27:06

that you have to make an

27:08

accord for , because there's no natural

27:11

material Like mango is a good example . There's

27:13

no such thing as mango oil

27:16

put into a perfume , and so

27:18

what we do is take a number of different isolates

27:20

and we put it together until it smells

27:22

like mango and then kind of fit

27:24

it into the perfume . It's

27:26

very much like figuring out a Rubik's cube , a

27:29

very complicated Rubik's

27:31

cube just pushing and pulling on those ratios

27:33

until they're perfect .

27:35

You know it's interesting what gets me ? You know

27:37

the accord . I guess I

27:39

don't know if I'm correcting my terminology , but

27:41

when people say spicy , like , something

27:43

has like a spicy opening , I never know

27:46

what that means . Like I don't understand that

27:48

because I'm like . Spicy to me means something

27:50

completely different . You know what I mean . So I

27:52

just I've never understood these kinds of like . Little

27:55

that makes more sense . Now , though , when

28:00

you explain accords , you know with the whole purpose of that , because it's again

28:02

coming back to the point of how I was telling you , like , for example , with

28:04

Say Less , I feel like it's an

28:07

experience I'm having . So it's not

28:09

just that you put together these . You

28:11

know I have . Like , for example , I love citrus scents

28:13

. So it's not that you just combine citrus scents . Like

28:16

, for example , I love citrus scents , so it's not that you just combine citrus scents , it's that it is coming

28:18

out in a different way than something else that I might have in my collection that's

28:20

also classified as citrus . You know so . But

28:23

yeah , it's just so fascinating to me

28:25

how that works . I mean , it's truly like watching

28:28

a flower blossom .

28:29

It's so interesting . Scent is

28:31

somewhat subjective , so

28:34

we might smell the same

28:36

thing and find different ways

28:38

of describing that one thing

28:40

. So I think it's perfectly okay to

28:42

use a word like synthetic If that's

28:44

a descriptor that you choose to use because

28:46

that's how you feel about the perfume

28:48

. I think that that communicates an idea very

28:51

clearly . Whether or not it's technically synthetic

28:53

, it doesn't really make too much of a difference

28:55

, because you're describing the way something smells

28:58

, and same with the word spicy

29:00

if you choose not to use that word because

29:03

that's just not a word

29:05

that you would use to describe that perfume . I

29:07

think it's great when people find their own

29:09

ways to describe perfumes . One

29:11

of the fun things that I get to do

29:13

is watch on our social media as people

29:16

make comments on our perfume and they find

29:18

new and interesting ways of describing things

29:20

that I had never thought of before . That's

29:23

really interesting , and that's what

29:25

makes scent so much fun is . It's

29:27

so individual , so personal , so subjective

29:29

.

29:30

Yeah , it really is , and one

29:32

of my questions is actually about

29:34

this experience , because people always

29:36

say you can spray your fragrance anywhere

29:38

, right , I mean , you can spray it on your skin or your

29:41

clothing or your hair , and it's always going to give

29:43

you a different experience . And I'm

29:45

really curious why do you think

29:47

that is ? I mean , what is it about most

29:50

fragrances that really give

29:52

that you know , different experience based on , like clothing

29:54

or skin or you know , or any other

29:56

part of your body that you're spraying it on ? What

29:58

kind of contributes to that ?

30:00

That's a great question . So

30:03

a lot of it has to do with the evaporation

30:05

curve of the materials , and so

30:08

if you spray something

30:10

on your clothes , the

30:12

alcohol and the oils

30:14

evaporate at different rates than if

30:16

you were to spray it on your skin , because

30:19

there's a tendency for those oils to get

30:21

caught up in the fibers of your clothing . Same

30:24

if you spray it in your hair , your

30:26

hair fibers will actually hold

30:28

on to certain oils and

30:30

so it'll be a longer lasting scent

30:33

, but it might smell slightly

30:35

different , and then you have a

30:37

natural body chemistry as well . So

30:39

when you spray something on your skin , there's

30:42

a chance for the chemicals in

30:44

your skin or the way that your skin

30:46

smells , to interact with the perfume

30:48

, and so you get a different feel from

30:50

that . That's why different people can

30:53

spray a perfume and it'll smell different

30:55

on different people . It's always best

30:57

, when you're like shopping for a perfume , always

31:00

get it on your skin and wear it for

31:02

a full day and really see how it resonates

31:04

with you , because sometimes smelling it on

31:06

a paper strip like if you're out shopping

31:09

and you smell something that a sales associate

31:11

has given you sometimes it's different

31:13

than the experience you'll get from wearing it on your

31:15

skin .

31:15

That's so interesting and you know , it makes me wonder

31:18

, because you had mentioned the award-winning

31:20

fragrance in your line . You know , la Tecita

31:22

de Cafe . Like . I use this on my hair , when

31:24

I like , when I spritz it on my hair , it

31:27

gives me the most amazing all

31:29

day wear because it's always there

31:31

, it's lingering , but it's very different when I

31:33

spray it on my skin . You

31:41

know , it's almost more like sweeter on my skin .

31:43

you know , and I don't really gravitate towards , like sweet fragrances , so I love it on my hair

31:45

.

31:45

It just smells perfect , you know , and I , yeah , like I really really enjoy it and it's

31:47

such a unique scent to where it like really

31:49

blends and it's great for layering . I

31:51

feel like for me when I do it that way because , you

31:54

know , then I can enjoy everything and I don't know it , just

31:56

it's fascinating . That's why I had to ask , like , how

31:58

does that work ? Because I've always

32:00

been curious about that and I think , a lot of times

32:02

that's also sometimes where I personally

32:05

, as a consumer , you know , going back to the synthetic

32:07

conversation , I was misinformed , right

32:09

, because I thought synthetic fragrances they

32:11

would smell the same no matter where you spray them

32:13

. You know , and for some reason I had that misconception

32:16

and I asked you about synthetics

32:18

because of that , because it's like , why does it

32:20

matter ? You know what I mean Does it matter if it's natural

32:22

versus synthetic ? And in regards to

32:24

that experience . So very cool . You know , I

32:26

wanted to . I wanted to actually round out the interview

32:28

and ask you a little bit about again

32:31

the process of , of creating the line and

32:33

, you know , any advice you can share for new entrepreneurs

32:36

in this space . I think fragrance is such a booming industry

32:38

and especially in the sense of like the creativity

32:40

aspect . So , like any advice you

32:43

can share with anyone who would one day want

32:45

to create their own fragrance line .

32:46

Yeah , there's going to be two people who will want to create

32:48

a fragrance line . There's the entrepreneur

32:50

, who will run the company

32:52

and who wants to sell a fragrance

32:55

, which I think is fantastic

32:57

, and then you have other people who

32:59

want to be involved in the process

33:01

of actually blending everything together

33:04

. So those are your future perfumers

33:06

. Those may not necessarily

33:08

be the same people . It's very

33:10

difficult to be artistic

33:13

and put together a

33:15

beautiful formula and then also have

33:17

the mindset of being able to sell

33:20

it . I'm in a very fortunate spot where

33:22

I get to be the perfumer for

33:24

day three fragrances and then

33:26

my wife actually runs the company . My wife

33:28

owns the company , and so it's

33:31

sort of like having a superpower , because she's exactly

33:33

the opposite of me , right Like I'm very ADHD , and

33:37

everywhere I go it looks like a tornado

33:39

hit that area because I'm just making

33:41

messes and I'm the artistic

33:44

one , and so it's

33:46

difficult to pull off both

33:48

. But what I would say is , if you were an entrepreneur

33:51

and you were wanting to start a fragrance

33:53

line , is to find

33:55

a perfumer that you have a good

33:57

rapport and communication with

33:59

and work with that

34:01

quality perfumer . There's

34:04

lots of opportunities to go out and

34:06

purchase a fragrance that's already pre-made

34:09

. You can do something like a white label

34:11

fragrance and you'll

34:13

never really get very far with that because

34:15

you're not selling anything special

34:18

. Get a number of customers where you

34:20

can fool them one time into

34:22

buying a perfume and as soon as they

34:24

buy it and they spray it , they realize okay , this is not

34:26

special , they're not going to come back or they're

34:29

not going to talk about your perfume . I think

34:31

that it's worth the investment of

34:33

time and money and energy

34:35

to find a perfumer who

34:37

can do an amazing job , who

34:39

can create something magical for you and

34:42

and produce quality

34:45

products , so that you don't end up

34:47

as an also ran . You know you can

34:49

.

34:49

You can stand out in the industry . That makes sense

34:51

Also , like I feel like from the creativity

34:53

aspect , that makes sense too . You know where it's

34:55

like you can kind of expand on your line

34:58

at that point too . It's not just cookie

35:00

cutter ideas .

35:01

Yeah , exactly right . And especially

35:03

if you're a person who you have an idea

35:06

of what you want to sell , what you

35:08

want your fragrance to be like , sometimes

35:10

having that communication with an artist

35:12

who can help you achieve that

35:14

exactly makes

35:16

a big difference . Because at the end of

35:18

the day , you're going to have to communicate what that perfume

35:21

is to your customer

35:23

and you want something

35:25

more interesting than just well , it

35:27

smells good , you can wear it all the time

35:29

. Lots of things smell good , but you want

35:31

to have a good story , something interesting

35:33

, a particular inspiration

35:35

. So when the person sprays it on , they know that

35:38

they've got something special . They can almost feel

35:40

the story coming out as they spray the perfume

35:42

and that , I think , is what's

35:44

going to help new perfume companies stand

35:46

out in the marketplace instead of just fading

35:49

into the white noise .

35:50

That makes sense . That's great advice and I

35:52

hope everyone listening . If you

35:54

are looking to get into creating

35:57

your own brand or into the

35:59

fragrance world at all , that's really really great

36:01

advice . So thank you so much for sharing that

36:03

, michael . I really appreciate it and I really love

36:05

Day 3 Fragrances . They're just a beautiful brand

36:08

and I found myself gravitating

36:10

towards it more than a lot of the perfumes

36:12

that I use , you know , just regularly

36:14

. So I think you really nailed it , you know

36:16

. Thank you , thank you so much . Yeah , you definitely converted

36:19

me as a customer on first smell

36:21

, so a huge fan . I really commend you

36:23

for it and I can't wait to see what you guys do next

36:25

. I think the whole line is beautiful

36:28

and I mean , is there anything on the horizon , any

36:30

new launches or any new fragrances coming out ?

36:32

Yeah , we've got a new summer

36:34

fragrance coming out called Escandalo

36:36

, and it's going to be a very fresh

36:38

, very bright green

36:41

sort of guava feeling fragrance

36:44

that I am really

36:46

excited for . I've been working on

36:48

this for a very long , long

36:50

time , oh my gosh

36:52

. Yeah , and

36:54

it's finished now , and every

36:57

time I smell it it's

36:59

almost a feeling of getting emotional . I'm

37:02

so excited for this release . It's

37:05

based on the birth of bachata

37:07

in the Dominican Republic . Bachata is a

37:09

dance . It's known as being a very sensual

37:12

, very passionate dance , and

37:15

I got to speak to somebody

37:17

who was in the Dominican Republic at

37:19

the time that bachata was becoming popular

37:22

and it was outlawed in DR

37:25

. The only places you can go to hear bachata were

37:27

like the really low end dive bars

37:29

and the brothels , and so the

37:32

people who enjoyed this dance and who loved

37:34

the music would go down to

37:36

the dive bars on the beach and they would

37:38

dance all night long and then , when

37:40

the bar closed down , everybody

37:42

the band included in the singers would

37:44

go down onto the beach and they would continue

37:47

playing and singing and people would dance

37:49

on the beach as the sun was rising

37:51

. And I talked to this person

37:53

and I was interviewing her and she

37:55

said it was the most amazing smell

37:57

when the sun rose and hit the

38:00

plants , the greenery that was growing

38:02

there on the beach , she said because the oils

38:04

would warm up and the air would just fill

38:06

up with this beautiful green , tropical

38:09

, floral smell . And so we

38:11

worked very closely with her to recreate

38:14

that smell and I'm so excited

38:16

for this .

38:17

That sounds phenomenal . I have to get so excited for this . That sounds phenomenal

38:19

. I have to get my hands on that

38:21

. That's amazing . Wow . So it's summer

38:23

. Summer is when it's coming out .

38:24

Yeah , june 1st is going to be the actual release

38:27

. We're going to be taking pre-orders on

38:29

May 1st , though I will tell you , do not

38:31

do a pre-order because

38:33

we insist that

38:35

everybody that hasn't tried one of our

38:37

perfumes try it on your skin

38:39

first to see how it works with you

38:41

. We do a pre-order

38:43

because there are certain collectors who want

38:45

everything that comes out from a fragrance house

38:48

, and we try to get an idea of how

38:50

many people are out there like that before

38:52

we go into full production . But

38:55

yeah , wait till June 1st and pick

38:57

up , um at least a sample or

38:59

discovery set . What we do is we do

39:01

, um , we put all of our fragrances

39:04

in a discovery set and we sell it for $35

39:07

. And then , when you buy one , we send

39:09

you a discount code for $35 off

39:11

any bottle . So , basically , you

39:13

get to try all of the scents for free , more

39:16

or less , and we

39:18

really like going that route so that you can get

39:20

your nose on everything and wear

39:22

it on your skin and see how it feels on

39:24

you before you buy a bottle .

39:26

That's so cool . I love that . I love that you guys

39:28

have that built up , because I feel like

39:30

nobody goes into department stores anymore

39:32

to try on scents , so

39:37

that's a really cool way to experience it before you commit . I really encourage everybody

39:39

listening that . You guys , this is like the real deal . I

39:41

really love day three fragrances . I've loved , like

39:43

I said , every single scent I've tried by the line

39:45

has been a home run for me and

39:48

I'm really I would say I'm pretty picky

39:50

with my scents because for some reason , my sense

39:52

of smell is extremely strong . I get

39:54

that from my mother . I

40:01

can smell anything . Literally people complain about it in my life and I feel like that kind of you

40:03

know . It puts me in this bracket sometimes where when I really end up loving it , it's because

40:05

it's that good . You know , because I can't stand a lot of

40:07

different scents .

40:08

I bet that's a blessing and a curse .

40:10

It really is kind of a curse sometimes . I'm not going

40:12

to lie , but you know , a lot of times , yeah , it's a blessing

40:14

because the the ones , the fragrances

40:16

I find that stay in my collection

40:19

are there for life . You know what I mean . So , and

40:21

I , a few of yours , are definitely there , by

40:23

the way , michael , these are really great . Yeah

40:30

, no , I mean it , it's . It's really beautiful what you've created and I I love it . So I encourage

40:32

everybody listening , check it out , let us know what you guys think . If you have

40:34

any questions about perfumery or fragrances , please chime in

40:36

and let us know and maybe we can do a

40:38

part two . Michael and you can answer some questions for

40:40

us .

40:40

I would love that . This was a lot of fun . So , yeah

40:43

, this was really cool .

40:44

I love this , and I have so many

40:46

more questions , so thank you everyone

40:48

for chiming in and I will be back next time .