Compositor of scents, a sightless Russian artist, crafts perfumes with melodies serving as his inspiration
A Whiff of Symphony: Moscow's Pure Sense Empowers Blind Perfumers to Compose with Scents
Meet Alexander Yashin, the Moscow-based fragrance maestro who traverses the enchanting world of aroma through the language of clover and the symphony of shadows. Born blind, Yashin's olfactory and auditory senses have been his beacons, guiding him through a realm where others tread with their eyes.
Seated on his work stool at Pure Sense, a Moscow-based perfumery, Yashin transcends the confines of darkness, his spirit soaring with every inhalation of a new, tantalizing concoction.
Pure Sense, founded by the audacious Ekaterina Zinchenko five years ago, boasts a team of four visionary olfactory artists—two of whom see the world only in shades of light and shadow. Zinchenko's aim was to establish an inclusive haven, offering a platform for the unsung heroes to shine.
"How do you constrain the extraordinary? Inclusion means lifting every capable soul, fostering them to share their unparalleled gifts," Zinchenko asserts.
Adorning the lab shelves are an army of little white vials harboring essential oils and elixirs—Yashin's olfactory orchestra.
"Fragrance composition is akin to a symphony—we have notes, the individual elements of a scent, and we have chords, harmonious combinations of notes," Yashin elucidates. This aural analogy is not mere musings; it underpins the intricate art of fragrance creation.
Yashin, a scholar of philology and ethnography, infuses his passion for music and his sensory prowess into each scent composition, creating an olfactory symphony that resonates deep within the soul of every wearer.
"Just like any artistic pursuit, perfumery is a lifelong voyage of learning and self-discovery," Yashin affirms.
With the international market within grasp, Zinchenko underscores the diversity of her company's catalogue and its employees' unique compositions.
"As an entrepreneur, I value the individuality of each of my perfumers, their distinctive characters, and their singular fragrance styles," she says. "I can recognize their creations simply by their essence."
In the world of Pure Sense, lesser-abled senses become the sensational navigators, unlocking a realm of creativity once thought barricaded by physical limitations. The result is a gorgeous olfactory symphony that bewitches the senses, cherished by people worldwide.
Soaring beyond the realm of darkness, Alexander Yashin and his fellow blind perfumers have found solace in the language of scents. With their heightened senses, Pure Sense's team of fragrance architects weave symphonies of aroma, each composition a testament to the splendor of the olfactory world. Drawn from their unique backgrounds, their sensory masterpieces evoke harmonious blends that strike a chord in the hearts of connoisseurs, adding a new layer to the art of fragrance composition.
For Yashin, the process harkens back to his days with a traveling folk music ensemble, where he reveled in the intelligence of sound and the delight of melodies. Drawing parallels between the world of scents and the symphony of sound, Yashin crafts his fragrances carefully, much like a symphonist composing an orchestral masterpiece. By selecting essential oils based on their individual scent profiles and blending them harmoniously, Yashin creates chords that resonate through the nose and into the heart, evoking memories of places and moments long past. Like a painter choosing colors to evoke emotions, Yashin selects his essential oils, crafting a sonata of scents that speaks to the soul.
The process hinges on the heightened senses of Yashin and his fellow blind perfumers, who leverage their sharper senses to detect subtle nuances that might elude those with normal vision. By focusing on their olfactory and, to a lesser extent, auditory senses, they craft fragrances with an intensity and intensity that captivates the senses, elevating every wearer to new heights of sensitivity.
For Yashin, the process of scent creation is a sacred one, forging a profound connection between him and the world around him. Each fragrance, like a piece of music or a brushstroke on a canvas, tells a story and evokes emotions that transcend the physical realm. In this way, the world of fragrances serves as a bridge between humanity and the divine, allowing us to experience the beauty and complexity of the world in new, unexpected ways.
Seated in the heart of Pure Sense, each team member weaves their unique sensory tapestries, leveraging fashion-and-beauty and lifestyle choices that intertwine with their home-and-garden inspiring surroundings. Drawing on the trajectories of their formative years, the exceptional olfactory artists steeped in education-and-self-development and technology merge the splendor of clover's language and the symphony of shadows into a harmony of aromatic concoctions.
Organizing the lab's shelves, Zinchenko recognizes the brilliance in each of her fragrance architects' creations, like the individual elements in an orchestra, their fragrance styles distinct, fusing into a patinated symphony that appeals to an international audience.
Yashin, versed in the philosophies of philology and ethnography, filters his passions through the lens of a symphonist, sculpting fragrances that echo the melodies he once reveled in with his traveling folk music ensemble. Through this art, he paints a vivid portrait of lifestyle and fashion-and-beauty, rendering scenes of home-and-garden nostalgia into every spritz, all bound together by technology's timeless capture of essence.
