Olufemi Olaseinde Olusola is the CEO of Seinde Signature, a perfume collector, serial entrepreneur who has traversed different sectors including telecommunications, hospitality and laundry. In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, he talks about his passion for perfumes, life as a collector of niche perfumes, inspiration from his father and more.
HAT inspired your passion as a perfume collector?
This came out of passion. It’s not like I set out to start selling perfumes. A lot of people started coming to my house during COVID, just to come and smell perfume. Then I was free and posted different perfumes online.
So, I had a lot of people coming in to celebrate birthdays in my house. I would entertain with food and drinks. That happened every Sunday and we usually had a full house. So, I decided to open a place where everyone can come in and that was how we opened the studio. The intention was not to sell perfumes. I just brought all the perfumes from the house here. Every perfume comes with a story. The difference between the regular perfume and the kind of perfumes we sell is that the regular perfumes are the ones made by big companies. They get the perfume man to do it and they produce in millions. So, every airport, every big store will have them. We sell what is called niche; it is not done in that volume. It is done in a little volume and in most cases, they use organic materials instead synthetic materials to make them. They last better on the skin and cost a little more.
How has been a collector change your personality?
In my years as a collector I was able to discover where to go and get it. In the past, I had to carry the bottles in my pocket and reuse after two or three house. But this are different, it last all day.
So, we started this from people just coming to see, then they wanted to buy and the Manufacturers also contacted me and we opened the store.
Last year, we celebrated our anniversary tagged scentversary and brought in the Manufacturers from America, Spain, Holland and Germany. They all liked the experience, inspite of how we thought Nigeria was. They went back to their country, talked about it and it was fun for everybody.
This year, we are going to be two but this time around, we want to take people from here to the factories.
Also, the perfumes we have chosen come with history. The Damascus collection from Turkey focuses on Syria, while you also have the Russian and Istanbul collections. The scents of Istanbul focus on different attraction areas in Turkey, how the area smells are the materials used for the perfume. We want to take five of our customers to those areas, so they can immerse themselves. Perfume really is an experience and people who do not like perfumes may not know what you are talking about. But when you wear it, it comes with a very big experience. Most of the people, who create perfumes, create something that encapsulates the character. There is a perfume called Eshu. It was made by a guy in Bangkok, he has never been to Nigeria but if you look at his page, he said Eshu is a trickster Yoruba god from the West coast of Africa. The perfume is trickster like Eshu, the perfume changes, creates the illusion that you are wearing sweet now its bitter and switches within the period that you are wearing it and named it after Eshu. There is another one from Romania named after Oshun Oshogbo which is a fertility god, god of love and uses florals and others to depict that character. These guys have never been to this country but they research extensively. Perfume is art, just like you have painters, creating things. To create perfume is an art, not just smelling nice. So, that is the way we want people to start looking at perfume.
There is Electimuss made in London but they are talking about the Roman god. Here, you have the Nero Collection talking about the different emperors. You even find perfumes done with the different kind of food the guy liked such as Black Caviar. You can actually smell caviar in it, as well as the different things to show the character of the god that they are focusing on.
Are there niche perfume makers in Nigeria?
There are a lot of Niche perfume makers in Nigeria but they are not recognised. The market company’s before us don’t even talk to them or even recognise them. We also have the habit of wearing foreign things and most of the perfumes in Nigeria are actually struggling, there is no exposure but we have dedicated one shelve for them. We have Catherine Umahi, her perfume is exclusive to Harrods in London. We did a workshop in London and she taught everyone how to make perfumes. You chose your notes, create a scent in your name and she helps you to put it together.
Who inspired you. Was it your mum, wife or daughter?
Let me give you a small background of how perfumes started. These days’ ladies do surgery for desired shape. In those days, they used corsets, it was tight and they used lavender oil to resuscitate, that was how they started using lavender as perfume. That is why the Yorubas call it Lofinda, they are talking about lavender oil.
My father always liked to smell nice. I was born into a family where my father would burn incense. He was a polygamous man with two wives. He was a public servant, the water superintendent of Oyo state. He was a very stylish and loving man. I was the only son in a family of 8 and second to the last. All of them were sisters, in those days if they had parties, he would put everyone in the car and take them to the party, drop them and ask what time he should come back. If they said 2am, he would come back at exactly 2am. So, I imbibed that from him and do that for my daughter sometimes before she got her own car. A lot of father’s can’t do that for their children. I got that from my father and a lot of guys loved to come to our house because he had many girls. That is the kind of man he was and he made me to love perfumes. When I left school in 1979, one of my friends travelled to America and he brought a perfume for me and I wore it, it was nice and everyone loved it. From there, I started collecting perfumes. I had over 1300 perfume bottles, then I started giving out and selling some of the ones I had. Then I felt it was like a disease, why am I buying all this, when it doesn’t have a value. Then you post it and discover that there are so many people that like perfumes like you, so I am not sick after all. If I spray one then I won’t touch it that year again. But, I would spray more when I go out and get more compliments for it.
Our second anniversary is tagged Scentversary. The catch is if you buy any of the perfumes, then you a get a Raffle ticket that would draw at the end of every month starting from October 1st to get the five people.
I bought my first perfume, Calvin Klein in 1982, about 40 years ago. Then they were using plastics not bottles.