19. Maya Njie
“Fragrance has always been such a big part of who I am, so for me to take on perfumery as a creative career just felt written in the stars”
"Portrait of a Lady?” Maya Njie ventured, within seconds of my walking through the door to her Shoreditch studio a few weeks ago. For those of you that don’t know, Portrait of a Lady is a perfume by Frederic Malle, and the one I am currently wearing. The fact that she was able to identify this was (to me) pretty impressive. But then, scent is what Maya does for a living.
Many of you will have come across Maya Njie’s beautiful small-batch fragrances, stocked as she is in local Hackney store Mad Atelier and in the world-famous shopping mecca that is Liberty, in central London. I had the immense pleasure of attending one of her perfume workshops with an old friend last autumn, and I was in heaven - if you are even remotely interested in fragrance, I recommend it for a wonderful way to spend an evening.
Maya was born in Sweden and grew up in Västerås, a small industrial city on the outskirts of Stockholm. Her father was Gambian and her mother Swedish, so she experienced a mix of influences from both cultures while growing up. She tells me she was a very curious child and discovered early on that she had a passion for scent, collecting things such as scented dolls or stationery and even learned how to make scented candles from a young age.
As a teenager, Maya harboured a desire to move to London and eventually relocated here with a friend shortly after turning nineteen - “it was a place bursting with both art and music and that was the big draw for me at the time”. Initially she worked for the clothing brand Carhartt, but motherhood brought on a desire for a change in direction. In 2013 she started studying Surface Design at the University of the Arts and she worked primarily within print, pattern and photography. But as she had always been an ardent lover of scent, she veered towards a more multi-sensory expression in her work and so began combining visual design, photography, and olfaction. She used an old family photo album from the 1970’s as a starting point, and the seed for her fragrance collection was planted. Self-taught, she started experimenting under her own steam and in 2016, Maya Njie the brand was born: “fragrance has always been such a big part of who I am, so for me to take on perfumery as a creative career just felt written in the stars”.
Maya’s fragrances are all heavily inspired by her Swedish and West African heritage, as well as childhood memories and experiences and, of course, the aforementioned family photo album. Each of her fragrances is accompanied by a photograph and a small colour palette, both of which help to capture a moment in time and tell a story.
I asked Maya about her process when designing a new scent: “ultimately for me, the process starts with how I choose to smell, in harmony with how I smell naturally. A conscious choice that gives me what I seek in that moment”. She explains scent is generally the smell that is emitted naturally from humans, animals, nature and objects. Perfume and fragrance are also scents, but have been constructed and intentionally applied.
We talked a lot about the power of scent and how it can transport you to a different place and time. Maya burns West African incense seeds while at home - they can be burned as they are or soaked in a fragrant oil. In Gambia they are used in many households, so it becomes very evocative of that place. I asked her if she has a particular note or ingredient that she is drawn to time and again: “it changes a lot. But there are core ingredients that I always go back to. One of them is vetiver. I love a bit of vetiver. It's amazing and I seem to gravitate towards perfumes that have it as a note. I also love iris and violet. Some people struggle to smell iris but it really comes alive in a formula, where it just blooms”.
For Maya, taking photographs and working with colour are a springboard to inspire her scent blends. She loves packaging design, too, which obviously comes in handy for her own simple but very sophisticated boxes for her perfume bottles - you can see the Scandinavian sensitivity there. Her multi-disciplinary background is clearly very useful and has enabled her to take on many of the elements of running a business single-handed, but it hasn’t always been easy:
“For a long time, I was on my own and I missed having someone with whom to share ideas and solve problems. It’s a lot of hard work and it doesn’t let up! Managing all the aspects of the business solo for many years was my biggest challenge, but I kept going because I had a true love and clear vision for what I was doing. Thankfully I’m no longer alone, as I have developed a small team who are just as passionate about the brand as I am”. Maya also has more freedom to travel now that her daughter is older and more self-sufficient. This gives her the ability to seek out new stockists internationally, but most importantly, to travel to countries she’s not yet visited, for fresh inspiration.
When asked about the greatest pleasure she gets from her work, Maya says: “discovering a new material that I love can really influence how I feel - I love the power of ingredients in that way and the excitement it gives me when I blend them in a way that enhances that feeling”. Finishing a fragrance can take months or even years, she explains: “patience is a virtue when it comes to formulating a fragrance and time isn’t always on your side. I do like the maturation process of perfume making though. It slows the manufacturing time down and you must respect that and just let your ingredients work their magic”.
I asked Maya which other independent women-run businesses she admires and wants to share:
The Gilded Codex, “an excellent jewellery consultation business run by Sharlene Dolan. I have a few one-of-a-kind pieces from her that I will treasure forever”. Find her on Instagram here.
Aimee Craddock Jewellery, “she has a beautiful store in Folkestone and stocks a mixture of wares to adorn yourself and your home with. She also runs workshops”. Find her on Instagram here.
Finally, Golden Star Tarot by Sarah Brant: “We go back 30 years, and she is incredible, kind and intuitive. She works as a certified medium in Sweden and worldwide online. She tells it like it is, what can I say!”
Maya is currently working on a collaborative project, connected to Gambia: “…. a multi-sensory experience that involves photography and scent…. It is something that I have wanted to do for a long time, and I am very happy to be in the midst of it. I will share more once it’s ready!”
Watch this space.
Find Maya Njie’s perfumes online here, or by appointment at her Shoreditch studio. Book onto one of her brilliant bespoke perfume blending workshops here and find her on Instagram here.
