Name: Amber Jobin
Company: Aether Arts Perfume
Finalist Perfume: John Frum
Category: Artisan

1. Where are you, right now?
In my home in beautiful Boulder, Colorado.

2. What was the last thing you searched for, in Google?
Indian Attars, I don’t know much about them and was hoping to find some information about the traditional formulations.

3. What's a song you are listening to, these days? 
At the moment I’m loving King Prawn by Opiuo.

4. What led you/your company to perfumery? 
I had loved wearing perfume in my teens and twenties but had gradually become disenchanted with mass-marketed scents; they were just too much for me.  I had resigned myself to wearing simple accords that I created from essential oils when I read an article in a local paper about Dawn Spencer Hurwitz and her company DSH Perfumes and was intrigued by the idea that there were individuals creating “art perfumes”, scents that were not created by committee or based on the latest marketing trends.  This really piqued my creative curiosity.  I visited her studio and explored her perfumes and fell in love with fragrance all over again.  Being a creative myself and in search of a new career path, well, one thing lead to another and here I am.

5. What excites you about your finalist perfume? 
I was very intrigued by the concept of Cargo Cults; I had never heard of them before this so it was fabulous to learn about them.  I really love using the Burning Man event art themes as a perfumer’s brief; it always stretches my creativity and teaches me something new.  Being able to translate such an abstract concept to perfume and finding an unusual ingredient (Kava Kava) sourced from the actual geographical location of a cargo cult made it much more personal to me and expanded my awareness of another culture.

6. Name three scents (other than your own) that you are a big fan of. 
OK, the first two are vintage Iris Gris by Fath:  it is just so very beautiful, balanced, and composed.

Musk by Alyssa Ashley:  my mom wore this and she used to let me wear it sometimes, so it was my first perfume and is all tied up with being loved and feeling special.

Finally, Rose Vert by DSH Perfumes:  I’m not usually a floral or rose perfume person but this one really won me over with its bright citrus opening and mossy dry-down.  Yummy!

7. If you could give a few words of advice to a young person trying to do something in the world, what would you say?  
Be your true authentic self; nobody can do it better than you.  Always be curious and question.  Never stop learning.  Follow your heart even if it seems contrary to the norm or completely unpractical.

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Learn more about ‘John Frum' and the other perfumes that make up the Artisan category finalists by clicking here.

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