Name: Michael 'Mik' Coyle
Company: MIK MOI
Finalist Perfume: Vesper
Category: Artisan

1. Where are you, right now?
I'm home here in Japantown, San Francisco

2. What was the last thing you searched for, in Google?
Lingua Franca

3. What's a song you are listening to, these days?
Who You? by G-Dragon

4. What led you to perfumery?
Perfumery for me is an evolution of my life's work and passion for culture, language, diversity and inclusion.

I am fascinated by cultural references and elements. As I learned more and more about aromatics I was so struck by their cultural significance and deep roots in 'place'. Having had the real privilege to live on three continents and study more than 7 languages (and counting!) I feel for me perfume has become the ultimate way of bringing together fascinatingly diverse cultural elements into an art form.

5. What excites you about your finalist perfume?
Vesper is a perfume that feels much like a biography for me. It symbolizes sin and redemption, the allure of culture and the exotic. I was raised on 007 films and the exotic locales and characters in James Bond story lines were what inspired me to study languages, travel and seek out diversity. Vesper is all of that; from the indulgence of cocktails to the seduction of ingenues to the redemption of service to a higher cause. I was also raised Catholic and from an early age experienced the guilt and shame associated with being different or indulging - but the one thing I took comfort in at church was the burning of incense. The name Vesper is as inspired by the Bond Girl and martini as it is by evening Vespers at church. I live next a beautiful Gothic church here in San Francisco, you can see it in my bio pic, at night its windows glow the color of Vesper...

6. Name three scents (other than your own) that you are a big fan of.
Jasmin et Cigarette by Etat Libre d'Orange
Carnation by Laboissiere
Oyedo by Diptyque

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?
This simple phrase was shared with me in college and it has never failed me, I couldn't say it any better and I quote it often: 'If you want to, you will'

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