Lola Tillyaeva, The Creative Mind Behind The Harmonist Perfumes

 

The Harmonist began as an idea to bring balance through scent. The founder of the brand, Lola Tillyaeva, conceptualized The Harmonist by merging her two greatest passions: the wisdom gained through persistent self-inquiry, and a scent’s extraordinary power to influence how we function and feel. For Tillyaeva, it was important to create perfumes that would resonate with the wearer’s temperament in hopes that it would help them find their own harmony.

We spoke to Lola Tillyaeva about her unique brand offering and her mission in understanding oneself better and discovering the “I” factor.

AM: What is your product range?
The Harmonist is the first-ever perfume line to translate the science of Feng Shui into the language of modern fragrance. We offer thirteen complex and unique scents that bring the wearer’s attention inward, so they can better perceive themselves and their surroundings.

I found an incomparable collaborator in Guillaume Flavigny, a world-renowned and award-winning perfumer. As we developed the ten perfumes featured in The Harmonist’s signature Elements collection, we sought out premium raw materials embodying the distinct qualities of the five elements – water, wood, earth, metal and fire. Then, we created Yin Transformation in 2018, to celebrate the year of Water. We focused on this precious element, source of all life, and balanced it with both yin and yang energies. In 2020, we launched Moon Glory and Sun Force that represent the Yin and Yang energies. Two fragrances that are opposite forces, yet inextricably linked.

AM: In your opinion, why has it become trendy to have customized and personalized perfumes?
Our sense of smell reaches beyond time because through smell you can suddenly find yourself back in your childhood or in some homey place. A certain smell can even help bring us back beside a loved one who has long since left this world. It is such a powerful sense that everyone should get the chance to find its olfactory identity to go through this incredible journey called life.

AM: And why do customers choose The Harmonist?
I would say that we have two core types of clientele. Some of our customers are perfumes aficionados, who are looking for unique and complex fragrances, that were created without any trend or market target. And some customers recognize themselves into our holistic approach and want to find a fragrance that will bring them more well-being, confidence and harmony.

AM: We also know you have a lot of Middle Eastern clients, as a perfumer, what inspires you from this region?
Our Middle Eastern customers are a wonderful source of inspiration, they are such perfume experts that we are delighted to share with them more insights and information about our ingredients and fragrance creation. They are also eager to layer fragrances to go further with a more personalized perfume which will match their personality and olfactive preferences. As our collections were co-created by me and internationally renowned Givaudan perfumer Guillaume Flavigny, many of our fragrances offer the possibility for layering, offering more depth, personalization and complexity, and ultimately brining added harmony and balance.

AM: Personally speaking, what would you say is your favorite scent from The Harmonist?
I’ve always been fascinated by our sense of smell and I was forever searching for the perfect perfume, a scent that was really ideally suited to me. Since I lived in France for many years, I tried all kinds of fragrances and even studied perfumery just to learn more about it. But still I couldn’t find a scent I really liked. And so, I decided to experiment, and I created a perfume for myself. The result was quite interesting. I used notes I had been fond of as a child – musk, jasmine and ylang-ylang flowers. After a while I thought it would be interesting to take it further and create my own perfume brand. When we worked on interpreting into scent the Yin energy, it reminded me a lot of this scent I created and we worked with Guillaume on translating even more this energy into it, this scent is Moon Glory. It’s a magical scent to me that evokes stillness to ground you into the present moment.

AM: And where can we purchase your fragrances?
As I spent time in Paris to learn about perfumes and as all of our products are Made in France, we have one unique boutique in the world, located on 36 avenue George V in Paris. We are in luxurious department stores in the United States and in a few countries worldwide. As we have a selective distribution, we are mostly in perfume niche stores internationally, like the Scentitude stores in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. We are also very lucky to be at Harrods, in their prestigious Salon de Parfums and in a few other perfumeries in Europe and Switzerland.