Scent has always been inherently personal, and for these 12 creatives it’s part of their identity.
It’s the question that expresses both compliment and curiosity - one aimed squarely at those who leave a delightful scent in their wake.
We first asked people “What
Below, we asked 12 of Aotearoa’s coolest creatives about their signature scent, with their myriad picks spanning genderless eau de parfums and verdant extraits through to what one person cites as “the perfect vanilla”.
But while their preferred perfume differs, the golden thread throughout is how a spritz, spray or roll of their favourite fragrance ignites treasured memories or cements a moment in time.
My favourite scent on the planet is Opia by Curionoir. Curionoir is a Wāhine Māori owned and operated parfumery by Tiffany Witihera. Tiff has the most gorgeous store on Ponsonby Rd that houses perfume, candles and hard soaps. She is a creative genius and one of the most stunning human beings I know. Her scents are made from the best ingredients around the world, curated from memories of her childhood or moments in her life that have moved her. Her brand is steeped in mindful connection to the whenua, te taiao and te ao Māori.
Tiff curated a special Opia diffusion oil that we used to infuse the entire Viaduct Events Centre for our NZFW23 opening runway. It was important to us that every person who attended the first NZFW opening runway by Māori felt the korowai of our artisans and makers, through scent, visuals, sound and people. I love her dearly, and consider wearing Opia one of my daily rituals, a taonga. —Kiri Nathan, fashion designer
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Advertise with NZME.Currently, Roaming Wind by Melt Season. A beautiful parfum I picked up in Shanghai. It’s clean, fresh, invigorating and simultaneously relaxing. I can’t help but smile every time I spray it. It transports me to a lush garden with tomatoes growing on the vine in the sun. —Rory Williams Docherty, fashion designer
My signature scent is a combination of two. I use The Perfume Oil Company’s Dry Oil and roll-on perfume oil in the scent Vice. It’s a beautiful musky vanilla with hints of tobacco. Then over that I spray Byredo’s Vanille Antique which is my absolute favourite perfume of all time - it’s the perfect vanilla. Not too sweet, and lasts for hours. —Kaarina Parker, author, model and women’s rights advocate
For me, I never want to smell overly masculine or feminine, and this scent lands somewhere beautifully in the middle. It feels incredibly fresh, and this might seem weird to say... but intellectual. Like it’s not overly romantic as a fragrance. It’s fresh and breezy and then kind of synthetic (in the way that I love the smell of books, vivid and petrol lol). —Chris Parker, actor and comedian
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Advertise with NZME.I’m so obsessed with having a signature scent! Right now my current obsession would have to be Fame parfum by Rabanne. I was first introduced to this scent at a Showroom 22 event and knew it was meant to be!
It’s bold yet feminine, and has this addictive warmth that lingers all day - every time I wear it, someone asks what I’m wearing. It makes me feel powerful, polished and a little playful... exactly how I want to show up in any room. —Troi Atkins, model, stylist and content creator
Opia extrait de parfum and Pablo extrait de parfum by Curionoir
There is no doubt that my signature scent is Opia by Curionoir. I’ve had multiple minis since I was about 27 (now 34) and was given a big bottle for my 30th birthday. It’s now fully embedded into all of my clothing, my home, my car. It’s a deep, rich scent with oud and sandalwood - some days more rich than others, some days almost powdery. I’ve tried to depart from Opia for the sake of variety - I once took a mini of Curionoir’s Pablo on a six-week jaunt to Rome, and now every time I smell it on someone, it jettisons me right back to those end of summer days - but I think it has just become a part of me. —Maxine Kelly, fashion designer
My most sentimental scent, gifted to me by my husband on the morning of our wedding. Gris Charnel — meaning “Carnal Grey” in French — is a fragrance that lives in the in-between: light and shadow, memory and skin, intimacy and mystery. Inspired by a chance encounter and the sensual atmosphere of Paris, it feels like the reflection of a time we spent there, fleeting and unforgettable.
It opens with fig and black tea, softens into iris and sandalwood, with tonka bean — warm, woody, and quietly magnetic. Genderless and poetic. My husband and I often share it — and somehow, it smells completely different on each of us, but equally right and yummy. —Gracie Hitchcock, The Girls Uninterrupted podcast co-host and content creator
I’m obsessed! I was gifted my first bottle from my best friends and I’ve gone through so many bottles since - it’s the only fragrance I wear. It’s the most beautiful scent, I always get asked what my perfume is. The bottle is super chic too. —Rebe Burgess, fashion designer
My go-to fragrance depends on my mood but one that’s really stuck is Le Labo Thé Matcha 26. It was an instant winner when I first tried it on in the Mecca store in Newmarket. You know that feeling after a spritz and you get wafts when you’re walking around? I look for that in a fragrance. I like to think it justifies the price tag and worth the investment. It’s woody, not too deep. It’s transitioned from summer to winter with me, I’m on my second bottle. —Portia Prince, model and content creator
Spicebomb by Viktor & Rolf defined my 20s, and I still have a soft spot for it. But for my 30th, I was given Wonderwood by Comme des Garçons and it made me feel like I’d finally grown up. Nearly a decade on, it still does, and now feels very “me”. My partner, Chris, however, is more of a perfume connoisseur than I am, and I often find myself stealing his Blamage by Nasomatto. —William Hyndman, co-founder of Perrault
Rather than one signature scent, I have a few I cycle through, a daily selection guided mostly by mood and state of mind.
Last month, five years after I was gifted it for my 30th birthday, I finished my bottle of Frédéric Malle Lys Méditerranée eau de parfum. Breezy, fresh and slightly salty with notes of orange blossom, ginger lily and musk, it was the spritz I reached for when feeling like my best, bounciest self. The biggest endorsement I can give is that I wore it all through the pandemic and still liked it afterwards, no mean feat for someone who is particularly attuned to the olfactory-memory connection.
It’s been replaced in my rotation by Bruxa’s Body Oil of Summer, with a scent of wild jasmine it’s provides a similarly lively and sensual floral intimacy. Tyson Beckett, multimedia journalist
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