ShareKUWAIT: The aroma of sweet vanilla brings calming and peaceful emotions to Ghadeer ’s mind, as it reminds her of her mother’s freshly baked goods. The earthy smell of rivers and the scent of grass, gives Eslam a comforting and grounding effect he used to feel in the rural neighborhood of his homeland, Palestine. Lavender, for Zainab, is a journey back in time, as it’s closely related to her childhood, where lavender-scented soaps and air fresheners used to permeate throughout her home.
Omar Al-Qattan, a 23-year-old Kuwaiti perfumer, draws inspiration from such experiences to create scents that resonate with people’s emotions and memories. “I once created a perfume that symbolizes the scent of vintage houses and nostalgic memories. One woman smelled it and literally cried as she told me ‘it reminds me of my grandmother’s old house’,” Qattan said.
Despite breaking his nose and partially losing his power of smell, Qattan managed to become the first and youngest Arab to win the best perfume award from Paris. He was introduced to his passion for creating perfumes at the age of 10 through a random experiment of spraying two perfumes together, which resulted in a completely different scent that left him dazzled and curious to go further. On that day, he found himself mixing every scent that came along his way, whether a body lotion, toothpaste or even laundry detergent, excited to see the results that each different combination would create.
With very limited sources of previous studies in fragrance oil mixing, Qattan went through a long journey of experimenting crafting perfumes for seven years. Then, to support his talent with knowledge, he enrolled in multiple perfumery courses in UK and Kuwait, where he was mentored by industry leading perfumers, business owners and instructors.
Qattan always wished to create his own perfume, but in the beginning, he found it very challenging to create a scent that could appeal to everyone. After multiple trials, errors and going through ups and downs, he was very close to losing interest in this craft and almost ceased valuing his talent. Until one day he broke his nose while playing football, which brought him to see things from a completely different perspective. “I realized that the sense of smell was a sacred blessing that I almost took for granted, which made me appreciate the skill that God has granted me,” Qattan said.
From then on, he continued pursuing his passion, and at the same time majored in marketing during his college years, which helped in taking his talent to the next level. Through his studies, not only could he create pleasantly scented perfumes, but was also able to tell compelling stories through every scent. Blending his passion for crafting perfumes, the art of marketing, storytelling and the science of consumer behavior, Qattan received an award from the International Perfume Foundation in Paris, for creating the best perfume with the best background story and message.
By only relying on plant-based pure essential oils, the story of Qattan’s award-winning perfume was inspired by the calmness and beauty of nature, where he tried to capture in it the emotions triggered from being in a rainforest, surrounded by soft humidity and cold breeze, while breathing in the refreshing scent of grass. “A perfumer must have a good imagination that can be connected to reality, so that they can create scents that are relevant to people’s experiences,” Qattan said.
Qattan believes that what distinguishes one perfume from another is its distinctive identity that resembles each person’s story in a unique way. He referred to a real-life example, where someone may always find himself choosing to wear the same perfume over and over, no matter how many times they have bought it before. “When standing in a store that has hundreds of perfumes, you find your eyes automatically falling on that one perfume that echoes your personality. You’ll look at it and say, ‘that’s mine’,” he noted.
