When Vyrao founder Yasmin Sewell begins to create a new scent, she starts with an emotion. For its latest fragrance, the eighth perfume since the company launched in 2021, it was the feeling of stress caused by incessant screen time. As a result ‘Mamajuju’ offers up olfactory respite from the glare of digital devices, by grounding its wearer in nature.
Sewell drew inspiration from a location close to her heart to achieve this. ‘I was thinking about Australia’s red earth, the deep sweet smell I encounter every time I land there,’ she says. When we meet – on a rainy day in London – we are miles from her Sydney birthplace and the source of the key ingredient in ‘Mamajuju’, Australian sandalwood. The smell of petrichor in the air is, nonetheless, fitting.
