Decolonizing Scent with Yosh Han
In this episode of the Spora Health Link, founder Dan Miller is joined by Yosh Han, professional perfumer, to discuss the power of scent and the perfume industry's long history of eurocentrism and racism, particularly obvious in it's use of terms like 'orientalism.' Yosh believes that scent is a representation of culture that comes with biases that are rarely evaluated. She also believes that scent is a way we can all upgrade our physical spaces and even feel more at home in our own skin.
Yosh Han is the founder YOSH olfactory sense, a Perfumer, Level 1 Sommelier, a Judge for the 2020 Institute for Art and Olfaction awards and former tasting judge for the International Chocolate Salon in San Francisco. Yosh is the producer of Scent Festival, an annual digital event celebrating olfaction and the senses. Scent Festival is also a platform for supporting BIPOC scent artists and is currently sponsoring a petition to "Reclassify Oriental category in Perfumery." The next festival theme is Intersectional Perfumery.
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A Conversation on Scent
Dan Miller: Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the link, where we are interviewing avant-garde creators around various aspects of health and wellness, specifically tailored for people of color. And today we have Yosh Han with us, who is the founder of Yosh olfactory sense, as well as the scent festival. She's a perfumer, level one Sommelier, a judge for the 2020 Institute for Art and Olfaction awards, and former tasting judge for the International chocolate salon in San Francisco, which must have been an incredible opportunity to taste chocolate. But welcome Yosh, thank you so much for joining us.
Yosh Han: Thank you so much for having me. I feel very inspired by the work that you're doing for people of color in the wellness sector, and I feel so honored to be part of your show.
Dan: Thank you so much. I'm equally as impressed by the work that you're doing. And it's really inspiring how you connected these experiences from the physical world and connected them to draw out emotion and people's lives. What inspired you to get into this work?
Yosh: To be honest, when I was in college, I was at that point where you are about to graduate, and you think, 'oh, my goodness, what am I going to do with my life?' Well, I didn't have a plan. And so a friend of mine said, 'let's move to Aspen.' And I, in a drunken moment said, What a great idea. But when I arrived I didn't have a plan. And I didn't have a job lined up, and I was walking around this very charming town in the mountains, and I could see this kind of glistening boutique in the corner. And I walked towards it. And I just felt so moved to go inside. And when I was inside, there were all these bottles on the wall, and I was so mesmerized. And literally, I said to the manager, 'I am here, this is my new home', and he was like, 'What are you talking about? Who are you? Do you have an appointment?' I said, 'No, but this is going to be where I am from now on.' And luckily for me, the owner in the back came out, heard this whole funny conversation. And he's like, 'well, who are you?' And I said, 'Well tell me what you do first.'
Yosh Han
When I learned it was a perfumery, it really made sense to me because I had been a florist in college. And I had a fantastic relationship with botanicals. At the time, I was thinking I wanted to study complimentary medicine. But as an Asian American woman, I didn't want to go into the healing arts that would kind of pin me to this stereotype of what an Asian healer might be. Back then I was kind of delighted by this notion of zentrification [the gentrification of East Asian healing modalities], but also uncomfortable with it because at the time it was still being called 'oriental medicine' or 'Chinese medicine.' And even though I've really grown up with acupuncturists and herbalists in that tradition, I've grown up in the states as well. And so when I learned about perfumery and aroma therapy, I thought this it was a magical world because it seemed much more about wellness and luxury rather than illness. It felt more in line with the flowers that I had already grown to love. And when I learned that shop is Aspen was a perfumery, I became quickly one of the shop managers. And that was really the beginning of that first part of my career in 1997. But it wouldn't be until much later, in the early 2000s that I wanted to start my own business. So when I started my own business, I really didn't know that much about it other than from being a shop keeper, basically. And what I learned is that it's primarily centered around this tiny town in the south of France called Grasse. That was back in the late 90s, early 2000s. And here we are in 2021. And I recognize now in my own personal decolonization that Europe has been the center of the perfumery world. But it's kind of a false narrative because we know that perfume has existed in what they would consider 'the Orient', in ancient like Egypt, in Asia, in the Middle East for much longer.
Dan: Wow. That's incredible. And so most people, I think, understand the connection between the smell and memory. But it seems a lot of your work revolves around exploring, sense's connection to a longer human history. Can you tell us a little more about what you've discovered as you started peeling back the layers of sense labeled as 'oriental'?
Yosh: When you think about it, it makes sense. You have the fragrant materials, the plant materials, and each of those plant materials has plant intelligence. So we know that medicine comes from botanicals. And so when you think about its capacity to heal, it's already in nature, we already have, very well known materials like ginger, which is good for stimulating digestion. And so when you smell it, as well as eat it, you have the efficacy there. And when you move from, let's say, more medicinal smells, which is what we call aroma therapy, we also have aromachology, which is something more like gardenia. We can't actually produce essential oil of gardenia, so we have to produce it synthetically. So in modern perfumery, we use technology, just like we do in medicine to harness both natural components and also synthesizing technology. We can have incredible smells that we've concocted in the lab, as well as marrying it with natural materials. And that's where I sit as an as a creative designer, as an artist. But then you start thinking about, how is it made? There is a structure to perfume made of top notes, middle notes, and bass notes. In composition we're really looking for compositions that can simulate, energize, balance, or even ground you.
But then the next layer is we think about what goes in the perfume. Not just the plants, but then who makes it. We know about fair trade coffee and chocolates. At the moment, there really isn't a fair trade perfume. But when you think about the ingredients, they're the very same. For example take vanilla, which we all love. The Vanilla orchid takes over nine months to grow, and because all of the insects that naturally pollinated vanilla have all died, you have to manually pollinate. Often with the little hands of children and women because the vanilla orchid is so small. And so when you consider the farmers and distillers, you realize there's a huge disparity behind the industry that no one thinks about. It's a lot of unknowns. Who's making the perfumes? Who's growing the materials to make the perfumes? You realize just like coffee and chocolate, there's a big economic gap. And a lot of times the farmers don't ever see the final product. But thankfully now with the internet and smartphones, people are catching on. Especially when you consider the global environmental impact on a place like Madagascar which is where a lot of natural scents come from and being affected by climate change rapidly. So not only was perfume already expensive, because it's labor intensive. And now you have climate change affecting our plant materials. And so how can you not, as a creative person in this industry, get involved on this deeper level? Because we want to be sustainable. We want to be conscious, and we want to be mindful of diversity, inclusion, and make sure people have fair wages. So you think you've just opened a bottle of perfume to smell and then it's like a Pandora's box where there's so much complexity in there.
And then once you start to think about the marketing, you recognize one of the most popular styles of fragrance is this category of, 'Oriental', which, is a colonial term that we don't want to be used anymore. 'Oriental' doesn't have any meaning. No other industry, not chocolate, whiskey, coffee, tea, beer, nobody else uses this term. And the ones who are still wanting to uphold this say it just means 'East,' Well. Africa is not East, so....
There are other words like amber, anamalic, gourmand, woody, spice, and resin which mean a lot more. And one of my new favorites, which in my own process of decolonization I learned comes from the Middle East. They have a style of fragrance called 'Malahat.' which means mix in Arabic. And what I love about that is it's regional. And so I just had an epiphany, thinking about this podcast and thinking about how we're obsessed with regional cuisines. Why don't we have a trend on regional sense. Things from the Middle East are so different than smells from the Far East, Southeast Asia or any other place. Smells have the ability to give you the sensation of armchair travel to specific destinations. When I just unpacked all these bottles from my studio in San Francisco that I had in storage, it transported me both to the place that I was when I first smelled it, and also to the place where the material is from. For example I was smelling patchouli, which a lot of people either love or hate because it smells very earthy, kind of like moist soil. In perfumery, we use patchouli to give a scent warmth and shade, like a painter uses use black or brown to give a color warmth and shade. When I smelled it, I was instantly taken back to where I first smelled it but it also took me to a place in Indonesia, which I didn't know was kind of the epicenter of where patchouli grows. And so this is what I love about the perfume industry. It's ever changing. It's ever evolving. And as you become more aware of yourself, and you smell things, it's a rabbit hole. First you think you're just smelling a fancy bottles on a shelf in a department store, then you think well what's in it? Oh, okay, I really love this. It's Saffron. But where does saffron grow? Oh, it grows in Iran? That's interesting. Then there are some scents that are red listed, meaning they're endangered, like Palo Santo. And then you see it's everywhere and very trendy. But the Palo Santo is sacred in Latin America, so you start to wonder if you're doing the right thing by wanting to spray it everywhere. You can look at the whole supply chain and see if it's sustainably sourced and can consider the farmers who are harvesting and what they're paid. It just keeps going.
Dan: Are there ways to better support the farmers or the producers of the materials that go into ending up involved in the scents?
Yosh: Definitely consumer awareness is really helpful. So there are some brands now that are definitely more sustainably minded. There's a organization called the coalition of sustainable perfumery. They have a red list and a yellow list for endangered status. So we know just like in seafood, hey, this is in danger. Don't buy it. As a perfumer, I shouldn't buy this material to use in my creations because it's on the red and the yellow list. As a consumer, you can decide that you're not going to buy that brand and product, because you know it hasn't been sustainably sourced. You can let your dollars speak and choose this brand over Brand X, because they are using sustainably sourced materials. And then of course, now, we're talking about if brands are using 'oriental' in their language. There's a very heated discussion right now, and having that consciousness is really helpful. The younger generations are very mindful, and they are our values based consumers. They're buying from their hearts, so we know that the future is much more diverse and inclusive, and that's very heartwarming.
Dan: I'm thinking back to my own experience, when I was first introduced to colognes and perfumes. It was walking through the malls where I grew up in New Jersey, and, you're kind of getting solicited with these cards and someone's spraying you. I'm thinking back into the conversations that I've had and I wonder if those salespersons are have this level of depth of information about where the the scents are coming from, to create that consumer awareness. I'm now thinking about ways in which consumers can can educate themselves potentially.
Yosh: What's so interesting is because of COVID, our retail landscape has really changed. So a lot has gone online. When you consider everyone has Google at their fingertips, it has forced these retailers to get savvy as well because you can't be less informed than your consumer. The consumer is often leading the charge and educating us because they're passionate about these things. There's a definite opening of what kinds of perfumes are available. It used to be very trendy to have a designer fragrance by a celebrity, yada yada, but now I think people want fragrances that are made by people. There's a growing trend of indie perfumers and American perfumers. As I said, it was traditionally French brands or European brands. Then maybe only about 10 years ago there was this whole DIY movement for scents, and Americans of course, are very entrepreneurial. And so we started to make our own perfumes not in the classic French perfumery way. More recently, there has been an amazing trend and movement towards all kinds of diversity. And so we're finding new perfumers of color. I produce an digital event called Scent Festival and it really started at the beginning of the pandemic. There was an article that I saw that said there were only two black perfumers. I thought that could not possibly right. So I thought I have to find not only niche and indie perfumers, but I must find perfumers of color and also amplify black perfumers. Well I literally could not believe how expansive my world became. A lot of these perfumers are blending things in their studio and we don't know about it. And so what's been amazing is having that awareness of all of the perfumers of color. In the beauty and fragrance industry once decenter Europe there's a whole world of BIPOC brands. A lot of these are nascent and the beginning of their career, but they have plenty of talent, are super creative, and also bring a new perspective and it's so fresh. What I have loved through the platform of scent festival is finding brands that I didn't even know about who are doing incredible things. Because of technology, not only were they formerly consumers, they now have the ability and access to buy supplies, buy materials, and share their creative vision with us. So I have been so delighted by the growing trend of new perfumers that are not from Europe.
Dan: Are there any brands that come to mind right now?
Yosh: I'm also the creative director at Scent Trunk and we commission new perfumes each month. Through this I've been able to work with incredible new talent that I didn't know about.
Tanaïs is from Bangladesh and she is so talented.
Shabnam Tavakol, is an Iranian American perfumer who owns Kismet Olfactive.
Maya Njie is from Sweden, but she's now based in London, very talented.
Chavalia D. Mwamba owns PM Fragrances.
There's also Sean Crenshaw, I really love his brand, Ovation for men. He's very focused on that every man deserves an ovation and he's really focused on creating a luxury fragrance brand for black men.
Chris Collins as well.
[Yosh also created a list of Black Perfumers]
I just love this movement towards changing the perception. Maybe no one else will talk about this, but when you go to mass market store like Walmart, CVS or Walgreens, especially in certain economic areas, fragrances are locked up with keys. You have to ask someone to open the fragrances before you can even smell them. They're not even expensive. They're like $30 or less. Yet you have other products in other white neighborhoods that are not locked up. This is so infuriating, I can't even tell you. What is this whole thing about, you know, systemic racism down to how people shop for their grooming products? We have to address this because this affects our wellness, our self confidence. This is stuff that you need every day. Not just talking about luxury fragrance, but soaps and shaving products. Why is it locked up? This is just mind boggling. So I love that these new brands that I'm highlighting, they're for everyday people, but they're also targeted towards wealthy black people, wealthy brown people. We got money. We don't need to shop at mass market places, and I don't need to get your key, I'm going to spend my money supporting indie and bootstrapped perfumers.
Yosh Han on Scent
“And that strangeness- that thing that you were afraid of, is the thing that actually makes your fragrance amazing. And that's true for anything in life.”
This is the part of my own personal decolonization. I'm a leader in the industry, and I have to share the news. We have to break these stereotypes and address it head on, because who else is going to do it? Sorry, but a white French dude is not going to be changing this because they have everything to uphold and everything to lose. And so maybe I'm not making friends in Europe right now. But thank God, there are definitely allies. But we have to address it. We also have to change how we view our audience because we know that there's negative media stereotyping around BIPOC. We can take it into our own hands and showcase what we have to offer and are creating. I love amplifying other brands through Scent Festival and Scent Trunk which have nothing to do with my YOSH brand. Those brands about other perfumers, and we must do this. This is what I love about this whole movement is you see who's your ally. And the solidarity is awesome.
I have a petition right now around changing the term 'oriental' in perfumery. It's slow growing, but it's gaining amplification. It's just is a seed, right? Because maybe what I'm saying is completely astonishing to some folks. And I agree, even when I heard it for this first time, I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, you're right.' But how can we change it? The minute you recognize it, you say, 'Oh, no, no, I have to change. I have make amends.' And I also have to take action. People are often afraid to make a stand because they think they're going to lose friends or customers. But the truth is, is when you begin the decolonization process, what happens is your whole world opens up. Your whole world blossoms. You meet new customers, you make new friends, and you learn so many things. When you open your world, it just expands and when you add color you also expand your palette and your repertoire. You think, okay, now I'm going to try to understand some of these other materials that I didn't know about turmeric, cumin, cardamom, saffron, or some of these other more unusual scent that wasn't in my repertoire before. Maybe it doesn't smell familiar, but what happens is, that thing is often what I call in perfumery, the 'X' Factor and it's the thing that makes your fragrance awesome and original. People who smell something unfamiliar have reactions like where it can give them goosebumps, maybe their not sure if they like it. Maybe it's kind of weird or strange. But there's another part of them that is really attracted to that ingredient. If you're a guy, the ingredient might seem kind of girly, but maybe you really liked the rose scent. It doesn't matter if you're male or female, it's gender fluid. You like what you like, and we can give permission to people to be themselves. That X Factor is often the thing that makes your fragrance just sensational. You could take a blend that kind of smells flat or sleepy and you can add something unfamiliar that you're curious about, and suddenly your fragrance dances and comes alive. And that strangeness- that thing that you were afraid of, is the thing that actually makes your fragrance amazing. And that's true for anything in life. Our fear is often the gateway to our evolution.
An example is my own fear of being racist. Tanah ees, the Bangladeshi perfumer is also an activist and a writer, and introduced me to the word colorism. I didn't know as a Far East Asian that I was an elitist and I was at first not happy about that. You know, when someone says, 'well, you're racist too,' and you have to really ask yourself, where am I racist? And then you got to unpack that on your own time, right? But I have to say the smells have really helped because when you smell something and you use the sense to emotionally anchor to the new place it can be very healing. Some scents are very uplifting and energizing, some are very harmonizing, soothing, and healing. Others are very grounding and some are aggressive and so I've had to smell some heavy hitters to help me process through my own anger at myself and anger at the world. So it's been amazing to smell through my fears and confusion. Scent has taken me to the other side and I feel refreshed. I feel emboldened and like a different person. And, you know, I feel like I've drunk the Kool Aid but you know, man, if we could bottle up decolonization that's what I would do.
Dan: What are you working on on next and how can folks follow you along your journey and then stay in touch?
Yosh: I'm working on the Scent Festival 2.0 and I have an amazing curation of amazing new perfumers, but the topic is going to be intersectional perfumery. I'm approaching it head on. We're going to have Danna el Masri from Jasmine sariah. She's an amazing Egyptian-Canadian-Lebanese perfumer, and she's going to be teaching us scent and ritual from that region of the world. We're also going to have an awesome session on the diaspora, focusing on African American perfumes and perfumers. Lastly, we're also going to have a session on scent and art talking to experts from art historians to experiential artists. That's coming up next at the end of September.
And then my dream is to have a scent and travel show much like Anthony Bourdain, but to really go around and visit some of these farms. Many of them are in awesomely tropical places, but also deep in the mountains, and bring some of what Anthony Bourdain did for food. I'd like to bring that into the world of scent. Scent and flavor are so connected, so I would love to bring that awareness to what I do in the world of perfumery. Thank you so much for asking.
Dan: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much that this conversation has been incredibly enlightening and energized me to explore ways in which I can incorporate scent more in my life, not just from a sort of cosmetic perspective, but also thinking about ways to experience different cultures in different areas of the world. And then thinking through the lens of decolonization is really thoughtful and something that I really hadn't connected with before. And so I'm super grateful for you and for the work that you're doing and for your time today.
Find More Yosh:
If you'd like to sign Yosh's petition to reclassify “Oriental” and “Floriental” in the fragrance industry, you can find it here
Follow Yosh on Instagram
Follow Scent Festival and Tune in in September.
Check out the Digital Scent Festival from earlier this year.
Check Yosh out in episode 5 of PBS's "Human" available on Netflix
Looking for diverse perfumers? Check out this database of Black, Indigenous, African, Arab, Asian, and LatinX talent in the fragrance industry.
