- Alexander Yashin Perfumer:
Alexander Yashin is a remarkable perfumer, known for his unique olfactory creations. Born blind, his heightened olfactory and auditory senses have become his creative superpowers.
Yashin is part of a four - person perfumer team at the Moscow - based fragrance brand Pure Sense, where two of his colleagues are also blind. The brand's founder, Ekaterina Zinchenko, hired blind perfumers to foster an inclusive and creative environment. Yashin sees perfumery as parallel to music. The little white vials of essential oils and elixirs lining the laboratory shelves are his "perfume organ." Just as music has notes and chords, perfume has its individual elements and combinations, with the final composition being the fragrance.
Trained as a philologist and ethnographer, Yashin draws inspiration from his time in a travelling folk music ensemble. He believes that perfumery, like any art, is a lifelong learning journey. His work at Pure Sense, which launched all its known perfumes in 2020, showcases his unique style. Some of the often - used fragrance notes in Pure Sense perfumes include nutmeg, mint, and bergamot, among others, which are expertly blended by Yashin and his team to create scents that are both distinct and evocative.
