- Irina Zhurikhina-Nesa Perfumer:
Irina Zhurikhina-Nesa is a highly accomplished Parisian perfumer. In 2009, she graduated from the prestigious Grasse Institute of Perfumery, which has been a cradle for many of the world's finest perfumers. Since then, her creative journey has been nothing short of remarkable, having crafted over 5,000 personal perfumes.
Irina's work is characterized by her ability to draw out the most profound olfactory memories of her clients. With a high degree of sensitivity and finesse, she makes customers relive their best emotional moments through the power of fragrance. Her clientele is as diverse as the world itself, hailing from different cultures and backgrounds. From the girl-next-door to celebrities, artists, opinion leaders, and brand creators, her customer base represents a wide spectrum of society.
She finds inspiration from multiple sources. People are a rich wellspring for her. Each individual, in her view, is a universe brimming with stories, and she firmly believes that these stories can be translated into the language of fragrance. Music also plays a significant role in her creative process. She has collaborated with various world - known musicians. Her work has taken her from the perfumery capital of Grasse to Saint - Petersburg and Siberia. For instance, she created scents for concerts and theater performances that blended the music of Bach, Rachmaninov, Mahler, Rimsky - Korsakov with the art of perfume. Visual art and color are another source of inspiration. Interested in synesthesia, she has developed several fragrances using a synesthetic approach, where the scent reflects a certain color nuance. This has proven particularly useful when some customers find it easier to draw their fragrance ideas rather than explain them verbally. Additionally, she collaborates with artists to create bespoke fragrances for galleries and art exhibitions. Finally, plants and nature inspire her. As a qualified perfumer, she studied aromatherapy to understand how fragrance impacts the human body, mind, and emotional state, which in turn expands her professional capabilities. She can offer her customers 100% natural fragrances that not only smell wonderful but also provide benefits for physical and mental health.
Irina is not just a perfumer; she is also a master in organic chemistry, an aromacologist, a Bach flower practitioner, an olfacto - coach, and a yin yoga teacher. In 2015, she founded Neza, a company that offers personalized perfume creations and consulting services in the world of perfumery. Through Neza, clients can create their individual fragrance or even their own perfume brand.
Her works span a wide range of projects. In the "Notes Parfumés" series of concerts held in France and Russia, she combined the olfactory and auditory senses to create a perfect immersive experience, resulting in the creation of more than 15 fragrances. For the "Perfumer" dance performance by the Tyumen Bolshoy Drama Theatre in 2017, she created an olfactory design that reflected the personality of the main character. She also collaborated with oenologists in Saint - Emilion as an olfactory consultant for wine blending, helping to determine the olfactory notes of wines. Moreover, she has worked with different perfume brands, creating perfume formulas. In these projects, she takes into account the brand story, consumer preferences, and the personality of the brand creator, always finding an individual approach to enhance the brand's story - telling through olfactory creation. Some of her works can be found and explored on Fragrantica. Based in Paris, Irina collaborates with people and companies from all over the world.
