Clash: IIUVO’s geezers take over the perfume world!

By Jo Phillips

The world of scent as we have known it for centuries, is usually dominated by elegant, classical French people. Well, perfume lovers be prepared because the brand IIuvo is about to turn your universe upside down! Marvelous scented candles to buy, delightful fragrances to come,their creators aren’t the ordinary perfumers: young geezers from London, their approach to scent is poetically refreshing!
How did they start, what are their main motivation? Tomi Ahmed and Leo Gibbon( two of the three geezers) shared with us their intimate thoughts:

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“Everything began because, well geezers have to smell good too so instead of wearing regular ‘geezer’ fragrances we decided to create our own. It started with us just having strong opinions on what would smell unique. I find that scent and smell goes beyond the surface with people, you can’t lie about liking a smell to ‘fit in’. It’s not like music or fashion where your opinion can be swayed or even preconceived – if you don’t like a smell, you don’t like it and it’s as black & white as that. If you do like a smell, it triggers something within you and for a split second you’re taken there. Whether it be a scent your mother used to wear, whether it was a holiday somewhere or a memorable place in your childhood, it takes you back to somewhere that only you know. Even geezers have a sensitive side! In general, men seem to wear the same fragrances and women tend to be a lot more forward thinking in their approach with what scent to wear. We wanted to create unisex scents that men and women could resonate with and feel comfortable wearing. We want to change the way in which men wear scents and shake up the idea that men can only wear ‘manly’ fragrances, essentially we are trying to broaden the horizon for men who are normally limited when it comes to choosing scents.”

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“We approach what we are doing as students bursting with inspiration. We know what we want and we are very fortunate to have such a close working relationship with Robertet in order to create the scents to the best of our ability. We aren’t approaching this like a traditional perfume house, around every scent we intend to create we build a story and bring a memory to life through other mediums. As well as selecting the key notes & blends we want in that particular scent – we use music, art, photography, colour, film and anecdotes to help capture what it is we are creating.”

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Asking about the first time they experienced a connection with scent, the boys enthusiastically replied “One of my earliest memories of having a connection with scent is when I went abroad and my mother bought a brand called ‘nenuco’. From an early age I remember how fresh and different it smelt and from that day I was hooked. Nowadays you can buy it from the Spanish supermarket on Portobello road so it’s not as much of a special holiday purchase as it once was, but the smell is still as fresh as ever” confessed Tomi. Then, Leo carried on “Another time is when I was going to the cinema with my friends when I was 13 and I didn’t have any fragrance for myself when all of my friends either had Versace Blue Jeans, Joop or Davidoff Coolwater. My mum told me that I’m not buying any of those scents and said that I could borrow her Acqua di Parma – Arancia di Capri, my friends thought I smelt ‘strange’ – I still love the scent to this day.”

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Even the greatest perfumer have other interest besides scent, Leo opened his heart on what he loves the most:
“Besides scent, I love food, because like scent certain meals or foods can trigger emotion and remind you of past times/memories. I love how different cultures utilise different foods in different ways and create something you didn’t know could work. When I worked in a fine dining restaurant I saw how the preparation of food is so important and how much time goes in to the ‘prep’, it made me appreciate the whole process of food a lot more and not just the final taste. Food also brings family and friends together and can really be a personal thing to people. Moreover, Music plays a huge part in my life, I listen to different music daily. Music reminds you of people, places and memories; it makes you want to dance and gets emotions flowing in every way possible. Music has helped majorly with our production of scents and shall continue to do so. To finish, Football is something else that I grew up with throughout my life and still to this day make time for, whether it’s playing or watching. It is still a place I go with my dad and brothers and not have to worry about normal life for 90 minutes!”

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