Energetic Healing and Cheese Sticks: Talking Scents with Vyrao's Yasmin Sewell
June 8 | 3 minute read
Words by Christie Sinclair
Most perfumers want to help you smell better. Yasmin Sewell wants to help you feel better.
The Australian-born fashion industry veteran-turned-wellness entrepreneur is the founder of Vyrao, a fragrance brand built on the belief that scent can shift your mood, energy and mindset. Equal parts perfumery and energetic healing, Vyrao has quickly carved out a category all its own. You could say Sewell’s personal scents are practically magic; they’re inspired by Reiki principles, decanted into coloured glass bottles and include a tiny Herkimer diamond crystal, supercharged in Hawaii by energist Louise Mita for good vibes on demand. But that’s only one part of the ritual; there are candles, incense and, most recently, a line of hand and neck creams to layer with your scent and keep vibrations at an all-time high.
We caught up with London-based Sewell to compare notes on fragrance’s power beyond the bottle and the unlikely ingredients inspiring her next potential creation (pizza, waffles and cheese sticks!).
My earliest scent memory…
Yasmin Sewell: “Eucalyptus lollies with my grandmother at the local chemist in Maroubra.”
The first fragrance I wore…
YS: “Calvin Klein Escape – and when I created Free 00, I won’t lie, it was definitely a bit of an inspiration.”
Falling in love smells like…
YS: “Roses in full bloom.”
My favourite person smells like…
YS: “My favourite people are both of my children, so pizza, waffles, Nutella and cheese sticks. Maybe those are the ingredients for my next fragrance?”
The end of the day smells like…
YS: “Our Ember Candle or an incense stick to clear the energy of the day.”
Australia smells like…
YS: “Mamajuju, our fragrance inspired by Australia. Whenever I land and inhale, what I really smell is sweet, deep earth and bush flowers.”
The fragrance I wear everyday…
YS: “Witchy Woo, layered with the new cream scent. [It’s] formulated with ceramides to support the skin barrier, nourishing mango seed butter, hyaluronic acid for a boost of hydration and natural vitamin E to soften and protect the skin – [and also] scented with Witchy Woo, our neuroscience-backed fragrance, for an added boost of self-esteem and mindfulness.”
The one note I would never wear…
YS: “This is a hard one, because I’d try wearing almost anything. But right now, I’d probably say fig – I think it’s become a bit overdone.”
The scent I wish existed…
YS: “The one we are about to launch. Get ready!”
The scent that changed my life…
YS: “The Sixth – creating that fragrance felt like a process of finding myself.”
The first step in creating a scent…
YS: “What emotion do I need to evoke? What is it I need to feel? That’s where it all begins.”
The scent I’m most proud of…
YS: “Witchy Woo. She’s an icon.”
The scent with the most interesting story is…
YS: “Ludeaux and Ludatrix – our sexuality-based fragrances – encapsulating sexuality in scent in a way that feels playful, cheeky and sexy, yet still elegant and timeless. It was one of the most radical creative experiences I’ve ever had.”
The note combination that surprised me…
YS: “Our mindfulness scent, The Sixth, combines bitter herbs and gourmand notes with neuroscience-backed ingredients, coming together to create such a unique herbaceous fragrance that smells like nothing else.”
The most important thing I’ve learnt about fragrance…
YS: “We should all remember that fragrance is something you wear for yourself, not necessarily for others. It can be an extraordinary tool for shifting mood and emotion – which is exactly why I created Vyrao.”
The hardest feeling to capture…
YS: “I don’t think any of the positive emotions are hard to capture at all – if anything, negative emotions are harder to do.”
A fragrance is finished when…
YS: “I’ve smelled it a thousand times, and I don’t want to change one single thing.”
