To the average Nigerian, a perfume is a luxurious aspect of dressing that can be overlooked at any point in time. This view of perfumes is a product of the traditional definition of what makes a dressing complete or not in the various cultural backgrounds in Nigeria.
But there is a Nigerian store that believes otherwise. This store, that specialises in the sale of various perfume brands, has a philosphy about the importance of perfumes — a dressing is incomplete in the absence of perfume.
“We help customers find their confidence,” Tinuola Mustupha, the Founder of Aramiscents, an Ibadan-based perfume store, told OYOINSIGHT.COM’s Adebayo AbdulRahman one sunny afternoon in December.
She explained that her view about how important a perfume is to dressing is the driving force behind her decision to foray into the industry.
“I believe no one is fully dressed without a perfume and there is a kind of confidence you would have when you are putting on a perfume,” she noted.
Aside explaining how important perfumes are, Ms. Tinuola provided insights into other aspects of her business.
Driving Force
“I have been a lover of perfumes and been very conscious of how people around me smell since my days in school. I like it when you smell good and look fashionable. People like to dress well but a lot of people don’t like to smell well consciously and unconsciously.
“I have been a lover of perfumes since childhood and even body lotions. As a very young kid, I was very fond of putting powder all over my body just to smell great.”
Hurdles
“Entrepreneurship is not easy or for the faint hearted. I started by selling in my room in 2018 during my Masters days at the University of Ibadan.
“A strategy that has worked for me is that I am a very sociable person and I use every avenue to introduce my products to people around me. This has made it possible to get people who are lovers of perfumes. I also use various social media platforms to reach out to customers.”
The Future
We started here in Ibadan and I see us penetrating into Southwest to become a foremost supplier of perfumes. We also intend to move into curating our own perfume brands and fragrances
