Daphne K Knows

The nose knows

So who is Daphne K Knows?

Nice, but Challenging, close to perfect and cheeky, this is how my 10 year old son, Jonathon describes me. “Embarrassing” is the word that my 11 year old daughter, Kaitlyn uses to describe me.

My response?

“Get used to it, it will only get a lot worse as I get older!”

To think, well before Kaitlyn and Jonathon blasted into my life, I had my nose in every body’s business. You see, my career was based in the seductive world of perfume, my nose was an essential tool of my trade.

Now my kids, have their noses in my business!

As a child I would reach up to the fragrance counters on my tippy toes, pull down the crystal bottles of mysterious scents and drown myself in perfume, I knew that aside from the ocean and the dance floor, this was my happy place.

So I went to the University of Technology, Sydney and completed a Bachelor of Applied Science (Chemistry) and a Master of Business in Marketing. As a consequence, my studies have led me into a career based in the mesmerizing world of cosmetics, toiletries and fragrances and into your homes to hopefully help empower and encourage your love to yourself. The perfect career for me, someone who…

“Talks to anybody, anytime, anywhere and can talk under water with marbles in her mouth.”  This is how Paul (The Husband!) describes me.

Science is creative:

I worked for the fragrance house that was the number one creator and manufacturer of perfume internationally.  I still remember vividly the strong pungent smell of the excretions of a civet cat. What perplexed someone to sniff the butt of a cat and think…

“Mmm, I will make a fragrance out of that.”

Today, synthetic civet oil is used in fragrances to create that animalic, musky, sexy smell.

Another one of my favourites, is ambergris, which is vomited out of a sperm whale and somehow floating across the ocean find its resting place on a beach. Then a perfumer (the nose) walks along and thinks…

“Mmm, I will add this into my fragrance and this will be the fixative that will make my fragrance last.”

Who thinks like that?

Fragrance development:

Fragrance houses employ perfumers, also known as ‘noses’ to develop the majority of the fragrances loved globally. Think of the international powerhouse brands; including Dior, Victoria Secret, Armani, Paco Rabbane, Marc Jacobs, Thierry Mugler, Burberry, Jean Paul Gautier to name a few.

Fragrance houses create the je ne sais quoi that goes into the perfume that we generously spray on our neck, wrist and chest, in the hope, that we can seduce our prey.

Consumer products also include perfumes that have been created by fragrance houses. The majority of consumer products, skin care, shampoos, conditioners, deodorants, shower gels are fragranced.

The majority of my life has been spent relying on my nose, to help analyse, develop and market the products that are manufactured by major multinational companies that include, L’Oreal, Avon, Revlon, Cussons, Schwarzkopf and Unilever.

Seeing how a fragrance performs when used in a product, means an awful lot of sniffing of people. Imagine, how you would test the performance of a fragrance in a deodorant? Yes, sniffing a lot of armpits and in some places of the world, not naming names, means I have been faced with a lot of hair and sweat!

My blogs will cover a mix of topics that will range from, what I call, coffee table cosmetic science. I will answer questions like, Is it natural? Organic and natural claims in products and Why you can’t smell your own perfume? I will discuss how our senses are used behind psychology and marketing.

Finally, my goal is to share an appreciation that the power lies within you.

Sharpen your nose, as the nose, knows!

Daphne K Knows

Daphne Kapetas is the founder of the skin care company LAJOIE SKIN.

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Credit Photography: Jim Biniares