What’s the secret to a truly addictive signature scent? According to the fragrance entrepreneur Tara Derakshan, its all about tapping into your brain waves…
As co-founder of the fragrance subscription service Sniph, Tara started her career in perfume with a mission to democratise the experience of scent, bringing the world’s finest fragrances to your fingertips.
Now, after discovering the power of mind-bending wellness practices following a battle with autoimmune illness, she’s blending the art of fragrance with the science of mindfulness with her own fragrance line, NEH Fragrances. It’s named after the last three letters of her full name, Taraneh, and also a play on the French word for nose. With it, Tara is aiming to push the boundaries of traditional perfumery; crafting scents that serve as tools for emotional wellbeing (while also smelling really, really good).
We sat down with Tara to discover how her spiritual journey inspired her new fragrance line, and to find out what it takes to succeed in the competitive fragrance industry.
On finding her way in beauty
I’m Iranian and in Iran, fragrance is a way to express yourself. I grew up with a mum that had a fragrance wardrobe with many different perfumes and I think it was a way for me to connect with her. I definitely dived into her perfume wardrobe growing up and loved it, but it wasn’t something that I instantly knew I was going to work with. My first job was actually as a hair stylist and I think that was one of my first ways of expressing myself. Fragrance kind of grew on me when I got a little older.
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I used to work in tech, which took me to a lot of different countries, so I would always dive into the fragrance booths at Duty Free. I would also discover new niche perfumes in each new place and I found them so unique and different, but also quite expensive. That’s what gave my co-founder and I the idea for Sniph – as an easy, affordable way to discover fragrances, where you didn’t have to buy the full bottles. We started the subscription service, and over the past eight years I’ve discovered hundreds of brands and tried thoudsands of perfumes – it’s grown my expertise in the area.
On being an entrepreneur
I’ve always been very entrepreneurial, and my dad’s an entrepreneur as well, so I learned a lot from him growing up. I intuitively knew that I would like to start my own business, but I was waiting for the right idea, and I collected a lot of experience prior to doing it. Then the concept for NEH fragrance came to me very suddenly, and intuitively. It was almost like a calling; a feeling that I have to do this.
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On finding spirituality after illness
I got really sick in 2019 and was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition. That was a really tough time in my life. It was around two years after I founded Sniph and we were having the best times of our lives; the business was growing, and we had been named one of the hottest startups in Europe. There was so much momentum in what I was building, and then I was faced with this immense challenge. I was shaken and it felt like my life was turned upside down. However, it sent me off on a powerful spiritual journey.
I wanted to try new experiences, educate myself about self-healing therapists, and learn everything I could about the nervous system, how the brain works, and the connection between the mind, body and soul. There was so much healing in all of those things that I was completely unaware of before, and I was able to reconnect with myself in ways that I hadn’t done in a long time.
On the idea for NEH fragrance
The idea for NEH actually started during a plant ceremony in Costa Rica, which is a practice that uses shamanic medicines. It’s a setting where you take a medicine and it lets you dive more into your subconscious, so you really get more access to yourself. I had an epiphany that reconnected me with my full name – Taraneh – and the realisation that a bit like the play on words with Sniph and sniff, that Neh (the last three letters of my name) sounded like “nez” – the word for nose in French. I suddenly realised how much I wanted to create a brand and do something that I think I had previously been scared of. The practice helped me get rid of that limiting belief and it felt like I just had to do it.
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On crafting the perfume collection
I’ve worked with the best perfumers in Paris, so it’s a high quality fragrance brand first and foremost. But, I was inspired to create the collection mainly as I think we live in a world that is so disconnected and filled with stress, and I wanted to create scent-based tools to remind others to reconnect with themselves.
As I think is very common, you can easily come back from a retreat – like I did – and dive back into everyday life. Then we forget all the insights and wisdom we gained, so life goes back to what it was, on autopilot. But perfume is a beauty ritual that so many of us use everyday. I wanted to use the power of fragrance to help others remember to take the time to check in with their emotions and to do so easily. Then, I looked to the six pillars of the plant ceremony that had such an impact on me and channeled those into the different fragrances.
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On the fragrances
The Opening is a nod to the beginning or ‘opening’ of the plant ceremony, which is designed to set you on a new path. Each spray aims to help you remember that each day is a new beginning. At its heart is lavender, which is a really grounding fragrance note, paired with woody, smoky notes to make it evoke feelings of mystery and curiosity.
The High is about reaching an elevated state of consciousness, evoking when you go deeper into meditative practice. I wanted it to remind us that we are all interconnected and that everything happens for a reason. So, I brought in elements of nature, making it more a green fragrance, with eucalyptus, cannabis leaf, and verbena.
The Light is reflective of my spiritual journey and about helping others look at the good, the bad, the ugly and the beauty of their lives, before remembering to choose and focus on what feels light and joyful. The key note in that one is actually tangerine, but it also has some depth with cinnamon and patchouli.
The Vibration (coming soon) stands for unconditional divine love, which is ultimately the love that we have in our hearts and that we should always be giving to ourselves. I definitely wanted to use rose in that one, because it represents so much love. But rose also holds the highest frequency of all the flowers in the world in spiritual terms.
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On making meditative practices simple
Each of the fragrances also comes with an affirmation track and you can actually scan the bottle with your phone and it will bring you the one-minute long affirmation. The idea is that you can spray your chosen fragrance and listen to the positive affirmation, so that in around 21 days (the time it takes to form a new habit) it can help you reprogram your thoughts and create new pathways in your brain that helps you act upon more empowering ways of thinking.
On what success looks like
Honestly, success for me just looks like being able to feel fulfilled. And I feel fulfilled when I’m able to be creative and express myself in everything that I do. My hope is that NEH resonates with people. I think that when we create something that is so raw, you can’t help but hope that the right people will feel attracted to it. So success can be about sales and seeing your business grow and all of that. But ultimately, it is about being able to do what I love, and doing it as authentically as possible.
On finding inspiration
No day looks like the other for me because I have so many different hats and roles. I’ll wake up with the sun, but I often find that I’m most creative in the evening. My absolute best ideas definitely come to me when I’m in solitude. I just seem to access something else in the silence. I dream a lot too and if I wake up, I’ll write the ideas that come to me on my phone, so I can wake up knowing exactly what I need to do. It’s definitely about allowing my subconscious to get to work and that’s why I want to inspire other people to take a moment to find stillness, because that’s where the biggest creativity lives. I live a hectic life and I love being in everything that I’m doing, but I also always make sure to carve out a little space for myself. I’m an avid meditator. I meditate every day and it’s in those moments that ideas flow to me.
On her love for yoga and deep meditation
I’ve actually recently gained a certification in yoga nidra. Yoga nidra is the most ancient kind of yogic form, and it’s a kind of deep meditation that really brings you into your subconscious. In that state, you can completely connect with yourself and we get to access a lot of our inner emotions, thoughts and traumas – everything that needs to come up to the surface and things that we aren’t aware of in our day-to-day. It’s a beautiful way to really calm the nervous system, and rest, recover and heal our bodies.
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Lead image credit: Tara Derakshan
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