Lola Tillyaeva´s perfume house, The Harmonist, continues to break new ground. Last month, The Harmonist released the Yang collection, a new range of 5 fragrances. Apart from the alluring new fragrances, what really grabbed the headlines is the perfume brand’s commitment to sustainability and the environment.

The redesigned packaging of the perfumes eliminated all internal plastic, reducing the overall carbon footprint of the brand.

Talking about The Harmonist’s new collection, Lola said: ​​”We have replaced internal plastic components with environmentally friendly materials in the new Yang collection. For a small niche brand, this was a challenging task, and we are very pleased and proud that we were able to achieve these results. We hope that with the new collection The Harmonist will ascertain its position at the forefront of sustainability in the industry.”

Sustainability has always been a priority for Lola. For instance, to reduce the environmental impact of her operations she insists on the use of “recyclable materials at every possible touchpoint, from perfume bottles and deluxe packaging to the vegetal wax candles that are used.”

The Harmonist also offers refills for every product across the perfume range. Practices like these dramatically reduce waste and energy consumption.

In another first, at 2021’s Fragrance Foundation Awards The Harmonist was nominated as a finalist in the Fragrance of the Year awards. The scent Sun Force was nominated for “Fragrance of the Year, Men´s Luxury”, and Moon Glory was nominated for “Fragrance of the Year, Women’s Luxury”,

Being nominated for the awards was a delight for Lola who said: “Being recognized by the Fragrance Foundation is an incredible honour. Our team is passionate about creating unique, memorable scents that captivate the wearer and reflect the planet´s beauty and the wonders of nature”.

Lola Tillyaeva´s sensibility to fragrances is partly the product of her childhood. Uzbekistan has for millennia been one of the hubs for the Silk Road and Lola from a young age was immersed in the exotic scents and spices of the East. Even today the smell of cinnamon or jasmine have the power to transport her back to her childhood in Uzbekistan. Lola likes to describe smells as time capsules and says“our childhood memories have a lasting impression staying with us throughout our life, also affecting our perfume preferences.”

It is this lifelong affinity with scent that drives Lola Tillyaeva to produce the finest, most select finished products for The Harmonist, and the new Yang collection is no exception. Lola’s team goes to the ends of the Earth in search of the best possible ingredients for the scents. Her fragrances require Hawaiian jasmine, Ylang Ylang blossoms from the Comoros and Mexican passionflower. Another consideration that The Harmonist keeps in mind is the ethical procurement and production of the perfumes.

To blend such select ingredients, Lola is aided by one of Europe’s best regarded ´noses´, Prix International du Jeune Parfumeur Créateur winner, Guillaume Flavigny. She is also guided by feng shui and its ethos of harmonizing the opposing forces of yin and yang. According to Lola: “Creating a scent is very much like creating a piece of music – notes blend into chords, and the chords harmonize into a full-blown melody. Just like a good piece of music, a good fragrance encompasses a wide range of tonalities – the notes of different scents, if you will.”