While making the show was really fun, Steel says, it was a”nail-biting” moment presenting guests with their personalised perfumes, especially star chef Kia Kanuta.
“Because he has such a refined palate, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to get exposed … I really, really wanted him to love it,” she tells RNZ’s Afternoons.
Victory 45-47 for men and women will set you back nearly $410 a bottle. They are the newest in a line of Trump Fragrances that “represent winning”.
Whitney Steel (Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Te Ātiawa) – cohost of Journey of Scent
Whitney Steel in an episode of Journey of Scent.
Jinki Cambronero
Whitney Steel (@perfumedwhitney) breaks down the perfume industry and reviews fragrances on social media.
“Many people don’t know how to describe what they love in a scent, so I really, really try hard to make it accessible and use everyday language that people understand.”
She first fell in love with scent through testers her mum brought home from the fragrance distribution company she worked for in the 90s.
In 2019, she studied at a perfume school in France, later launching a home fragrance business in Melbourne.
“Then I started talking about perfume on TikTok, and we’ve kind of just gone from there.”
The power of scent to change how a person feels has always been compelling to Steel.
“I always wear really powerful perfumes when I want to feel confident… I used to use it in job interviews a lot.”
Although the cost of perfume ingredients has skyrocketed since Covid., making fragrance more expensive, Steel says, scent is still trending hard in the beauty industry.
“When you go into any store, whether it’s Farmers, Mecca, Sephora, it’s fragrance [that is dominating] nowadays.”
Nathan Taare (Ngāti Porou) – cohost of Journey of Scent
Nathan_Taare in an episode of Journey of Scent.
Jinki Cambronero
Self-taught scent artist Nathan Taare is the founder of the OF BODY perfume house and the creator of ‘Road’ – a Karangahape Road-inspired fragrance that made the news in 2023.
With a background in sound and art, Taare changed course when he discovered this amazing world of “scent materials”.
“I just brought them into my life and just sort of chucked them into a space where I would have normally had instruments and paints.”
In some of the Journey of Scent creations Taare uses manuka oil and he says many other native New Zealand botanicals are still “pretty untapped” as fragrance additions.
“We also have some of the world’s best ambergris [a whale secretion used as a perfume fixative] washing up on the shores.
“If we got into our native woods and all of that kind of thing, it would be a pretty amazing thing.”
Taare isn’t always drawn to wearing scents on his body, but likes to have them around to evoke feelings.
“If it’s joy or if it takes you to another place, that’s where scent is for me.”
For true fragrance-lovers, personalised scents are where it’s at, Taare says.