Perfume designer Belinda Cook will be selling her perfumes at the Maribyrnong Makers Market later this month. 69817 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By Charlene Gatt
A SPRITZ of perfume can do wonders.
Just ask Footscray resident Belinda Cook, who abandoned her desk job to start her own line of perfumes, B Fragrances.
“I’d been doing different office jobs for 20, 30 years and I was not really following my passion,” she said.
“I decided that I wanted to get out of mainstream employment and start my own business and I chose to design perfumes.
“I’ve always been interested in perfumes and have my own unique scent and smell, and I thought other people might be interested in that as well – it turns out they are.
“It’s been great fun.”
Ms Cook has already developed five perfumes and is keen to make a range of 14.
She said her current favourite was Awesome, a mossy, wood-style scent.
“I have the luxury of choosing what I want to wear on the day… sometimes during the day I’ll wear the citrus-based one, which is called Unique, and sometimes at night I’ll jump in for the Legendary scent,” she laughed.
“It (making perfume) is a bit like how a chef would put together a meal on a plate.
“There’s some components, or smells, that just work together, and you build on that. It’s all about blending and identifying what style of perfume you want to make.”
Ms Cook currently sells her perfumes through the internet and at market stalls and is negotiating with distributors here and in America to stock her range in stores. She also specialises in making perfume gels for airline passengers.
She is one of nearly 50 stallholders who will exhibit their made-in-Melbourne creations at the Maribyrnong Makers Market on Saturday 17 September, from 9.30am until 3.30pm.
The market will run out of Seddon’s Uniting Church Hall, go to www.maribyrnongmakersmarket.com.au for more information.
