We chat all things about the Dossier x Sara B. Yo collaboration for our custom-painted bottles. FYI: Yo’s favorite scents are Woody Sandalwood and Fruity Almond!
The Dossier team sat down with Sara B. Yo, Founder of The Intuitive Creative, to discuss her inspiration behind the 5 100ml custom bottles she made to give away to the handful of lucky winners. With a virtual meeting between the team and the artist in her colorful bedroom adorned with walls covered in her paintings, we learn more about how to translate scent and fragrance notes into color and why perfumes are just invisible paintings.
Read on to learn more about the artist, her perspective on the collaboration, her inspiration for the 5 custom-painted bottle designs, and her thoughts on the relationship between art and fragrance.
Dossier Team: How did you get started in your career as an artist? your career and get to where you are today?
Sara B. Yo.: My art business started as a side hustle while in college when I was 19. It all started with me making small little paintings and 21st birthday signs. It was just a fun way for me to make money while being a hospitality major, so working as an artist wasn’t my intended career path at all. I continued with my artwork all through college and did a few side jobs here and there before pursuing the business full-time.
I moved to NYC a little under 2 years ago and, actually, initially moved here to work for another artist. After working for this artist for around 3 months, I decided that I really wanted to go out on my own full-time. Fast forward to the present, I’ve been doing my own thing for around 1.5 years now!
Dossier Team: What excites you about collaborating with Dossier?
Sara B. Yo.: I first heard about Dossier through The Toast and remember initially thinking that the brand is inventive. The concept behind the brand was really cool to me––luxury, designer-inspired scents that are affordable and smell delicious. So, I’m so excited about working with a brand that creates products that are art within themselves.
Dossier Team: What was your first experience with Dossier like?
Sara B. Yo.: Well, I’ve been thinking about buying from the brand and then finally got the chance to try Dossier through this collaboration!
I can’t choose fully, but I think my two favorites from this collaboration are Fruity Almond and Woody Sandalwood. It’s tough to choose and it feels like it’s changing as we get closer to having warmer weather in NYC.
Right now, I think my favorite of the five 100ml bestsellers is Fruity Almond (inspired by Carolina Herrera’s Good Girl). Especially going into summer, I think it’s the perfect seasonal scent. My other favorite is Woody Sandalwood (inspired by Le Labo’s Santal 33) for right now while we’re still approaching spring. Sorry, I can’t decide haha.
Dossier Team: What’s your inspiration behind the custom designs you’ve painted for each of the 5 100 ml bottles?
Sara B. Yo.: My artwork is very colorful and floral, to begin with, so my collaboration with Dossier is perfect because everything that’s involved in perfumes––floral and fruity notes––already always find their way into my designs.
So, the Dossier x The Intuitive Creative collaboration is 🤝 perfect!
My inspiration for the perfume bottle designs came from the notes of each perfume. Thankfully, the Dossier team gave me all the fragrance notes for all 5 perfumes, so it was really easy in my mind to create a puzzle by pulling out different ingredients and more prominent notes within each scent to help physically translate what I was smelling.
It’s been really fun to talk to everyone and hear which notes they smell the most within each fragrance and how they interpret each scent.
I find it really cool how the smell of each perfume has colors. For example, Woody Sandalwood has crisp, cool, and strong notes because it’s earthy, whereas the Fruity Almond reminds me of warm sunset colors––it feels like summer to me.
For me, the inspiration is where it takes you. It was interesting to me the contrast between hearing how the team perceived the different scents from smelling it versus how I saw it in color from hearing Dossier’s descriptions of each fragrance.
Dossier Team: That’s so interesting! How would you describe the relationship among colors, scents, and perfume?
Sara B. Yo.: Well, maybe this is a thing for me because I’m an artist, but I associate all of the people, events, and moments in my life with a certain color. For example, I’ll think to myself “That was a blue moment, that was a yellow moment.” I see happy moments being light pink, more calm moments being lavender, etc.
So, when I was reading the notes and the descriptions for each perfume, I was thinking about the individual scents like how I would approach decorating a room. My thought process was like, “ok, these are the ingredients of the room. This is what I would give it.”
Another reason I think this collaboration was truly perfect is that when I showed my initial sketches to the team, it became clear that Dossier and I see the colors and visualize the scents in the same way––this is before I even smelled them!
Hand-painted bottles of the 5 100ml perfumes
Dossier Team: So, now I’m curious. Which of the 5 100ml bottles you’re creating is your favorite at the moment? How does it align (or not) with your favorite scents?
Sara B. Yo.: As I’m done with my sketches and painting all 5 bottles, I have to say my initial favorite bottle design was Fruity Almond. I honestly didn’t know how much I would like my design choice for the Woody Sandalwood, but as I’m painting it, it’s actually becoming my favorite!
Essentially, every new thing I paint becomes my favorite haha.
I feel like all 5 scents have their own, different personalities, so it’s all about what you align with the most. What will be interesting to me is to see if people will want the design they like best and hope that the scent matches their preference (versus the other way around).
Dossier Team: How would you describe this collection and collaboration in your own words?
Sara B. Yo.: I think this collection is very beautiful, feminine, fun, and energetic, and really highlights the energy of perfume within itself. I love how it’s all women talking about it and how that’s informing my perspective. I feel the energy of smelling the perfume and seeing a vision is so cool. It’s very creative, exciting, and all the fun, feminine things.
Dossier Team: As a last note, can you share how this collaboration with Dossier has influenced your relationship with fragrances and perfumes in general?
Sara B. Yo.: I think it’s made me really see how much perfume is an art form. I mean, I’ve used it my entire life and I think everybody does in passing just like they experience artwork––always, in passing. They either like it or they don’t. But, knowing the details and the story behind each one makes an impact. For example, people really love it when they have the chance to meet the artist behind an artwork and really understand why certain colors were used, what the story is, etc. Similarly, with perfume, learning about the inspiration, and talking with everyone about perfume, the notes, what’s special about it, and what people love about it has made me realize how much more calculated and creative perfumery is. I realized it’s not just someone mixing things together to create a scent to sell something, the noses of the world put real energy behind it.
It’s made me think of perfume as a painting in itself in a weird way. Even if it’s an invisible painting.
