Who:  Stina ”Bibbi” Seger, perfume creator and creative director for perfume brand Bibbi Parfum. Stina has co-founded the brand together with her partner Jan Vilhelm Ahlgren, founder of Vilhelm Parfumerie. It was three years in the making and is very much a family affair, according to Stina, who has tapped into Jan’s experience to perfect the collection and her two young daughters also share their opinions when she’s wear-testing scents.

Bibbi – her family nick-name – is deeply involved in meditation and meditative rituals, and has used her experience to inspire each of the scents. All six debut fragrances are based on the journeys her mind takes when she’s meditating, including the stories that evolve and the characters she ‘meets’ during her meditative state of mind.

This is a fascinating discovery journey for fragrance customers, it’s like being able to see into someone’s mind and pick up on what you like the sound of. It also makes all of the fragrances intriguing and unexpected in their scent profiles, they all feel properly modern and fresh but also somehow still mystical and a bit magical. Perfumer Jérôme Epinette, currently everyone’s favourite – looking at you Victoria Beckham, Byredo and Floral Street – has helped Stina translate her stories into scent, we chatted to Stina just before her launch at Liberty this October.

Today I’m wearing one of my Bibbi creations, it is called Radio Child. It makes me feel young and playful. The fragrance is based on a story that occurs in my meditations about a child that lived in Vienna at the end of the 18th century. No one knew if it was a boy or a girl and no one knew the parents. The child was an extraordinary piano player and attended private music lessons with Beethoven. Then, one day Beethoven went out of the room to get a cup of wine, and the child vanished into thin air! Every year on the date of the Child’s disappearance, all the radios in Vienna start to play Sonata no 14, Moonlight.

The oak moss and fig, together with jasmine petals and salted musk creates this youthful and curious scent, which, at the same time is comforting, almost like it’s communicating on its own frequency. I absolutely adore this special fragrance, its perfect to give you this energetic injection for the day ahead.

I have always been a true fragrance lover and when I moved to Paris just after I had my first child, I started to think about how I could transfer my meditative, subconscious state of mind into fragrances. Since I was already working in the industry as a concept developer and graphic designer it was just a natural step for me to go ahead and start to work on the fragrance collection. The collection is made by perfumer Jérôme Epinette  and it has been a pleasure working with him.

Fragrance is so very important, it literally is my life. As long as I can remember I have been very sensitive and intrigued by fragrance, from perfumes and how peoples’ homes are scented to the scent of people. I loved the way my dad’s tobacco smelled; I also used to sit next to the honeysuckle in our garden, trying to almost dive into the flower to get the most out of it.

I love the whiff of clean sheets  – especially my own. I had a comfort blanket that I used to smell to be calm when I was a child. So, fragrances and scents have a huge impact on me and how I feel and I definitely need a well scented surrounding to feel good.”

I normally use more than one fragrance during the day depending on my mood, kind of like my own layering ritual. A fragrance is more important to me than make up or what I wear. I always spray fragrance just before I leave my home on my neck, my wrists and my clothes. I’m not very modest with my perfume.  All of the Bibbi fragrances can be layered with each other, they work very well together. It’s like when I’m cooking, I never follow the recipe, I always add new ingredients along the way to discover new flavours.

I love to scent my home, I use Palo Santo to clean myself and my home from energies that I need to let go of that no longer serve me or my family. I also use incense while meditating which I normally do at home. I use a humidifier with essential oils depending on what state I want to put myself or my family in.

In winter time, coming from Sweden, it’s a must with scented candles. I am really looking forward to launching my own candles in the future. A funny fact is my neighbour in Paris always texts me when we are back from holidays and states that she knows we are back, since she feels our scent in the stairway.

I often use scents for my wellbeing, I use both perfume and incense to put me in the right mindset for my meditation. I normally use perfume as an extension of the state of mind I’m in or the one I want to be in.

I do love the aroma of gasoline and fire which I think a lot of others like the smell of. I also love the warm whiff of ink that hits you when you enter a printing house.