Yosh Han is the independent perfumer success story. Her journey couldn’t be further from the typical path to the perfume industry. Han was born in Taiwan, not Grasse; her mother was an ikebana practitioner, not a third-generation perfumer. No privileges. No shortcuts. She is utterly, awe-inspiringly self-made.
Han’s perfume career began in 1994, when she walked into a fragrance boutique in Colorado. In what she calls a “truth stranger than fiction moment”, Han told the shop’s manager that she felt destined to work there. “After the manager turned me away a few times, the owner came out of the shop and had a good feeling about me and hired me on the spot. I ended up becoming the Assistant Manager right away and worked there for 3 years, creating custom fragrances for people.”
20 years later, Yosh has achieved almost unparalleled success as an independent perfumer. Her fragrance line is carried by Barney’s New York; she created a fragrance collection for Anthropologie in 2013. As far as I’m concerned, no list of pioneering female perfumers would be complete without her on it.
In my research for this post, what I was most impressed by was Yosh’s openness and honesty about the evolution of her process as a perfumer. From an excellent interview with Perfume Polytechnic:
I originally blended everything by hand when I first started my business. I still do the concepting and aromatic sketches by hand. In the last few years, I started working with Robertet and their in-house perfumer, Olivia Jan. For the last three launches, we worked collaboratively and won a Golden Pear award from the Institute of Arts and Olfaction for my men’s fragrance, König, a scent inspired by the Bavarian forest. We worked on three subsequent fragrances that will launch in 2016. I feel like the film director and she, the cinematographer. It is a very close relationship that is really rewarding.
Acknowledging that one of the most acclaimed fragrances of one’s career resulted from a collaboration is highly unusual in an industry that tends towards secrecy and hyperbole. I can think of more than a few “master perfumers” who keep any outside contribution quiet for fear of damaging that Master Perfumer image. Crediting her collaborators rather than taking full credit for herself only deepened my respect for Ms. Han.
SCENTS OF SELF 
Yosh Han is such a charismatic person! I’m happy for her success.
Ginger Ciao is one of my all-time favorite perfumes (I have a bottle of it), which is actually a big deal since I’m usually not a big fan of indie perfumes when it comes to actually wearing them.
Ginger Ciao is my favorite Yosh, too! It’s apparently also the name of the main character of her yet-unpublished novels.
I know exactly what you mean- there are so many independent lines that I’m dying to support in theory, but very few of indie brands actually make it into my collection. CBIHP Burning Leaves might be the only one at the moment, actually.
I reaaaaally want to have her read my aura one day. I love Sottile and Ginger Ciao!
That would be SO COOL. I have a bad feeling that my aura looks like a light dusting of cat hair.
I haven’t tried any of Yosh Han’s fragrances, and really didn’t know anything about her. Thank you so much for highlighting this perfumer – without reading something like this I likely wouldn’t have discovered her for a long time. 🙂
That’s EXACTLY what I was hoping to accomplish with these posts, Sun Mi! I’m beyond thrilled to get to introduce you to Yosh. Do I have your mailing address? I have a Yosh sample set lying around that I would be happy to send your way!
Oh Ari, that’s so sweet of you – I’d love to experience some Yosh for myself! I’ll contact you! 🙂
I love Yosh Sottile. It’s on my list of FB – so far I’ve only scored small decants, but I’m ready now for the full bottle because – spring! Yosh Han is a true visionary. What a great story. So glad you are sharing these profiles of these talented and awesome women!
Sottile is awfully, awfully pretty. Your spring is going to smell wonderful! 😉
This is wonderful! Thank you so much!