One Day with perfumer Michael Wong

 

Michael Wong designs his scents to bring a sense of peace, choosing simplicity and serenity over complication and hustle bustle, right down to One Day's confidently neutral, all-white packaging. The scents themselves reveal a perfumer with a clear vision and knack for highly wearable realism. We checked in with Michael to learn more...

Q. When, why and how did you become a perfumer?

A. My passion for scents and fragrances was sparked and ignited by a memorable encounter with my first bottle of perfume during a trip to Taiwan. The experience uncovered my eyes (or should I say nose, haha) to the powerful connection between scent and memory. From then on I started collecting perfumes. Then from collecting, I was inspired to leave my previous career and started to study in perfumery in South Korea in 2016.

I studied and practiced 1:1 under my teacher, who received her perfumery education from ISPICA and GIP. I still continue to study and learn via books and online courses held by different professional perfumers (like at IAO) to explore possibilities and get new insights.

Q. What does the name One Day represent?

A. I had various different ideas during the stage of coming up with the brand name. But my first and foremost priority for the name is to be... catchy and easy to remember.

I eventually locked in on ONE DAY because I noticed that while we remember and receive each day via different senses, the olfactory sense is often easily overlooked. We write about what we see and hear and how the weather feels today, but not so often about what the surroundings smelled like. Therefore I would like ONE DAY to be an olfactory diary, to record and recreate moments that sparked a connection through the nose.

Q. Your packaging is very minimalist; please tell us about this design approach and how it represents the brand...

A. I think the color white is an ever-existing element in daily life and it easily blends into different environments, just like scents. Through leaving a lot of white and blanks in the design, we hope our users will experience the fragrance without the visual distraction and influence of extravagant packaging, or certain colors, etc.  Without too much extra sensory input apart from the scent, the brain can form an interpretation and devour the scent more clearly and independently. 

Q. What inspired you to create an entire collection of tea scents?

A. The idea actually stemmed from my upbringing. I was born and raised in Hong Kong, and my family has loved drinking tea since I was young (it’s habitual for them to brew tea after meals or whenever spare time presents itself).

I eventually locked in on ONE DAY because I noticed that while we remember and receive each day via different senses, the olfactory sense is often easily overlooked. We write about what we see and hear and how the weather feels today, but not so often about what the surroundings smelled like. Therefore I would like ONE DAY to be an olfactory diary, to record and recreate moments that sparked a connection through the nose.

Q. Your packaging is very minimalist; please tell us about this design approach and how it represents the brand...

A. I think the color white is an ever-existing element in daily life and it easily blends into different environments, just like scents. Through leaving a lot of white and blanks in the design, we hope our users will experience the fragrance without the visual distraction and influence of extravagant packaging, or certain colors, etc.  Without too much extra sensory input apart from the scent, the brain can form an interpretation and devour the scent more clearly and independently. 

Q. What inspired you to create an entire collection of tea scents?

A. The idea actually stemmed from my upbringing. I was born and raised in Hong Kong, and my family has loved drinking tea since I was young (it’s habitual for them to brew tea after meals or whenever spare time presents itself).

From that I was exposed to various types of tea throughout my life and guess that is why I tend to explore tea houses on trips as well. For instance, Oolong was my memory from Qingtian Tea House in Taipei. Every tea has a unique aroma of its own: bittersweet, fruity, floral… They are an interesting unique type of fragrance in their own right. Therefore, I had a wish to recreate and encapsulate the scent of Asian Tea in the form of perfume.

Q. We first heard about One Day when you won the Art & Olfaction Award for Oolong Tea. Which ingredients were most important in interpreting this very specific tea?

A. As for natural ingredients, Clary Sage E.O and Vetiver Haiti E.O are crucial raw materials for me in the making of tea fragrances. They bring out a bright opening note of steamy air from the process of brewing tea, and the scent of soaked leaves. And in the making of Oolong Tea and Jasmine Tea, we also used tea leaf tinctures that we crafted for the respective fragrances.

Q. Our team and customers are obsessed with Taipei from your Ethos of Cities collection. How did you come up with that composition?

A. Taipei is a lovely city to me, there are different things happening at all times in and across the alleys and streets. In the morning there are breakfast stores that sell soy milk, you walk across the temples, at night in the food market you see dessert stores hawking taro balls… there is almost never nothing happening.

Therefore, I put these elements in my creation — we start the walk with soy milk and taro accord, and use a musky base as a closing to the fragrance, painting the warmth and affection of Taipei people.

Q. How do you want people to feel when they wear One Day fragrances?

A.  Modern, cozy and at ease.

Q. Niche fragrance has become wildly popular in the US — what's the category/community like in Hong Kong these days?

A. I see niche fragrance growing throughout the Asian market, but I think the market in Hong Kong is still developing slower than other countries and the community that explores/enjoys niche brands over big brands is still quite small. There simply aren't many means or opportunities to discover niche brands locally. Therefore I also mostly rely on my friends, Fragrantica and video reviews to find out about interesting niche brands.

With that said, I do hope the fragrance culture in Hong Kong will cultivate and blossom in the near future so there will be more interesting discussions taking place.

Q. Will you continue to build on the Tea Exclusives and Ethos of Cities collections, and are you thinking of introducing new lines?

A. There will be a continuation on the two collections. The new scents to the Ethos of Cities collection will probably be published before the Tea Exclusives. There will be new cities and extended creations on the existing cities. 

As for new lines, we just debuted the news that ONE DAY will develop a brand extension, “EPICHRON”. We are very excited about this. This new platform will be an extension of ONE DAY yet with different DNA — if a “day” is a concept of time, EPICHRON is a space outside of the loop. EPICHRON will have a darker tone, and will be presenting and exploring interesting themes and abstract concepts with scent. We are also collaborating with other perfumers. Please share our anticipation and look forward to this with us.

Thank you to the MINISTRY TEAM for giving us an opportunity to share more about our story and news. And we thank each one of you who enjoys our perfumery. 

Thank YOU, Michael, we look forward to experiencing your upcoming creations!