Episode notes
Meet Lizzie Ostrom, the pioneering fragrance specialist and writer, who helped revolutionise how we experience perfume. Known by her stage-persona "Odette Toilette", Lizzie identified a crucial gap in the fragrance world fifteen years ago and created her fun experimental fragrance events, where she would mix fragrance with subjects like psychology, music and cinema. She is also the author of Perfume: A Century of Scents which tells the stories of one hundred fragrances through ten pivotal decades of the twentieth century (including the iconic 99p body spray of the 1990s: Impulse 02).
We explore how her background in PR and early exposure to online fragrance communities led to her breakthrough realisation that there was nowhere to engage with perfume in a relaxed, accessible way outside of intimidating beauty counters.
She also shares the story behind her groundbreaking Somerset House exhibition and reflects on what made her events so popular. We also touch on creativity, entrepreneurship and the art of making meaningful connections through scent.