Pia Long

This year is going to be full of great meets, greets, reads, and sniffs (especially the first half, because - LOOK 😱). London this week still has a couple of seats out of the 40 left, @thepopupperfumery in March is going to be MEGA, with TEN participating fragrance businesses (in other words, a lot of really varied and beautiful perfume to discover), @scentandsoul_official in Karkkila, Finland might be a bit out of the way for most of you but any Finnish people reading this: come see & support Finland’s first fully fragrance focused fair (how’s that for alliteration 🙃😆). Then, a real annual highlight in the @barnesfragrancefair and if you are in or can get to London for it, this year is even bigger than before with two vendor venues (we’ll be in the church, or will be if I don’t catch fire). If any fellow perfumers are heading to SIMPPAR, let me know closer to the time as it’s always lovely to say hello in person.

It’s time for a new intro! Hi, I’m Pia, an independent perfumer. I’m originally from Finland and have been based in UK since 1992. My life has always featured fragrance (first selling it and collecting it as a teen, later working as a training manager for a distributor, then becoming a Junior Perfumer at Lush, going on to work for two further fragrance businesses after that and then co-founding Olfiction with Nick Gilbert in 2016). I love science fiction, gaming and other nerdy things (lifelong Muppet and Henson fan girl) and watch Columbo & Murder She Wrote as comfort telly. I accidentally did a bit of an Agatha Christie with fragrance regulations (started researching them so thoroughly that I now have expertise in the topic beyond what is typical among perfumers). I’m dynamically and invisibly disabled with some chronic illnesses which can make life a bit unpredictable. Thank you for being here and I hope to meet many of you during our events and popups.

Some of my perfume creations from 2025: - Soul Notes, the debut forest bathing and komorebi-inspired perfume for @soulnotes.co - Exhibited @artandolfaction Unveiling The Essence with “Iconic”, an iris-cosmetic cream scent inspired by my memories of 80s luxury face creams. - A bespoke guaiacwood-tonka-sandalwood perfume for the biggest art patron we found to raise funds for Demo Accords. I wrote a piece for @meatfortea latest issue about the process. - The ten perfumes with their open formulas for Demo Accords, plus a handful of bonus accords for here to promote the project. 🔗 in bio or head to moaccords.com - The six first perfumes for @kida.kyo (my personal favourite that is Awakening, with two kinds of yuzu essential oil & a lasting crisp citrus note tempered by mossy florals; the runaway success has been Dulcet, a mochi and burnt sugar gourmand). I want to thank everyone who has worn, enjoyed, reviewed, talked about, bought, and enjoyed the fragrances I create. And I recognise what a uniquely privileged position I am in, being able to work using the myriad materials I have access to and holding amazing partnerships (find out more at ). None of this would be possible without @nickrgilbert and @olfictionlimited which is the fragrance studio & consultancy we co-founded nearly 10 years ago (that milestone will be spring -26).

Thank you to everyone who has commissioned work from us, collaborated with us, supplied us and bought our products! Thank you to Accords & Parfums who we are so lucky to partner with. Most of all, I want to thank @nickrgilbert for co-founding @olfictionlimited with me 10 years ago today. Every single day I am grateful for his friendship, talent, vision, intellect and humour. I could not have been luckier than finding a rare combination of mutual interests and overlapping experience as a friend, never mind someone who was also willing to take the leap into the unknown with me. We’ve arranged events, lectures, popups and more, participated in exhibitions & fairs, travelled the world on buying trips and for client work, helped bring over 50 perfumes and hundreds of other product fragrances to life, published an experimental book and are working on so many fulfilling projects behind the scenes as we speak. What does it take? To have a small entirely self-funded business reach a 10-year milestone means a lot of work, constantly learning and never taking any of it for granted. Here’s to what’s next… it’s an exciting year still ahead and as Olfiction, we’re only getting started.

There is no better concentrated way to explore perfumery raw material growers and manufacturers (most major & many others of all size exhibit at the annual European trade fair SIMPPAR that nowadays alternates between Paris and Grasse). This is aimed at working perfumers and raw material buyers. You can smell everything new and anything you are curious about over two days, compare the same material from different sources and say hello to your colleagues, too. It’s become the only thing on my annual travel calendar that I try to ring-fence as non-negotiable because it is such a useful way to catch up with everything. Especially when you get to a point where you have to really justify time away from the business. Conveniently, our partner factory (Accords & Parfums, the visionary original “publishing house” for independent perfumers) is also nearby, so on day 1 of my trip I’ll be visiting there for a meeting and a look around Roudnitska’s gardens. This is a tough trade. Much tougher than most people realise. There are myriad barriers to access, there are issues with unethical businesses who dilute and fake raw materials, or sell authentic materials but at a 1000x mark-up; there are compounding houses who harvest and resell the formulas they’ve been entrusted with; there aren’t enough of certain natural raw materials to go around so they go to places with a long established history first… and because I’ve worked behind the scenes for decades across factory floor, sales offices, quality control labs and perfume labs, not a day goes by I don’t thank my lucky stars for being in the fortunate situation of having all this access and reputable sources even though I’m only a relative nobody independent perfumer. Anyway, I know one of my perfumer pals from UK is coming along, but will I see any of you at SIMPPAR? There are a couple of evening events, too!

This is a quick video from @thepopupperfumery to highlight the creations by @olfictionlimited by @perfumer.pia These were a beauty and looking forward to her new creations coming up at the @barnesfragrancefair in the upcoming week. #flawedfoolishandfragrance #olfiction #fragrancereview #thepopupperfumery #barnesfragrancefair2026

Something is coming. Polaris is soon launching the next project, and some of you have already started figuring out what the hype is all about. So we’re just going to say it, without actually saying it. Say hi to members of our jury. @michaelnordstrandperfumer @perfumer.pia @masterofscent.switzerland @maya.njie.perfumes @hiram_green @wilhelmperfume

Do your own potential and inner world justice. Never aim for the external trappings of what mastery looks like from the outside in. Never try to fit in with a group if the fit is not a sense of “yess, I found my people”. And we contain multitudes, so your people could be in all sorts of unexpected places. When you find your own voice and allow yourself to evolve, change, and grow, everything flows. Now, in any profession where you have to get good at technical skill AND be able to listen to feedback, it is even more vital to have a core of inner direction that keeps you focused on improving within your own world. Paying attention and being able to process requests & feedback are important and - somewhat contradictory - you also have to keep that inner focus. The best mentors, designers, collaborators and creative partners know how to instruct and feed back without imposing their own style. And the life of an artist or a creative designer is already challenging enough without working to people please individuals who do not gel with you. So find out who you are, practice your craft, and everyone benefits. #perfumery #indieperfume #perfume

I’m currently sitting by the pool in a Spanish coastal village, with one essential thing I made sure to bring with me: a new magazine created by a group of truly fantastic fragrance journalists, perfumers and fragrance experts. I’ve followed the story of @onthescentmedia @onthescentpodcast - their weekly podcasts and Patreon - since the very beginning, and honestly, I can’t imagine life without it now. As someone who’s been passionate about fragrance for as long as I can remember, finding my kind of people through both their content and their community has been an absolute joy. If you’re curious, you can pick up a physical copy of the quarterly magazine or read it online for free. It dives into materials, perfumers, industry trends, and so much more. I’ve been longing for something like this for decades, and it’s incredibly satisfying to see it finally exist! Thank you! The creators behind the @barnesfragrancefair are also involved, and if you haven’t heard me mention one of my favourite fragrance events before, it’s well worth checking out the Barnes Fragrance Fair next month. Also shout out to one of the finest perfumers @perfumer.pia for her work in this magazine - covering topics that need discussed! @jofairley and @aliceduparcq in the magazine team too! For now, though, I’m here - surrounded by the scent of sunscreen, salty air, jasmine in bloom, and maybe even a hint of grapes drifting up from a glass of wine. Wonderful. #onthescent #barnesfragrancefair #fragrance #summerperfume #perfume

The colour! Come explore our new @olfictionlimited new Lab Editions @barnesfragrancefair next month!

You can read @onthescentmedia brand new magazine for free on their website but if you can, buy a copy because this is how we support quality journalism, reject AI slop, build our knowledge and enjoy ourselves with a lovely actual print product. It’s wonderful. Declaration of interest: obviously, if you know me even a little or only parasocially, you’ll know I love books, magazines, stories, and perfume (duh) - so I would have been first in line to get a copy of this new magazine anyway. This issue was sent to me as a contributor copy because an edited version of the “Dupe This” chapter from Demo Accords is featured within. Well done, @fragrantmaven & @jofairley & the whole On The Scent Media team.

New level of eco power: unlocked