We are delighted to welcome Sophie Mawby to Shy Mimosa and would like to share some insight why we love working with Sophie. We take this opportunity to ask Sophie about her background and what she enjoys most about working at Shy Mimosa.

We are sure our audience will be fascinated to find out more about your background as we know that you have worked in the fragrance industry previously. Tell us where it all began?

My journey working in the perfume industry began in London in 2008, when I started working at a specialist independent perfumery in Belgravia called Les Senteurs, alongside my job in the City.

This gave me access to the magical world of niche perfumery beyond reading about it on my favourite perfume blogs and I continued to fall deeper into the rabbit hole of discovery.

Not only was it fascinating to learn more about the fragrances but also the independent brands and perfumers behind the creations, who generally weren’t recognised in the same way twenty years ago as they are now.

I went on to work for Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle and subsequently managed the fragrance development and training for Grossmith, an English perfume house.

How did you first meet Maria and discover Shy Mimosa Perfumery?

I discovered Shy Mimosa when I relocated from London to Bristol after starting a family and taking a break to do a bit of travelling and spending time with my young children. We moved to Bristol just before the first lockdown so it was a little while before I was able to visit the perfumery in person…but it was well worth the wait!

On my first visit I met Tim and we connected over our shared love of classical perfumery. I then met Maria, owner and founder of Shy Mimosa, on my second visit and we immediately hit it off.

Subsequent visits to the perfumery strengthened our friendship and I was thrilled when she asked me to join the Shy Mimosa team as a fragrance specialist and to support her with the development of Shy Mimosa.

Do you ever get asked about your own favourite note or perfume?

I do get asked what my favourite perfume is and whilst I've had many favourites over the years, I do have a core selection of perfumes that I’m never without and that I consider particularly special to me.

One such perfume is Bois des Iles, part of the Les Exclusifs collection from Chanel. It’s an enveloping combination of aldehydes, flowers and sandalwood, which I wore on my wedding day and feels almost like a second skin.

A new favourite of mine is a perfume I discovered here at Shy Mimosa - Fatamorgana by 1907. It's interplay of crisp, green notes and flowers evoke the joy of skipping through a verdant, sunlit meadow on a beautiful Spring day. There aren’t many gaps in my perfume collection but this filled the absence of green fragrances that I crave every Spring.

Do you have a "loved and lost" perfume? One that you loved dearly and which is no longer in production?

A few of my favourites have been heavily reformulated, especially anything containing Mysore sandalwood, which is my favourite raw material.

I experienced the unique privilege of visiting the sandalwood factory in Mysore ten years ago and encountering the real deal… there's just nothing like it.

I lament the disappearance of a couple of my favourite Serge Lutens perfumes, such as Tubereuse Criminelle and Bois de Violette, but these days I'm fairly acquiescent when it comes to discontinuations as there are so many incredible perfumes that are in production.

Which is your earliest memory around scent and did it play a pivotal role in your future fragrant quest?

My love of perfume began as a very small child, when I frequently found myself mesmerised by the smell of certain women I knew.

My mother’s collection included memorable staples such as Chanel no.5, First by Van Cleef & Arpels and Panthere de Cartier and our next-door neighbour, a chic French woman who always wore red lipstick, rotated classics from the houses of Guerlain and Dior (Shalimar, Samsara, Poison…the headiest of concoctions!).

Another was a glamorous family friend who trailed a captivating powdery cloud wherever she went. I didn’t attribute her scent to a perfume back then because I was very young and it just smelled like ‘her’, but twenty years later, whilst spritzing my way through the fragrance section of a department store (one of my favourite past-times as a teenager) I came across a perfume that immediately transported me back to my childhood and the memory of this woman, who I hadn’t seen for a number of years. The perfume was YSL Paris and this deeply nostalgic experience reinforced the power of scent as a medium for nostalgia and profound emotional response.

The magic of fragrance has accompanied me throughout my entire life and is so ingrained in my DNA that it was probably inevitable that I would end up immersed in the world of perfumery in some shape or form.

What do you like best about working at Shy Mimosa?

Well of course my favourite thing is spending my day surrounded by perfume! Quite literally heaven for me.

Shy Mimosa represents some of the most beautiful examples of contemporary perfumery so its a great pleasure to have the opportunity to study the perfumes and independent brands behind them in depth.

I also love being part of a supportive and passionate team and am delighted to be involved in Shy Mimosa’s journey, as we have some exciting projects in the works.