Master perfumer Roja Dove: ‘I wanted to leave a legacy the only way I knew how’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Roja Dove (Image: Provided)

“I’m fulfilling a gay stereotype here,” Roja Dove says with characteristic wit, having just shared the story of how his love for perfume began with a kiss from his mother as she was leaving for a night out. That moment would spark his lifelong passion for fragrance: as she leant down to kiss him goodnight, the scent of her face powder mingling with her perfume, she stood backlit by the hall light in a gold lamé dress and diamond necklace. “When you’re a small boy, you see that in books — that’s a fairy or an angel. My everyday mum had been metamorphosed into this magical thing.” It was his first lesson in how a fragrance could transform a moment into a memory.

Born Roger John

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