WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR OTHER FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS?

Stay determined and keep going. Ask for advice and support in the areas where you need help and be sure to spend your time on the things that you’re good at or can learn about and take on comfortably. If there are people out there that can do the task better and faster than you, utilise that if possible. Focus on your journey and don’t worry about or compare yourself to what others are doing. Have patience.. Sometimes playing the long game is the best way forward.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND

I grew up in Sweden, in a small industrial city called Vasteras. I lived with my mother and older sisters until I turned 19 and then me and my best friend moved to London. My heritage is Swedish on my mother side and Gambian on my father’s side and this acts as inspiration and is echoed in my line of fragrances. I live and work from the Isle of Dogs in East London and have been here for the past eleven years.

WHAT LED AND INSPIRED YOU TO START YOUR BUSINESS?

After arriving is London I spent many years working for Carhartt. I loved working for them and it shaped me in many ways but after having my daughter I decided to change direction. I enrolled at LCC as a mature student and graduated from their Surface Design foundation degree in 2012. Whilst there I gravitated towards traditional photography and textile design. Having that creative outlet gave me so much and it spurred me onto exploring multi-dimensional work. I used my old family photographs as inspiration in my design work and kept expanding on them further via scent.

The mood board you hold is a shared reference point - combining Marfa’s much loved signature palette and designs with visual cues from my photographic archive, all linking to perfume ingredients through colour, mood, and memory.