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✨ Onew’s interview for SeeK Vol.021

A story of Onew and fragrances

Experience making his own perfume.

So, what us the scent that Onew imagines?

The title of the concert held in March was "ONEW CONCERT "O-NEW-NOTE" in JAPAN".

Yes, Onew is very interested in "fragrances" now.

The story of Onew, who thought: "What kind of scent do I like?", how he pursued it thoroughly and found his own scent.

We will deliver it with plenty of healing effects.

ONEW

Trying to make his own perfume

He experienced making original perfumes at a popular perfume workshop.

He likes strong commitment and detailed work… Please enjoy the unknown aspects of Onew, such as his obsessions, love for detailed work and so on… to the familiar Onew (!)

Step 1: Fill in the check sheet

Check the image of the fragrance you want to create.

Before starting the perfume experience, first fill in a check sheet to confirm your favorite scent taste. Choose the scent you want to create and your favorite color from among the many options. Onew confirms one by one: “What does it mean by ‘heavy’?”, “Is it refreshing?”. He chose soft scents, heavy scents, fresh floral scents, fruity scents, woody/forest scents, and herbal scents.

When asked by the teacher about his favorite image, he said: “The phytoncide in the summer forest is ‘refreshing’, and the warm brown tone of the wood is ‘soft’. Ah, I see, so I’m ‘soft’. But I like the damp wood...”, he continued the exchange with the teacher.

The color that you can feel for each scent is also different. “I like dark tones like damp wood” - he said, checking the dark brown one. In addition, he also chose the same yellow color as today’s outfit.

Some of them smell like wood, some like herbs, and some of them feel like forest without heavy trees.

“Hmm… It’s not easy”, he suddenly was confronted with the depth of the scents.

Step 2: Trying them

Smell the 36 scents one by one

After learning about the composition of the scent of top notes, middle notes, and base notes from the teacher, it’s finally time to take the first step in creating a perfume. It’s the moment of "trying them", where you choose while smelling the scents to be blended. The impression here is important! What Onew experienced this time was a course to choose from 36 kinds of scents, and there were many perfume bottles in front of him! "I have to smell all of this, don't I? It's shocking!" - while saying that, he started immediately.

“Take a small amount with the dropper on the lid and drop a few drops, and the scent will come out. When you smell it, count 1, 2, 3” - the teacher told him the points. Then, he writes down his impressions on the sheet, whether it’s good, weird, or disliked.

It seems that his nose slowed down after 10 minutes. When that happens, smell the aroma of the coffee beans and reset. Onew posed while holding coffee beans. He asked the photographer: "How is it? Can I make an advertisement for coffee?".

He was muttering something to himself, so when I listened more carefully, he was saying: "Orchid? Child's scent?" (*or-kid) Jacket? (*leather) Oh, I like it”. He is putting some gags in between (laughs).

“I like the smell of acacia gum (acacia senegal gum), which I used to chew when I was a kid”… “Oh, it smells good”. “This is fragrant olive! I didn’t know that frangrant olive was a tree until I learned it at cram school” - he shared the episode (laughs). “The black pepper one has a pepper scent!” - Onew tries it while having fun.

While confirming the name of each scent, if he can’t understand, he will actively ask the teacher. Showing off a good student who is full of motivation. Finally, he finished smelling all 36 perfumes.

Once his nose is reset, he continues to try the scents. "Sure, I like this kind of scent." Whoa! I think he is starting to understand it!

Step 3: Perfuming

Making adjustments to the scent many times in search of the desired scent.

Onew will combine scents that he thinks are good in the scent test. Putting one drop into a tube with a dropper, dipping it on an L-shaped paper and smelling it, is like a chemistry experiment. He tells the teacher what he thinks of the scent, and adds more of the scent little by little. Changing the amounts and the fragrance is formulated again. A delicate one-on-one exchange with the teacher continues. In fact, it was difficult to achieve the ideal scent, so he had a hard time… "I’m more serious (about it) than I thought (I would be) (laughs)", he said with a wry smile.

According to the impression Onew felt, the teacher added a scent, but: "It should be a little less sweet, and the one with the scent of wood is better", "A little, not clear, subtle", "It's not the scent I expected" - Onew is not convinced. His face gradually became troubled, but after the 6th attempt, he finally smiled: "Oh, it’s similar!" and then the 7th attempt: “It's the weight I wanted”. That’s good.

For example, after the teacher puts in a little bit of fragrant olive, Onew puts in a drop of cedarwood and black musk. The trick is to drop it with so as not to touch the tube.

Even the teacher praised him!

“Onew has a pretty high ability to catch the scent. Even if you smell the same woody scent, it’s generally difficult to tell which is the lighter tone wood or which is the heavier wood. I was surprised because before, he had already correctly caught that sandalwood was lighter than cedarwood and that cedarwood should be used more as a main”.

Step 4: Put in a perfume bottle

Weigh it with a scale and pour the stock solution accurately.

Accurately pour the undiluted solution of perfume into the bottle using a scale according to the amount determined in the previous perfume blending. 0.01g determines the aroma, which is quite a delicate process. Looking at the scale, drop, drop. Concentrate and talk less, seal your favorite jokes. The silent struggle continues, but Onew said, working hard towards the imminent completion: "I want to complete my own perfume!".

Adding 5.00g of cedarwood, 2.40g of sandalwood, and 2.68 g of ambrette, that the teacher gave him when he was making the perfume. "I have to be precise!", Onew holds it tight with both hands.

Step 5: Attach the label

The scent, appearance, and name are all Onew originals!

Mix the undiluted solution from earlier with the perfume base, and finally attach a label in your favorite color to complete your original perfume! However, perfume needs a maturation period, so you can enjoy the real scent after 1~2 weeks. The teacher said: “Onew made it with very precise measurements, so it has become an ideal scent. So please, rest assured”.

Everything from the illustration on the label to the fragrance has created a one-of-a-kind perfume that is unique to Onew.

Onew chose his favorite color from the 6 different labels. “It's a little crooked because my feelings are crooked (laughs) But it looks quite good like this”, Onew said.

ONEW’S FRAGRANCE “MORI-AMA”

The sweet and soft scent turns into a dark and heavy woody scent!

A unique scent that is warm and calm, yet firm in its charm.

In order to get closer to the ideal scent that Onew had imagined, the perfume “MORI-AMA” was created by repeating the process and trying the smell over and over again.

Of course, Onew likes it, but there is also plenty of charm that goes beyond that.

This time, we asked the teacher who prepared the fragrance in detail about this perfume.

When I asked him before the class started, he said: “It would be nice if the base was woody and it had a faint floral scent”. The floral scent was made with a small amount of jasmine, which is the most similar to acacia, because he wanted the scent of acacia. In addition, among the woody scents, he liked the scent of wood, which has a “dark and deep image,” so we built the scent of cedarwood as the main scent, and added the scents of ambrette and sandalwood as decorations. However, it’s difficult to express the “warm and calm atmosphere” and “heavy atmosphere” that Onew wanted with just that scent, so it contains most cashmere scent.

The scent flow is sweet and soft at first, and rises with a calm jasmine scent. When the scent shifts from the beginning to the middle, the gentle and clean scent of sandalwood rises and the tone of the perfume is bright. The dark and dry image of cedarwood changes completely, giving you a twisted charm. During this change in scent, the ambrette enhances the woody scent and the cashmere scent is felt from start to finish, creating a warm scent.

As a perfume, it has a warm, soothing yet firm, trendy, twisted and alluring image. The cashmere scent lasts for a long time, so you can feel the soft and warm impression, and it’s a perfume with a calm image that is made by concentrating on the residual scent of woody. Among them, the dark tone of cedarwood added to the bright tone scent makes it even more attractive.

For the last few years, the Korean perfume trend has been the natural image of woody scents, or slightly unique niche scents. Onew's perfume contains these two trends.

MIDDLE Note: Jasmine

BASE Note: Ambrette

BASE Note: Sandalwood

BASE Note: Cedarwood

BASE Note: Cashmere

Thoughts after finishing the perfume making

Talking about scents with Onew

We asked him about this and that, from his impressions of perfume making to episodes about fragrances. At the end, we talked about his memories of his stay in Japan.

Onew: It’s my first time making perfume. I’m not usually that interested in perfume, I just care about the scents I can feel in my life. By the way, my favorite scent is the smell of freshly baked bread (laughs).

However, this perfume-making experience gave me the opportunity to think about what kind of scent I like. And it was a much more specialized field than I thought. I thought it would be easy to make, but I smelled one by one and compared them... My nose got tired right away, but thanks to the coffee beans that the teacher prepared for me, I was saved (laughs).

It was fun trying out the scents.

I was also surprised by the variety of woody scents. There is also such a scent. I was so into sniffing and selecting each one, and it took me a lot of time (laughs). This kind of work might suit me unexpectedly! I felt like a sommelier or barista, and it was a fresh experience.

This time, before making the perfume, I imagined a woody, slightly moist scent that felt like being in the forest. I wanted to make something with a scent of thick trees and a slightly damp earth, but I thought it might be a little heavy on its own, so I thought it might be a good idea to add a little sweet scent. But I don't know much about fragrances, so when I say sweet scent, I can only think of the smell of gum that I like (laughs). I thought the smell of “acacia senegal gum” that I used to chew a lot when I was a child was good.

Today, I made two types of scents and chose one. The first one I made wasn’t bad either, but it just didn’t click with me. It was too light and had a strong fruity scent, so I thought it wasn’t the forest scent I had imagined.

The second is a heavier scent that I like. When I want to be healed, I seek the “scent of the forest (phytoncide)”. Like when I go camping in the woods. It would be better if it rains at that time. I made it a simpler scent of forest, but I think the result is a satisfying scent. I'm simple myself, so I have to keep the scent simple (laughs). In general, it may feel heavy, but for me this is the most refreshing scent.

If I had to name this perfume... “Mori-Ama”! I just put "forest" (mori) and "sweet" (amai) together, but I think it’s a little lame (laughs). But “Mori-Ama” is good. I don't usually wear perfume.

Perfume is often remembered for its scent, isn't it? If someone remembers my perfume because it smells something they don’t like, it’s kind of sad. Also, I’d probably change my perfume depending on my mood at the time, so I think it’d better to be in a state of “nothing” rather than mixing various scents. So that you can easily put it in any scent. Maybe that's what I want to be.

I tried using essential oils and candles, but after about 5 to 10 minutes, I couldn't feel the scent anymore. I wonder if my nose is so sensitive that I get used to the scent so quickly and it becomes numb. To the extent that I even forget that I lit a candle.

By the way, the scent I don't like is the refreshing citrus scent. I recognize all of them as cucumber smells. Actually, I don’t like cucumbers (laughs). When I was a kid, I didn't even eat melons or watermelons. Come to think of it, the first time I put on perfume was my mother's perfume when I was in the first or second grade of elementary school. It was in a drawer, and when I smelled it, I really liked it. I remember asking my mother how to put it on. It smelled good, but I still remember it because there were times when I put it on too much and was like “Argh!” (laughs). If I were to create a perfume inspired by SHINee, it would be the scent of forest and acacia (laughs). It's one of my favorite scents, but since I'm part of SHINee, it would be nice to have my own scent arranged a bit. The sweetness should be modest, and it should be more refreshing. I want the bottle to be small so it's easy to carry around. A bottle like lip balms. The name would be… “OUO”. It’s a combination of the work “king” (“ou”) and the exclamation “Oh!” into alphabet!

In 2022, I stayed in Japan for three months on a solo tour, so I was able to eat what I wanted many times. What impressed me the most? It's hard to choose because they were all delicious, but I’ll go with sushi. I love chutoro (medium fatty tuna), and when I ate a course meal at a sushi restaurant, I ordered an additional item individually (laughs).

I only remember eating during the tour… (laughs) When I look at the photos I took during my three months in Japan, there are only photos of food. Especially this time, it was good that I was able to wander around by myself and suddenly enter the restaurants in front of me. I've been going around gourmet food for a long time, so I thought this shouldn't be the case, so I exercised well.

Next time I go to Japan, I want to deepen what I did this time. I used to go to the restaurants I was recommended by people and on the Internet, but this time I enjoyed walking around on my own. For example, the same tonkotsu ramen may taste different depending on the restaurant, right? It was so much fun to explore my favorite flavors like that, and I hope to deepen it next time. I guess I relieve stress by eating. I feel very happy when I am eating delicious food.

ONEW’s special message:

One again, SHINee WORLD J

I'm planning to have a solo concert in Japan in March 2023, but by the time this SeeK arrives, it's over, so I'd like to ask everyone: "Was it a fun concert?". Whether I'm solo or in a group - working in Japan is a lot of fun and I feel very happy.

I never want to let go of this happiness.

I have a lot of songs that I want to release in Japan, and I have a lot of things I want to do, so I plan to do them all.

Everyone, please look forward to it!

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Credits: SeeK Vol.021

JPN - ENG translation: @DiamondTaem

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