Woman of substance: The Scent Of Kathleen Lior’s Success

The invitation is for a "decadent dinner" hosted by a lady whose world is of scents and fragrances. At her beautiful Alabang home, the scent of perfumed tea lights aglow in colored glass holders welcomes us weary travelers from Makati. Softly dimmed lights make us forget the hour-and-a half drive that felt like a trip to Hong Kong on this rainy Friday night. Chunks of Tobleron chocolate, generously strewn around the lavishly set dining table, cue us in on an exciting gastronomical evening.

Our hostess, KSL Corporation president and CEO Kathleen "Maymay" Lior, delights in seeing us succumb to the temptations set before us. This is going to be a hard interview, I warn myself.

The prime roast beef is superb but the best "course" at dinner is Maymay’s success story, proof that for some people life does not begin at 40 but at 27 as it did for her. Her highly successful 13-year alliance with the House of Charabot is evidence of this. Thanks to a wonderful relationship with this 200-year-old French perfumery based in Grasse France and plenty of hard work, Maymay today is a much sought-after fragrance specialist in the country. Other Asian countries, we hear, have already discovered her.

Bacolod-born Maymay (nee Nolasco) began her love affair with fragrances in a most extraordinary manner. Her eyes light up mischievously at the memory of how it started. "In 1989, my husband, tired of seeing me exhausted because of a job at an ad agency, gave me a wonderful offer," she recalls. " He said, "Give up your job and I will find a business for you." And to sweeten the deal, he further asked, "What kind of business do you like? Where do you want to have it?" Maymay, then 27, remembers having replied without batting an eyelash, "I love perfumes and I love Paris. I want a business that has something to do with both!"

True to his word, Maymay’s doting husband found the dream business for his pretty young wife. It was to be representative of one of the world’s most famous perfume houses, the House of Charabot.

Soon after, the esteemed perfumery sent Françoise Berthier, manager for Asia, to meet with Maymay. But as luck would have it, Berthier not only arrived during the infamous coup d’etat against President Cory Aquino, but was also unfortunately billeted at the Hotel Intercontinental Manila, the very place where the rebels held court. On his first day, curious about the military tanks outside his hotel window and the men in combat fatigues in the lobby, he decided to step out for a look-see. What greeted him outside was a horde of local and foreign journalists and photographers all waiting for a chance to interview and photograph anyone who had come from inside the hotel. A closeup shot of a terrified Berthier found print on the front pages of major dailies all over the world. In two days, at the urgent plea of the French Embassy, Maymay and her husband smuggled the French visitor out of the hotel and into the safety of a plane that took him out of danger and out of the Philippines.

It was the end of Maymay’s short-lived romance with fragrances. Or so she thought.

Surprisingly, after two months, the House of Charabot wrote Maymay to express their interest in doing business with her. An invitation to tour their operations in Grasse, France was extended. Most importantly, she was required to take a four-week crash course on perfumery at the renowned Charabot Perfumery School.

Maymay took off for France pronto. Grasse was beautiful, she remembers. "In the 18th century, the very mild climate of eastern Provence was found to be ideal for flowers and aromatic plants, and the cultivation of then exotic blooms of jasmine, orange-blossom tuberose and rose. This led to an industrialization in Grasse which has grown over the decades," she informs us. "The whole town is into fragrances and it’s no wonder that the air there smells so good. Imagine being greeted in the morning with the sweet smell of flowers!"

At the Charabot Perfumery School, Maymay was the youngest aspirant of the much sought after certificate. Here with other would-be perfumers from all over the world, she sought to understand the glamorous world of perfumes, and to highly develop her sense of smell. "The first order of the day was to smell a scent and to identify it," she recalls. "That’s all we did daily."

The only one of its kind in the world, the perfumery school also doubled as a laboratory complete with state-of-the-art equipment for creating perfumes. Students were required to create their own formulas and then test them in the lab. Maymay recalls how serious her classmates were about this. "There was this Japanese who had been a student there for five years and was so secretive about his formulations. He would work all day at the lab, and enter his secret creations in a private journal which he locked with a big padlock!"

Students were also introduced to the "Nose," a man who is considered the ultimate creator of great perfumes. The Nose, it is touted, has an ultra superior olfactory sense, which can identify up to 5,000 scents, and an astounding memory that brings these scents to immediate recall whenever he is creating a perfume. "The Nose is likened to a composer of music. He can ‘compose’ a wonderful perfume by using scents as notes, much like in creating a grand symphony," she continues. It is said that one Nose began his career at the age of three and charges as much as US$20 million for an original perfume creation.

Maymay reveals that it is possible for a century to pass without producing a Nose at all. But fortunately for us in the 21st century, there are three Noses that create the great perfumes that we have today. One of them is in the House of Charabot.

At the end of the perfumery course, candidates for graduation faced the ultimate final exam. Each one was to recreate one’s favorite perfume; its recreated formula and the resulting product were to be submitted to a board of judges. With much confidence, Maymay chose to recreate her favorite scent: Paris of Yves St. Laurent. Unfortunately, though her eight-note Paris was sweet smelling, it was 142 notes away from the 150-note composition of the real YSL Paris. Unfazed, she asked for another chance. This time around, she chose to recreate strawberry, which thankfully, smelled like honest-to-goodness strawberry. Maymay is the first and only Filipino to have ever completed and passed this highly specialized and expensive course on perfumery at Charabot.

Within the year, the House of Charabot, France’s most respected perfume house, happily signed an exclusive contract with Maymay’s KSL Corporation as its exclusive representative in the Philippines and in Asia.

As she started introducing her company and the House of Charabot here, Maymay was aghast to discover that this industry is 30 years late in the Philippines. Undaunted, she proceeded to bid for personal care and home care products. The projects were diverse and exciting. "One project may need a floral scent for its first note, then a sweet scent for its middle not, and finally a lingering scent for its low note," she patiently explains to us. Today, after 13 years of steadfastly proving her mettle in the arena of scents, Maymay is a recognized expert in fragrances and produces scents for many local and foreign personal care and cosmetic products.

What is the Filipino’s favorite scent, we ask? "Filipinos love anything that smells good. We love fragrances, and expect household, bathroom, even car products to smell good. Could it be because of the proliferation of many sweet-smelling flowers indigenous to the Philippines like jasmine and ylang-ylang, we ask? "Yes," she agrees. "In fact, the most expensive oil in the world comes from our very own ylang-ylang. Unfortunately, it is not sourced here." Shocked at her disclosure we beg her to explain.

Before World War II, the Germans discovered this fragrant flower in the Philippines, and successfully extracted pure oil from a species called ylang-ylang Manila. Records of this formula were unfortunately destroyed during the war. It is not known whether or not this was done intentionally. All Maymay could recount was that the French brought another Philippine species of the ylang-ylang to Madagascar where it is today grown in vast plantations. Trained hands gently pick the delicate flowers before sunrise. Pickers wear gloves so as not to hurt the drooping bright green leaf-like petals, which contain the precious oil. "Madagascar’s gain is the Philippines’ loss," she sadly adds. "The ylang-ylang we are familiar with is the one in sampaguita garlands. This is not the species that is the source of the rich oil much sought after by perfumers around the world."

Noting our interest, Maymay proceeds to tell us another sad story about an indigenous plant that is the source of a precious ingredient used extensively in musk scents. Called Manila gum elimi, it is the sap of the male pili tree (the pili tree with long elongated leaves), which is found in abundance in the mountains of Quezon province. "It is the ingredient used in the perfume Fahrenheit by Christian Dior, one of the most famous of perfume brands. This sap is harvested by mountain tribesmen and brought down to waiting Japanese middlemen, who have cornered every harvest of the sap for years. They then sell this at exorbitant prices to perfume makers who further process the sap," she informs us, "and then resell it to the international market at higher prices."

Lest we become agitated, Maymay shares her company’s vision. "I envision KSL to be the foremost source of fragrances in the Philippines and Asia. And I would also like to help put the Philippines on the map as the fragrance capital of Asia," she declares. This is not far-fetched because already today, Maymay is blessed with projects that require her to travel constantly to other countries to meet international clients with requirements for specially created scents for their new cosmetic, personal care or even household products.

In this highly competitive world, what is the secret of her success? Hard work. Perseverance. Courage. Excellence. All defining traits that she inherited from her grandfather and mom. "I give my best shot in everything I do, she adds.

As if she had more time, Maymay is also involved in other businesses such as export of apparel and accessories; her husband takes a lead role in these endeavors. But she plows back via heavy involvement in civic and business organization: as the re-elected president of the Philippine Chamber of Cosmetic Industry; chairperson of the BFAD-Cosmetics Industry Joint Committee, and officer of the Asean Cosmetics Association, Philippine Product Safety and Quality Foundation and Women’s Business Council. The multi-awarded SAKIP project, a halfway house for abused women and children of Zonta Club of Muntinlupa and Environs Club for which she was president for four years, continues to be her favorite charity.

What advice would she give women who are extremely busy like herself? "Do not be guilty to dote on yourself. Take a day off and go to a spa. Wash the stress away!" she suggests. I hear Maymay once booked the Mandarin Hotel Spa for the exclusive use of her SAKIP board members who were treated to an unforgettable afternoon of relaxation and wellness.

Kathleen "Maymay" Lior has indeed come a long way. The simple southern belle has grown up to become a savvy businesswoman. The restless mother of two has successfully carved a name for herself in an industry that is very discriminating. Most importantly, the once shy Filipina has evolved to be a French perfumery’s much sought after spokesperson and fragrance expert in the Philippines and Asia.