Nose in a book (and vice-versa)

Studio 360
Tanwi Nandini Islam poses in her Hi Wildflower studio in Brooklyn, New York.

There are plenty of books about scent. But what about a scent based on a book? Novelist and perfumer Tanwi Nandini Islam does just that.

As a writer — her first book, “Bright Lines,” was published in 2015 and she’s at work on her second — Islam takes a particular olfactory focus. As a perfumer, she also creates stories — an ephemeral kind built out of scents — for her fragrance and beauty business Hi Wildflower.

A few years ago, Islam merged these two aspects of her life for a project she called #GetLit — a series of scented candles based on contemporary novels.

Now, for Studio 360, she creates a fragrance based on Toni Morrison’s masterpiece “Beloved.”

“I definitely walked away with wanting to create this sense of rain, mud, mother’s milk, blood,” she says.

Join Kurt Andersen as he sees (and smells) how Islam adapts this haunting novel into a scent.

Studio 360 host Kurt Andersen, sound engineer Sandra Lopez-Monsalve and Tanwi Nandini Islam talk at Islam’s Hi Wildflower studio.
Studio 360 host Kurt Andersen, sound engineer Sandra Lopez-Monsalve and Tanwi Nandini Islam talk at Islam’s Hi Wildflower studio.Studio 360
Kurt Andersen smells a scent offered by Tanwi Nandini Islam.
Kurt Andersen smells a scent offered by Tanwi Nandini Islam.Studio 360
Tanwi Nandini Islam’s home dining table is covered in scents and testing strips as she builds her “Beloved” perfume.
Tanwi Nandini Islam’s home dining table is covered in scents and testing strips as she builds her “Beloved” perfume.Studio 360
The testing strips that comprise the “Beloved” perfume draft.
The testing strips that comprise the “Beloved” perfume draft.Studio 360

Read more about Islam’s written and olfactory work at her website.

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