JEDDAH: Wid Jamjoom is a young entrepreneur who has transformed her passion into a profession. Since childhood, Jamjoom has been interested in perfumes and curious about their composition. Her passion eventually led her to launch her luxury homemade perfume brand Autre By Wid, which offers customers a chance to create a personalized fragrances to suit their tastes.
She describes her business as a one-woman show because she alone is responsible for mixing, bottling and packaging her products.
Jamjoom says she wants to offer her customers products they cannot find elsewhere.
“The goal of my brand is to make people feel that the perfume they acquire is the best gift they can give to somebody or one of their prized possessions,” she told Arab News.
She said that one of the distinguishing characteristics of her perfumes is that their fragrance remains consistent, from the moment of application until much later.
“As a kid, I was obsessed with chemistry and the process that goes into mixing different ingredients to come up with one strong fragrance. My father was a pilot who would bring me perfumes from all around the world, but he would often forget exactly where he got them from. I liked some more than others, and it would frustrate me if I couldn’t find them again,” she reminisced.
Jamjoom decided to launch her brand while she was studying at university and hunting for a job.
“My vision for the future was unclear, so my mother told me to find out what I wanted to do. I thought about the things I was good at, and mixing perfumes came to my mind,” she said.
After that realization, she embarked on a journey to become a professional in the field and started research on ingredients and packaging.
Jamjoom said: “In Saudi Arabia, at that time, I couldn’t find the raw materials to make these perfumes, so I would buy perfumes from brands like Chanel and Dior and mix them to create something new. The problem with that was that it was costly.”
It was not until much later, when she became a mom, that she resumed her business.
The perfumer explained: “My family asked me to create perfumes for them and I complied. Gradually, their requests kept coming in, and that’s how I restarted my business after a lull.”
The challenge that Jamjoom faced in her professional life was a lack of resources in the country. “We cannot import raw material for small businesses. There are a lot of restrictions,” she explained. “So, I had to work with things that were available in the market. Another problem I faced was time management.”
Jamjoom now organizes workshops to train women who wish to start their own perfumeries. Jamjoom wants to expand her business beyond Jeddah and sell her perfumes in other cities as well. She can be reached via Instagram @autrebywid.
