Mima
A pastry chef and lactation counselor who was handed her first bottle at eight and never stopped opening drawers. She does not chase the expensive or the admired; she keeps what is timeless, and she wears scent the way she keeps a memory, close, and only for herself.
For our thirteenth conversation we sat with Karima, whom everyone calls Mima, the eldest of three, born to a Sumatran Arab father and a Chinese Manadonese mother, raised in a house full of love in South Tangerang. Her father gave her fragrance; her mother gave her paint and a kitchen. She traded an auditor’s desk for a small cakery and a family, and in 2024 began reviewing perfume to lift the local houses she loves. What follows is a drawer, opened one keepsake at a time.
Your relationship with fragrance
It all started when I was little. My dad gave me YSL Champagne as a gift, and one day he opened his fragrance drawer to show me his collection. From that moment on, I fell in love with scents, especially perfumes. To me, fragrance is a key that unlocks memories.
Fragrance is a key that unlocks memories.
A scent that takes you somewhere
A chypre fragrance instantly takes me back to my childhood, watching my grandmother get ready and beautifully dressed before going out. Meanwhile, the scent of roses always brings me back to weekends when my dad came home with fresh-cut roses for my mom, and she would arrange them in vases throughout our house.
What you are wearing now
I gravitate toward warm, spicy, and resinous fragrances softened by a touch of florals, regardless of the season. It is less a wardrobe than a temperament: something with heat and resin at the base, and a rose set close to the heart so it never turns severe.
A daily ritual
The first thing I do when I wake up is pray, then I spritz on my scent of the day and spend a few minutes doing breathing exercises that help keep me grounded throughout the day.
On good taste
Good taste is not about choosing what is expensive. It is about recognizing what is timeless and what works for every important moment in life. It is the thing you can wear to the funeral and the ordinary Tuesday, and have it be, unmistakably, you.
One belief she would defend
Stay true, especially with yourself. The world will offer countless reasons to wear masks, to become someone more acceptable, more admired, more convenient. But nothing is more exhausting than living a life that belongs to someone else’s expectations.
There is a quiet strength in authenticity. It asks for no audience, no applause, only the courage to stand by who you are, even when it would be easier not to.
- 01Fragrance is a key that unlocks memories; each bottle she keeps is a room she can walk back into.
- 02Good taste is timeless, not expensive: the thing that works for every important moment in a life.
- 03Stay true, especially with yourself. A scent should echo your soul, not the world’s expectations.
Stay true, especially with yourself.
The world will offer countless reasons to wear masks, to become someone more acceptable, more admired, more convenient. But nothing is more exhausting than living a life that belongs to someone else’s expectations.
There is a quiet strength in authenticity. It asks for no audience, no applause, only the courage to stand by who you are, even when it would be easier not to.
Don’t spend your life chasing acceptance. Spend it becoming someone you can quietly admire when no one else is watching.
A scent should echo your soul, not the world’s expectations.