This story was originally published on Passionfruit.
Maiya Gant has been a fragrance fanatic since she was a child. The Los Angeles-based creator of the Instagram account Black Girls Smell Good says that some of her earliest memories are of her mother and grandmother getting ready for church. They weren’t done, she says, until they sprayed their fragrance (both of their signatures were Estée Lauder Pleasures). She got her first bottle of perfume at 8 years old, which began what she calls a “crazy obsession.”
Fast forward 16 years, Gant has experience training and selling at stores like Saks Fifth Avenue, Sephora, and Nordstrom. She then became a freelance beauty educator helping department stores train crew members on various beauty products, including scents. Her trainees told her that they loved the way she explained things, which made her realize that she had a valuable skill on her hands.
