Scent of a Woman: Lady from Lucknow takes the art of perfume making to France
Bathing in the jouissance of the intoxicating fragrance of Awadh perfumery, Lucknow-based Vidushi Vijayvergiya launched Isak Fragrances to expand her family’s 160-year-old business of making artisanal and vegan perfumes.
Being the first woman in the lineage to manage her vintage family business of making perfumes, she re-launched the brand under the name Isak Fragrances after completing a course in luxury and lifestyle business management from IIM-A, which now sells a variety of handcrafted, vegan, and artisanal perfumes.
It all started in 1850s when great-grandfather Chunnamal Vijayvergiya with a strong penchant for attar moved from Rajasthan to Lucknow in search of better opportunities which was followed by months spent in the distillation plant in Kannauj to absorb the process of attar making.
At that time Nawab had the mind to give anything to be swooned by sweet fragrances, it didn’t take long for Chunnamal to entice the Nawabs and Rasookdars (ministers) of Awadh with his collection of natural attars and his perfumes cast a charming spell on the royals.
Later in the 1950s, this century-old perfume business was finally incorporated as CMRD (Chunnamal Ramdayal) Agencies by Vasudev Vijayvergiya, the 4th generation owner of the family business. Sourcing essential oils, spices, and other such ingredients from across India to produce bottled fragrances. Around the 1930s, Shri Chunnamal’s grandson, Gaurishankar, began exporting these oils and fragrances to foreign markets, and from here, the business thrived. Around the 80s the Vijayvergiyas began supplying to retailers — up until then, they were mostly selling to industries directly.
Though India enjoys a classical heritage of perfume making with Kannauj being its epicenter, the popularity of Indian perfumes was overpowered when French and other inorganic foreign perfumes entered the market but most of the people are ignorant that foreign perfume labels source the base ingredients from India.
Vidushi always wanted to democratize homegrown fragrances. The name of the business has changed over the years — during her great-grandfather’s time but her father takes care of the store under the CMRD name. It’s a tiny store in an old part of the city
Isak was launched with the idea to strike a conversation about why Indian perfumery should be chosen, why we’re distinct, why it’s suitable for tropical climates such as ours, and what kind of ingredients the country produces.
