AMOURSKY: Ukrainian Soul Meets French Heart — An Honest Talk with Iryna & Olia

AMOURSKY is a young Ukrainian-French label that speaks two languages yet tells one story: the power of feeling. Founders Iryna and Olia have blended Ukrainian character with the perfumery soul of Grasse to craft a scented body-care line where love and passion live side by side. We sat down with them to learn how an old dream became a manifesto of conscious consumption, what makes their fragrances tick, and where AMOURSKY is heading next.

AMOURSKY founders

1. Iryna, Olia, how did the idea of AMOURSKY—a brand with a Ukrainian soul and a French heart—first appear?

Iryna admits the wish for a home-grown brand “had been living in my head for ages.” Since 2016 she has distributed a Swiss cosmetic line in Ukraine—that’s where she met Olia, then an SMM specialist. “I longed to challenge myself with a high-quality local fragrance project,” she recalls. Over coffee in late 2021 she asked, “What if we build a perfumed brand together?” Olia remembers the moment: “It was scary, but I jumped in—and never regretted it. AMOURSKY is now a way of life, where Ukrainian grit meets Grasse formulas.”

2. Your brand pivots on two notions—love and passion. How are those feelings reflected in the scents?

Ukrainian has two separate words: lyubov for universal, warm affection and kokhannia for intimate, fiery desire. “Our formulas are made with love and inspired by passion,” Iryna sums up. Each product therefore carries both the tenderness of a first touch and the depth of a racing heartbeat.

3. All compositions come from Grasse, the world capital of perfume. What does that region mean to you and how does its spirit show in your collections?

Olia dreamed of Grasse ever since reading Süskind’s Perfume. Last year she and Iryna finally visited: “The Mediterranean climate, jasmine and rose fields, family ‘noses’ who hand down secret formulas— you can feel that reverence for craft in every drop we make.”

4. AMOURSKY also champions conscious consumption. Where did that focus start?

Iryna recalls opening her bathroom cabinet and seeing “endless jars and boxes bound for the trash.” The result was the mantra “less waste, more purpose.” The team adopted the 3-RE rule—reuse, refill, recycle—ditching single-use cartons for reed-woven sleeves and embroidered cotton pouches that live on as make-up bags or beach totes.

5. You work with many Ukrainian artisans. How does that shape the brand’s DNA?

In just eighteen months AMOURSKY has partnered with more than twenty-five makers from Kharkiv to Khmelnytskyi. “Every piece they craft carries a fragment of our story,” Olia says.

6. What story lies behind the DEBUT collection?

Launched on 16 November 2023, DEBUT was the “first step on stage.” Berry tartness leads into powdery iris, finishing with a warm vanilla trail. The word début sounds the same in Ukrainian and French—“a bilingual wink that set the rule for future names.”

7. OASIS is marketed as a breath of freshness. What makes it special?

Think “silence inside chaos”: citrus and bergamot meet green tea with jasmine, then blend into fig milk and musk. The result evokes a damp morning under palm-tree shade.

8. The MUSE project with artist Nataliia Korf-Ivaniuk—how was it born?

The scent opens rough—frankincense, absinthe, pine—then softens with jasmine and vanilla. “It reminded us of a naked feminine state,” Iryna notes. They invited Nataliia to paint live during the shoot; the canvas later sold at auction, with proceeds sent to the military unit where her husband serves.

9. For ROMANTIQUE you crowdsourced a “love map” of Ukraine. Why was that important?

Wanting to “hear what romance means to our followers,” the team gathered 44 cherished spots—from Kyiv’s Podil to the Carpathians. The response was so warm they plan to rerun the initiative annually.

10. Packaging and little details seem key to your communication. What matters most here?

Design, Iryna says, is “aesthetics multiplied by function.” Reusable pouches, reed sleeves, ceramic gri-gri heart bracelets that hold a drop of perfume become daily rituals “keeping scent and mood close,” adds Olia.

11. What is the single most important thing in creating a fragrance?

“The first visceral reaction,” Olia explains. “If a blend doesn’t give us goose-bumps—or tears—we rework it or shelve it.”

12. The summer launch is TISANE. What mood did you aim for?

TISANE smells like July in Odessa: linden and acacia blossom, freshly cut grass, sun-dried hay—a light herbal-honey haze you want to inhale again and again.

13. Where do you personally look for inspiration?

Olia lists “wet earth after rain, camp-fire smoke in a sweater, mum’s buckwheat bread, salty sea wind… but above all real people and their genuine moments—those are the feelings we translate into scent.”

14. Finally, where will AMOURSKY go next?

The founders are doubling down on refill & reuse: perfumed shower gels and home fragrances are in testing, alongside new eco solutions and brave collaborations. “We move forward with love, dreams and aromas meant to be lived,” they conclude.