Meet the Founder
Maksim
Ekimovskii
Founder & Perfumer of Charisma
Founder of the Helsinki Perfume Club and Charisma Helsinki – out to put Finland on the map of world-class perfume countries. Charisma is his personal creative project to express life experiences in scents.
About Maksim
Based in Helsinki, Finland, Maksim holds a degree in Computer Science and over a decade of cutting-edge tech industry experience building and scaling digital products and services for millions of customers.
Out to put Finland on the map of world-class perfume countries.
How did it all start?
Perfumes entered his life as a hobby in 2021, beginning with a perfume-making workshop in Berlin. That experience sparked a deep curiosity about how fragrances work at a foundational level.
"Creating perfumes is very similar to programming. There's logic, structures, functions, and building blocks. It's like writing code, just in its own language – something I've been doing throughout my professional career."
After a few months of self-study he built a home lab stocked with raw materials for experimentation. To dive deeper, he traveled to Grasse to meet perfumers, gain inspiration, and receive one-on-one mentoring, later taking perfume courses and passing certification in advanced technical know-how.
This passion soon grew into something larger: in 2022 he launched perfume-making workshops in Helsinki, which evolved into the Helsinki Perfume Club – a community uniting perfume lovers, niche brands, professionals, and enthusiasts. Today, the club is known within fragrance communities around the world.
Charisma Helsinki is the next step in this journey – with the vision of building a world-class niche perfume brand from Finland.
People & Recognition
This journey would be much harder without support, mentoring, professional advice, and simply inspiring talks. Here are the people who made an impact and contributed to this story so far.
Emmanuelle Moeglin
Founder & Perfumer · Experimental Perfume Club
Whose teaching materials and courses helped accelerate this journey.
Spyros Drosopoulos
Founder & Perfumer · BARUTI · Teacher, Institute of Art & Olfaction
Who very openly shares his experience of being an independent perfumer and building a successful perfume brand, with an incredible level of detail.
Marie-Pierre Blanchette
Founder & Perfumer · Miskeo Parfums
A great professional, creative mind, and simply inspiring person who can always offer advice and new ideas – with a "hell yea, let's do it" attitude.
Marie Molchanova
Perfumer & Founder · MAYME · Teacher, Grasse Institute of Perfumery
Who helps along the journey and shares knowledge about technical know-how.
Pia Long
Founder & Perfumer · Olfiction & Eau de Boujee
With a few decades of industry experience, who gives constructive feedback and is an occasional speaker at the Helsinki Perfume Club.
Katja, Adriana & Viktoria
Helsinki Perfume Club · Core Team
Last but not least, the club's core team – a great support and an invaluable part of the perfume culture in Finland and the club.