1. Can you tell us briefly about yourself?

Hi, my name's Bella. I am a beauty and lifestyle content creator on Instagram. To tell you a little bit about myself, I am of Indian origin, but I grew up in Dubai and spent pretty much all of my life in Dubai, and I am currently living in Houston, Texas. Recently, I decided to go back to school. So, I'm also a grad student studying business and I have a background in perfumery. So very soon I'll be heading back into the business of perfumery.

2. What is your daily beauty and scent routine?

My beauty and scent routine. OK, let's talk about scent. I'm very indulgent when it comes to perfume. So even if I'm sitting at home, I wear perfume, like on a regular basis. Depending on my mood, I like to switch it up. It's always based on my mood, a different perfume every day is perfect. And for beauty, I have an AM and PM routine every day that I follow to target all my skin concerns. And makeup: everybody's working from home right now and studying from home, so I don't want to say I use a lot of makeup. I like to keep my makeup very minimal and if I have a class, I will just put on very little makeup just to look presentable and feel good.

3. What are your beauty tips?

Beauty tips, I don't know if I have a lot of beauty tips. There are a few things that I always go by: drink a lot of water, sleep sufficiently and always wear sunscreen. Whether it's a gloomy day, sunny day, rainy day, you're indoors, whatever, wear sunscreen. It cannot be said enough. You need to wear sunscreen. And I guess the last thing I will say is always find your own beauty routine. It's great to take inspiration from other people, but it's so important to find what works for you. And that's the one thing that everybody needs to do.

4. What are your favorite fashion brands, favorite beauty brands?

My favorite fashion and beauty brands, let's go with fashion first. For fashion, honestly, there's a lot of brands in my mind and I like different elements from different brands, different things from different brands. But off the top of my head: accessories from Celine, clothing from The Row and more recently, Manu Atelier, which is a Turkish brand. It's a niche brand and I love the way they do leather. Beauty brands: there are some brands that I've been using for so many years, like Chanel, Dior beauty, and I would say Nars. They are so versatile; I think they're so good at what they do. And more recently, I've also been loving Pat McGrath and Victoria Beckham beauty.

5. What are your sustainable daily gestures?

Sustainable daily gestures. I have to say, this is still very much a work in progress, but my husband and I, we try our best and we do believe it's in the little things, whether it's recycling the compost and using it as fertilizer for our plants, as we do with our coffee and vegetable waste. And second thing is conscious consumerism. It's really important that we, as consumers, are aware of where we're putting our money. We don't believe in fast fashion. We don't do that. I don't consume a lot of clothing. I only buy what is really important for me and what I believe is a more classic piece as opposed to, you know, trendy and fashionable or stylish pieces. Because I'm a more minimal consumer, I would say. I'm trying to be at least.

6. What is your ultimate beauty addiction?

Just a second ago, I was telling you about how I’m trying to be a minimalist and right now I’m telling you about my ultimate beauty addictions and I think my ultimate beauty addiction would be lipsticks and perfumes. Lipsticks, because they make me so happy. I love testing all different colors. And I love the feeling I have when I wear lipsticks, it’s just more confidence, I think, it’s just such a different feeling. Perfume similarly, I love trying out different formulas. I am very curious about different formulas and I always want to discover more and more. And also, because I think I made a career out of perfumery. Professionally, I’m linked to it. So personally, I have a strong affinity to it. So yeah, there’s that.

7. Are you a workaholic or a chillout person?

I think I’m one of those few people in the world who are lucky enough to be able to do what I love and am passionate about, so I would say I'm a bit of both or a balance of both because I enjoy what I do. So, there's really no pressure or stress associated with it. So, I think I'm both. I'm really chilled out when I'm working, but I also am very into it.

8. What is your stress relief?

Let me tell you a little secret about how I remain, stress free. I sleep a lot. I am somebody who does not underestimate the power of sleep. To most people sleep is very important to maintain the health of your body and to rest your body, but I think sleep is very relevant to mental health. And I think a balance of both mental health and good body health is the key to remaining stress free. And for me, the answer is good sleep, amongst other things, obviously. But sleep is very important to me.

9. Are you a breakfast, lunch or dinner person? What is your ideal meal and food addiction?

I think I’m a brunch person. I think brunch is the best meal of the day, actually. You don’t have to waste your time having breakfast and lunch. You can mix it up together. You don’t have to worry about eating too much and then having to go to sleep because that’s dinner. And, you know, you can always consume as much as you want. But also, like brunch has such a great way about it. Like, you can have fun, it’s like such a relaxing part of the day. Eat, have fun and not worry too much, I guess. I really like the idea of brunch and I truly do love indulging in brunches.

10. What are your signature scent ingredients?

I don't know if I really have any signature scent ingredients. I'm really more about the overall formula and how each of the ingredients come together to create a beautiful composition. But there are obviously some ingredients that I individually like smelling and like the smell of. To name a few that would be tuberose, ambrette, violet and iris.

11. What made you fall in love with perfumes?

I think my love affair with perfumes was a very gradual process, which was instilled in me from a very young age. My mother is a huge perfume user and I picked it up from her over the years. And yeah, I am a huge breaking user now. But over the years, my curiosity about the perfumery world and how things work, it was like I've always been curious and I always wanted to know more. And as you may already know, I went to perfumery school to discover more about how things happen. And I think that really solidified my relationship with perfumes. It's just such a magical and mysterious world out there. There's so much to be discovered. There are so many facts, but there's also so much art related to that. I think that's really why I love perfume so much. Truly, when you think about it, perfumery to me is the best of science and art come together. And that's really the ultimate attraction for me. There's really so much beauty in that. That's why I'm really in this.