Lilja is a true girl from Iceland that is at the moment preparing the launch of her exotic line of volcanoes and glacier perfumes in the UK, Norway and wider. She is known for being the women behind one of Iceland´s hottest fashion labels, Gydja Collection and for empowering women around the world.
At the age of 24 Lilja was determined to launch a brand that stood out from other brands. She wanted to give women a range of accessories and designer perfumes that would give them individuality and strength. Armed with a small budget she soon achieved her goals by launching her brand in 2008. Since then, her perfumes and accessories have become firm favorites with women all over the world, which includes many celebrities that are a fan of her products.
Celebs fans: Let’s start with the basics of how you select scent; I know it’s the thing that most of our readers would ask you about. What would be your starting points?
Lilja: When I start making a new scent the very first thing that I do is deciding the inspiration to work with. My scents always need to have a true meaning behind them and good energy to give the wearer that extra touch for everyday use. In life we all need to deal with many things on daily basis and I believe in the power that comes from a good source and that it can help us. As I grew up in the magical Icelandic nature and I know how good vibe it can give people I wanted to add that to my fragrances so that is what I have been doing
After I choose the inspiration that usually are Icelandic glaciers or mountains I go through the notes I am interested in using for the perfume and I work it from there. I always work with a professional that is usually called “the nose” who is a specialist in making perfumes and blending notes together. I tell what final result I am looking for and what notes I love and the nose starts by blending few samples for me. After that I usually pick one to work from and we blend it until we have the perfect scent.
Celebs Fans: We been watching you and been hearing a lot about an Icelandic designer called Lilja recently. We´ve noticed that your are starting to gain a lot of attention, how does that feel?
Lilja: Well first of all, thank you for saying that. I mean from a marketing point of view that´s always a positive thing when people and the press are noticing what you are doing and the next steps you are taking with your brand. So I am happy.
Celebs Fans : Tell us about your business. What do you like most, least?
Lilja: Wow, I love what I do, otherwise I would not be able to do it because you must be a little bit nuts to be an entrepreneur as it is so tough at times. But when you have passion for what you are doing, the hard part doesn’t matter and the pros are larger than the cons. When the company is small you have to be ready to do absolutely everything. Your ego must be kept somewhere else because I believe that the people that are really willing to work and jump into every assignment with smile on their face are the ones who really get far in life.
I guess what I like most about my job is creating and designing new things. What I like least is the accounting, that is just not my cup of tea.
Celebs Fans: What motivates you to do your best work?
Lilja: I just have the passion inside me that drives me to do my best every day. That is also what I teach women on my Empower Women workshops, to find their calling in life and follow it. As our calling in life, what we were sent here on earth to do is what drives us to always do better tomorrow than we did today. That is what drives successful people I believe, that passion that they have for what they are doing every day.
Celebs fans: Do you set goals for yourself and how do you do that?
Lilja: Yes I am very goal oriented. I have goals for upcoming months and then I have goals for upcoming years. I believe we all have that inner gps that is similar as we have in our cars. If you think about it, you just need to tell the system the destination and it takes care of the rest. You just need to drive the roads you are told to drive from the gps and it will get you there. Same is with our inner gps, how can it help you to get to certain destination if you don’t put the final destination in. And that is what many people fail to do, they simply don’t sit down and think what it is what they dream about and what they truly want in life.
So in my workshops we get the dream flow going, were there are no boundaries and from there people know where they want to go. We ourselves are so often our only obstacle in creating our dream life.
Celebs fans: How can people find you and follow you online?
Lilja: My web is: www.sigrunlilja.com and my brand is www.gydjacollection.com
My instagram is lilja_wild_child and I also have pretty active snapchat that is theworldofgydja
Thanks for taking time out of your day.
