As the daughter of a Jamaican mother and an American father, Keta Burke-Williams often felt like the girl who never fit in. Fragrance became a powerful way for her to escape. In 2022, she founded Ourside with a collection of three scents, each inspired by a daydream: Dusk, Moon Dust, and Nostalgia. It's an invitation to explore a world where your senses are free to play and wander beyond the ordinary—a world where every fragrance is a gateway to a place that exists only in your mind, yet feels incredibly real.
In this episode, Keta sits down with Marianne Mychaskiw, who leads communications at Scentbird. She discusses embracing community at the heart of Ourside as a truly New York brand (with every scent formulated and manufactured in the Bronx), fragrance rituals anyone can practice, and the Jasmine flower that led to her most personal scent yet.
Highlights:
• Introducing Ourside
• How to "rewild" your spirit
• NYC community roots
• "I was always searching for belonging"
• Diversity in fragrance
• Daydreams as inspiration
• Moon Dust (a witchy scent)
• The Discovery Set
• Dusk (a boozy scent)
• Collaborating with perfumer Darryl Do
• Nostalgia (a love-it-or-hate-it scent)
• The smell of figure skating
• What's next? Daydreams from Jamaica
• Ourside's R&D Insiders
• Keta crafts scents inspired by dreams from across the internet
• Keta's dream for the world
Featured Fragrances:
What is Scent World?
Indulge in a world of fragrance with Scent World, a show that explores the power of expressing yourself through scent. Presented by Scentbird, each episode is a multisensory experience rooted in unfiltered conversations with perfumers, visionaries, and fragrance lovers. They’ll share everything they know, take you behind the scenes, and transport you to their most intimate memories. Whether you’re a beginner or a fragrance aficionado, Scent World will inspire you to experience scents (and life) more deeply.