Reflections of a Lili Bermuda Intern

When I first met Isabelle in the summer of 2018, I knew she was a special person who I would hit it off with immediately. My a cappella group from Princeton University, The Princeton Tigertones, was down to sing in Bermuda for its annual pre-season tour before the school year started up again. As it happened, after getting in contact with her through our Bermuda hosts, early one morning, before one of our shows, Isabelle was generous enough to give a personalized tour of the Bermuda Perfumery to my friend and me. That was the first time I met Isabelle, with her magnetic personality and infectious charm. Sharing a similar passion with her for fragrance, I fell in love with her story of Lili Bermuda and her scents, immediately purchasing a bottle of my favorite fragrance, South Water. The lasting impression Isabelle left with me inspired me to reach out to her to see if she needed any help the following summer. After a few back and forth emails, it was finalized. I was coming to Bermuda for the summer! I thought to myself, who wouldn’t want the chance to spend their summer in Bermuda! Bermuda with its gorgeous skies, sparkling crystal blue waters, and warming sunlight. It is a paradise on Earth, a magical place.

My name is Marcus Norkaitis and I am a rising senior at Princeton University majoring in Chemical Engineering. Being a native US Virgin Islander who hails from St. Thomas, I have appreciated island culture and island life since I was born. In addition, ever since I was a little boy, I was fascinated with scents and fragrances, having grown up with tropical fruits and flowers all around me. I am currently considering pursuing a career in fragrance as a perfumer and I even have my own personalized cologne collection. Accordingly, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to spend my summer in Bermuda with Isabelle and the Lili Bermuda Team.

Having spent my last summer in New York City interning for one of the largest fragrance oil houses in the world, MANE, I was able to see the ins and outs of how a larger perfume company works. Afterwards, I was craving the chance to observe the opposite and interact with a smaller business to compare and contrast the two. That chance was given to me through Isabelle and Lili Bermuda, and what a lovely chance it was.

Throughout the time I spent at Lili Bermuda, I worked under Isabelle as her business and perfumer intern. On the business side, I organized trademarks, wrote business plan proposals, attended business meetings, and helped expand Lili Bermuda to America through its newly opened retail store in Palm Beach, Florida. On the perfumer side, I worked in the Bermuda Perfumery formulating fragrances and making solutions for fragrance workshops, gave presentations at hotels to merchandise Lili Bermuda’s products, worked on the sales floor retailing Lili Bermuda’s products, and wrote blog articles explaining many facets of scent to Lili Bermuda’s customers.

Whether it was formulating fragrances, furniture building, painting, presenting, retailing, or writing, my experience at Lili Bermuda was very holistic and eye-opening. I especially enjoyed Wednesday night Harbor Nights selling perfume with Isabelle’s eldest, Marie-Sophie. We made a great team and were able to attract a lot of customers to check out the Lili Bermuda retail shop in Hamilton, while taking pictures with them of course!

Through my time at Lili Bermuda, I have discovered that Isabelle makes her products with a lot of love. Her products are not mass-produced monsters. They are eloquent fragrances with a lot of time and effort poured into them. As a niche fragrance brand, Lili Bermuda excels at providing first-class service and quality products to all who visit. You can take my word for it, but I encourage you to go and experience Lili Bermuda for yourself.

From one Virgin Islander to the entire Lili Bermuda Team, thank you for making this summer 2019 an unforgettable experience, which I will always treasure for the rest of my life.

Smellingly yours,
Marcus Alarik Norkaitis

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