While some folks were binging Netflix shows or baking sourdough bread amid COVID-19 lockdowns, chemistry-degree-holding Jackie Zykan was working her sense of smell. “I started taking an interest in studying perfumery as a way of building my sensory bank for descriptive analysis with whiskey,” she says.
It paid off.
The former master taster at Old Forrester and the current master blender for Hidden Barn Whiskey, Jackie has a wealth of whiskey knowledge. But she says the industry has changed drastically over the years. In 2020, her plan was simply to research scents to help her better express flavor profiles.
“In the beginning, people were using descriptors like vanilla, clove, or orange,” she says. “Then, as consumers became more educated, I’d be in whiskey tastings, and people [would say things] like, ‘I’m getting notes of eugenol.’ I’d say, ‘Okay, you guys know chemistry now!’”
While deep diving into perfumes to reconnect with her chemistry roots and improve her tasting descriptors, something unexpected happened: Jackie started having a ton of fun.
“It was an interesting, weird little passion to fall into,” she says, adding that while working as a master taster, other perfumes, colognes, and scents are entirely off-limits. “You have to be automatically neutral all the time, so it’s like this forbidden fruit. It was just fun to play around.”
All that playing led to her own fragrance line. Dubbed ODUOAK (and pronounced oh-doo-ohk), it’s a play on eau de parfum. Every bottle boasts a whiskey base, as opposed to the neutral alcohol base typically used in perfumes and colognes. “It’s fragrance oil and whiskey,” Jackie explains, “and sometimes I [add] some perfumer’s alcohol in there to get the proof up.”
There are currently 11 unisex scents available. Each one features a fun name and has a bit of a backstory behind it — because they’re not just fragrances made out of whiskey; they were inspired by moments experienced while drinking whiskey. They are available for purchase online and at 21 retailers in Kentucky, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, and Colorado.
One of Jackie’s go-to scents, Libra Libra, is curious, playful, verdant, and dreamy, smelling like the high desert in early spring and sage dampened by snowflakes that melt upon contact. The back of the package features this short poem: “Saltwater lakes and moments where I hoped you would see my skin. Never turning to confirm, choosing to exist in a reality wherein the feeling of being in love belongs to me and me alone.”
Every scent includes a corresponding poem, each one a vague summary of Jackie’s personal tale that inspired the fragrance. For the full stories, customers will have to look for Jackie’s books, which are slated for release this summer.
“I’m going to be self-publishing a couple of books that have deeper dives into the backstories behind them, and into those lessons learned, and into these thoughts of life,” she says, adding that while the stories are deeply personal, what she’s writing isn’t quite a memoir.
“It’s not written in a narrative that way. It’s very interesting, weird little blurts of [my] dirty laundry,” she laughs. “They’re very raw, very exposing little anecdotes of what inspired this.”
She adds that the books will explain her ‘why’ in creating ODUOAK. “As terrifying as it is to be that vulnerable with people,” she says, “I’m a firm believer that someone has to show up as a human. Someone has to do it, and I’m shameless enough to do it — so I might as well do it!”
In addition to working on her books, Jackie is designing new packaging — and she has more scents in the works. “I have historically only used Kentucky bourbon for [my products],” she says, [but] I’m about to launch an entirely new side of it that’s all based on Colorado whiskey. It’s all the aftermath of this relationship that … woke me up and also dismantled me to my core, that I then transmuted into different scents.”
She explains that this relationship was with a person in Colorado — hence, the Colorado whiskey — and describes this next part of ODUOAK as her best work yet. “It hurt like hell doing it,” she says, “but it’s good to take heartbreak and turn it into something beautiful.”
The entire company is a one-woman show, with Jackie handling every aspect of the business, from development to packing to distribution. “It’s my baby,” she says. “It’s just grown organically, [and] I think it’s because I love it. It’s very authentic, and it’s from a place of love and passion. I think when you do anything from those drivers, it’s just going to grow.”
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