It all started back in 1991 when I made my dad take me to G Baldwin & Co to buy beeswax pastilles to melt into a DIY lip balm recipe that I was aching to get stuck into. Fragrant discoveries came through playdough, scratch n sniff stickers, the Fracas fragrance my mother wears to this day, Tartine et Chocolat (my first ever perfume), then on to Amarige when I was 12 (I know, sophisticated huh), and quickly into the world of aromatherapy—the year was 1995, and I did a weekend massage aromatherapy course at the Tisserand Institute with my friend Poppy. Perfume, aromatherapy, you name it. I was head over heels. Maybe always was if you believe in archetypes, and it started to inform every aspect of my life.
Scent & the Mind is the intersection where olfaction and wellness meet. It’s where grief gets triggered by opening a sandalwood box that my dad gave me, brings me into the here and now via a swift inhalation of peppermint, and transports me and my dreams into the future, concocting faraway lands and things I hope to conjure. It’s emotive, it’s polarising, it’s sexy, it’s alchemic, and we can use it to manifest (literally and figuratively). It has a profound effect on our brain, our mood, our sexuality, our very essence; the unseen hand that guides our wonderful lives.
Scent & the Mind aims to transport you across the globe, into the hearts and minds of cutting-edge aroma discoveries, fragrances, scientific breakthroughs and easy peasy ways to imbue scent into your everyday life. Here’s to perfumed breezes and seeing where the wind blows..