Sweet Smell of Success
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
As a child, Arlene Harris dabbled in ‘perfume making’ - filling old fragrance bottles with water and petals, sometimes even adding food colouring for a bit of drama. She talks to tafragrance makers around the country who run thriving businesses selling the beautiful scents they have created.
Nora Irwin is based in Youghal, Co Cork and has always been interested in perfume. Last year she launched her product ARONA Natural Fragrance.
“Throughout my childhood, parcels of perfume were regularly delivered to our house from a relation in New York who worked as a professional fragrance formulator and later went on to work for one of the biggest perfume houses in the world,” she says. “My sister and I were lucky enough to be gifted a lot of wonderful fragrances and I developed a passion for it which eventually led me to London to study the ‘art’ of fragrance and how it can uplift our day.
“Combined with my interest in nature and commitment to sustainability and eco-friendly products, a seed of a business was planted (in my mind) and has been growing ever since. And I eventually went on to establish ARONA and launched in 2020 just in time for the pandemic.”
Nora, who is married to Eddie and has two children, also works in the mobile communication business, created a premium solid perfume, using organic beeswax and pure natural essential oils, which is also alcohol and synthetic free.
“All my raw materials are sourced locally, where possible and all my perfumes are made in Ireland,” she says. “They come in three modern fragrances; Delicate Rose, Calming Lavender and Fresh Citrus and are presented in stylish eco-containers and boxed in recycled paper.
“Solid perfumes are made by adding a perfume blend to melted beeswax. All natural perfumes are made up of top, middle, and base notes – the top note is what you smell when you first apply the scent and it dissipates when you smell the middle note, while the base note is what is left on your skin.
“Creating a new natural perfume is as involved as writing a symphony for a full orchestra – and first impressions count, so selecting the right natural top note is very important. ARONA middle notes form the heart of the creation whilst the natural base notes create a lasting impression.”
Jo Browne in Carlow can attest to this as she also makes solid perfume. The holistic therapist started her beauty and well-being brand in 2016 as she has a passion for essential oils and their ‘natural capacity for healing, invigorating and calming’.
“I love solid perfume but could never find any so decided to create something which would feel and smell amazing as well as being sustainable and affordable,” she says. “It can take up to a year or more to create a scent, buying lots of different essential oils from all over the world, blending and mixing day and night until you get it right – but I love this part so much.
“I mix all the scents as I am the only one who knows the formula, and then it gets handed over to be made into solid perfume combining organic beeswax, oils and butters which are poured into moulds to be set and then put into bamboo tubes.
“I have also created our best-selling signature scent, which can be found in our cleansing balm, facial serum, body scrub and luxury body oil.”
Jo, who is married to Matt and has three children, believes that people are becoming more interested in natural products and also are keen to buy from local businesses.
“A lot of the positive change is being driven by the industry itself, educating us about recyclable packaging, sustainable sourcing, and avoiding ingredients like palm oil in favour of materials such as aloe vera and coconut oil which are easily renewable,” she says.
“The most sustainable behaviour in relation to any consumer purchase is to shop local - and let’s face it, there is an incredible number of amazing Irish produced beauty brands to choose from – and by doing this, you automatically reduce your carbon footprint by eliminating excessive transportation impacts and sustaining Irish jobs, which is even more important at the moment.”
Fellow perfume maker Nora Irwin agrees:
“Clean, Green, Eco, Organic are all part of a growing movement called sustainable beauty,” says the Cork woman. “Covid-19 has sent a shock wave through the world and we have been forced to think more about our lives, how we live, what we eat and how we must look after our environment - all this has accelerated the interest in clean beauty and the move away from synthetics.
“And I believe that if women designed the beauty industry, we would see an increase in packaging which was more sustainable, refillable and recyclable and environmentally-conscious.”
Tonya Kidd-Beggs also runs her own perfume business called STORIES. She believes that scent is such a powerful sense and can help to ‘heal, uplift, release memories and emotions and bring joy and wellbeing’.
The mother-of-four, who is married to Ian and lives in Co Down, has been interested in perfume all her life and even studied with a perfumer in Grasse, France, which further enhanced her passion for creating new scents.
“Every perfume is handcrafted and developed by me without direction,” she says. “I am not a perfumer, but I am self-taught, and I have the joy of being able to work completely independently on each creation while my perfumer brings it all together at the end to bring the right balance.
“With STORIES we are defining a new niche, through taking an intuitive, inclusive and sustainable approach to the art of perfumery. I am guided by an individual story rather than olfactory traditions. And I teach people the art of perfumery and how to connect fragrance to their own story, past present and future and in turn bring joy, hope, beauty and an enriched sense of connection through the power of fragrance.”
Tonya says that while using natural products is important to her, she is more concerned about not the welfare of animals used in the industry.
“While I believe people are definitely interested in using as natural products as they can now, we do not work with completely 100 % natural fragrances as we are a cruelty free brand and do not use any notes which come from an animal,” she says. “Instead, we will use synthetic to match this note as we believe that natural is not always best for us or the environment, so it is important to have balanced views.
“At STORIES we try to bring balance wherever we can, and we promise to continually look at how we can be more sustainable and kinder to our skin.”
Visit aronanaturalfragrance.com, jobrowne.com, storiesparfums.com,