Fragrance Day 2022
The 21 st of March is one of our most favourite days of the year. Why? It’s International Fragrance Day – a day to acknowledge the importance of scent, how it can improve our lives and celebrate all things wonderful smelling, including of course everything home fragrance!
Here’s a few little fragrance ‘Did you knows?’:
- Fragrance has been enjoyed for thousands of years. The first recorded perfume maker was called Tapputi, he was mentioned on a stone tablet from the 2 nd millennium BCE
- The oldest perfumery was discovered in Cyprus, dating back to the Bronze Age and was over 4,000m² - we’re talking industrial scale manufacturing!
- The bible describes a sacred perfume of liquid myrrh, cinnamon, cane & cassia
- Today France is considered the world centre of perfume manufacture
- The power of smell has inspired hit films like ‘Scent of a Woman’ or ‘Perfume: The Story of a Murderer’. Even the sitcom Friends got in on the act with the Friends episode ‘Joey Sells Perfume’
Here at Apsley and Company, we actually celebrate fragrance every day of the year because scent and smell are such a key part of our daily lives and many of us don’t even realise it.
Candles have been around since about 3000 BC. For many years, their main function was to provide light. Nowadays, they are used as a home accessory bringing a decorative and personal touch to your home. Overt time creators have thought up many new ways to bring fragrance into your home from wax melts and room mists through to Bluetooth speaker and USB fragrance diffusers.
Why Is Home Fragrance Important?
Feeling good at home is essential for our mental wellbeing, relationship health and overall happiness. When designing a home we endeavour to create a space that fits our lifestyle, functional needs, personal style and aspirations. During this design process fragrance is often overlooked but it truly is an integral part of creating your home. It’s easy to purely focus on the aesthetics of a room but you need to think about how you want it to make you feel, and scent plays a big role in this.
Room fragrance can be infused all over your home using a number of aromatic products such as Reed Diffusers , Candles and Room Mists
Home fragrance affects your mood
Sensory experiences affect your mood, and this is particularly true with scent. Think about your reactions to certain smells when you are outside - an unpleasant smell like petrol fumes can cause nausea or a headache whereas a floral burst of Lemon Myrtle might make you smile and get you thinking about your plans for an evening meal.
Sadly we can’t influence outdoor smells but when it comes to home fragrance, we are in full control of the scents our noses experience. You can decide if you want a scent that triggers feelings of joy, relaxation, comfort, vitality or simply to disguise the household smells you don’t enjoy!
For example, if you have a stressful job and need to unwind when you walk through your front door make sure you are greeted with calming fragrances such as lavender, chamomile, rose. As an alternative to floral fragrances look to citrusy bergamot, soft woody notes of sandalwood or the herbaceous notes of sweet marjoram.
Apsley Suggestion - Our Apsley and Company Halfeti 400g Luxury Candle would be ideal with its sumptuous notes of black rose, laced with violet and a musk base – the perfect fragrance to relax to
Home fragrance transports you
Fragrance is an important part of how we remember people, places and events. One study showed that people can remember a scent with 65% accuracy after 1 year whereas visual memory only carries 50% accuracy after a few months.
For me, the smell of baked bread takes me back to a time of ‘helping’ grandma in the kitchen and definitely raises a smile (perhaps not for the right reasons – I am no culinary wizard!!). Fresh and citrusy scents can take you outdoors to treasured nature walks or remind you of coastal holidays.
Apsley Suggestion - In current times many of us have a need to escape. If that’s you, try our Apsley and Company Santorini Room Diffuser – available in 230ml and an impressive 500ml . Created with muddled spices, peppercorn and patchouli, the fragrance takes you to one of the world’s most exotic locations
Home fragrance personalises your home
The scent of a home should be unique to you and reflect your personality and style.
Creating a signature scent throughout the house will give you and your home a sense of well-being, and your visitors a true sense of you. Just like your favourite cologne, your friends will go away remembering the scent and always associate it with the time they have spent with you.
Apsley Hint - It’s not just the room that will carry your scent. If your home fragrance products are strategically placed, the fragrance will permeate into soft furnishings like pillows, curtains, sofas and rugs
Home fragrance is versatile
Your mood or fragrance needs may not always be the same. The beauty of Reed Diffusers , Candles and Room Mists is that they are so versatile, affordable and easy to change, unlike the restyling of furniture or wall colours. If you are having a party you may want to lift the spirit of a room. Swap out your calming candles, for a few candles with a more uplifting and invigorating fragrance. Lighting these will give a huge fragrant boost to the room’s atmosphere and the candlelight creates a welcoming and warm ambience. It’s also a great idea to use a Room Mist for a few quick spritzes of instant and intoxicating fragrance as the guests arrive.
Apsley Suggestion - If you’re celebrating sun-drenched days in the garden with friends, our Apsley and Company Eclipse Luxury Candle would be ideal and it’s available in 400g (up to 60hr burn time) and 1.7kg (up to 180hr burn time). You can move the party indoors once the sun sinks on the horizon, but still keep those warming sunny vibes going with notes of Sicilian orange, blackcurrant and patchouli
For a more intimate gathering, opt for soft and sensuous florals. For example our Abode Aroma Gardenia Pearl Bevelled Crystal Candle will definitely create the perfect romantic mood with its intoxicatingly beautiful hyacinth, combined with a heady symphony of lilac, star jasmine and muguet - a heart achingly bouquet of dreamy white flowers
Home fragrance helps to create spacial zones
Zoning a home has become particularly important in the last couple of years as a home has become a place to live, work, exercise, socialise and relax. Home fragrance will help take the pressure off you and your home to perform all these roles.
Zoning deserves its very own blog so watch this space, but for now here are a couple of examples to help you define your functional boundaries.
Apsley Suggestion - For Work – go for soft herbal or citrus scents to help boost concentration and alertness. They are less dominant but enduring so will carry you through your hours of work
Our Scented Space 200ml Lemongrass Ginger Room Diffuser will invigorate you and your work space with the zesty vigour of lemongrass, bursting with ginger, pine & thyme. This energising fragrance will gently awaken your mind
For Rest – Our Apsley and Company Luxury Halfeti Fragrance Collection would definitely calm your mind and senses with its sumptuous notes of black rose laced with crushed violet and a base of musk. The range includes a choice of candles and reed diffusers , plus a room mist for that instant spritz of tranquillity
Home fragrance offers both function and form
The fragrance of a candle, diffuser or room mist is of course essential when choosing what to buy but consider their design too. The beauty of our skilfully curated range of cruelty-free home fragrance products is not only do they provide sumptuous complex scents, they have also been designed to become a central part of your interior styling.
Apsley Suggestion - Each of our collections offers something different. The Apsley and Company Luxury Collection offers striking centrepieces with their one-of-a-kind mouth blown glass vessel designs and impressive size options. Abode Aroma’s Crystal Collection brings an elegant touch of luxury with its Art Deco inspired crystal vessels. The perfume bottles of Scented Space Reed Diffusers are timeless in their design and can be placed in any room or space. It is also worth noting our vessels are designed to be reused as vases, planters, storage jars and so much more!
Become the scent architect of your home
This may sound a bit daunting, but it really doesn’t need to be. Choosing home fragrance is not a science it’s more of a gut reaction. Don’t think about it too much, just go with your initial response to a smell, you will instantly know if it’s a love or hate.
Like taste, scent preference is very much unique to you and your home fragrancing needs. We would suggest you explore our ranges to discover the perfect fragrant pieces for you and your home.