A Heart Led Scent Story

It was about a week or so after our much adored, family dog passed that I felt an overwhelming urge to create a fragrance of him.

Now, I’m going to quickly jump in at this point to assure you that it wasn’t a yearning to recreate his actual scent – to be honest he didn’t smell the best towards the end of his 14 years and we all agreed that none of us necessarily wanted to be reminded of that particular aroma.

However, I did feel the need to try to capture his spirit, to compose a soul-lead scent, a sensory anchor which would provide us with a lasting memory. One that would represent the very essence of our boy, of all that he was to us and all he meant to us wrapped up in just one fragrance.

So, I chose to design a pure botanical blend that would be forever his and his alone, which we could diffuse or burn in our living and working spaces and also a Room Mist which we could spritz around our home when we needed an immediate hit of our boy.

When creating something so personal, it isn’t just about collecting an array of favourite aromas, forcing them together in some unstructured mish-mash of scent noise, giving the fragrance an appropriate name and then persuading yourself that it’s truly theirs.

This required a deep dive into aspects of his personality, character and all the subtle nuances that made him unique; his warmth of character, his unwavering loyalty and fierce protectiveness for his family – and his disinterest and aloofness to most humans and dogs outside of it.

I took into consideration certain physical features too; the colour of his coat, the look of his deep brown, soulful eyes watching my every move and how silky soft his fur felt when I stroked him.

My hubby and sons also provided insights that I wouldn’t necessarily have thought of; how he loved to try to drink their Guinness (which always seemed appropriate as he had a velvet black coat with a silky flash of white down the front of his chest) and how he would always disappear from the room during a boisterous televised rugby or football match. He may have been a crazy spaniel, but he had the most sensitive of souls.

I gathered all our words and thoughts together and set to work, spending time with my palette of natural aromas, carefully choosing notes which had characteristics that resembled him, before creating the accords and then composing the final fragrance that told his story.

Vetiver was chosen in the base to represent his dark broodiness and how he grounded us with his presence and I paired that with cedarwood atlas to reflect his strength – both of character and physical body. At the top sat red mandarin, an oil with a sweet and gentle nature alongside a hint of lemon for its playfulness, and for the main body of his scent I created a beautiful, spicy heart accord, to reflect his depth, intensity and the warmth he exuded.

I think I’ve captured him. I let the blend ‘brew’ for a couple of weeks, to allow the oils to mingle, get to know each other and develop fully, before bottling. It can be tweaked if necessary – he taught us to be patient and flexible after all.
Four months down the line and when I smell it now, I smile. It’s so ‘him’.

When I need to spend time with him, I diffuse it and when I miss his comforting presence (still most of the time), feel a deep pang of emptiness or simply need a quick dose of him, I spritz it around me and my immediate space and breathe deeply.

My brain has formed a strong anchor between him and his unique fragrance, and it will now and forever be linked with everything he was, because to us it represents his spirit and his soul aswell as his physical body.

The very essence of our boy.