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New York

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Fragrance Profile: New York (Apple Violet Rosewood)

How on earth did I create that fragrance for New York?

Anyone who has met me can quickly pin-point that I'm originally from NY. I've lived in England for five years but it appears like my accent will be stuck with me for life. The UK has become my home, but the second City Lights candle created was New York (after London) and I wanted to make it quite personal.

You've probably heard it called 'The Big Apple.' Simple enough, I started with sweet and assertive apple top notes.

Though the mascot for New York University is the bobcat, the official nickname for NYU is the Violets. My grandfather went to NYU and whilst I am aware these days they are referred to as 'The Violets' as often as New Yorkers refer to NY as 'The Big Apple,' I wanted to include a violet fragrance in honour of my grandfather. So I knew my middle notes would be violet.

Violet is also a magical fragrance. Or at least a scientifically interesting one. The violet gets its scent because of the presence of compounds called ionones. Ionones interact with our olfactory receptors (aka our sense of smell) in a very different way than other smells. Which sounds technical and boring but is actually quite cool. When we get used to persistent smells, our brains register them as constants and tune out, which is why you can get used to a smell to the point of no longer noticing it.

But ionones in violets are different. They basically short-circuit our sense of smell. Ionones bind to the olfactory receptors which desensitises them temporarily. Yes, violets temporarily block your sense of smell. Because they do this only temporarily, those ionones are registered as a new smell as soon as they can be detected again. So the disappearing-reappearing violet is really a magical fragrance. (Thank you for coming to my TED talk).

I chose Rosewood as the base of the fragrance because of the floors in my childhood home. Rosewood has a slightly spicy, woody, sweet, and floral smell, which allows it to beautifully infuse and be revealed by the middle and top notes.

Blended all together, they create the New York fragrance. A beautiful, personal fragrance that is without a doubt one of my favourites. And I'm so happy to share it with you.

-Abby

19 September 2018 Blog New York Blog

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