Origin stories are important. They are a good reminder of why people get into passions in the first place. And specifically for me, it is a good reminder of when I first fell in love with fragrance and why I started Ranger Station.

I often get the question from other entrepreneurs: “Why did you start this? Were you wanting to build something to sell one day and retire young?” I usually laugh at this and tell them two things. First of all, if I was out to sell a company for a lot of money someday, I definitely would NOT have gone into making candles and perfumes. And secondly, I say that I never made a conscious decision to start a company. I just fell in love with something and did it as much as I could. The company started because I just kept at it.

So, how did this all happen?

The year was 2015. I was touring full-time as a hired gun drummer and loved it so much but was also SO BORED. Why? Because I would be on the road for weeks or months at a time, and then when I got home, I would have nothing to do until I left again. So, naturally, I would get extremely bored.

Some people are good at taking this time to relax, and slow down a little. I am not one of those people. I can’t even sit longer than 30 minutes on a beach before I need to get up and do something.

Mid-tour stop in Nashville at CMA Fest circa 2015

So, whenever I found myself at home from a tour, I would find things to occupy my time. This usually consisted of harebrained ideas that I had no business doing. However, there were two things that I had a natural knack for and fell in love with. The first was making cocktails for friends, and the second was making fragrances.

The reason these two things really stuck is because whenever I was home, my roommate Nathan (check out his music below) and I would have all of our touring friends over and make them cocktails. And guess what… there was always a candle burning when our friends came over.

So, one day, there I was, sitting on the couch, bored out of my mind, thinking about how to prep for friends coming over and about how I had no money but liked nice candles. Then I had the incredibly terrible (but awesome) idea to make my own candle.

HOW HARD COULD IT BE!?

Let’s just say that if I knew how hard it actually is, I probably would never have tried. But ignorance was bliss, and I dove in headfirst. Basically, I was jumping into the ocean not knowing how to swim. But exposure therapy is a thing for a reason, right!?

Slowly… and I mean SLOWLY… I started to get the hang of it. Just me on the stovetop melting wax to the exact right temperature and then adding the exact amount of fragrance at exactly the right time. And then testing wick after wick after wick until the perfect size was found.

In my first studio, setting wicks to test

I couldn’t get enough of it. I would spend all day just mixing oils to create new fragrances and then spend the whole next day making as many candles as I could. Which was honestly only about 20 on a good day.

At this point in my life, I had reached the conclusion that I didn’t want to tour anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I really did love it. But, for many reasons, I knew that touring was not what I wanted to do forever. I was so glad to have the experiences, but it was time for something different.

And here is where things get a little crazy. I thought I was going to go get a “normal job”… something I had never had before. I fully expected to get a corporate job that paid a decent amount of money, which could support a family.

But nothing ever felt right. No opportunities pulled at me the way music had. And while I was searching for what was next, I would fill my time making candles because it had that pull on me.

I thought I was going to do something MORE stable than playing music. And instead, I ended up starting a fragrance company. You should ask my dad about the day that I told him I was going to quit playing drums and make candles… Not really what every father wants to hear, ha.

But here is the thing. I couldn’t get enough of it. I hear a lot of people say that they knew if they just worked hard enough, they could make it work. I didn’t think that at all. I honestly thought that it probably wouldn’t work. How could it work? It was candles, of all things!

All I knew was that it was worth doing in that moment, regardless of what it did in the future.

One of our early day photoshoots - ha!

And now 10 years down the road, a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same. For one thing, there are still a lot of days when I feel like this thing can’t possibly keep working. But thankfully, those days are much fewer now.

I think the reason it has worked for 10 years is because it all comes from an honest place of being incredibly in love with fragrance, working with our hands to make the best product possible, and having a dream to create experiences for others.

The last thing I want to say is this: If you have something that pulls on you but you feel like it may not work or probably won’t work… WHO CARES! Do it anyway! The worst thing that could happen is you don’t do it and always wonder if you should have. Believe me, as someone who has failed at quite a lot of things, the failures always lead you to something else.

With my family at the grand opening of our West Village location

Happy Birthday, Ranger Station!

Currently Playing

Currently Burning

• Leather + Pine (2015 Edition) by Ranger Station

Currently Wearing

• Cowboy by Ranger Station

I couldn’t be more proud of our team and everyone who helped bring this store to life.

Today, I wanted to talk about something that kept coming up while chatting with perfume customers in the shop. It usually went something like this: A customer walks in, smells our perfume, loves it (YAY), and then asks the price. I tell them our 100ml is $144, and their response? “Oh wow, that’s so cheap!”

At first, I found myself trying to justify why our prices are fair, because let’s be honest, there’s nothing “cheap” about what we make. Our perfumes are crafted with the highest quality materials at extremely high concentrations to give you the best experience possible. The truth is, people are just used to paying $400+ for a bottle of perfume. And that’s wild, even for someone who deeply respects the art of perfumery.

So why are most perfumes so expensive? Simply put: because they can be.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for the fragrances that many luxury brands put out. I admire the scents, how they wear, and the perfumers behind them. But many of those high price tags come down to maintaining a “luxury” image, not necessarily the quality inside the bottle.

And that’s where our commitment to American craftsmanship comes in. Historically, American makers have created incredible products that are priced based on their utility, not just their name.

Something I’ve started saying is that Ranger Station is the Ford Bronco in a world of Porsches. But honestly, that’s not even fair—it’s more like getting a Bronco with the same engine as a Porsche, for a fraction of the price.

Because here’s the truth: when you buy a luxury perfume, you’re not paying for what’s in the bottle. You’re paying for the name, and all the packaging that name demands. Think about how many layers of packaging you unwrap—only to throw them away.

So… how much should a perfume cost? That’s hard to answer. But what’s clear is that when you buy most luxury perfumes, you’re paying for the name, not the juice.

At Ranger Station, we flip that. You’re paying for the quality, not the branding. We make the best products we possibly can, never cut corners, and want as many people as possible to enjoy them.

If you already shop Ranger Station, thank you. Truly. And if you haven’t tried our products yet, I highly recommend it. You’ll get more than your money’s worth. I promise.

Currently Playing

Currently Burning

• Tennessee Tomato by Ranger Station

Currently Wearing

• Rich 90s Dad by Ranger Station

If you’ve read my Fragrance Frequencies post, then you know I see perfuming a lot like songwriting. It’s a medium for storytelling. Sometimes those stories are about close friends, or even fictional narratives. But more often than not, they’re deeply personal. So it only makes sense to start at the very beginning—back in 2015—with the first scent I ever created, and why I made it.

Leather + Pine honestly shouldn’t have happened. It’s such a unique combination that I probably wouldn’t have dared to create it today. And if creativity can be measured by the number of critics it attracts, then Leather + Pine is very creative. It’s one of our best-selling scents, but also one of the most polarizing—still, almost 10 years later. No other scent we’ve made has drawn more devotion—or more confusion.

So, why did I make it?

Since it was the first fragrance I ever made, I didn’t yet know much about raw materials or perfumery techniques. I only knew the types of scents that meant something to me. And growing up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, one of the most meaningful places in my life was Grand Marais, MN, where my grandparents lived. If you’ve never been, it’s one of the most magical places I’ve ever known—and I still return to it often. Nestled in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of northern Minnesota, just 30 miles from the Canadian border, their home sat right on Lake Superior. The lake is so large that it laps up onto the shore behind their house like an ocean. It’s one of my favorite places on Earth.

I spent many of my school breaks — winter and summer — up in Grand Marais. What I loved most about being there was my grandfather. He couldn’t sit still, which meant we were always doing something. We’d head out before the sun came up to chop wood at a cabin, go canoeing, build a gravel road for one of his friends, or my personal favorite — rescue a buddy’s ice fishing house that had been illegally placed on a state forestry lake without a permit.

Everything we did involved hard manual labor. And I loved it.

When I started creating my first scent, the feeling I wanted to capture most was being next to my grandfather in his Filson flannel and Red Wing leather boots, surrounded by snow-covered pine trees. Even now, when I think of where I’ve felt the most peace, that’s the place that comes to mind. I wanted to share that place, and that feeling, with others.

After a lot of trial and error (and I mean a lot), I finally landed on a scent that captured the crisp, sappy pine that stung my frozen nostrils during snowstorms, and the perfectly oiled leather of my grandfather’s boots as we worked outside.

My grandparents recently sold their home in Grand Marais, and seeing that chapter close was tough. But that’s what I find so magical about fragrance: I was able to capture so many memories of being there in a single scent. And I can revisit those memories any time, preferably with my grandfather’s favorite drink in hand — a blended scotch with lots of ice and a splash of water.

Just like a song, Leather + Pine has taken on a life of its own. It’s built a kind of cult following, with people making their own memories with it. It’s gone on to do more than I ever imagined and will always have a special place in my work.

Currently Playing

Currently Burning

• Leather + Pine by Ranger Station

Currently Wearing

• Leather + Pine by Ranger Station

SO… check check check, this thing on?

Le Labo hardly ever releases new fine fragrances, so when they do, I get really excited. Their last full fine fragrance release was Match 26, which was released in 2021. They are often cited as saying “Good things take time” and they definitely lean into that with their creations.

I don’t think that it takes 4 years to develop a perfume (Jordan’s Perfume took me 30 minutes in a moment of inspiration). I do, however, really respect the strategy Le Labo has of only releasing new fragrances every few years.

So, lets dive into Eucalyptus 20. First of all, if you are not familiar with Le Labo’s naming convention, all their fragrances are titled with one of the main fragrance notes followed by the # of fragrance raw materials present in the formula.

It is not clear if the 20 means individual raw materials or if it could include accords, but regardless, is a cool way to approach naming because we know that there is Eucalyptus and at least 19 other things in this bottle.

(photo via Le Labo)

First, let’s take a look at what LeLabo says about this fragrance.

Picture a place so vast, so remote you can journey weeks without encountering another soul. Endless miles of rolling red sand, endless miles of sky. In the unforgiving heat, a lone white tree on the next horizon can feel like an illusion. But the eucalyptus is the oasis, a waystation where tumbleweeds and rusting dust come to settle in the hallowed shade of silver leaves.

This is the inspiration for EUCALYPTUS 20, the unambiguous scent of vastness, where the freshness of eucalyptus and cedarwood is softened by the leathery warmth of labdanum and grounded on a bed of musk notes and frankincense. And so, with this scent comes an invitation: Get off the grid.

Someone put me in touch with this writer. So good.

I think they do a great job of creating an image of this fragrance. However, I personally do not envision the red sand. I feel like they are trying to describe a green space surrounded by desert and I do not get any desert notes in this fragrance. I do think it is very outdoorsy though. So spot on there.

I also kinda wish they had called it Cedarwood 20 or Frankincense 20 because right off the bat you are slapped in the face (in the best way possible) with both of those notes. I could see how those two notes could paint a picture of a desert oasis, but to me, the cedar puts me right into a Virginia forest of cedarwood trees. Very green and very lush. I do get a bit of the green eucalyptus right away, but it burns off very quickly.

Something I really liked about wearing Eucalyptus 20 was that, while the Eucalyptus burnt off quickly, the Cedarwood and Frankincense that hit you right away stick along for the whole ride.

This is actually very rare. Usually, what you smell first is just top notes and then you get more of the base notes on the drydown. But these two raw materials are very special. I would consider them base notes (maybe middle notes) but I would never consider them top notes. They stick around FOREVER just like I would expect from a base note. But what is cool is that they have some top-note characteristics in that you smell them RIGHT AWAY. So often, you have to have patience to get the fullness of the base notes. But these get the party started and close it down hours later.

So. Should you wear this? And if so, when? It’s not my favorite thing that LeLabo has ever done, but I do really enjoy it. And if you really love to be out in the woods OR you like to stay inside and pretend like you are out in the woods, then I think you should definitely give this one a shot.

I would wear this during the day. Not a nighttime fragrance to me. Yes, it is spicy from the Frankincense and Cedar, but it is a fresh spicy that makes me think of sunny trails through coniferous forest.

If you have tried this, let me know your thoughts! BYE!

EUCALYPTUS 20

Currently Playing

Currently Burning

• Ranger Station / Leather + Pine

Currently Wearing

• Ranger Station / Leather + Pine

All-Natural ≠ Safe

I get questions about this all the time when it comes to perfume. I also read false information about this all the time, so I wanted to spend a little time trying my best to set the record straight.

First, let’s define some things.

All-Natural

All-natural perfume raw materials are simply raw materials that are extracted from natural resources. These include essential oils, absolutes, and CO2 extractions. A good example of this that you may be familiar with is peppermint essential oil. Peppermint leaves are steam-distilled to extract the essential oil, which can then be used in perfume.

Naturally Derived

These are raw materials that occur naturally in the world but need to undergo a process to isolate them.

My favorite example of this is Ambroxan, which is a naturally derived version of Ambergris (which, per my last email, comes from sperm whales).

To get Ambroxan, Clary Sage is steam-distilled to obtain a Clary Sage essential oil. The oil is then put through oxidation, cyclization, and hydrolysis before being purified into Ambroxan.

While still not cheap, Ambroxan is much more attainable than Ambergris, and I use it in my perfumes all the time.

Synthetic

You cannot create something out of nothing. So, at the end of the day, synthetic raw materials still get their start in nature. However, the biggest difference is that while naturally derived materials take a natural material and break it down into different parts, synthetics start with molecular building blocks, usually from things like modified yeast. The building blocks are then used to ‘build’ new molecules that may not naturally occur in nature.

My favorite synthetic raw materials that I use all the time are musks. All-natural musk comes from the musk deer and is actually fully outlawed because it was depleting the musk deer population. So, if we want to use any musk at all, it needs to be synthetic.

My current favorite musk material is called Cashmeran. While the exact process is a trade secret, we know that it is most likely created using aromatic hydrocarbons that are then put through alkylation, hydrogenation, and/or oxidation to build new molecules.

In Summary

• All-Natural = Extracted from a naturally occurring material

• Naturally Derived = From a natural raw material but processed post-extraction to change and/or isolate

• Synthetic = Starts with naturally derived aroma molecules that are then processed to build new molecules

All-Natural Does NOT Mean Safe

Here is where I have seen a lot of individuals get hung up. I was recently having a conversation with a colleague who is working on perfuming a beard oil. They asked me if they had to use only essential oils because those were what were safe to use in a beard oil.

The point I want to make here is that we need to separate whether or not something is safe from whether it is all-natural or not.

As my doctor once told me, arsenic is all-natural.

There are countless things in this world that are all-natural that we have no business putting on our skin or breathing in. All-natural raw materials can be safe, but being all-natural does not make them safe.

Synthetic Does NOT Mean Dirty

The other side of this point is that the word synthetic has become associated with things being ‘unsafe.’ Again, we need to separate these two things because they do not correlate. Just because something is synthetic does not make it unsafe. There are many synthetic raw materials that are safe.

They are often safer than all-natural raw materials because they are studied more and subject to analysis.

There are honestly a lot of raw materials that are all-natural that smell incredible but have been found to be carcinogenic or not sustainable to source, so synthetic versions have been developed. Without these safe synthetics, we would not have the expansive perfumer’s palette to work with that we do today.

Endocrine Disruptors, Allergens & Carcinogens

Now that we have established the fact that All-Natural ≠ Safe and Synthetic ≠ Unsafe, let’s talk about what could potentially make a raw material unsafe.

First of all, if something is found to be carcinogenic in certain applications, it is obviously something that we do not want to use.

The other major health concern is endocrine disruptors. These are molecules that could potentially disrupt the work of your DNA. Now, studies on this have yet to conclusively show endocrine disruptors to have any long-term effects, but it’s probably good to avoid them anyway.

Lastly, and probably the most common health concern when it comes to fragrances, is allergens. Let’s face it. All of our bodies respond differently to different things. Something that always strikes me as ironic is that most raw materials that are regulated due to their potential to be allergenic are all-natural raw materials.

Also, a slight bummer here in my opinion is that there are some raw materials that we cannot use or can only use in VERY small amounts because they are allergenic to a small percentage of the population. Outside of that, they are clean and safe.

An example of this that I wish I could use more of is all-natural Oakmoss.

It is one of my favorite smells in the world, but because 1-3% of the population could potentially get contact dermatitis (a slight reddening of the skin), we can only use it in extremely small amounts in perfume.

My Personal Philosophy Toward Raw Materials

If I am going to work with a raw material, I need it to be clean, safe, and sustainable. It is very important to note that both all-natural and synthetic materials can fall into this category.

There are really clean all-natural raw materials that just take up too much farmland that we need to produce food on. In those cases, we can use safe synthetics.

So What Now?

My encouragement would be to take information you read about things being all-natural with a grain of salt. And let me be clear—I am not an expert in this space, but I am continually learning more and more.

Never stop seeking to understand.

Currently Playing

Currently Burning

• Ranger Station / Speak Easy

Currently Wearing (also has a lot of Ambroxan)

• Ranger Station / Speak Easy

It all comes back to a raw material known as ambergris. If you have never heard of it, then stick around. This is where things get interesting.

What is Ambergris?

Ambergris has literally nothing to do with amber. It was discovered when it started washing up on beaches, and no one knew where it actually came from. Since it had a grayish color, people assumed it was related to fossilized amber and called it “gray amber”—or ambergris.

By the time scientists figured out ambergris is not related to amber, the name had already stuck. Kind of like when The Goo Goo Dolls picked one of the worst band names in history and by the time they realized their mistake, everyone already loved Iris, and it was too late.

Anyways, I digress.

So… Where Does Ambergris Come From?

Whale Vomit Of Course.

Yep.

Here’s where things get really cool.

Sperm whales, like the rest of us, need to eat to survive. Unlike most of us, sperm whales love raw squid. The problem? Squid have beaks—yes, actual beaks, like birds. And even if you’re a massive sperm whale, your stomach can’t digest that stuff.

So what happens when indigestible beaks pile up in a whale’s stomach? They cut everything up. And when you get a cut, what does your body do? It forms a scab.

Well, sperm whales’ stomachs do the same thing—except instead of a normal scab, their stomachs heal with ambergris (gasp!).

Once the wound heals, the ambergris detaches and is expelled—often through ‘vomiting’. From there, it floats to the ocean’s surface, where it bakes in the sun before eventually washing up on some lucky beachcomber’s shore.

So… How Rare is Ambergris?

Very.

Only 1–5% of sperm whales produce it, which is why ambergris can sell for up to $40,000 per kilo.

If It’s So Rare, How Do So Many Perfumes Contain It?

One word: Science!

Just when you thought this couldn’t get any cooler (or nerdier), it does.

Most perfumes don’t actually contain real ambergris. As a perfumer, I’ve never even smelled natural ambergris, though I’d love to visit New Zealand, where they have some on display in museums. When I say this stuff is rare, I mean really rare.

But back to science—ambergris, like most all-natural raw materials, is made up of hundreds of different molecules. The one responsible for its signature scent? Ambroxide.

Guess where ambroxide exists in abundance? In one of my other favorite raw materials—clary sage.

Technically, clary sage doesn’t contain ambroxide itself, but it does contain sclareol, which, through oxidation and cyclization, is converted into ambroxide.

The Best Part?

• It smells incredible. And from what I have heard, it is very close to the real thing.

• It’s way cheaper than $40,000 per kilo. (More like $1,000 per kilo).

• It’s sustainable. We can always grow more clary sage!

Hopefully, you will now view Amber fragrances in a whole new light.

Thanks for reading. Cheers!

Currently Playing

• If you are into fragrance at all, check out the Obsidian by Jónsi (of Sigur Rós). The whole album is based on elements. Many of which are perfume raw materials. Check out the song about Ambroxan!

Currently Burning (has a lot of Ambroxan)

• Ranger Station / Nashville Candle

Currently Wearing (also has a lot of Ambroxan)

• Ranger Station / Two Trick Pony

At my core, I am a musician. So, the day I found out that fragrance vibrates, I geeked out more than a Trekkie at a Starfleet convention.

There I was in my comfy clothes sitting by the fire reading “The Secret of Scent” by Luca Turin when everything I thought I knew changed!

Okay… really it was just that what I thought about how things smelled changed, but for a perfumer… that is basically my whole world.

Turin presented to me what has become known as the Vibrational Theory of Olfaction. If, after reading that, you got really bored, stick with me… this is really cool.

Our olfactory system (how we smell) is so robust that there is still a lot we don’t know about it. One of the biggest things being — why our Olfactory system interprets things to smell the way that they do. Why does rose smell like a rose? Why do Chick-fil-A french fries smell better than most things in the world?

Shape Theory

Before the Vibrational Theory of Olfaction, the prevailing theory was that fragrance molecules smell the way they do because of their molecular structure & shape. Makes sense, right? But here is the crazy thing. While, very often, this theory holds up, there are times that it falls apart.

One example Turin gives is of Menthol vs. Camphor. Both of these molecules are cyclic with similar frameworks, yet Camphor smells very sharp and what some might call ‘medicinal’, while Menthol has a very minty and cooling fragrance.

Vibration Theory

Here is where the Vibration theory comes in! The theory claims that a molecule's smell is determined by the frequency at which it vibrates. Our noses turn these vibrations into brain synapses that determine the scent, just like our ears turn vibrations into brain synapses so that we can process sound.

Take yourself back to high school biology, and you may remember that there is no such thing as a solid object because molecules are always in motion.

Top vs Base Notes & Frequencies

The vibration theory also explains why certain smells are much more detectable while other smells are much harder to decipher. Think of it this way. Really high notes that vibrate very fast are easy to notice. Why do you think fire alarms have piercing sirens instead of really low bass-heavy sirens?

Top Notes

What we call ‘Top’ notes are fragrance notes that are very excited and vibrate extremely quickly. Because they are moving so fast, they are much easier for us to notice. When you first smell a candle or perfume, these top notes are what you are smelling right away. Some examples are Eucalyptus, Bergamot, and Lemon.

Now, because they vibrate so fast, something else happens… they run out of energy really fast. Ever notice when you put on perfume that the top notes go away rather quickly? Well, now you know why! Those molecules are just so pumped up that they are not going to stick around long. These guys are like your really high-energy friend who crashes early because they run out of steam.

Also, if you love really citrusy perfumes, you just need to get used to re-applying more often.

Here are some examples of perfumes I love that are very top note heavy.

• Jo Malone Wood Sage & Sea Salt

• Perfumehead Somewhere

• Ranger Station Sandalwood + Bergamot

• DS & DURGA Italian Citrus

Base Notes

Now, on the other end of the spectrum are my favorite guys… the BASE NOTES! Why do I love them? They are the chill guy. They just want to hang out. The are subtle and kind. The only risk is that they might overstay their welcome, which in fragrance, isn’t a bad thing at all.

Base notes vibrate at very low frequencies which does 2 things. First, it makes them much harder to detect. Second, it makes them last FOREVER! Well, not forever, but you get my drift.

Similar to base notes in a song, the low frequency of the perfume makes it much harder to detect. It is subtle and in the background. Not taking up too much of the stage. (Kind of similar to how bass players in bands are always to chillest dudes.)

Because these molecules vibrate so slowly, they preserve their energy for long periods of time which means they last.

I love using tons of base notes in my perfume for this reason. I don’t want you to walk into a room and give everyone a headache because you smell like a fire alarm going off. I want you to walk in and people subconsciously notice a slight calming shift in the air. And, I want you to smell like that all day long.

Here are some examples of base-note-heavy perfumes that I love.

• Ranger Station Jordan’s Perfume

• Le Labo Labdanum 18

• Perfumehead Canadian Tuxedo

If you made it this far, I congratulate you and thank you for your patience during my TED talk. OH! Speaking of which. You should go watch the Ted Talk Luca Turin gives on this if you want to dive in further!

Currently Playing

Currently Burning

• Bluebird Days by Ranger Station

Currently Wearing

• Eucalyptus by Le Labo

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Ever since I stopped touring and devoted myself full-time to fragrance and perfuming, one of the most common questions I get is if I miss playing music. There are definitely parts that I miss, but to be honest, I feel like I do music more now than ever because Perfume is Music to me.

That is why I wanted to call this newsletter Fragrance Liner Notes.

If you are unfamiliar with Liner Notes, then stop reading this post, go down to your local record store, and buy your favorite album on vinyl. Inside, in addition to the vinyl itself, you will most likely find Liner Notes. These often contain art, lyrics, and acknowledgments, but the best ones tell the stories behind the songs and album. The Liner Notes give you an intimate look behind the curtain. Because Perfume is music to me, I want this to be a place where I can do just that, but with fragrance.

The transition to perfume from music might seem like a huge jump, but it wasn’t for me at all. And that is for 2 main reasons.

Songs and Perfumes are both, at their core, ways of storytelling.

Let’s start with storytelling. I have never met anyone who doesn’t like music. Sure, a lot of people don’t like certain styles of music, but most would probably say they like music in general. Why is this the case? What is it about music that engages us so much and keeps us coming back?

This may sound like common knowledge, and it probably is, but I propose that we all love music because of its ability to tell stories. When we hear a song that we really connect with, it is an emotional connection. Whether the songwriter is telling us a personal story or they created a story to express a feeling or season they were in, it is storytelling. That is why when we are sad, we listen to sad songs. When we are mad we listen to angry songs. And, of course, when we are happy, we listen to happy songs.

And guess what… Perfume is exactly the same! At least it is for me. I approach creating a perfume the same way I would write a song because, to me, it is a way to tell those who smell the perfume a story.

I think of myself as writing a song when I sit down to “write” a perfume. Sometimes I want to tell a story of a certain experience that I have had. Other times I want to tell the story of someone I know. There are even times when I want to tell a made-up story that I think will connect with people because I connect with it.

Whether it is fiction, non-fiction, or fantasy, every perfume I have ever created tells a story.

And just like I attach personal meaning to my favorite songs, I hope that those who use my fragrances attach personal meaning to them and even use them to tell their own stories. Part of the magic is that we can all create our own story with a fragrance. Even if it is drastically different from the story I was originally telling.

Songs and Perfumes are “written” in the same way.

The other way that songwriting and perfuming are so similar to me is in how we bring the parts together.

When writing a song, we use Notes to build Chords and you then put those chords together in a certain order to create the Song.

Guess what… Perfume is no different. We even use the same or similar names for things. When writing a perfume, I start with fragrance Notes. I use those notes to create Accords which not only sounds like Chords but functions the same way. It is simply a lot of Notes brought together to create a fuller Chord. Lastly, I take those Chords and organize them in different orders to create the final Perfume which I often just call the Song.

So, next time you light a candle or spray perfume, think about it as a song. Think about how the perfumer is trying to tell you a story and make you feel something. Think about how the perfumer took notes and organized them in a unique way to make you feel a certain way.

Then make that story your own.

Currently Playing

Currently Burning

• Oud Ranch by Ranger Station

Currently Wearing

• I’m actually wearing a tester of something coming soon… But, I have been wearing Two Trick Pony by Ranger Station a LOT!

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