THE JOURNAL

Stories of Scent

This week we share some of your stories of the ways in which scent has informed your journey.  What does happiness smell like? Is there an aroma associated with joy, well being or inner peace? Wh...

Mind Your Nose

With Mental Health Awareness Week around the corner, we are looking at the connection between scent and emotion. Once upon a time I owned a dressing gown. Then my five-year-old daughter decided she...

The Smell of Hope

In aid of World Alzheimer’s Month, we look at research into scent and memory and some aromas that might bring comfort. I found the bunch of my birthday roses picked clean of petals this week. There...

Don't Grow Up, Only Down

In honour of Roald Dahl Day, we pay homage to the scents that linger long after the book is closed. There is a small polystyrene-clad replica of Roald Dahl’s writing room in a museum in Great Miss...

Writing That Stinks

Pick up a smelly paperback for National Read a Book Day. My mother read me The Hobbit when I was 11 years old. She did all the voices and when I watched the Lord of the Rings as a teenager, I told ...

Is Natural Always Best?

A conversation on the value of synthetics in perfumery. I am not sure who first came up with the idea of harvesting the secretions of a civet cat’s glands for use in perfumery. We can, however, ...

Let's Talk About Scent, Baby

What scents make you emotional? My eldest son has been in a hurry since birth. He arrived two days early, mid nail-varnish removal and my husband barely had time to scent my facecloth with lavender...

STORIES From Belfast: Finding Forever at The Merchant Hotel

Belfast’s Five Star hotel is the last word in opulence. I knew he was going to propose the moment he lifted his coffee cup to meet mine and toasted our future. We were seated in the Great Room of T...

What Shape Is A Smell? written by Award Winning Beauty Editor, Caroline Brien.

Scent and Synaesthesia by Award Winning Beauty Editor, Caroline Brien. When someone describes a fragrance as sparkling, you will, most likely, be able to understand – and envision –what that means....

He Loves me, He Loves me Not...

Jasmine sings to me, its notes climbing like the vine in my memory. It was not until I had time to kill beneath a jasmine vine that I felt the tug to go home. The wall on which it climbed was criss...

Savvy Summer Skincare

With Summer in full swing it’s time to take a rain check on our skin. As tempting as it is to covet glowing tanned limbs, the sun takes its toll on our skin and it is important to protect it. Skin...

Our Scent Map of South Africa by Bethany Joy Dawson

STORIES Parfums Fragrance Writer, Bethany Dawson, charts her family’s scent journey through South Africa from liquid paracetamol to Prickly Pears. Tears welled in my son’s eyes as fireworks of col...

A Traveller’s Dilemma

With everyone’s heart set on their holidays it is not a very popular time to talk about the carbon footprint made by long distance travel.  However, it is important to know the facts so we can mak...

How to Arrive and Depart in Style

Airport attire is currently trending. What should we wear when we take to the skies and what beauty essentials need to come along for the ride? Founder of STORIES Parfums,  Tonya Kidd-Beggs, shar...

Father’s Day: Keep it Simple

Father’s Day has come a long way from its humble origins. How can we keep it simple this year?   Just over a hundred years ago, in a small church in Washington, a young woman made a decision that ...

Sister Jasmine, Brother Bergamot

What is a Fragrance Family and what does it convey about your perfume? Within modern perfumery there are Fragrance Families. They are commonly split into feminine and masculine but brands, such as ...

Oriental Harmony

A closer look at the base notes that make STORIES Nº. 02 such an unforgettable fragrance.  The essential component of a fragrance’s base note is its ability to last. These notes are known as fix...

A Rich History of Scent

The journey of STORIES N °. 02’s heart notes and the spiced, oriental edge at the core of this blend.   The heart notes of STORIES N °. 02 are some of the fragrance world’s most ancient ingredie...

Philosophical Perfumery

How steam distillation gets the best from some of perfumery’s raw materials. In the 10th Century AD a philosopher named Ibn Sina, or Avicenna as he is more commonly known, was born. He was one of t...