Scent Scaping (sometimes known as ‘fragrance zoning’) is THE fastest way to change-up the feel of your home this summer – think of it like layering your perfumes, but creating a unique ‘signature scent’ for your home, instead. We’ve got top tips from an interior design expert on exactly how to do this, and have selected the perfect perfumed candles and luxury diffusers from Cochine’s sublime collection, to achieve this scented bliss with ease…
As a renowned designer, lifestyle blogger and TV presenter, Maxine Brady is always in demand by glossy magazines and lifestyle-led TV shows. A huge fan of using scented candles – for shows such as Grand Designs, Kirsty’s Homemade Home, George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces and This Morning – Maxine explains the trend for scent-scaping our homes no matter the weather, really boomed during lockdown. Indeed, according to John Lewis, during the end of 2020 ‘the average online searches for home scents went up by 600{2ac9033caf61aa83cf45584f992fcbdbe657ee6f770037f39c3ded45073822b8}. For diffusers, the searches were up by over 1000{2ac9033caf61aa83cf45584f992fcbdbe657ee6f770037f39c3ded45073822b8}.’ Says Maxine:
‘It’s about using aroma and scents to zone our homes, either room by room or during differing times of the day. I like using a different fragrance in the morning to evening. I like decorating a home with candles and diffusers and arrange them much as I would art in a room, to bring them to life. I never think a room is finished until I put a candle on my sideboard… using home fragrance allows me to transfer from a work space feel to a more homely escape. It’s a very clever way to balance our mental health as well as making our homes smell beautiful.’
This ‘trend’ has continued with such an upward trajectory, to the point of becoming a perfumed ritual we can all welcome into our lifestyles. It’s not only those who continue to work from home (though there are many, many more companies seeing the sense of this) who are pushing the perfumed home product sales higher – there’s also been a dawning in our culture that candles aren’t really used for their light-giving properties anymore – it’s the ambience we seek. The way we can choose to immediately change-up the atmosphere of a space.
Kate Crofton-Atkins – founder of Cochine fragrance
It’s not all about candles, though. Reed diffuser sales are similarly off the chart, because people who are away from home, who want to continually scent an area, or perhaps have small children and are concerned about candles burning) love their ease of use, and that ‘unwrap it and forget it’ feeling. However, we promise you won’t be forgetting any of these – the fragrances are so incredible, they’ll give you pleasure every single time you waft past, or open your front door and think ‘ahhh, yes. I’m home!’
Maxine Says: ‘All these tips are ideal if you rent rather than own, because you’re unable to change wallpaper and paint, or sometimes even furnishings, you can make the space your own by stamping your personality with home scents…’
Maxine’s Styling Tip 1. Use your nose as well as your eyes to decorate your home. Perhaps a hallway is where you put a lovely diffuser to welcome your guests and having it smell gorgeous at all times? As a decorating tool, home scents are a really clever way to bring up & coming trends into your home without changing all the furnishings! Use complimentary coloured vessels to your wallpaper or furnishing colours. People are loving sharing #shellfies on social media.
Maxine’s Styling Tip 2. Use aroma to mark the changing seasons. Fresher sunny scents in summer, and warmer woodier scents in colder seasons. Changing those scents and bringing them into your house really helps stop one day blending into another. According to John Lewis, the average online searches for home scents went up by 600{2ac9033caf61aa83cf45584f992fcbdbe657ee6f770037f39c3ded45073822b8}. For diffusers, the searches were up by over 1000{2ac9033caf61aa83cf45584f992fcbdbe657ee6f770037f39c3ded45073822b8} A candle is an instant pick me up when you need a treat.” Michelle: “I like to use home fragrance to enhance my mood or to change up my mood.”
Maxine’s Styling Tip 3. Create an indoor garden bringing the outdoors in. We know home plants have become incredibly important – the flow between spaces can be between your garden and indoors. Dot plants and succulents around a diffuser – reuse the containers when empty as plant pots or the diffusers as mini vases.
Styling Tip 4. Press the reset button with the power of scent. After a busy and stressful day, it can be hard to mark a line between weekdays and your weekends – reclaim your home and say the weekend starts now. Clear away work things, laptops from tables, shove the kids toys in a box and light a candle as a scene-setter and mood re-setter.
Cochine’s sumptuous fragrance creations are no longer only for skin – with their gorgeous, top quality home fragrance collection, they can now whisk us to exotic Saigon whenever the mood takes us (which will be often, you will discover…) from where this exciting perfume house takes its inspiration. With over 50 hours’ burn time, Cochine candles will gently infuse any room to create a delicately evocative and inspiring atmosphere. The Cochine diffusers, meanwhile, containing the finest essential oils, and will visually and aromatically give your room a unique and subtle elegance. They easily last you four months of continual use (and we find they last even longer if placed in cooler areas of your home and away from direct sunlight!) Close your eyes, breathe the exquisite notes – and you’re half-way there already.
Now, your only question remains, where will you find best to place these stunning, summery scents in your own home…?
White Jasmine & Gardenia Candle £45 for 230g
This elegant candle evokes the lush floral scents that infuse the sun-filled streets and gardens of Saigon. White petals of jasmine, gardenia and peony combine to unfold an enchanting aura that is soft yet elegant.
Frangipani & Neroli Candle £45 for 230g
Allow yourself to be carried away to soft white sands, brushed with the shade of Frangipani trees. Smooth, honeyed tones of frangipani are combined with the delicate freshness of neroli to create an idyll of blissful tranquillity in your home.
Vietnamese Rose & Delentii Candle £45 for 230g
Capturing the delightful freshness of newly cut flowers, this candle has a light and delicate tone, combining top notes of rose and bergamot with hints of violet, rosewood and the scented orchid, Delentii.
Tuberose Absolute & Sandalwood Diffuser £60 for 150ml
Exclusively created with master perfumer, Maurice Roucel, this is the scent of exotic and unforgettable nights. Feminine, alluring and intriguing tuberose notes combine with rich leather and sandalwood in this intoxicating, utterly addictive fragrance.
Water Hyacinth & Lime Blossom Diffuser £60 for 150ml
The immediately uplifting and utterly unique scent of lime blossom is combined with calming, aqueously woody notes of water hyacinth to create an invigorating and fresh fragrance reminiscent of lazy afternoons on the banks of the Saigon River.
Juniper & Ginger Diffuser £60 for 150ml
Combining the crisp scent of juniper with the sweet spiciness of ginger. Reminiscent of lush, green woods and exotic, evergreen mountains this uplifting scent has hints of clove, bergamot and patchouli blended with the freshness of eucalyptus.
Written by Suzy Nightingale