If you love home fragrance, you know that it has the power to transform not just how your space feels, but also how you feel in your space, your energy level, mood, and much more. According to a 2016 Kangwon National University study, our sense of smell “plays an important role in the physiological effects of mood, stress, and working capacity”. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that scent styling is one of the biggest home fragrance trends for 2023.
Scent styling is a way for you to create a curated experience in your home, enhance its aesthetic, design how you want to feel, and share an expression of who you are with others. Every scent has a different effect on you depending on its ingredients and you can blend them to create just the right effect.
Founder of UFO Parfums, Maxwell Williams, explained in a recent interview with Architectural Digest that “scent can really be modulated for any experience, whether you’re looking to give a calming feeling with scents like lavender or eucalyptus, or something more invigorating like citrus or peppermint”. At Bright Candle Co., I design and create all of my fragrances to make you feel good. For example, customers love my Peppermint candle for its ability to create an uplifting, energizing feeling in their spaces and moods. Or my Spa candle with eucalyptus, spearmint, and patchouli for feeling pampered, invigorated, and grounded.
Beyond just the types of scents you use, you can create a curated scent experience, or scentscape, in your home by layering your home fragrance. For example, combining candles, reed diffusers, and room sprays. Layering different products and combining complementary scents will give you the ability to have a signature home fragrance, something that welcomes you home and creates a beautiful experience for visiting guests while entertaining. In 2023, entertaining is back in a big way and people are looking for special scents like the ones I create.
Scent artist Emily Endo shares in Architectural Digest that in the past few years “everything went digital and virtual, but scent cannot be captured by a photo. Now, people are looking for enhanced in-person experiences, and scent can be used to heighten our awareness of a space, conjure memories, and evoke distant or alternate worlds.” When someone enters your home the first thing they experience is its scent and we want that to be special. At Bright Candle Co., we love to create curated scent experiences and can help create one for you. Simply email me for complimentary scent styling that will make you feel good and your space feel special.
Another way you can use scent styling in 2023 is to instantly transport yourself to any destination in the world, like the lavender fields of Provence, tropical sandy beaches, or a green, moss-covered forest. Travel is a big trend and scent makes it easy to escape anywhere that you want to go. My Timber candle is inspired by childhood memories playing in a beautiful forest in the countryside, with rays of sunshine coming in through the leafy tree canopy and birds singing. Every time you smell it, you’ll be instantly transported to a beautiful lush green forest.
A beautiful practice to start in 2023 is to incorporate home fragrance into your self-care routines. While baths have long been shown to have health benefits, Pinterest is seeing shower routines trending and they will make a big splash this year. Fragrance can be incorporated into your shower routine by burning a candle in the bathroom to set the mood, hanging eucalyptus in the shower, and having a reed diffuser in the bathroom for an added fragrance layer.
You can use home fragrance, such as burning my Legacy candle with grounding notes of apple, jasmine, fig, and sandalwood, during Pilates, yoga, mobility stretches, and meditation. Use scent styling while you journal, paint, practice art journaling, music therapy, or other forms of self-care and expression to see how it enhances those practices. Home fragrance can help make even the most routine tasks feel like beautiful rituals.
It’s easy to see why scent styling is the biggest home fragrance trend in 2023, and I encourage you to have fun with it. Experiment with creating curated scent experiences, your own signature home scent, surprising guests with something special, layering fragrances, using scent to transport yourself to a destination, and incorporating it into your self-care routines and practices.
MORE FROM CHRISTINA GJIRI | BRIGHT CANDLE CO.
Connect with Christina Gjiri, Founder of Bright Candle Co., on Instagram @brightcandleco_ and TikTok @brightcandleco. You can find her sustainable soy candles online at brightcandleco.com and at select local markets and shows.