Our Sunday floral story : A conversation with Irish scent storyteller, Meabh McCurtin
A lovely chat about Meabh's wonderful journey from Clare to creating some of the world famous fragrances we wear.
BLÁTHANNA X MÉABH MCCURTIN -
‘A perfume is a memory in a bottle.’
Meabh McCurtin is a fragrance artist & alchemist who not only hails from Co. Clare but who turns scents into stories. She has created some of our favourite fragrances we love to wear to feel fully dressed each day. Hers is a captivating story of a talent who, after studying Biochemistry in UCG & completing a Ph.D. in molecular biology in Lyon, followed her dream to pursue her passion for all things olfactory.
This has led her to create award winning fragrances for some of the following people:
Our friends Cloonkeen (Róisín Dubh (award winning perfume Róisín Dubh (little black rose) takes its name from a subversive 16th century song, which has become an enduring emblem to Irish writers) , Bel Étage (A unisex citrus cologne), Bealtaine (A sunny white floral fragrance inspired by our pagan summer festival in May))
Alexander McQueen (Pagan Rose, which delves into the irresistible contrast between wild rose and earthy peat)
Paul Smith (Leaf inspired by Paul's love of flower shops - yay!)
Vryao (The Sixth - scientifically proven to enhance mindfulness), (Mama-Juju - a groundbreaking new neuro-scent for grounding and awareness), Sun Rae (this uses IFF”s Science of Wellness for joy and happiness)
Maison Margiela Replica (Under the Stars), Tom Dixon Studio (Root) and so many more …
I thought you would love to know more about Méabh, whose perfumes you probably already know and wear. Her olfactory journey is so interesting. She is inspired by fragrance and it’s impact on our emotion and wellness. Her intuitive understanding & knowledge of Irish wildflowers, our herbal medicine traditions and our scents of home and community have inspired her to lead a fascinating sensory journey in her life.
A story surfaced in my mind about when I had the good fortune to meet a Benedictine monk in Ireland. He showed me around his herb garden and spoke to me about plants and their medicinal uses. Several of the herbs he had shown me were ingredients that we were talking about for The Sixth. He spoke about the importance of bitter herbs like wormwood and gentian root in health and the knowledge that monks have developed about herbs over centuries of using them. This brought together the final elements to create The Sixth. - Méabh talking to Vyrao about her inspiration for The Sixth
“I love understanding the science, but I think the aspect that drew me to perfume most was more poetic,I can live in a space in my mind that is less about facts and more about exploring scent through feelings, the whole synaesthesia of smells.” - Méabh McCurtin - Vryao
I was lucky enough to chat to Méabh recently and I hope that you enjoy our conversation here:
What is your first memory of being in the garden/playing with flowers and scents?
My first memories are of sitting in the grass at home in Clare, making daisy chains with my two sisters, tasting honeysuckles and blowing dandelions.
I used to mix flowers with water to try and make perfume, but I was always disappointed that it didn’t work!
How do you source flowers for your scent formulas and how does the process work? Do you have to depend on crops and seasons to find the right ingredients?
The company that I work for IFF owns a company in the south of France called Laboratoire Monique Remy (LMR)– they produce beautiful natural ingredients and it’s from there that I select the qualities of rose, jasmine, tuberose and orange flower for my fragrances.
The flowers are harvested each in their season – rose is harvested in May for example and Mimosa in March. I love to visit these harvests when I can, this year I went to the mimosa harvest in the south of France. It’s always impressive to me how much time and expertise is involved in cultivating, harvesting and extracting the essences of flowers.
Have any Irish wild or native flowers or landscapes influenced the formulation of your various fragrances?
Yes, I love the smell of gorse, it has a sweet honey, milky, coconut-like scent. I also love the smell of moss and of the rain after it hits the earth, the smell is called petrichor and it reminds me of home. I created a fragrance called Mamajuju for a brand called Vyrao where I incorporated that smell of rain hitting the earth.
For a scent that I created for an Alexander Mc Queen candle called Pagan Rose, I made a smoked turf note which I paired with rose and cognac notes. When I smell it now, it brings me back to my grandmother’s house in Galway, where she burned turf in her stove.
Fragrance like flowers, creates strong emotional connections and messages. What kind of connection do you hope each of your creations make?
I agree that perfume has a powerful emotional effect and can anchor your memories of a particular moment. I like to think about that when I’m making a fragrance, how it will weave its way into a person’s memories, and I hope that it brings a feeling of joy. I made a fragrance for my sister’s wedding, for all of the guests, and I find that when I smell it now, it immediately makes me happy because I think about that beautiful day.
What was the first perfume you wore? What perfume do you wear each day and then at night if going out?
The first perfume that I wore was called Exclamation by Coty, it was a lovely musky vanilla scent. I don’t tend to wear perfumes during the day if I’m at work because I need to be able to smell the perfumes that I’m working on, but in the evening I’ll usually wear a perfume that I’m working on, its important for me to wear them myself and to see if I get any unsolicited feedback and how it feels to wear it!
In creating the new Paul Smith scent that launched in January, it was based on the smell of a flower shop? What were the key influencing elements and what kind of images initiated this idea?
I absolutely love the smell of flower shops, and for the Paul Smith scent Leaf, I created the fragrance around the smell of white lilies, freesia, green stem notes, and peony. Those elements together are what capture the smell of a flowershop in my mind, in particular the smell of freshly cut stems.
Would you ever like to launch your own line of fragrance?
I like the idea of having my own fragrance brand but I really enjoy working for lots of different brands as I do now, focusing on the creative part of my work and exploring and developing new fragrances all the time.
What would be your dream fragrance to create and/or who would be your dream collaborator/brand?
I would love to collaborate with other Irish designers and artists. I especially like working with fashion designers as I love fabric, colour and texture and it’s always interesting to me to translate those elements into a fragrance.
What fragrance are you working on at the moment?
I’m working on several perfumes at the moment, it’s always confidential until they are launched on the market! I’ve been exploring some Japanese-inspired themes such as matcha, yuzu and genmaicha. The most recent fragrance I made which was just launched is called Milk & Matcha for a French brand called Obvious.
Will you get home to Clare this summer and what do you look forward to seeing and doing?
I will be home in May and I’m really looking forward to it. I love spending time with my family, having tea in the garden if the weather is nice and driving to Ennistymon and the coast for the day.
KEEP UP WITH MÉABH’S LATEST FRAGRANCE CREATIONS AND LAUNCHES HERE
A million thanks Méabh for giving such large glimpses into your wonderful talent in creating scent stories for us all. We hope you have some gorgeous May holidays at home in Clare and can’t wait to smell your next story in scent. X
How fascinating and thank you for sharing.
Great insight into how perfumes are actually created - thanks for the interesting story.