How I Choose a Scent

People often ask me how I decide on a fragrance. The honest answer is: I don't start with a scent. I start with a feeling.

Every Coco MINO candle begins somewhere specific — a person, a place, a moment I never want to forget. Before I think about top notes or base notes, I ask myself: what does this feel like?

Gabrielle feels like laughter on a summer afternoon. Candy-sweet, light, a little wild. So her candle became cherry, cotton candy, vanilla — joyful and unapologetic.

Aliocha feels like freedom. The open sky, the smell of fuel and adventure, the quiet confidence of someone who knows exactly who they are. His candle became citrus, cedarwood, vetiver — sharp, grounded, alive.

And then there are the places. The Atlantic coast at golden hour, salt on your skin and sand still warm underfoot. A childhood garden after rain. A kitchen that always smelled of something good. These too become candles — because places hold us just as much as people do.

Once I have that feeling — whether it comes from a face, a landscape, or a memory — I work with fragrance notes the way a painter works with colour. Layering, testing, adjusting until the scent on the wick matches what lives in my heart.

It takes time. Sometimes weeks. Sometimes I get it wrong and start again. But when it's right, I know immediately. I close my eyes, and I'm back there.

That's the only brief I've ever needed.

— Laurence