Scent-sational Fun: Inside the IDF’s Creative Candle-Making Workshop

Have you ever stopped to think about how a scent can make you feel? Is it calming? Energising? Romantic?  

That’s exactly what IDF’s candle-making workshop with Scentsmith Ainslie Walker was all about – exploring the emotional power of scent and how it can be captured in a candle.

This unique workshop brought together a group of participants to help design the perfect fragrances for IDF’s candle brand, Specially Made. It wasn’t just about creating candles; it was about using scent to evoke specific feelings and experiences.

The session began with Ainslie introducing a variety of raw materials for the group to smell, each one sparking a different reaction.  

“We smelt through and thought about how it makes us feel. Were there any colours we saw, any textures? Did they feel brighter? Did they feel sleepy? Did they feel excited?” she said.  

The goal wasn’t just to recognise the scents, but to explore how they made everyone feel, whether it was calming, energising or even romantic.

As the group sniffed their way through the materials, the conversation turned to the moods each fragrance could evoke.  

Ainslie helped everyone hone in on the types of emotions they wanted the candles to embody: “Did they feel brighter? Did they feel sleepy? Did they feel excited? Did they feel romance?”  

With the group’s feedback, Ainslie began creating fragrance blends that matched the moods discussed. The participants smelled the new blends and shared their thoughts, reflecting on the connection between the scents and the feelings they evoked.  

“We worked out, you know, this has the rose in it, it has this in it, yes, that does make us feel calm or comforted, or it does make us feel something different,” Ainslie said.  

“A few other things came out of the workshop, so we’ve named the range based on what the participants have said, and we also have a little quote on the box that came directly from the workshop.”  

One of the highlights was a fun scent game where participants tested their ability to identify citrus fragrances, smelling essential oil on strips.  

“Do you feel like it might be orange, or do you feel like it could be mandarin or grapefruit?” Ainslie said.  

This game demonstrated how scent could be tricky to identify and how memories and personal perceptions shaped our experiences of fragrance.  

“With scent and fragrance, your body is your instrument,” she said.

“So, what do you smell? And someone says orange, someone says lime, and someone says lemon, because you can tell easily that it's a citrus. But then, if I say do, do you feel like it might be orange or do you feel like it could be mandarin or grapefruit? Then everyone sort of doesn't know anymore,” Ainsley said.  

“And so, then we realise with scent and fragrance, your body is your instrument, so you need to have your sense of smell and your memory and different things kicking in.”  

The game demonstrated how scent could be tricky to identify and how memories and personal perceptions shaped our experiences of fragrance.

“It’s quite fun to play these sorts of games with them (the participants). Also, just to see if someone sees colours, they might just see yellow, and then we can think maybe this one is lemon, or you know, or they smell a bit of green as well. So could it be lime? But actually, lemon has a facet of green in it.  

“So we sort of talk about that stuff because I think it's really interesting to explore how everyone's brains work in a creative way, especially with something that's invisible like scent.”  

Of the upcoming collection, she said there were a variety of candles ready for production: “We have a focus, we have energy, we have calm, and we have a romantic sort of scent”.

It won’t be much longer until the community can experience the scents the team ultimately decided on, with the next phase of the project underway.  

“We’ve got all the strength, and we’ve ordered all of the bulk materials,” Ainsley said.

“The next stage is going to be teaching the participants how to make the candles and pack them and all of that kind of thing.”  

By the end of the workshop, excitement among the participants was building for Specially Made.  

A huge thank you to Ainslie for guiding the group through this creative journey.  

With our candles now one step closer to hitting the market, we can’t wait to see how these carefully crafted fragrances come to life!