Erin's Scent Memories Brought To Life
Our LMCo. Candles are the best-selling (and best-smelling) products that we offer, but they're particularly significant to Erin. Many do not know that Erin has a peculiar gift for curating scents that represent the best memories and places in her lifetime.
"I've had particularly strong attachments to scents and their correlations with memories my entire life. My mama can attest to this—my obsession with smell goods started at a really young age and my childhood and adolescent bathtub at home always had about 6 kinds of bubble baths, 5 shower gels, 3 shampoos, 3 conditioners, and 2 face washes at any given time. Ben says his brother Tom and I are part hound dog because we both can smell the faintest smell from a mile away. Mallorie and I have even discussed before how she has no scent memories- no connections whatsoever. I can't imagine that!" — Erin.
Although she has designed over nineteen scents in the last five years (and six more releasing in Fall 2021), today, we're showcasing Erin's four original candles that have changed everything.
1. Laurel Candle
Fragrance Notes: Sweet Olive Blossom
"Growing up coming into Laurel from my home in the country as a child held a mysterious and romantic fascination for me, with its century-old oak trees and grand homes built at the turn of the 20th century. Field trips to the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in childhood and late-night walks around our historic town when Ben and I moved back home to Laurel after college were all permeated with a very particular scent memory that makes my heart swell with a homesick, displaced feeling if I smell it anywhere outside the confines of home: sweet olive. The smell is unlike any other bloom, sweet, with notes of citrus and herbs, and once you smell it you never forget. Every historic property in Laurel is covered in these shrubs that leave their delicious scent all over town in the spring and fall. Laurel Mercantile Co. has worked carefully to create a custom fragrance that’s so close to the real thing, you can breathe it in and imagine you’re on a 5th Avenue stroll to the pumpkin patch or Day in the Park." - Erin
Shop: Laurel Candle, Laurel Hand Soap, Laurel Room Spray
2. Pancake Day
Fragrance Notes: Savory Butter, Maple
"If you've ever lived in Laurel, you know the magic of Pancake Day. The early morning hours on the first Saturday in December are spent in line on Oak Street at the door of the old YWCO for pancakes and sausage, along with every person I've ever known in my life. Everyone shares tables with old friends, cousins, aunts, and uncles who've been doing this since they were young, too. In a few short hours, Mississippi's longest Christmas parade rolls through downtown, and Laurel becomes something you only see in the movies. We've labored to find the perfect notes of real maple syrup with just a smidge of smokey fire that reminds Erin of winter days growing up at her grandparents' cabin with the men cooking sausage and bacon in cast iron over an old wood-burning stove."
Fragrance Notes: Savory Butter, Maple
Shop: Pancake Day Candle
Photo by Lindsay Miller @hellolindsaymiller
3. Gardiner Park
Fragrance Notes: Apricot, Mandarin Blossom, Neroli, Lily and Cypress Wood
"I designed this fragrance to be a memory of summer that I can smell all year long: a Sunday afternoon in Laurel's Gardiner Park, summer sun filtered by the piney woods, the citrus blossoms that rarely bear much fruit but make the smell of summer that's carried on the wind from a neighbor's garden. - Erin
Shop: Gardiner Park Candle, Gardiner Park Hand Soap, Gardiner Park Room Spray
4. Porch Party
Fragrance Notes: Black Tea, Garden Mint
"When I think of spring and summer, I think of grilled suppers on the porch, fresh vegetables from the garden, wild mint growing on the windowsill and sweet tea in the antique drinking glasses my grandmother gave to us. This candle smells like the cool breezes that make hot days bearable: a mint julep on the front porch." - Erin
Shop: Porch Party Candle, Porch Party Hand Soap, Porch Party Room Spray
