"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
