The holiday season is nearly upon us! That means getting out decorations – including, in many households, candles that warm the soul. Festive scented candles, especially with their smell of warm spices, can transport a person back to their childhood and the aromas of Christmas baking. The understanding of how our sense of smell can improve mood and trigger memories is what inspired Australian expat CHERYLYNNE CLEWS to launch To Be Calm, a range of fragrances and candles, essential oils and linen sprays for the home. We chatted with her about scents, her inspiration and her new collection for this Christmas.
Bringing back good memories with scented candles
“Fragrance has always been integral in my life,” says Cherylynne. This love affair with fragrance was sparked during her childhood – summer visits to her Grandma’s garden led to experimentation with floral aromas.
She recalls, “Grandma’s garden bloomed with hydrangeas, lily of the valley, magnolias, jonquils, daffodils and jasmine. As a child, I’d run through the garden and touch all the leaves and flowers, creating a myriad of fragrances.”
From corporate life to To Be Calm
Before following her nose, Cherylynne had a successful corporate career. When she was Vice President of merchant services for American Express, she was responsible for airline negotiations in the region.
Cherylynne says she used to diffuse a blend of mandarin and lavender in the meeting room. “When the attendees walked in, they would become disarmed by the lovely fragrance. For a moment, we would get to engage at a very personal level, which was always very helpful at the beginning of an otherwise challenging negotiation.”
She goes on to emphasise, “Mental wellbeing is incredibly important in my life. I would love to see women becoming more conscious about balance and placing more boundaries around themselves to carve out some time and find some stillness every day, even if it’s for only 15 minutes.”
Understanding that fragrance can play an integral role in achieving an optimal state of mind, Cherylynne founded To Be Calm. She hopes that creating a self-care routine of lighting scented candles, whether in the home or office, can help you to boost your mood.
The inspiration behind the scents
Cherylynne’s simple and powerful desire is to recreate fragrance memories and evoke specific emotions through scents.
The Explore scented candle, for example, was the result of replicating an experience she observed in her daughter. Whenever they returned home to Australia from holidays abroad, she’d take in a deep breath and say, “I’m home!”
“I realised she was smelling the eucalypts at the height of summer releasing their scent into the air mixed with the scent of very dry grass,” says Cherylynne.
Then there’s the Journey scented candle series, which replicates the essence of global cities around the world. It allows you to relive your own journey to these places or simply imagine yourself there.
Singapore’s status as a garden city also served as a significant source of inspiration for Cherylynne. Her most recent addition, Singapore Heritage, pays tribute to the island’s iconic tembusu tree. “The fragrance these majestic heritage-listed trees release in the evenings is intoxicating; it’s strong but not overpowering.”
Christmas candles for scent-sational moments
For all of these reasons, before tussling with setting up the Christmas lights, fnd some focus with To Be Calm’s range of Christmas candles for the holiday season.
The Noel candle captures the essence of Christmas trees with variations of fir scents. And Christmas Angel is the newest edition to the range this year – a combination of zest and spice, it’s a quintessential seasonal scent. It also comes housed in a stunning ornamental vessel that can be used again in years to come.
Cherylynne says the intention behind the collection is to “make people feel immediately comforted and transported to their own beautiful Christmas memories. This is particularly important when many of us are away from loved ones.”
There are different sizes of To Be Calm Christmas candles to choose from. This allows the company to offer high-quality home fragrances at affordable prices to enable more people to enjoy their products and benefits of aromatherapy.
Order the Christmas Collection scented candles from To Be Calm’s website.
Don’t miss our home décor ideas and tips on home services that you may need.
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