Arent&Pyke x Maison Balzac
The joy of coming home is multi-sensory. You see home, you touch it, hear the familiar hum of it, put the kettle on and taste it; but most of all you smell it. To fulfil that vital fifth sense within the home, Arent & Pyke has just released a limited-edition private label scented candle with Maison Balzac.
Le Vert – or Green in French – asks us to imagine ourselves as wood nymphs sleeping and bathing amongst the trees. Its packaging – a specially commissioned artwork by Brooklyn-based West Australian Angela McKay – tells the scent’s story best. Top notes of lemon, green, herbs and rosemary, middle notes of fresh rose and base notes of cedar wood and amber could transform any room into a private forest.
Maison Balzac’s Elise Pioch says she was immediately convinced by the idea of ‘forest bathing’ for a transformative scented candle. “We embraced the concept as soon as they shared it with us,” says Pioch. “We set to create a green, earthy scent that would transport anyone into a calm place.”
Juliette Arent
With offices in Sydney and France, Pioch’s Maison Balzac has always sought to evoke olfactive memories or experiences, originally those specific to her own French childhood. Juliette Arent and Sarah-Jane Pyke are similarly fascinated by the idea that smells can awaken emotion. “We felt this forest image was evocative of home on a more poetic level,” explains Pyke. “We loved working with Elise and her team to help us to convey it as an olfactory realisation.”
For Arent and Pyke, the project fulfilled a long-held desire. “For us, it always comes back to how people connect with their interiors, and this is holistic of course, because it’s about how home makes us feel,” explains Arent. “We often talk about touch – the two-way stroke of velvet or the cool of marble – and of course most often we talk about how things look. Our clients talk of taste and sound – the food and music that go on post-project within their homes – but now felt like the right time to help our clients find transformation through scent.”
Pioch says she’s long admired the Arent & Pyke studio. “We took our time to deliver the perfect olfactive experience,” she says, “and we are so proud to have created Le Vert.”
Arent & Pyke’s Le Vert Maison Balzac candles, $69.00, are available to purchase from our website now.
Website: Arent&Pyke x Maison Balzac candle
