(electricity sizzling) - [Narrator] If you want to know what's going on.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (electricity sizzling) (gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music continues) - So is natural perfumery an art, science, alchemy?

How would you describe it?

- I would say it's all three.

I would definitely classify it as an art because for me it's a creative endeavor.

The fact that I'm an independent small, you know, niche perfumer means that I pretty much get to do what I want, and tell stories through my fragrances, which is what I do.

(gentle upbeat music) - So you're not just a perfumer, you're kind of like a fragrance guide.

- A little bit.

And people definitely need it more when smelling natural perfume because they're not used to natural smells anymore.

Our entire life is surrounded with synthetic fragrances from our laundry detergent, to our hair products, or whatever.

(hair spray hissing) - Everything smells fresh too.

- They might think they don't like something, but they've never smelled the natural version of it.

So it's really like, kind of an educational process.

(perfume hissing) - [Narrator] The essence of precious scents caught at that precise moment of fulfillment, distilled with exquisite artistry for your every mood.

To be lovely is to feel lovely.

When your fragrance expresses your gayest self.

- Perfume is a very mysterious art, but when you kind of pull back the curtain and look at the ingredients, there's three categories, top notes, heart notes or middle notes, they mean the same thing, and base notes.

And when you're formulating a perfume, you wanna try to choose ingredients from all three categories.

Top notes are what you smell first.

So in natural perfumery, top notes tend to be citrus, spice, herbs, things like that.

Heart notes are what they sound like.

They form the heart of the fragrance.

And so heart notes are almost always flowers.

And then base notes are things like woods and resins.

You know, vanilla, patchouli, frankincense, vetiver, things like that.

So to formulate a well-balanced perfume, you wanna have ingredients from all three categories so they kind of seamlessly transform into each other and wear that way.

So it really is kind of telling a story on the skin.

- Fragrance is really magical.

I really love the magic of what fragrance does for me and how it can make me feel.

- I think the magic of fragrance is related to memory and the strong tie that our sense of smell has with our memories.

I grew up, my mom likes to call it a farm in New Hampshire, but it was really more of like a commune situation.

She doesn't like when I say that.

- Were you inspired by the smells of that lifestyle?

- Yeah, I think I was, I spent a lot of time outdoors as a kid.

I collected acorns and, you know, so I was kind of that type of kid.

So I was always familiar with natural smells and kind of drawn to nature.

(gentle upbeat music) - You're doing natural fragrances, but it feels like a beautiful, elegant boutique in here.

- Thank you.

Yes, my goal is to ditch the past hippiness (chuckles) and embrace a more modern style of natural perfumery.

- [Host] Mm.

it smells so good.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - [Narrator] Watch more Art Inc, a Rhode Island PBS original series now streaming at ripbs.org/artinc.