There’s a new range of scented candles at Harry CJ Wix, made by Nosey London. As the company name itself suggests, each candle is a euphoric mix of hand-blended fragrances in a soy wax medium, each has its own thrilling bouquet, and they're all made by husband-and-wife team David and Lucy Masters.
Nosey has an interesting origin story. In the early 2020s, David was working as a film director and found himself directing a TV commercial in Toronto based around the theme of the old nursery rhyme about the butcher, baker and candlestick maker.
“The client wanted real people, so we went looking for actual butchers, bakers and candlestick makers to take part,” he says. “In doing this I met a lot of candle makers. Most were all making candles as a side hustle, enjoying it immensely, and were all very different: one was a nurse, one a single mum and so on. It was inspiring.”
Back home in south-east London, David and Lucy started a candle-making company, drawing from his experience and Lucy’s production know-how as a maker of artisanal ice cream. As they experimented with scents and styles, David started to enjoy candle-making to the exclusion of his main job. “I found myself becoming completely besotted by scent,” he says. “Once you start, you quickly get drawn in. The sense of smell is utterly fascinating.”
As well as experimenting with natural ingredients and designing his distinctive candles David – an ex-copywriter – gives each scent an evocative title. Among them are names like ‘Winnie’s Room as it Was’, ‘Imagine if the Forest was Enchanted’ and ‘A Shoreline I Once Walked’ – all driven by his desire to create a different kind of candle.
“Most candlemakers buy scents and ideas off the shelf and there are loads of companies making candles with names like ‘Pomegranate Noir’ or ‘Basil and Mandarin’ – or even slightly conceptual names like ‘Rain on Concrete’,” says David. “For me, each name has to be suggestive but not prescriptive and literal: like the first line of a story. Enough to prompt you to visualise something, not to tell you what to think.”
The scents are mostly drawn from David's experiences and sometimes his imagination. 'A Long Forgotten Fire in a Shady Summer Room’, for example, was inspired by a pub lunch in Primrose Hill where last night’s fire had left its olfactory mark, while the candle ‘It’s Like When I Was an Astronaut’ was coined after David read that space smelled like burned metal. Of all the senses, smell brings out powerful associations, involuntary memories and hidden recollections. “Smell is reptilian, primal," says David. "That's why I want to prompt the mind to work rather than offer fixed meanings.”
As part of this ethos, Nosey candles do not come with a stock look. “The world is full of candle brands that strive for the same imagery: the same sideboards, the same books perched by the candle, and the same aspiration to be in a boutique hotel," he says. "While there's nothing wrong with boutique hotels, we don’t want to tell you where to put your Nosey candle, or to prescribe a particular kind of lifestyle.” Indeed, this is true to the spirit of smell, which is the most primal of all the senses, working directly on the hippocampus and amygdala, the parts of the brain dealing with raw emotions and memories.
Nosey is expanding and has a skincare range as well. But as a small company there’s a limit to the numbers of candles it can produce which gives the candles a certain cachet. As well as stockists like Harry CJ Wix Nosey also makes bespoke candles for events including the Victoria Miro Gallery. It's becoming more than a cottage industry, and its product line is expanding. But it’s still, says David, “a micro-company and a labour of love: a side-hustle that has become something more consuming." We should expect more evocative scents – and names - from Nosey London.
Purchase the Nosey London Collection here:
https://harrycjwix.com/search?q=nosey&options%5Bprefix%5D=last