How to Make Your Home Smell Great
You want your home to smell like you, but not really you. Much like a fragrance that becomes synonymous with your person, a well-considered room scent should be an extension of your identity and, if you’re doing it right, the world outside your front door. Here, Erin Wylie and Jonah Weiner, the well-traveled pair behind the email newsletter Blackbird Spyplane, curate their favorite scents they’ve encountered all over the globe, plus the necessary supplies — holders, snuffers, and lighters — to complete your thoughtful-smelling sanctuary.
Lisa Eisner for Commune’s Sea Urchin
This spore-like “urchin” holder, made via lost-wax casting by the LA-based jewelry designer Lisa Eisner, is incredible. ($695)
Saint Rita Parlor’s Signature Incense
These incense cones come from LA, but we smelled their cigarette-in-the-garden scent burning at Maidens Shop in Tokyo. ($50)
Oigen’s Turtle Cast Iron Incense Holder
This cast-iron turtle, from Japan’s Oigen foundry, has a removable shell: Put cone or coil incense inside, and it wafts up through the holes. It’s wonderful and available at New York City’s Nalata Nalata.
Swedish Hanging Fragrance Tags
These hanging fragrance tags in “Hinoki,” “Coriander,” “Sweet Tobak,” and “Grapefruit,” from Sweden’s L:A Bruket are intriguing. Put one on a door handle or a bathroom towel rack.
Perfumer H’s “Moss” Potpourri
The London scent master Lyn Harris has perfected “Ink,” “Rain Wood,” and “Pepper” as niche-ubiquitous scents. Think: earthy, vegetal goodness.
D.S. & Durga Hang Tags
You can put these Brooklyn-made tags in a closet or drawer. Some favorites include “Big Sur After Rain” and “Holy Ficus,” but “’85 Diesel” smells impressively like the inside of a 40-year-old Mercedes-Benz. ($15)
Kyukyodo’s Honokanoho Incense Sticks
In many ways, these are our Japanese incense North Stars. The first time we ever went to Tokyo, in 2015, a friend said to hit the legendary specialty store Kyukyodo — operational since the 1600s — and see if they still sold these sandalwood-based sticks. They did, and we brought back two boxes that are packed plentifully enough, and which we’ve burned through sparingly enough, that there are still a goodish number left. This was our entrée into the sweet earthiness of sandalwood. If you’re in the EU, a store in the Czech Republic sells them, otherwise you gotta dig around deeper for an online plug … or hit Kyukyodo IRL.
Carl Auböck’s Brass Incense Holder
This polished-brass outstretched-palm holder, made by hand in Austria, discolors easily if not cared for correctly but is very beautiful. Those in New York can find it available at Mociun. ($480)
Santa Maria Novella’s Scented Terracotta Melograno
We have “pomegranate” from the Florence-based Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella at Blackbird Spyplane HQ, where it has been emanating the brand’s dreamy Melograno Eau de Cologne for five years and counting. ($95)
Takazawa Candle Company’s Duck Candle Snuffer
Like tweezers, but for a flame. ($40)
The perfumer behind this New York City–based fragrance line honed her skills in Grasse, France — the world’s “perfume capital.” The “Nostalgia” scent is an homage to Grasse via a pleasant balance of sweetness (tonka beans, rose de Mai) and sharpness (anise, leather, suede). ($72)