Posted on: July 3, 2008
Scents & Sensibility
Harry Slatkin, the man behind the home-fragrance revolution, believes scent is the most powerful decor element - and the easiest way to redecorate a room
By Robert Sharoff
CTW Features
Image courtesy Dan Hallman, Dan Hallman Photography
Over the last 17 years, Harry Slatkin has carved out a unique reputation as the country's leading home-fragrance guru.
"Scent helps you relax," he says. "It also creates different moods. It can completely change the atmosphere of a party."
In addition to scented candles, he also creates and markets plug-ins, which are devices that release scent gradually throughout the day.
Slatkin practices what he preaches. "I have scent in my office, I have scent everywhere I go," he says. "I also wear a personal scent that I created called Black Fig and Absinthe and spray myself with it every 20 minutes."
For years, Slatkin's candles - including his Bamboo and Jasmine-infused creation - were mainstays at high-end stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys New York and Neiman Marcus.
He also pioneered the market for celebrity home fragrances starting with a best-selling scented candle he created in association with pop star Elton John.
Currently, he oversees product development for Limited Brands home collections at Bath & Body Works, White Barn Candle Co. and Henri Bendel.
HOMESTYLE: What are you smelling at this exact moment?
HARRY SLATKIN: Right now, I'm in my office and I'm burning my newest candle, which has a pineapple orchid scent. I have seven candles on my desk and I rotate between them depending on how I feel on a given day.
HS: How do you feel today?
SLATKIN: I'm ready for summer! I want freshness and cleanliness, and pineapple orchid evokes those feelings in me.
HS: How personal is scent?
SLATKIN: It's very personal. There's no correct scent for a room or house. It's what you like. I think of it as a way of looking into a person's soul.
HS: Are there fragrances that just about everyone loves?
SLATKIN: The obvious ones are fruit and floral scents. Everybody does those. When I do them, however, I try to add a note of mystery or complexity by introducing some contrasting notes.
HS: How many scents do you create a year?
SLATKIN: Typically six to eight per season. Some are variations on existing candles, some are completely new. Basically, when I'm creating a candle, I think of it almost as a movie. It's going to burn for three or four hours and create its own unique ambience. I want it to have twists and turns and, hopefully, an exciting ending.
HS: Any fragrances you can't abide?
SLATKIN: I can't be near gardenia or tuberose. They give me headaches. Whenever I go to the opera or the ballet, I always seem to get stuck behind some lady who has doused herself with gardenia. If I go to somebody's house and they're burning a gardenia candle, I always blow it out.
HS: You're known for creating celebrity candles for clients such as Elton John, Madonna and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. How does that process work?
SLATKIN: My first celebrity scented candle was for Elton John and it began when he came into my store one day - this was eight or nine years ago - and bought $38,000 worth of scented candles. We became friends after that and he later invited my wife and I to his 50th birthday party. We decided to create a special scented candle for him as a birthday gift. Elton has the most amazing garden at his house outside of London. Basically, it's all white flowers. He literally went into the garden, picked the flowers he liked and gave them to me. Then we did a whole series of formulations and went back and forth on them for a while. The whole process took about six months.
HS: How did you get started as a fragrance guru?
SLATKIN: Vera Wang had a lot to do with it. I started off as an investment banker at Bear Stearns back in the 1980s. At Bear, I had a friend named Arthur Becker, who was engaged to Vera. They're now married. This was before Vera launched her bridal company. Back then, she was an accessories designer for Ralph Lauren. Anyway, we all went out to dinner one night and, at the end of the evening, Vera said, "You know, banking seems right for Arthur but not for you. You're more of a creative type." And I realized she was right. I was bored by banking.
HS: So what did you do?
SLATKIN: My brother is an interior designer. Back then, he liked to give scented candles as gifts to his society lady clients. In fact, he had started a small company to make the candles. He was too busy to do much with the company, however, so I persuaded him to let me run it. Starting your own business is hard. There wasn't much money in the beginning. But I immediately liked it better than banking.
HS: How has the business changed over the years?
SLATKIN: When I started, the market for home fragrances was pretty undeveloped. Basically, you had Rigaud candles at the top end and those little fir tree air fresheners you see hanging from rearview mirrors at the bottom end. There was almost nothing in between. Today, the business is a lot more sophisticated.
HS: How does scent relate to home decorating? Do certain scents go with certain styles of décor?
SLATKIN: I think fragrance is décor. It's the easiest, most inexpensive way to change the ambience of a room. For humans, the keenest sense is the sense of smell. When you walk into a room, the first thing that hits you is the scent.
HS: Should a house have more than one scent?
SLATKIN: Absolutely. The reason is your nose adjusts to scent over time and gradually you stop smelling it. But if you have different scents in different rooms, your nose gets refreshed. It's like pushing the reset button.
HS: How do you know if you've overdone it?
SLATKIN: Watch your friends' faces when they enter a room. If they mop their brows or start to look dizzy, you know there's a problem.
