About
The Olfaction Lab is a hands on fragrance lab in Memphis, Tennessee that fosters community and creativity through scent experiences.
"Creativity in one hand and a glass of wine (or your favorite latte) in the other..."
Come make things with us.
x Daphne
THE BEGINNING
My love affair with fragrance began when I was very young.
Before I understood fragrance as an art, I understood it as a feeling.
I remember seeing Loves Baby Soft in an ad in Teen Beat magazine -- the pretty pink bottle, and the description of the sweet scent of lemons, roses and vanilla. I was only about eleven or twelve, but I knew I would love it. There was something about that fragrance that felt pretty and special to me. I remember thinking, I want to smell like that.
Then I discovered Jean Nate in a drugstore and was completely captivated by its bright, citrusy freshness. I was fascinated by the way a scent could create an entire imaginary world around you. At that age, fragrance seemed almost ethereal to me, a beautiful existence captured in a bottle.
Love’s Baby Soft was my first fragrance. Jean Nate was my second. And from there, my curiosity only grew.
I have always been deeply sensitive to scent. I notice the smell of a room or lack thereof, the earth after rain, herbs between my fingers. Fragrance has always had a way of transporting me somewhere.
In college, my fascination took on a different character. I became enamored with Karl Lagerfeld's K.L. fragrance. I remember thinking of it as the scent of sophistication -- rich, polished, grown. It was outside of my college student budget but whenever I encountered it at a department store counter I felt elevated. I remember thinking, This is what I want to smell like when I grow up! Lol.
Looking back, I realize I wasn't simply searching for a perfume.
I was searching for an expression of self. A scent that could speak of who I was, when words alone would not.
Over the next few years, that fascination became a deeper study. After earning my business degree at SMU in Dallas, I immersed myself in herbalism, aromatherapy, holistic wellness and natural medicine. I began working with essential oils and exploring the relationship between plants, scent, physiology and our emotional lives. And I began selling my jewelry and oils at fairs and festivals.
Fragrance became more than something beautiful to wear.
It became a language. It became an outlet.
It became a way of connecting to the natural world with memory, emotion, imagination.
Today, that same sense of wonder is at the heart of what I still create. I believe some of the most beautiful things happen when we allow curiosity and creativity to meet, when knowledge meets intuition, when botanicals meet artistry, and when a little inspiration is poured into the glass alongside the wine.
This is my invitation to you:
Come create with us.
Come explore.
Follow the scent.
--Daphne
New Address:
Wolfchase Galleria Mall
2760 N Germantown Pkwy
Memphis, TN 38133
Lower Level next to Dillards