For our second episode of The Feel Good Wedding Podcast by Polka Dot Wedding, Dorothy has handed over the hosting reigns to Mary aka Ms Rose (she/her) for a fun conversation chatting about the art & science of scents with marine scientist and science communicator, Peta Morton aka Peta Marine on Tiktok (she/her).
Peta also has a huge passion for perfume (and other cosmetics tbh). She graduated with first class honours in marine science from the University of Queensland and is now studying her masters, working full time in the environment sector, and making TikToks of course! Peta started her TikTok in lockdown to overcome the mind-numbing boredom. And to this day she is still mucking around and having fun while loving being able to review and test so many wonderful products and provide recommendations for her audience!
In this chat we talk about:
- How fragrance creation actually happens
- How to take care of your fragrances
- Why fragrances are such personal preference
- How to choose a wedding scent
- How to use a scent as a special part of your wedding
- Other ways to incorporate scents into your wedding day
When discussing choosing a scent for your wedding day, Peta shares ‘You want something that is a hundred percent you, that you love, but I wouldn’t make it something that’s your every day. If you use it as a tool, so you spray it on yourself throughout the day, on your hair, on your dress, on your clothes and then say it comes around to your anniversary the next year and you spray it again.
You’ll actually have formed a memory with the scent. Your brain will have locked that scent in your memory of your wedding day, and you’ll remember it way more clearly because it’s connected to the scent.’
We hope you enjoyed this fun episode! We’d love for you to share on your socials and tag @polkadotwedding and help us to share the podcast with more people.
Links & vendors mentioned:
Professor Perfume
Nearly Nose Blind
Jo Malone Fragrance Experience
“Under The Lemon Tree” Replica
“Whispers In The Library” Replica
Find Peta:
On Instagram: @petamarine
On Tiktok: @petamarine
This podcast was produced by Polka Dot Wedding & Sarah Harney.
The Polka Dot Wedding team is honoured to conduct our work on the land of the BoonWurrung, WoiWorung, Eora and Kuring-gai people. We honour the traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders custodians of the land and pay our respects to Elders past, present & emerging.
Episode Transcript
Dorothy Polka:
Hello, and welcome to The Feel Good Weddings Podcast, a podcast by Polka Dot Wedding.
My name is Dorothy, otherwise known as Ms Polka Dot and I am the founder and editor. I have spent 15 years building a website that is full of your wedding stories. It is full of the ups and downs, the ins and outs, why you chose what you chose. And I’m really excited to have these discussions with you on a podcast.
Today it’s even more exciting because I’m handing the reigns over to one of my wonderful colleagues, Mary, otherwise known as Ms. Rose. Today she’s going to be your host and I hope you welcome her with open arms. You’re gonna love her just as much as I do.
The Polka Dot Wedding team is honoured to conduct our work on the land of the BoonWurrung, WoiWorung, Eora and Kuring-gai people. We honour the traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander custodians of the land, and we pay our respects to elders past and present.
Hello and welcome today. I am joined by a very special guest, except she’s not really a guest. Today she is our host, not only at Polka Dot Wedding, it’s not just me – Ms Polka Dot or otherwise known as Dorothy, but I’m also surrounded by an amazing team of people around the world. One of them is our specialty blog editor, Ms. Rose, also known as Mary, who is responsible for all the content across our specialty titles at Polka Dot Wedding. So she’s in charge of Polka Dot You, Polka Dot Wisdom, Polka Dot Honeymoons, and Polka Dot Made. And she talks to wedding vendors and couples every single week. So I’m really thrilled today that she is our host. And I’m really excited to introduce you to the person that she’s speaking to. Hello, Mary.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Hi, Ms Polka! How are you going?
Dorothy Polka:
I’m good. I’m so thrilled about your guest today because I came across her on TikTok some months ago, and I’m really excited to hear more of what she has to say. Who are you chatting to?
Mary (Ms Rose):
I am chatting to Peta Morton, otherwise known on her TikTok as Peta Marine. And let me tell you, she is a lot of fun. We had a really, really fun chat. Peta is a Marine scientist and a science communicator. Not only is that super cool. She also has this really incredible TikTok, as I mentioned, Peta Marine, and it is based around cosmetics and perfume, and she’s really fun. And, has this fantastic banter.
It’s like you’re speaking to one of your friends about your favourite cosmetic or your favourite fragrance. And that is really what we delved into in our chat, which you’re going to love. She really started the chat off in a way that really changed the way I think about fragrance. And, she explained it as a really incredible form of science and art coming together to create something beautiful, which I thought was really poetic. And really emotive and lovely, which then led into us talking about fragrance for your wedding day, how to choose it, some tips and ideas on how best to pick one together with your partner.
She also had some fantastic ideas on how to incorporate fragrance into your wedding day and some really cool ideas that I know that our couples are going to love to hear about because I thought they were fantastic.
Dorothy Polka:
Awesome. Cannot wait to hear this one.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Let’s get into it. You’re gonna love it.
Dorothy Polka:
Just letting you know, as total podcast newbies, we do have a few issues with today’s sound. We have rectified this for future episodes, but do keep that in mind as you listen.
Mary (Ms Rose):
So I think the best place to start is for you to tell us a bit about yourself,
Peta Morton:
Ooh. Wow. Okay. This is, you really do have to stop me if I go too long because you don’t please – the thing of the thing about me is that I do a lot of different things and they will have tangents and avenues.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Very cool.
Mary (Ms Rose):
So the main thing that I see myself as first and foremost is a Marine Science communicator. I grew up on the Gold Coast. I grew up around the ocean and so that’s just like the most important thing to me. And I always was really interested in science and academia and things like that. So I’ve gone into actually learning about it. Scientifically, and that’s a really weird way to say that.
Mary (Ms Rose):
I got it.
Peta Morton:
I went into uni for that and loved it. Um, I’m now in my Masters doing Marine Science, which is so amazing and so much fun. Um, but I have loads of other things that I’m interested in, like public speaking and acting and obviously cosmetics and perfumery and things like that.
One of the reasons perfumery specifically interests me is because I think it’s just the most perfect amalgamation of arts and science, because the way it’s built is literal chemistry. It’s just chemistry, that’s it. And then, but the way you make it enjoyable and fun and make people want to wear it is art. And that’s like how they collide together. And I just think it’s so cool to actually see it in action and perfumers are insanely talented because they have to be really good scientists and also really good creative people. And if you’re in science, you kinda know that’s hard to come by.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Well, for people who I’ve known have been one way or the other. Yeah, that is, I think that’s a real you’re so right. It’s a really, um, a special mix of a person who can combine the two and create something so beautiful.
Peta Morton:
Mm. A hundred percent.
Mary (Ms Rose):
And so specific, really specific.
Peta Morton:
Oh yeah.
Mary (Ms Rose):
And emotive. That’s amazing. I love, and everything you just said was just felt amazing to hear.
Peta Morton:
Okay, well, that’s good.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Well, that’s good. Like it, I absolutely agree. Like I think that scent is such a personal thing but it’s not just something that can be thrown together because that can turn very bad.
Peta Morton:
Oh yeah.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah. So I love that idea of the science behind the creativity and the art and this lyrical thing that happens when you smell a beautiful scent on someone or the memory that is conscious. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I’m just having a really lovely moment.
Peta Morton:
I should mention as well, because you’re mentioning the emotive and the way that it brings up memories. That’s the other science. Of scent that I really enjoy is the neuroscience behind it, because there is actually some really solid, really interesting like psych and neuroscience that can explain why scent is so linked to memories, which I think is important to what we’re talking about today. So I wanted to like, just throw that into the beginning.
Mary (Ms Rose):
It absolutely is. You know, I love it. That that’s so true. And because weddings they’re hopefully for better, really memorable moments in not just a couple’s life, but in their family, their friends, anyone who’s there for it. That’s a memory you sort of want to harness and keep. And I think that for a wedding that can be something you can kind of curate.
Peta Morton:
Oh, absolutely , like a tool.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yes.
Peta Morton:
Yeah. Science .
Mary (Ms Rose):
Thank you. That’s wonderful. Obviously, you’re sort of answering this, you know, as what got you interested in scent and perfume, but can you sort of pinpoint exactly what it was about it or when it was like, is there a moment that you went, this is something.
Peta Morton:
Actually, yes. and it’s kind of weird. So essentially in my grade 10 chemistry class, or it might have been grade 11, no grade 11, my grade 11 chemistry class, we had to do these things called EIS, which is basically like baby’s first research. You just like try and do your very first research project from start to finish from, you know, conceptualisation to writing it up.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah.
Peta Morton:
I can tell you as a scientist now whew. We are far off, but you know, it’s a good little, particular time in the water.
Mary (Ms Rose):
You going to try, you have to start somewhere baby steps.
Peta Morton:
Exactly. And because my school, was an all girls school and we were reasonably behind the times at this point in time. I don’t know how they are now. But at the time; hopefully better. We were told that the EIS had to be relevant to us, so it had to be something cosmetic. Because we were girls, of course.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah. Ah, all over conversation, all over conversation.
Peta Morton:
I remember we were all being. Mm-hmm okay. Sure. yeah.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Great. Thanks so much for that.
Peta Morton:
Yeah. There was a lot of sass in the room.
Mary (Ms Rose):
We’ll do the assignment precisely. And so me and my, uh, lab mates, we were like, we want to do something like actually pretty scientific. We wanted to feel like scientists. We wanted to feel like cool chemistry ladies um, and so we were like, you know, what’s really hard to make perfume. Um, so why don’t we try and do that in three weeks? Well, like what? Just, just do it. Let’s just do it.
Peta Morton:
I mean, Every 14 year old girl knows how this feels when you just have like, absolutely unbridled confidence and a God complex. And you’re just like, I can do this because I will. And like, to be fair, we did, we actually distilled all of our own ingredients serious.
Mary (Ms Rose):
You’re basically, god-like.
Peta Morton:
It was a whole thing. I remember we asked the lab assistants, the lab tech, we were like, okay, this is what we need. And we basically went like, you know, what’s in – what smells. Essential oils. So we just picked out like three essential oils that we liked. I think what we had, I think there were lemon, maybe rosemary. And I remember one of the woody aspects because I was a very, not like the other girls’ girl for a period of time.
So I would not have florals in my fragrance, uh, not at the time, but then we also, because it had to be an EIS we had to distill something because we just learned how to do distillation. Which is a really cool piece of kit by the way. It’s very cool. It’s very fun.
Mary (Ms Rose):
It’s it’s really, it’s very fun. It’s very technical.
Peta Morton:
Should I explain the basics of how it works or is that too much?
Mary (Ms Rose):
No. Why not? Look, I’m going to say. I’d love to hear it from the inner paired down kind of way, even because look, I, as a background to that – my husband and I, we went a few years ago now to Grasse in France and went to all their beautiful distilleries and made our own perfumes and the process of it. And it was, and I still have my perfume. He still has his.
What’s really funny is that I made mine years ago and I called it – I don’t know why it just came to me. I called it Florence and that’s the name of my daughter now. I called my daughter Florence. So it was a really sort of beautiful core memory for me and for him and we just enjoyed it and we can still order our scent.
Peta Morton:
Oh, that’s good because it’s in France. Like, I didn’t know how to get that. You don’t want to have to rejig or God forbid, ask for someone to find you (the recipe) that would be so stressful.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Just so exactly. So in that was a roundabout way of saying yes, please do. Give me a rundown on distilling and like what the process is.
Peta Morton:
Okay. So essentially the way that, distillation works to the best of my knowledge now, remember I only did first year university chemistry, so I’m not a chemist. I left that lifestyle, but basically you have your heat source, so that’s for us, usually a Bunsen. And then you put in your substance that you want to distil. There are loads of different molecules that can come out in distillation, scent being one of them. It depends on your material as to what it will smell like. It’s not always going to smell the same.
Say you distil rosemary. It may not smell like rosemary. It may smell like something else. It won’t smell exactly the same, because heat will change the molecule that is scent and it’ll also bring out other molecules with them. So essentially what happens is you put the thing that you want in a solution of something else, usually water or alcohol or something like that, or in oil. I mean, we used water because we were basic and young and we didn’t really know how to do anything.
Then you put that in there and then essentially you heat it up till it’s just above boiling point. Now with fragrances, you don’t want to heat it. You want to take, you want to use as little heat as possible, because you don’t want to break the molecules. Molecules will break with increased energy. It just depends on like what molecule, depending on how much energy, there’s a whole bunch of stuff involved, but essentially you want to keep it as low as possible. And then when it evaporates your solution, it picks up on those molecules and takes it with it. And then you put it through this really little tube and then as it goes through the tube, it cools down because it’s being spread out, being exposed to the cold air on the other side. I mean, you hope it’s cold. It was the Gold Coast. It wasn’t super effective.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah. Yeah.
Peta Morton:
Better in colder areas.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah, but as it cools down, it condenses again, it’s like goes back from steam to a liquid and then that liquid comes down and then that’s your essential oil. Now, there are loads of different things you can do at the other end that may not be a pure, essential oil. I’m sure a lot of essential oil manufacturers do far more to their oils than just distill it once. They could be triple, quadruple, distilled. You can do all sorts of filtering and things. Do you get less each time though? It gets more condensed and you get less.
Peta Morton:
I would say from a basic chemistry point of view, and this could be fact-checked – that it, your product will change because the way you’re dealing with molecules is changing. Yeah. But that’s how we did our distillation in our chemistry and I remember the first thing we distilled was citrus peels, which are really easy to distil. Almost anyone can do that. It’s just citrus peels, they’ve got oil in them. Right. Like you’re just extracting the oil. It’s just an easy way (to distil the oil).
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah.
Peta Morton:
But then we were like, Hmm. Lemon’s kind of boring. Maybe we could do something else. What else could we distil? And then I think the one that I remember very, very clearly is , I want this to be a woody fragrance. And in my head, you could distil anything, which is spoiler – not true. I mean, you can try, but it doesn’t always work.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah. No throwing things in.
Peta Morton:
We were just kind of assuming at the time that if we threw something in one end of the distillation setup, That on the other end, we would be able to smell it in an oil. Well, I guess if you, if something has sent you sort of assume it can be extracted to that. Yes, exactly. Yeah.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Incorrect, I guess like that’s yeah.
Peta Morton:
Incorrect in practice. Um, but we were 14 and didn’t know that. So I remember telling my friends, I wanted wood and I was like, can you get me some wood? And they ventured out into the school. Middle of the day. I don’t know. Yeah.
Mary (Ms Rose):
I love how you made them. I love how you made them go and do it too. You weren’t like, I’m gonna go get some wood.
Peta Morton:
I kind of made myself the live captain. Um, Jess K, if you listening to this, I deeply apologise, but I was watching the Bunsen. So I remember I had a job.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah, you weren’t just sitting back.
Peta Morton:
No, but I could have gone. But I was like, can you guys get some wood? And they were like, yeah, no problem, left. And then came back like an hour later, like a really long time later, I remember being like way up are they, my teacher asked where they were, people were asking. I was like, I don’t know. I sent them off to get wood. And they came back with handfuls of mulch from the garden and they just like put it in the flask. And I came back and I was. There’s dirt in my flask. Why is there dirt in my flask?
Mary (Ms Rose):
Look to be fair – soil and dirt can smell really good.
Peta Morton:
Absolutely. Yeah.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Maybe, maybe that’s where they were coming from. Maybe they were like, nah with the wood.
Peta Morton:
Absolutely. And so, yeah, that’s what came, that’s where we got our woody scent from. Yeah. And to be fair, we got fragrances out of all of them. Were they woody, were they citrus? Maybe not. They were just, that was in oil. And so we mixed it into our alcohol base. And then I remember the research part of our EIS was seeing if people could tell the difference between our perfume and high-end perfumes. Um, so a couple of girls brought them in from home. The lab techs brought in some of theirs from home. I remember they got Elizabeth Arden, Sunflowers, and Daisy. Which, you know, totally good fragrances.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah. Yeah, totally classic.
Peta Morton:
And we sprayed them on strips and then we passed them around to the class and made everyone like blind, double blind test. Yeah. And made sure to see whether people could figure out whether which one ours was – um, they could. Yeah. Yeah, they absolutely could. Uh, ours ranked in dead last. Um, oh, did I think we got an average of 0.1 star out of five.
Mary (Ms Rose):
It was a first go. I’m proud of you guys and I wasn’t even there and I hadn’t even tried it. Um, so do you think that’s where after doing that, did you really like the process and enjoy it and love the idea of that creating like that? The creating of it?
Peta Morton:
I think two things – I enjoyed making it. I really did enjoy making it. I liked the creative side. I liked the chemistry. The second thing was just that I wanted to be better. I was miffed honestly, that I’d lost. I didn’t rank number one, and I wanted to know exactly what these perfumes had in them. Why they smelt better apparently – like why people were more attracted to them than mine. And so then I started looking into it, then I learned about aroma chemicals and how they’re made and how it’s like these scent organs and all these insane things. And then I remember thinking like, oh, well, no wonder I lost. Like the Elizabeth Arden probably had Maison Francis Kurkdjian working on it. Can you imagine if you’d lost to a 14-year-old in the lab.
Mary (Ms Rose):
It’d be, it’d be over like, over like just.
Peta Morton:
But yeah, that’s how it got started. I love it. Strange story, but yeah, that’s it.
Mary (Ms Rose):
No, I love it. I love the strange stories and, and I guess, what inspired you, to start your channel. Is that something that you just did in everyday life where you really were like super into fragrance and sort of working out what notes are high, middle, and low, and you know, that sort of thing. Mm-hmm, what made you decide you wanted to create a channel about it and talk about it and put it out there?
Peta Morton:
I’ve always wanted to do a visual medium something. So I’ve had like three YouTube channels. I’ve done like TikTok. Um, I wanted to do Marine Science communication, which I still do, on occasion, but then in the middle of lockdown last year, because I moved to Sydney about a month before we lockdown. Whoa, cool. Yeah. Gosh I know. And I’m in an apartment with no balcony. And so I lost my mind, just a little, just a little, and then I filled that space that I lost and I was watching a lot of perfume TikTok.
So one of my favourites is Professor Perfume. Nearly Nose Blind – they’re all lovely, lovely people, wonderful channels. And I remember thinking, oh, I’m really interested in this. Like, why don’t I just make a video about it? And so then I just kind of did, and then I just kept doing it because I was like, I actually have more things in my brain than I need to get out because they’re just sort of rattling around and really annoying me. And yeah, that’s was in the beginning, how I was talking about it. It was just whatever I was really feeling in the moment.
If I had something to say about a fragrance – I don’t know that I was thinking about, I would make a video. And I still do to be fair. Like, yeah. It’s just basically whatever I’m thinking about at any random time, although to answer your previous question. Yes, I do get sent some stuff now, which is a financial blessing, to be honest, because perfumes so expensive – they are so expensive.
Mary (Ms Rose):
They are so expensive.
Peta Morton:
They are very expensive. And I appreciate it because part of what I do now – and I, I have to be aware of this because it’s a responsibility. I give recommendations. I am very aware that people will listen to what I say and people may go out and buy it. Always sample first though, I want to put that out there – sample before you buy, please make sure you love it. Because if I love it doesn’t mean you will.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Absolutely. Well something that I remember someone saying to me, you know, and it look – saying it back, it makes perfect sense, but I was like, what is that? Fragrance will smell different on everybody. And what you like, what you smell is totally different to what someone else smells. So something that, you know, I love – you might smell it and go, oh my God. And that would just sort of blow my mind when I, I remember being told that years ago. But it’s the same stuff though. Like it’s all the same stuff put together. Everyone’s smelling the same thing. Absolutely different experience for each person. So I get a sample, give it a sample because…..
Peta Morton:
Yeah, one hundred percent sample it.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah, totally.
Peta Morton:
Yeah. So I do appreciate that I get sent stuff, especially from small Aussie brands. Cause I want to be able to talk to them. I want to be able to absolutely give them a base. I want to be able to talk about. Amazing stuff’s coming out of this country, honestly, and New Zealand because I’m half Kiwi. And so I like to talk about small brands and indie brands that I just think are doing amazing stuff, but I don’t have the money to buy a bottle of all of them. So I am hugely appreciative when brands give me the opportunity to smell and talk about their stuff.
Mary (Ms Rose):
That’s wonderful.
Peta Morton:
So, to go back to what you were saying about perfumes smelling different on everyone. It is absolutely true. And the science behind it is really interesting. Because I remember I heard a lot of people talking about skin pH and I was like, hmm, interesting. Because I’m not sure if pH changes that much person to person. So I looked it up. It doesn’t change that much. But from what I can gather from just my personal experiences with fragrance and people, they absolutely do smell different on people. And, I think skin chemistry is a good way to put it, but it may be like your body lotion or your soap or your clothing or your environment. All of those things will make a fragrance smell different.
For example, when I moved down from Brisbane to Sydney, everything changed because suddenly there’s not water molecules in every second molecule of air that I have muddying all my fragrances. Now I can actually smell them. And then also, it’s also your subjective experience so they can change on you physically and they’ll smell different on me, to me. But I also think a huge thing is our subjective experience. So the way you perceive a fragrance, I can’t understand what that is, but it’s also, there’s no way of saying that it’s the same to me because it’s like vision, right? Like, I can never say that. I see what you see. I have no way of knowing that.
Mary (Ms Rose):
And it’s all like, back to what you were saying about the science and the art it’s an art form. Like it is art and we all perceive art, all types of art in different ways.
Peta Morton:
Oh, a hundred percent.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah. We’ll enjoy some but not enjoy another. And that’s our talking point and that’s that discussion, which we love.
Peta Morton:
Like me personally. I love a citrus. I love citrus because I have so many good memories associated with a citrus – lemons, oranges, sunshine, happiness. However, if you go on the Reddit fragrance forums, oh, my Lord, they hate a citrus. They’re like, really? Oh, it’s just another freshie. It’s just another lemon. Just another light blue. Like I’m not interested. They are harsh on citrus or citrus. That’s why I like TikTok. A lot of the girlies are like me.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Totally. Like I get it. I am here for citrus.
Peta Morton:
I was so sick of the citrus slander. I was like, what is going on with you guys?
Mary (Ms Rose):
They’re cool. I’m a big fan. I’m very big fan. Like just every day, like, you know, cutting up lemon. They’re going. Oh, right.
Peta Morton:
Like the smell of lemon zest is so (I don’t know), busy. Right.
Mary (Ms Rose):
For me personally, I think as we all do smell things differently. But when I get like a lemon or like a Mandarin sort of citrusy smell, I go between being wildly comforted, but also wildly energised. Yeah.It’s a very odd juxtaposition. Like, it’s a very odd thing that happens all at once. And it’s invigorating. Like it’s really beautiful.
Peta Morton:
Like yeah. A hundred percent. If people continue just like literally fist bumping there.
Mary (Ms Rose):
I know I’m like, can we put a video of this somewhere? Like how we were talking about how everyone gets scent differently, smells different fragrances differently, you know, what, what do you think they need to know? So I’m going to bring it back into weddings now. What do you think we need, to think about when we’re choosing a wedding fragrance?
Peta Morton:
Okay. There is so much stuff around this. And I did not even think about wedding fragrances until about last year, when I think I heard Professor Perfume talking about it and I was like, ding, oh my God. That is such a good idea. Having a wedding fragrance. To me that is just like so many people do it. Brilliant because you want something.
Okay. I should bring it back to your question. You want something that is a hundred percent you, a hundred percent you, that you love; please make it something that you love, but I wouldn’t make it something that’s your every day. And this is the thing that I’ve been seeing floating around that I think is just such a brilliant idea. If you use it as a tool, so you spray it on yourself throughout the day, on your hair, on your dress, on your clothes, on your whatever. And then say it comes around to your anniversary the next year and you spray it again. You’ll actually have formed a memory with the scent.
Like your brain will have locked that scent in your memory of, oh, I wore this on that one day and you’ll remember it way more clearly because we the way we remember scent is in our deepest core memories. I’m not sure if it’s the hippocampus or amygdala. I have a feeling it’s the amygdala. I think it’s in your amygdala because it’s so closely related to your flight or fight response, um, which is fear, all that sort of stuff. Right in the middle, our like, in caveman brain, so then basically, because scent has this amazing link to memory and can help us form long term memories, easier.
I think having a wedding day scent, if you want to be able to remember all of your wedding, really, really well, and clearly having a scent that you wear, when you want to remember. It’s gonna be a really cool way of doing it. That’s what I see it as. That’s what I got really excited about. Absolutely. I was like, oh my God. If when I have a wedding, I’m going to be like dousing myself in one thing, and then I’m never going wear it unless I get to remember something. Yeah.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yep. Well, because then it’s not just about you wearing it. Like what if you are out and about and someone is wearing it. Oh yeah. And you smell it and just go, just like, this was, I remember really smelling this and having our first dance or like, I remember walking down the aisle and seeing you at the end and smelling me. Because that’s the first thing you’re going to think about walking down the aisle, but it’s all around you. It’s all part of the experience. And imagine just being at grocery shopping and someone walks past you and they’re wearing the same perfume and you just go, oh, I’m straight back there. I’m picking out cornflakes but I’m just I’m back at the aisle or we’re back having our cake or we’re back at our speeches.
Peta Morton:
And I think that’s important. Actually, what you’re talking about,I’ve seen a couple of people say like, oh, if you have a wedding fragrance, it should be unique like you should, you know, make custom, make it unique and you totally can, but I’m not hugely into this. Like every fragrance must be unique. No one else can wear my fragrance. I’m like the gate keeping sort of side of some stuff. I think that’s like such a fun idea is – if it is something that other people wear, then you get to smell it on other people is kind of fun. And then you get all your memories.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Just suddenly randomly thrown at you. I love it.
Peta Morton:
Yeah. A hundred percent.
Mary (Ms Rose):
And so what we’re talking about now, how you would go about picking it. Yeah, but we’re already emerging into another question I had, which was about ways we can use scent at our weddings to invoke memories.
Peta Morton:
Okay. I’ll do the first one first. And then I’ll go on to the second one. How about that?
Mary (Ms Rose):
Perfect.
Slow it down a bit. I’m gonna go through some things that I think you should think about if you want to do something like that and you want to use fragrance in a way that’s a tool in your wedding. I mean, obviously you just use it for fun. You can just pick whatever you want. Like it’s fun.
Mary (Ms Rose):
It’s fun. It’s so easy.
Peta Morton:
But if you wanted to use it as a way to make it memorable, to have it as a special element in your wedding, then I would say you want something that is really, you. That you don’t see yourself getting tired of. So for example, for me, I’ve always loved citrus.
Now, recently I’ve really been liking saffron. However, I don’t know if I’m going to like saffron forever, but I’ve liked citrus since I was about three. So that’s a good thing for me to go to. Okay. Citrus is a good plan. Um, I say this because you are hopefully going to be wearing it deep into the future. You don’t want to like spray it and then be ooh, actually, oh, I don’t know what I was thinking about that one.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah. What’s tied to my memory of my wedding forever. Yeah, exactly.
Peta Morton:
The second thing I would recommend is maybe don’t get limited editions unless it’s for a really good reason. Oh, wow. Purely, because you can store them really well, and I highly recommend storing them according to directions. So cool, dark place, low humidity, if you can – I’m a Queenslander. So I know that doesn’t mean much up north. Literally, if it’s humid, you can’t make the literal air go under 30 degrees. So whatever, but at best you can try and keep it good.
But whatever the reason I say no limited edition because as a Queenslander who lived in a place where you couldn’t just keep things forever if it does go off, you want to be able to repurchase it. Even if it’s like a slightly different batch or something like that, you’d probably want to be able to repurchase it and get it later. So something that you don’t see being discontinued or you know, is going to be discontinued, is a good way to go.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Like an example, something that’s been around for a while. Like it’s something that possibly is that they’ve had as part of their collection for quite some time.
Peta Morton:
Yeah. That’s ideal. So you don’t need to do that. You could do like just a regular one. You could stock up, you could do a bunch of different things, but just something that you’re not like, I wouldn’t go for something super unique and limited edition because if you know it’s going out of stock, then like you’ve got that one bottle.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah. And that’s it. That’s it. And you have to stretch that out. Somehow you have to make it last and that’s a bit of stress – or it breaks.
Peta Morton:
What if you have a cat or a kid?
Mary (Ms Rose):
I have had a kid break a bottle of my very expensive perfume and oh, I cried. Oh, luckily I could get it again. Luckily it’s still there, but, uh, that moment when it shatters all over the floor full bottle too. So that was really fun. Um, that’s a really good point that I had not even thought about was making sure that you can repurchase it.
Peta Morton:
If you can, if there’s a limited edition one that just speaks to you and you’re like, this is my, you know yeah. Whatever, it’s fine. But if you can try and make it one. You are reasonably sure we’ll be around. So yeah, one of the classics, like a Chanel or I don’t know. I mean, mainly Chanel, to be honest, they’re like, you know, but something like that would be a really, really safe bet. However, as someone who’s not super into Chanel fragrances, that’s not a hard and fast. You can go with whatever house you like. It’s longevity. And then, oh, the other thing I would say is if your partner has, is also doing fragrance, hell yes, totally fantastic. You might want to make sure that they meld well together. Because some of them do not go together.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Gee, that’s clever.
Peta Morton:
Even if it’s like, just for a moment, if you’re just like, oh, that’s kind of annoying.
Mary (Ms Rose):
And you have this little niggle of – did not work for me, or if you’re walking around speaking to your guests and everyone’s sort of like, oh, what’s happening here.
Peta Morton:
So maybe go get them together. That could be really fun. There’s a lot of really cool ways to try scent, like there’s a lot of cool fragrance experiences. I remember for my partner and I’s first anniversary, I took him to Jo Malone to do a fragrance experience.
Mary (Ms Rose):
I love Jo Jo Malone. That’s the fragrance that I had.
Peta Morton:
Oh, you love Jo – they’re good.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Big, big Jo fan. Sorry.
Peta Morton:
As you were saying. So that’s, that’s like a good fragrance experience. And I remember we were in Queen Street in Brisbane and the guy there was so lovely, so, you know, shout out to DJs (David Jones) and they were so sweet. And I remember we were really interested – he had not been interested in fragrance at all, zero interest up until that point, but we got there and that guy was showing him all the different scents and how Jo Malone is quite basic. It’s just what it says on the bottle, which I really appreciate. It’s a really good beginner brand. Um, if you could be a beginner, but you know, if you wanted to get him to the more high level. Sort of behind-the-scenes stuff. It’s a good beginner brand.
Mary (Ms Rose):
I completely agree with that because this is something I do love about them alone is that you can layer the scents and layer the fragrance because they’re literally like the most basic there’s so many of them and they’re the most basic fragrance I have and I never layer it just because I love it too much. I have Red Roses and I’ve had that for years and years and years now.
My palette has changed in terms of, I love many, many different fragrances now, and it’s probably matured in that I’m not solely a floral notes person, but that one for me has set the stage for such a true one that I love. So I love that the idea is you can go in it’s a really basic – basic sounds terrible for such a beautiful brand, but it’s a really basic experience, it’s very approachable. That’s perfect. It’s a great place to start because it’s not like you are reading a bottle going, what is that? Like, although now sometimes, but I love that that’s where your partner started. So you’ve gone in, you’re about to have this experience.
Peta Morton:
Yeah. So I went in and I was like, hey, I want to get you a fragrance that you really like. Um, for our anniversary, because he’d always just, you know, he’d always just been given them by family and friends. And to be honest, I did not like them. I was like, oh man, Keith Urban stinks. Sorry, Keith. I was not into it. I was so against it. I was like, nope, we’re gonna get nice ones.
So he went in and the guy was really nice and he was teaching us about layering. And I remember I was really interested in blackberry and bay. Because I love me some blackberry. I thought it was really nice. And I was also really interested in wood sage sea salt, but I didn’t say anything because I was being a good girlfriend and not inputting, but then Gabe ended up liking those were two and I was so excited. Because I was like, yes. And found it.
So I was sitting there like over the moon, like hell yes. So I got him those two and for the first year or so of our relationship, he was just layering those two. And so now those two, just remind me of like the first, well, the second year, technically, because I bought it for the first anniversary, but that time. Is what reminds me of. To be fair I need to find new ones actually.
Mary (Ms Rose):
That’s really beautiful. I didn’t even think like of how. That’s like a really good point of saying you can make it this really special experience where if they don’t already have a fragrance, that is something that they love and they want to wear, or even you, you can actually, it’s like not to the same extent, but if you are a couple who are going and buying wedding rings together, or engagement rings together.
Peta Morton:
Yeah. it’s a similar idea.
Mary (Ms Rose):
This can fall under that same category because wedding planning is stressful just gonna put it out there like that.
Peta Morton:
Yeah I’ve heard.
Mary (Ms Rose):
S I think any time that you can create romantic moments throughout it, I think is really important.
Peta Morton:
Oh yeah. And there’s, there’s lots of good ones. I think Mecca, I love Mecca. Just putting that out there. I’m a huge fan girl. They have a really fantastic scenting service. They may have only done it for Valentine’s day, but I’m pretty sure they had a “couple scenting service” at some point in time. And they have an amazing range of niche ones and really fun things that you can try out. So that’s another place. There’s Jo Malone, I think a couple of other brands do scenting services. But yeah, those are my two recommendations cause I’ve done them both and I thought they were fantastic.
But going back to the core point of choosing your fragrances, going together is a good idea because you can smell them together. You can see how they work together and play together and whether you like them on each other. That’s a kind of semi-important thing slightly.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Slightly important. It’s such a good point. Do you think that in terms of what to think about when choosing a scent, is your setting going to have anything to do with it?
Peta Morton:
One hundred percent. So setting. Absolutely. Mainly because I mean, I don’t know about other people, but for me, what I want to wear changes. I mean, mainly based on the weather, that’s like a huge one for me. Whether there’s sun or not massive difference on what I want to wear. But also where I am. So for example, I went to Kosciuszko National Park a couple of weeks ago, which was so exciting.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Very cool.
Peta Morton:
But it also changed what I wanted to wear. So I brought Ellis Brooklyn “APRÉS”, I had “By The Fireplace” (from Replica); I had Haze from Who Is Elijah. So all these like woody, fiery, you know, mountain smells.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Moody sort of.
Peta Morton:
Because when does a girl in Australia get to wear mountain scents. Never, we don’t have mountains. I’ll wear it in Sydney, now that I am here. But as a girl from Queensland, I did not get many occasions to be, you know,”By The Fireplace” (from Replica and not have it be like that’s out of place. Would be like, mmm are you meant to be somewhere else?
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah. Yeah. Just checking if I have a really good sense of smell, they’re like, “oh, where have you been?”.
Peta Morton:
Like exactly. So I think there’s definitely scents that people associate with different places. One of my favourite places I’ve ever been to was Greece. And like, I just, ah, I love the vibes. I love the Mediterranean vibes and like bringing it to weddings. I have now thought about what I would like as a wedding perfume and the one that I’ve landed on at the moment and this actually leads to my next point is “Under the Lemon Trees” by Replica.
Mary (Ms Rose):
I did want you… I have never sampled it, but is it just?
Peta Morton:
Highly recommend. To me, the first time I smelled it, I was literally, instantly transported. It was like the first time I’ve ever had that with a fragrance where I was just like, really somewhere else. I felt like I was just when I was a kid, and reading was one of my things. And when we were in Greece, I used to sit under all these trees. Mainly orange trees, because there’s so many orange groves in Greece where you could get fresh orange juice made. And I was really little and I was sitting there reading my Harry Potter book with my fresh orange drink.
Mary (Ms Rose):
I was gonna say, so what were you reading?
Peta Morton:
Harry Potter. I remember I was like seven-ish, years old, I think seven years old and I was on a cliff over the ocean reading, like Order Of The Phoenix or something and. I just remember being very peaceful and that this fragrance and I’m actually wearing it now (and I’m actually wearing it now because I wanted to remind myself to talk about it). I was like, “remember it” just like, ah, every time I smell it.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Oh, you’re there again. You’re back, you’ve left us.
Peta Morton:
That’s why I think so we were talking about Jo Malone being a good entry brand. So is Replica because Replica, instead of just being like “bluebell” or something, it’ll say “under the lemon trees” or “whispers in the library”. It evokes the imagery. Which I think is also kind of easier, because for some people, they don’t know what a bluebell smells like. I.e Me, because they don’t grow in Queensland. I don’t know what that smells like.
Mary (Ms Rose):
I know I’ve never. Yeah, absolutely. And then you sense it, you know, you smell it and go, I guess that’s it ?
Peta Morton:
That’s what a bluebell smells to me now, but I didn’t know before. Whereas with Replica it’s very much transportive.
So it depends on what sort of you want, but that brings me to my next point in choosing your wedding fragrance and why I probably wouldn’t go with “Under the Lemon Trees” in the end because it’s my signature scent. I wear it every day, I’ve kind of, well, not every day now, now that I do perfume stuff, but there was like a whole year where I wore it every single day.
So I’ve sort of muddied the memory. So if you wanted to use it as a tool, I would make it something you buy specifically and wear specifically, you were quite mindful about what you do with it. Because even though I love this, I love it so much. I don’t think it would work in the way that I would want it to work.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Because there’s two sort of sides to that. Isn’t it? Because I absolutely agree with what you’re saying. That if you want it to be a wedding-specific memory evoker. Then, choosing something that is still you, but not your every day makes so much sense. And then there are gonna be people who have this feeling of I’m getting married, but a wedding day planning a wedding is stressful.
Wedding days can be a lot and nerves can kick in and it can feel like a lot. So the idea that they can put on a familiar. comforting blanketing feeling, say, if, say you were really nervous on your wedding day, not feeling, you know, just feeling a bit out of body, just feeling a bit like there’s lots of people, like it’s, it’s a lot putting something on that is peaceful for you that calms you down and takes you somewhere really happy. Could also be a really great tool for calming nerves and for just feeling like yourself in this sort of, I gonna say show that sounds terrible, but like, you know, they can be a big deal.
Peta Morton:
Yeah, no, I agree. It depends on what you’re using it for. That’s the big deal. Absolutely. I completely agree. There are no rules.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah. It’s you, do you, do you boo, like it’s absolutely you. Do you think there are other ways that you can use sent in a wedding too?
Peta Morton:
Oh, absolutely. And I didn’t really think about this until you guys emailed me. And then I was like, Hmm, what would I do if I had like, just A) l mean an unlimited budget, but B).
Mary (Ms Rose):
but that’s good. But I like that because let’s, let’s be honest. Like not everyone has a great budget, not everyone has this huge and also not everyone wants to have a huge budget. So I think, you know, I like the idea of having certain ideas that, that will, that will go over an array of budgets and ideas.
Peta Morton:
So another idea. That I had, let’s say you’re not into personal fragrance, but you still wanna do the memory thing. Like maybe you get migraines or things like that if you wear fragrance sent too close to your body? Candles, girl, get candles, you don’t need to get fancy ones. . There are candle influencers out there. So, you know, they know a lot more than me, but to my plenty brain, I dunno, this is a Kmart candle I have in front of me because I like it really.
Mary (Ms Rose):
So I don’t think we need to be snobby about this. Can I just say, because precise, I will, I will, like, I’m not a candle snob. Like if I like it, it’s coming home. Like it’s, I’m putting it on there while I do the washing up or, you know, or like, you know, or just sit there with a book. Cause you know, it’s sitting there while I try and calm my brain around my lovely children. I think that’s really important to sort point out as well, like you’re saying. Beautiful Kmart candles, beautiful Target candles, go to your cheap shop. If you love the smell of that, get it. Get 10 of them. L
Peta Morton:
Yeah you can do I have a diffuser it too. Like if you want to make like a if you want to use scent as a memory thing at your wedding and you can’t wear personal fragrance or don’t want to. Diffusers, candles, even say hanging up eucalyptus around the room. Very basically just trying to make one common scent throughout the space that will bring you back to it. However, if you want, if you weren’t going for memory things and you were just going for fun, the other thing I thought you could do is let’s say you’re like me and you love like Mediterranean vibes. You’re a Mamma Mia gal. If you’re really into Mamma Mia like me and you wanted to like bring the dancing queen vibes.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Peta Morton:
My thought was you could really go hard. Like maybe we’re not going overseas because that’s expensive not everyone wants to, not everyone has the budget. Most people don’t have the money,
Mary (Ms Rose):
But we’re gonna, we’re gonna transport ourselves there. We’re gonna do the work.
Peta Morton:
Yeah. So what if you could get something like me wearing “Under the lemon trees” or like having orange scents and just like the Mediterranean scents. In the same way that you would decorate a space visually, you can decorate it in scent. And I think that will add to the vibes, higher custom vibes.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah, absolutely. And I think this is so good. It’s actually merging into the next question, which was, you know, scenting your wedding and what this means and what it involves. So how to use them, how to use scent at your wedding to evoke memories, but what are ways to use different fragrances in your wedding?
So what you are saying there about the Mediterranean sort of thing, that can be in styling as well. Like imagine if you have lemons or oranges on your table, you cut them up and you cut a few of them up so that it’s like this like it crushed a little bit. And the scent just sort of wafting around you. Well, like you’re saying hanging eucalyptus. So herbs, you could, you know, potted herbs on tables. What else do you think? What are, what are, well, you mentioned diffusers, which is such a good one and there are some really pretty diffusers now.
Peta Morton:
Oh yeah. I was not really in diffuser realm. I must admit I was really pretty firmly on candle train. And then when I started working with Scent Australia who are fantastic, I really can only recommend them. They’ve been wonderful. They sent me some diffusers and some of them are so nice. I would not even thought to like, look for them. And now I’m like,
Mary (Ms Rose):
“that’s a diffuser?”
Peta Morton:
It feels like actual stone. I feel like I’m not fancy enough to have it in my household. But I love it. It’s on all the time now. It just makes my house smell great. So I can only recommend them. They’re fantastic. But yeah, so diffusers are a good way because you can like sort of hide them and they fill the space quite well without having to have some burning, cuz some people are not super with the burning depending on what you like. There are different options.
Peta Morton:
The other thing I was gonna say in the more, just like. Naturally occurring things that may be occurred, like connected to other things. So I’ve only been to two weddings as an adult. I’ve been to more as a child whereas you probably well know, it is not the same thing.
Mary (Ms Rose):
It’s not the same. It’s you have a totally different experience.
Peta Morton:
A hundred percent. But in the one I went to last year, it. Just, oh man, gorgeous up in the Australian Alps, but it was freezing, so cold. And so what they did to keep everyone warm was have these giant fire pits.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Fabulous,.
Peta Morton:
Which, you know, absolutely fabulous. It was the smell of the bonfire. And they had like leather chairs and. It did really just encapsulate them as well. But yeah, that was like, one thing that did stick with me is just like, obviously the vibes of the night, but it’s all very tied in together. Like the scent of the smoke and the wood and the leather, and the really cool fresh mountain air, which I was not used to, obviously.
Peta Morton:
As a Queenslander, you understand?
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yes, but it’s like a lovely, it’s like you’re having a beautiful big glass of water.
Peta Morton:
Yeah. So refreshing
Mary (Ms Rose):
I, and another thing I was gonna ask, but I think we’re sort of, we’re sort of covering it anyway as we go, but, you know, unexpected ways to, to add scent, like ways that we would just not have thought. Like you mentioned before that the wedding that you went to, where the fires were burning, like the leather like that woody smokey sort of. That’s a really unexpected way that you would not even think would add scent to your wedding.
Do you think that there are other ways that we just may not have thought of that we can, you know, unexpected ways that we could add scent to a wedding?
Peta Morton:
I mean, your food is like one big thing. Pretty much everyone serves food at a wedding, right? Like, if you were going with a citrus theme, I’m assuming you would put citrus in your food, that would just be like base level, party planning. I’m assuming
Mary (Ms Rose):
Please do it.
Peta Morton:
But yeah, like. If you do think about scent, I think the way I think it can sort of come into every element. Because everything smells like something beyond, if you wanted to take it beyond just your own personal fragrance then. Thinking about like, what, how does the scent of the food and the scent of the decorations and the scent of the room and the place I’m in, if you’re in a new place.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah the location.
Peta Morton:
Yeah. How does that of that string together. Does it string together? If it doesn’t? Can I manipulate that in some way? So say you are up in the mountains, but you wanted to have like a beachy style wedding. Could you pump frangapani through, something like that to just change the vibe a little bit.
Mary (Ms Rose):
That’s it? Absolutely.
Peta Morton:
So I think there’s plenty of unexpected ways you can do it, but it’s about thinking about it. In all honesty, I’ve never planned a wedding, so I don’t know all of the things of the wedding. It’s things that I just have no idea that you have to do deal with. That’s what, and you, oh, invitations. That’s a thing, isn’t it? Yes. Invitations. If you could like spray your invitations. If you would need to send something,
Mary (Ms Rose):
You can scent something. That’s a great idea. Pumping.
Peta Morton:
If you were gonna send physical invitations, which I’ve always received. I don’t know how big e-invitations are.
Mary (Ms Rose):
I think I’ve only had one e-invitation.
Peta Morton:
So physical is the norm, if you’re doing physical and you are like, okay. We’re just gonna go back to citrus. Cause it’s basic. We’re gonna make our wedding smell like citrus and like happy, fun, citrus times. Get like, doesn’t have to be a fancy one. Doesn’t have to be the one you’re wearing because that would be, you know, a lot. But just get a citrus fragrance and spray it on the invitation. So when people open it, they smell citrus.
Mary (Ms Rose):
I love that idea. Wow.
Peta Morton:
Now I’m like full into party planning. Now I wanna plan.
Mary (Ms Rose):
I know. Well, because I guess another way I’m doing the same, I’m going, Ooh, how could we do this? If someone has a stylist or a planner, if they, if they can go down that amazing avenue. Is speaking to your stylist, a planner about saying scent is really important to me. This is what I like. How can I, what are the styling elements and how can scent be included in that?
Peta Morton:
Oh yeah. Ask an expert, ask someone who knows where it can be implemented. Both in budget because we have to remember scent is expensive. That’s like one big thing. That’s you can get cheap things like lemons, like just using raw materials or you could get basic perfume from Chemist Warehouse for 10 bucks. You could do that. But I suspect that a lot of people who are getting married, I just suspect a lot of people would be interested in more high end fragrances, if they want more fragrance, a lot of people are. And when I say high end, I don’t mean like high end of fragrance. I mean, no fragrance is high end in itself.
Mary (Ms Rose):
It is, it’s a luxury, isn’t it like it exactly.
Peta Morton:
I don’t wanna, like it’s, you know, it’s super cheap because it’s not, and I know that, but yeah, if you were thinking of it, where are the best ways too. So that you get most bang for your buck.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yeah, absolutely.
Peta Morton:
Yeah.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Now you can see me sort of looking off into the distance here as I’m doing this, because say you are someone who sent is really important to you, or you have a particular fragrance or scent that is, you know, special to you and your partner. This is going out on a limb here of an idea, but in some way, getting like a little roll-on made, depending on how many guests you have as a favour.
Peta Morton:
Oh yeah. Like that would be amazing.
Mary (Ms Rose):
That’s your little, that’s your favour. It’s just this small little roll-on scent. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it, it it’s something that reminds them of you. They might love it. But imagine if everyone’s sitting there at their tables going, “oh, this is my favour” and putting on magic.
Peta Morton:
The cheapest way of doing that would not be roll-ons. it would be, you can get little sample vials off, like eBay, really cheaply. Like where I actually make mine. You can get little two ml ones and then essentially you just spray it in.
So if you have the ability to get like an extra bottle two, you know, to divvy out, we call it decanting in the biz, you a bottle that you’re ready to decant. Then you just pop them into these little things and then yeah, that would be a really easy way to do it.
Also, you gave me an idea, you were talking about things that are special to you or your partner. And I’m very aware that there’s lots of people out there who have people who they would like to be. But can’t be so, for example, me, my grandpa, staunchly conservative man.
The thing he was most excited for in my life, was me getting married and he would always be like, “I’m so excited for you to get married”. Now there are elements to that, which, you know, this a bit more progressive. Knowing that that was something that he always wanted to do means that I really wish I, he could have lived long enough to do that. He was old by the way. He lived a great life. He just was old and my parents are old. And so I was like 16/17. I was like 18 when he died. So that wasn’t gonna happen. Sorry, grandpa.
Mary (Ms Rose): :
We were laughing.
Peta Morton:
Because he would, he would appreciate that. He’s totally fine. He was a jokey man. He would joke.
But the thing that I was like, oh, for people like me who have someone. I really wish he could have been there or could be there if you got a fragrance that they wore or something that reminds you of them. Like for my grandpa, he reminds me of roses because when my grandma died, he planted a rose garden for her. So, and that was like her. I know, I know. It’s very sweet. He was such a sweet man.
Mary (Ms Rose):
That is so beautiful.
Peta Morton:
Yeah. So they’re her roses. They’re still growing to each day. Oh, but yeah, so he reminds me of roses. He also gave me a lot of rose themed gifts.
Mary (Ms Rose):
So was that odd, were you like, thank you, like yeah. Or was it just personally into roses?
Peta Morton:
Yeah I was never personally into roses. That’s why my tone changed because I was like, thanks. Now it reminds me of him. So now it has a slightly better connotation for me.
Mary (Ms Rose):
And your grandmother then, I guess. In a way.
Peta Morton:
By proxy. I think she probably wore rose perfume. She died when I was a bit younger, so I don’t really know, but probably. She was born in the 1920s, so highly likely she wore a rose perfume.
So if you were like me and you had someone who can’t be there that you wish you could, and you have a fragrance associated with them, that could be a really nice way of just like bringing a little bit of them. And it’s more of a personal thing it’s not for everyone to see, it’s just for you.
Mary (Ms Rose):
But that’s the thing that I think gets forgotten about weddings. Yes, you are planning a wedding to have, and not everyone’s doing this, but the idea that a lot of weddings are being planned with the idea of guests being there and you know, your family and friends are part of it and you want to make the experience of the day amazing for them.
But I think what gets lost in it all is the fact that your two people getting married, like this is your day. So I think any time that you can inject little elements to make it more personal that not everyone may get. So whether it’s a song that only you and your partner have an affinity for like that playing at a certain time and you, and you look at each other and go, yeah, I’m seeing you there. We’re hearing this at the same time, same way. Like you’re saying it doesn’t have to include your partner and you, it can include a, a loved one. Who’s no longer there or can’t be there.
Peta Morton:
Yeah. That’s just like, a way you could use it, that you reminded me of.
Mary (Ms Rose):
That’s perfect. No, but that’s perfect. I think we’ve covered a lot, The last question we had, which I think you’ve answered, but was, was just, if you, cuz you were talking about “Under The Lemon Trees” and how that’s, you know, your signature scent and how you probably wouldn’t choose that. Let’s say you’re getting married tomorrow. What would you wear?
Peta Morton:
Whoa. Tough one. Hmm. I would probably want to go find something new because I’ve worn most of my collection. However, the ones that I’m really like would be in that category for me, “Under The Lemon Trees” ,”You Or Someone Like You” by Etat Libre d’Orange (which I can’t pronounce correctly), but that’s like a beautiful lime mint.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yep.
Peta Morton:
Just gorgeous, fresh. And “Philosykos” by Diptyque. Fig. Oh my God. I dunno what it is about fig, but fig reminds me of weddings.
Mary (Ms Rose):
It’s decadent
Peta Morton:
It’s like white. It’s like the white fabric. That’s what “Philosykos” reminds me of. It’s like pure white fabric, which obviously. It has connotations with weddings.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Absolutely.
Peta Morton:
Just like is linked. So to me, fig fragrances. Oh, hell yes.
Mary (Ms Rose):
Yep. I love it. Thank you so much, Peta for meeting me today and chatting and chatting about fragrance, which I think is just such a delicious thing.
Peta Morton:
No problem at all. I’ve really enjoyed it.
Mary (Ms Rose):
That was really lovely. Thank you so much.
Peta Morton:
Thank you. I’ve had so much fun time.
Mary (Ms Rose):
I’m so glad. Thank you.
Dorothy Polka:
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