The key ingredient in The Burren Perfumery

I am a person who doesn’t know much about perfume or cologne—I don’t wear the latter and don’t buy the former for my wife (which she doesn’t seem to hold against me). Yet I am fascinated by The Burren Perfumery, which I’ve visited on two different trips to the area.

The Burren Perfumery is a privately-held company headed up by Sadie Chowen, who leads several dozen specialists who work in the labs, the café, and the store while dreaming up and concocting the company’s signature fragrances herself. She draws creative inspiration from the Burren surroundings. “The Burren itself is the key ingredient in our products,” Sadie told me.

Sadie Chowen, owner of The Burren Perfumery

Sadie often goes out on walks or runs in the Burren, and as she does, she says, “I might notice the smell of a particular flower that will get me thinking. There could be a specific plant that I’m working around, or it could be a more general feeling or mood—for example, the crisp smell of a cold autumn morning or the mossy smells of walking through the Burren woodland.”

Based on that initial inspiration, Sadie begins the process of trying to bring that sensation or feeling to life in the form of a fragrance—which is created through extensive sampling, mixing, experimenting, and refining, with much of the work done in the Perfumery’s dedicated lab areas (the Perfume Room, the Blending Room) located near the main showroom area.

It can take months or even years before a new product makes it to the shelf—where it joins about a hundred others (perfumes, colognes, soaps, creams, essential oils) that are sold exclusively through the Perfumery. Chowen doesn’t sell the products wholesale to big retail chains (which is the way most cosmetics companies work) but rather everything is offered directly to customers, either in the Burren store or online. And it’s all made on site, by hand, in small batches.

A Sensory Experience

Just walking into the Perfumery is an experience; needless to say, the place smells great and the displays are clean and elegant. But what makes it special is that it’s not just a store. The Perfumery offers guided tours to see how the various specialists produce the products, as well as hands-on workshops where visitors can try their hand at scent-making. As Sadie notes, “There is very little you can buy today where you can actually see it being made and talk to those making it.”

Also on its grounds, the Perfumery has a beautiful, large herb garden and a Tea Room serving fresh-baked scones, pies, and cakes with herbal teas made from leaves grown in the garden. (During my visit I tried writing in the Tea Room, but it was a bustling place with lots of regular customers going in and out).

Sadie Chenow (right) during the final stages of the bottling and packaging of a signature perfume.

The final stages of making a new batch of Burren Perfumery soaps

In the organic Perfumery café

Fresh baked goodies from a pastry chef

Checking out the showroom aromatic samples and plenty of gift ideas

Greenhouse where special herbs and flowers get through the winter

A small portion of the fragrant herb garden

Origin Story

The Burren Perfumery has been around since 1972, but originally it was a more limited, low-key operation until Sadie came on board.

Interestingly, Sadie was new to the perfume business—and also new to Ireland and the Burren. Having grown up in England and France, she only happened to come to the Burren to visit a friend there. But—like a number of people I interviewed—she had an immediate affinity for the place. “It was almost like a sense of déjà vu, and a feeling that this was the right place for me,” she says.

Within a year, Sadie used all the money she had at the time to buy a broken-down cottage that she had come upon in the Burren. As she settled in there and began fixing it up in the late 1990s, she took a job at the Perfumery to support herself, working for the original owner. Then, eventually, she sold her fixed-up cottage and used that money to buy the Perfumery in 2001.

A few years later, she was joined at the company by her husband, Ralph Doyle. A former tech executive—as well as a noted photographer—Doyle brought business savvy and an eye for aesthetics to the Perfumery. Together they’ve grown it into a thriving business and a must-see stop for Burren visitors.

Ralph Doyle and Sadie Chowen of Burren Perfumery

What I like best about the Burren Perfumery is that it’s a living example of how the nature that surrounds us can inspire creativity. As Sadie told me, “The Burren is the inspiration behind what I do and why I do it. If this business was located somewhere else, it would be a completely different business.”