By Judy O’Gorman Alvarez
TINTON FALLS – If you’ve ever wondered what a painting smells like – what emotions and feelings are evoked by a scene – the creators of Artistscent are here to help. The small family business uses extensive fragrance knowledge and teamwork to create one-of-a-kind scented candles derived from original pieces of art.
“It gives you more of an insight into the artist,” said Natalie Kuhles, founder and president of Artistscent, about the unique process of combining artwork and scents. The company works in partnership with artists to design a candle based on their art, adapting and permanently screening a replica of the artwork onto reusable glass vessels through an exclusive license.
Kuhles, a veteran of the fragrance industry, then collaborates with the artist to create a custom scented candle that captures the artist’s vision of their art.
“The artist tells me what their painting smells like, what was the inspiration for the painting,” said Kuhles, who has 40 years of experience in the fragrance industry, first developing fragrances for a global beauty company and then 20 years managing a creative team for a well-known fragrance supplier.
“I translate that to the fragrance company and speak to perfumers and tell them what I believed that vision was – from an olfactory point of view – and they send me samples,” she explained.
“A fragrance evaluator is like a food critic,” Kuhles said. “The perfumer is the creator.” There are thousands of different ingredients in a perfumer’s palette, like a paint palette, she explained.
She then works closely with the artist who will approve the unique scent for that candle.
“It’s like cooking,” she said. “It needs a little bit of this, a little of that.”
The idea for Artistscent came about when Kuhles and her husband were admiring a piece of art and she wondered what the artist’s inspiration was for the work. “How would this beautiful art smell from the artist’s perspective?’ she asked.
She and her husband launched the business in 2020 from the family home.
Artistscent currently works with three artists to create candles from their collections.
With the Illinois-based artist Elizabeth Karlson line, one of the most popular candles, “Dockside Morning,” was inspired by a vacation to a lake. Although one may conjure up a thought about earthy scents, the candle evokes a wooded cabin scent, because the artist recalled looking at the lake from inside the vacation cabin.
“It gives people another dimension to the art,” Kuhles said.
Artist Ronnie Queenan’s painting “Under Construction” gave him a feeling of his hometown Houston and the scents that surround the city: construction dust, but also newly planted azaleas.
“That’s what it smells like in his mind,” Kuhles said.
Kuhles works with Queenan, a cancer survivor living with AIDS, through their partnership with
ArtLifting, a benefits corporation. Twenty percent of each candle sold in this collection supports artists impacted by homelessness or disabilities. A portion of this goes directly to Queenan.
As a family business, Kuhles handles product development, sales and marketing and her husband John handles operations/finance. Their son Alex, who has been in the fragrance business for four years, recently joined them full time as director and is focusing on sales and marketing. Kuhles’s sister Ilene, an artist, designed all the packaging, ads and the website.
“Being in a family business, we get to know each other in a different way,” Kuhles said. “We’re building something together. It’s challenging for a small business. But it’s rewarding to be together and work together.”
Launching a business just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit was not easy. Now that restrictions have eased, Artistscent products are becoming more available at local markets and sidewalk sales throughout the area. The candles can also be found in several permanent locations, such as Red Bank Artisan Collective, Platypus in Shrewsbury and on the Artistscent website.
Artistscent strives to work with small U.S. business vendors, many of which are also family-owned. All products are 100% made in the U.S.A.
Kuhles said with their candles they’re trying to bring the customer into the art. “Every piece of art does have a story,” she said. “So we’re trying to bring it to life in a more definitive way.”
For more information or to view the candles, visit artistscent.com.
The article originally appeared in the January 19 – 25, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
