Founded by a desire to give a connection to the natural world and harness the holistic power of scent to transform your energy, mindset and space, Aja Botanicals is a British fine fragrance brand with a passion for natural ingredients.
Amongst rolling hills, wild meadows, and ancient woodland, Aja Botanicals’ founder Tilly Wood grew up surrounded by quintessentially English countryside in the Cotswolds. Some of her earliest memories are connected to the scents she remembers from childhood, the aromatic smells of nature transporting her back to the natural beauty of the romantic landscape. ‘Memory and scent go hand-in-hand,’ says Tilly. ‘My first memories are very much the smell of stables, horses and leather, but also of oil paints and turps because my grandmother was an artist.’
It is this ability of scent to enrapture you, taking you to another time, place or mindset, and the transformative effects of connecting with nature, that is at the heart of the Aja Botanicals philosophy.
From an appreciation of a simple act such as smelling a flower or rambling beneath a canopy of woodland trees, Tilly created a brand centred on the meditative and uplifting effects of natural fragrances. ‘A walk in the woods isn’t always possible, but fragranced products can provide a quick, easy way for people to slow down, reconnect and relax,’ Tilly explains. ‘Scent can be a very effective and powerful part of our self-care kit, but I feel like it’s really under-utilised as a wellbeing tool.’
Our founder, Tilly Wood, created Aja Botanicals out of a desire to create more natural fragrances.
As a former model, and the mother of young children, Tilly’s pathway into perfumery happened quite naturally. Interested in a preventative and natural approach to healthcare, Tilly developed a more holistic approach to wellbeing, becoming aware of the ingredients surrounding her. ’Using a combination of herbal and homeopathic medicine, cranial osteopathy and flower remedies, I found solutions to most of my family’s basic physical and emotional needs,’ she explains, ’It made me think about what kind of products I was using to clean the house and what I was putting on my skin. With candles and perfumery, I discovered a lot of fragrances contain synthetic ingredients, which I find very invasive, so I wanted to create something more natural.’
A study of natural perfumery confirmed Tilly’s ambition to make fine fragrances with a focus on natural ingredients, providing a simple yet effective way for others to enhance their wellbeing. ‘I started Aja Botanicals because I want to share some of the comfort and support that having a holistic approach to health has given me,’ she explains. ‘I believe that everyone has innate healing abilities that we can tap into, and we can all benefit from the transformative power of natural fragrance.’
Launching with four aromatic experiences, each fragrance is available in three different sizes of candle, encapsulated in beautiful, black or white, hand-blown glass vessels. There’s the warm and woody Into The Mystic, the nostalgically floral Hello, I Love You, the sweet, smoky Walk On The Wild Side and the herbaceous Dreams.
The design of the vessel was very important, because it's something that you have in your home, so it needs to reflect your environment,’ says Tilly. ‘We spent a lot of time getting the opacity of the glass just right to ensure a lovely glow as the candle burns, and they are such beautiful objects, which is why it was really important for us to do refills.’ Mindful of creating long life cycles for the products, each candle will soon be able to be refilled or repurposed, for less waste and a lower carbon footprint.
While the vessels embrace the beauty of simplicity, the packaging is distinctive, playful, and full of character - just like the scents they are inspired by. Turning to artist Chiara Perano, an illustrator who works with the beautiful colours and textures of pastels to create vibrant artworks, Tilly wanted the style to be spontaneous, free flowing, and lustrous, just like nature itself. Key ingredients such as oakmoss, lavender and geranium come to life in her playful and expressive style. ‘I wanted each image to feel like she's just drawn it. Like nature, it's not too neat and it spills over the edges,’ says Tilly.
As we embark on an exciting, aromatic journey of discovery, the future of Aja Botanicals smells bright. Reed diffusers and candle and diffuser refills, in the same four fragrances, will launch soon. Then there are whispers of eaux de parfum and body product on the horizon, as well as initiatives in development to plant wildflower meadows and work more closely with producers. The aim of Aja Botanicals to provide a sense of wellbeing will always remain at the heart of what we do.
