Burren Perfumery Ireland, Sadie Chowen
I arrived in the Burren some 17 years ago now and immediately felt as if I had come home. Out of the blue I found myself buying a ruined cottage and subsequently getting involved in the Burren Perfumery.
The Burren Perfumery is set in one of the remotest and most serene places that I have been in. Sometimes when I come back from a journey I drive acroos the Burren, past the Turlough (seasonal lake), along the ever narrower roads, until I get to the top of the leafy drive and ask myself…”how do so many people make their way to the Perfumery?’ It seems occasionally surreal but we have thousands of visitors from all over the world making their way down our drive.
The Burren itself is a quiet and mysterious place that is held as special by the Irish themselves. Many Irish visitors and friends tell of their childhood summer visits to the Burren and see it as a place for reflection, quiet and beauty. We do not take coaches, partly due to our limited grounds, but also because we feel that many of our visitors make a determined effort to get to here, indeed many visitors from the US tell us that they have made it a focus of their trip, and that the ambiance would be spoilt by floods of people. One of the pleasures of coming to the Perfumery is the individual and warm welcome and the feeling of having discovered it by oneself. A stepping out of the busy pace and noise of life into an oasis of quiet and serenity. The pace changes and many customers spend several hours having tea and scones, smelling the creams and soaps and enjoying the native herb garden. Trying to capture the essence of the Burren and Ireland in a short trip, many people drive on and on attempting to see as much as possible of the country.
A visit to the perfumery will bring you into the heart of the Burren, on roads that don’t lead from A to B, away from shops and cars and cash machines. Off the beaten track.
Whilst I purposely keep the Perfumery to a scale and a pace that I feel gives it it’s magic, the products themselves are consistently contemporary, elegant and simple in their design and formulations and concept. Our philosophy at the Perfumery is for the products to be transparent and straightforward. We have no time for misleading marketing or false claims. Life is too short we feel to waste time telling lies or even half truths. Running the business takes a lot of time and effort and attention to detail and for me it has to reflect who I am and what I believe in. Obviously it has to support itself and make money as well but that is not a contradiction, on the contrary I feel that it is staying real that gives the Perfumery it’s quality which is what our customers enjoy and look for.
Just because we are located in such a remote place is no reason that the products and packaging should look out of place in any shop in Paris. We spend a lot of time and money designing the packaging so that I feel it is just right. It is one of the aspects of the business that I enjoy the most.
My philosophy for the Perfumery is that I don’t want to sell anything that I wouldn’t like to buy myself. This is true for the Tea rooms as well as for the perfumery range. All the food that is served are from ingredients and recipes that do not differ in any way from what I would prepare in my own kitchen. Organic, fresh, local , tasty and simple (and vegetarian). It is simple but seems to be appreciated as we were almost immediately included inn all the food guides even though we are so small. There has to be some criteria for running a business and this is mine. The essential oil blends that we use are what I happen to like, herby, fresh and natural, not just what we feel will sell most.
The Perfumery is a very personal business for me and indeed at times I am in danger of being too close to it. It is difficult not to want to make decisions about even the smallest details of day to day details despite having a team of dedicated, able and loyal staff.
Reflecting Ireland’s well earned tradition and reputation for friendliness and warm welcomes, all our staff are hand picked and as much a part of the Perfumery as the products. Christina, Yvonne, Peggy, Siobhan, Sarah, local women who have worked with us for years, together we try to retain a non commercial and generous feel to the Perfumery whilst allowing it to grow and function as a successful business. I try to keep an elegance and a personal touch – an integrity. I think that it is important to be greeted and even talked to! In this day of quick transactions and busy lives. Admission is free to all the facilities, the 10 minute film about the area and flowers, the oraganic herb garden , the surrounding premises, the soap room and of course the tea rooms. This is so that people feel relaxed. We would make more money charging for everything from parking to garden tours but we don’t plan to try it.
We receive many emails from our visitors thanking us for the experience and telling us that it was the highlight of their trip or how much they enjoy their perfume and the memories of their visit. We also receive photographs of the selection of our pets who roam through the premises making friends with our visitors as well as many beautiful shots of the garden in bloom or staff members making soap. For me it is one of the pleasures of the business. We have customers who have been with us for over 10 years and order from the Christmas newsletter when they can’t get here in person.
We have more and more local people who either bring friends and visitors up for lunch or some who follow the changes in the garden and might have a coffee or scone in the tea rooms. I love seeing local at the Perfumery as I feel that it is important to contribute to the Burren and be part of it and their enjoyment of our work here gives us great pleasure.
A business is a balance and give an take it seems to me, between customers and staff, between staff and owners, between businesses and farmers, between life and work.
I feel that it is important that local people who work with us have real jobs that they enjoy. Most of our staff have been with us for many years and need little or no direction. They use their natural talents in whichever area of the business they are good at. During our busy time in the summer we bring in local girls for part time work , some of whom then work for us every summer through out their school days. In this way the business becomes part of the fabric of the countryside.
