We know what the Black lived experience can look and feel like, but have you ever thought about how it smells? Lori Parnell can answer that. Like home.
Founder of Black Culture Candles, a luxury scent brand, Parnell says she aims to celebrate Black joy through olfactory reminders of the moments that connect us. Alongside her daughter, the business was birthed amid 2020’s social justice reckoning following the murder of George Floyd as an effective way to uniquely remind Black people of happier times.
“My daughter has a master’s in psychology, and we were just talking about the effects of all the Black trauma, on TV, in the newspaper, on social media, and I asked her, ‘how can we infuse some joy?’ There’s so much joy in the Black community—in Black culture,” Parnell told ESSENCE. “How can we infuse some of that in the business we create?” Parnell’s daughter informed her that memories are deeply connected to scent and can often activate centers of our brain that trigger vivid imagery. It was then that Black Culture Candles was born.
“I wanted to tap into what makes our people uniquely us, and encapsulate that into a scent,” Parnell said. She started the line of handmade candles with one scent that wound up being one of the most popular, Grandma’s Garden, a beautiful blend of green tea, fresh florals, and woody amber.
“It’s amazing how many of our childhoods are akin to our experiences, even without all meeting one another,” Parnell said. “We all have these moments we can recall from our lives that connect us to each other and they don’t have to be big. They can be small, nostalgic ones that really touch your heart. Like my Grandma’s Garden candle”
She explained that the idea came from recalling one of her fondest childhood memories of watching her family matriarch tend to her flowers, a moment most Black people can relate to.
Parnell said she was also intentional about capturing the full breadth of the Black experience including friendship and love.
“My other scents are the fan-favorites Black Love and Friday Night, both including heavier notes like musk and sandalwood,” Parnell said. “We are not a monolith at all but there are some characteristically beautiful commonalities we all share as a people, and we all deserve to be reminded of them every time we step into our homes.”