Give your home an identity with fragrance

There’s a home fragrance industry developing in Ireland to meet the tastes of an increasingly discerning Irish audience, writes Carol O’Callaghan.

You’d be hard pressed to visit an Irish house for an evening and not get a whiff of a scented candle as you enter, and, equally, to be able to discern the difference between something made from natural essential oils, and the sometimes sickly, migraine-inducing, chemical versions.

Making the real thing since 2012, with an international reach that stretches to some of England’s royal palaces, is Lucy Hagerty, owner and ‘nose’ of La Bougie, a perfumery which has brought fame once more to what was once the moving statue capital of Ireland — her husband’s hometown of Ballinspittle, Co. Cork.