Starting the Year on the Right Note with Floral Street

Floral Street is a brand leading the way in sustainable fragrance and packaging innovation in the industry. At its heart is a consciousness of responsibility and a future-forward approach across all aspects of the business. For the consumer, trusting a brand is just as important as the product and fragrance itself!

To begin the year we interviewed Floral Street Founder, Michelle Feeney, about the ins and outs of her ethical brand and how to utilise scent to positively enhance your wellbeing throughout the year ahead.

How can we use scent to start the year right?

The start of each new year is the perfect time to fragrance cleanse.

Spend a few days without scent to reset your nose ready to come back with senses heightened!

I’ve always said you should surprise yourself with fragrance so be open to experiencing new aromas and how their ingredients make you feel.

By scent-scaping yourself and your home you can create the right atmosphere to reflect your different moods. Perfume, scented candles, diffusers or even freshly picked flowers can boost your wellbeing helping you to focus, feel stimulated and energised or simply by creating moments of calm and self-care.

Fragrance can help transition you between work, family and leisure time, ‘zoning’ spaces for different activities and moments. Scent can also reflect the change of seasons, add a finishing touch and enhance your interiors complimenting colours, textures, and lighting to create the perfect ‘room mood’.

To be a ‘conscious consumer’ what should we look out for when purchasing a fragrance?

Consumers are more savvy now, spending time researching across multi platforms to choose the brands and experiences that fit with their personal ethos and individual lifestyles. But to help navigate their way through any greenwashing, I always advise to delve deep to ensure the companies have the relevant accreditations to back up what they say!

I believe the modern consumer shops by symbols which can be a shortcut to knowing a brand’s sustainable credentials. These are easily recognised, global touchpoints that can cross borders and languages. For example, the PETA bunny logo displayed on our Floral Street packaging verifies that our products are vegan and cruelty free and reassures our customers that there are no animal or animal derived ingredients in any of our products and they have not been tested on animals.

We also feature the recycle, FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and World Land Trust logos which confirms our carbon balanced paperboard is responsibly sourced and we are helping to protect the world’s threatened habitat.

With a reported 120 million units of beauty packaging produced globally every year I wanted Floral Street to be a beacon for change. By partnering with another British company we've created an 'industry-first' biodegradable, pulp box that uses ‘world first’ cupcycling™ technology to turn used take away cups into luxury packaging. I also chose to partner with our fragrance manufacturer, Robertet as they assure responsible sourcing, full ingredient traceability and they have an unparalleled approach to ethical practices and production. As a conscious company, everything we do at Floral Street is with intent, care, and consideration and we help guide consumers on better ethical choices that bring beautiful and sustainable fragrance into their everyday lives. And as a responsible brand we are transparent and open about our practices, so they can not only smell good, but they can feel good about it too!

Veganuary is an annual challenge, how has your experience of being a Vegan transferred into the creation of your of your brand Floral Street?

I’m not a fully-fledged vegan but I do participate in Veganuary each year which resets my attention and intention on my lifestyle, and I’m progressively eating less food from animal sources. Veganuary has created a time for people to not only reflect on their own health and diet but also their impact on the planet.

This has resulted in a significant increase in Google searches related to veganism and a greater awareness around vegan companies, brands, and products.

It was always important to me that Floral Street was vegan and cruelty free from the outset and also, by working with Robertet we know exactly where our ingredients come from. I’m truly proud that my brand is the most ethical it can be as we all need to take responsibility for being environmentally conscious, making choices that can collectively drive greater positive change.

Floral Street collaborates with some amazing companies, what do you look out for when considering partnerships?

For an independent British brand partnerships are the future of our business.

Although commercial, these collaborations, whether they be with cultural institutions, such as BAFTA and the Van Gogh Museum, environmental businesses like CleanHub or retailers such as Space NK, Nordstrom, MECCA, M&S or John Lewis, should also be creative allowing us to relevantly engage with passionate communities and a wider and more diverse audience.

It’s important they share our ethos and principles and a similar democratic spirit, accessibility, and cross-generational appeal to make them the perfect partners! As authentic connections, they enable new ways to tell our Floral Street brand and sustainability stories and give us a bigger voice globally.

What new innovations in fragrance are inspiring you?

I’m so inspired by life and particularly when I travel as it fuels my creativity! I’m excited to be visiting Vietnam for the first time this January and I know its natural wonder, spectacular landscapes, culinary delights, and cultural energy will be a feast for my senses!

But the particular innovation in fragrance that is inspiring me right now is seeking new sustainable ways of bringing scent to life in different environments. However, I do feel, as everyone races to be tech innovative or push AI, that perfume is one of the last bastions of being human. We must harness nature and be ‘in the moment’ to create all round sensory experiences. If we get too wrapped up in tech, we will lose the art and beauty of perfumery.

What is one of your scent memories?

I have so many scent memories!

My very first was of the gardenias in my grandmother’s garden in Ireland when we holidayed there each year. Now whenever I smell their scent it makes me smile.

But I think my time in New York when I lived in the US for over a decade, are some of the most vivid. What takes me back there are the smells of strong coffee, which is reminiscent of my early morning walks to work, and popcorn when I used to wrap up on a winter’s night to go to the movies!

Then the warming familiarity of vanilla and cinnamon, reminds me of joyful occasions like Thanksgiving, and creating a real ‘home from home’ mood to celebrate with family and friends. Even now when I light a Floral Street Vanilla Bloom candle it instantly takes me there! Smell is the strongest trigger for memories and can immediately link us to happy emotions. When you want to create new ones, scent is a beautiful way to enhance and remember specific moments and special times in your life.