I've Been Studying Scent My Whole Life. Here's What I Know.

Before I ever thought about making candles, I was a fragrance girl.

Lancôme Trésor was my scent. I wore it because of the way it made me feel — confident, powerful, like I could walk into a room differently. I didn't think about what was in it. I just knew what it did to me. And that felt like enough.

It wasn't enough. But I didn't know that yet.

When I was in college and massage school in New Mexico, I attended a series of lectures by Horst Rechelbacher — the founder of Aveda and one of the pioneers of natural cosmetics. I went to every single one.

I remember him talking about lipstick. He told us that women consume roughly five pounds of lipstick over a lifetime — and at that time, almost none of it was safe. It was toxic. Absorbed directly through the lips, into the body, year after year.

That number stopped me cold.

Studying with Horst wasn't just a class — it was a shift I could feel happening in real time. He had a grounded, no-nonsense way of teaching that made you slow down and really think about what you were putting on your body, and why. It wasn't overwhelming or complicated. It was clear, intentional, and rooted in purpose.

I walked in loving fragrance for how it made me feel. I walked out understanding that scent could do something more — that it could support your wellbeing, your mindset, even your daily rituals. He gave me a new lens. One where ingredients matter, where nature has real power, and where what we create should not only feel good in the moment — but be good for you long after.

That was the turning point. From loving scent, to understanding its power, to wanting to create it differently.

Through massage school, I was also able to attend lectures by Dr. Gary Young — the founder of Young Living — and visit his farm. That experience felt completely different from any classroom I'd ever been in.

He was often barefoot, out in the fields, fully connected to the land. And that alone told you everything about how he approached his work. He didn't just talk about essential oils — he lived them. You'd see the plants growing, watch the distillation process happen, understand that every step mattered from the soil to the bottle.

I walked away with a deeper respect for the process, and a stronger sense of responsibility. That if I was going to create with scent, it had to be done with care, intention, and integrity from the very beginning. Not as an afterthought. From the start.

After massage school, I came back to Lake Placid and spent fifteen years as a spa owner and massage therapist. I incorporated what I'd learned into every treatment. Essential oils weren't a finishing touch — they were part of the work. I started making products we used in the spa: blends, lotions, things I mixed by hand for clients.

And then came nursing school — and a chemistry class that changed everything again.

We learned saponification — the science of how oils transform into soap. I am a nerd at heart, and something about this lit me up completely. I went home that same day and tried to make soap for the first time.

It was like making a bomb. I had goggles, gloves, every piece of protective gear I could find. But I didn't care — I was completely absorbed. And somewhere in the middle of it, a light bulb went off: I can add scent to products. I can create things that help people calm down. I can actually do this.

It reignited everything — my love of creating, my dedication to scent, all of those years of studying and working and thinking about how fragrance moves through a person. It was Horst's lens. It was Dr. Gary Young's fields. It was fifteen years of watching what happened when the right scent met the right person at the right moment. All of it connecting at once.

I started making products and gifting them. I'd run up to family members to have them test a new scent. I'd get so excited — watching their faces, seeing if it landed, going back to try again if it didn't. It was so much fun. It still is.

People started asking if they could buy what I was making. That question became Pure Placid.

I tell you all of this not to list credentials — but because I want you to understand the breadth of what came together to create every product we make. This wasn't an accident. It was decades of studying, learning, creating, and caring deeply about the relationship between scent and how we feel.

And it's not finished. I continue to study every day — because scent is still showing me new things.

That's what Pure Placid is built on. Not just a love of fragrance — but a lifetime of learning what it can actually do.

With love from Lake Placid,
Marcy