THE SCENT OF CLEAN
- Words Elle Hunt
- Photos Annika Kafcaloudis
- Set Design Stephanie Stamatis
The hidden forces—and people—shaping our idea of “clean.”
- Words Elle Hunt
- Photos Annika Kafcaloudis
- Set Design Stephanie Stamatis
SHARMADEAN REID ( Founder of 39BC ) — My idea of “clean” smells like skin after water—not soap, but that faint mineral trace where warmth meets coolness. For me, clean isn’t sterile or stripped; it’s sensual, slow and human—the scent of a body that has been cared for. I think we’ve bottled “clean” with our Sage Water—not the scrubbed-white, citrus-soaked version of it, but something older and more elemental. We’ve used petrichor, moss and salt. It’s clean, mineral and meditative. It’s linen drying on a line, touched by salt wind. The air just after rain, when the world exhales and everything is damp but alive.
Tasha Marks started out as a food historian before she founded AVM Curiosities in 2011. The company works with galleries, museums and other institutions to make use of fragrance and flavor in “multi-sensory programming.” That might mean supporting an artist to bring their work to life through the senses, or, as she discusses here, recreating a scent from the past.
