Jane Hendler

If you’ve ever visited a hotel in the Bahamas or Las Vegas and taken a deep breath into a freshly cleaned room, chances are there’s a scent. It’s not just the sheets. The secret is in the HVAC system, and of course, fragrances. Local perfumer and herbalist Jane Hendler is responsible for creating some of these scents. In particular, on several Four Seasons properties located here and abroad.

But when she’s not enhancing the four-star hotel experience, she’s personalizing perfumes for locals and celebrities alike at her Carmel perfume shop, Ajne Natural Fragrance Co. Her celebrity clients include the likes of four-time James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, Scandal andDjango Unchained actress Kerry Washington, alt-rock superstar and producer Alanis Morissette, and Empire star Terrence Howard.

Bottled in handmade glasses from the Czech Republic, many of her perfumes can be tailored to each customer using a combination of an online quiz on Ajne’s website and Hendler’s guidance. Working with 100-percent essential oils when creating fragrances, Hendler’s perfume has been featured in British Vogue and in goodie bags for the Academy Awards. Hendler shared a whiff of her knowledge of fragrance with the Weekly.

Weekly: Why do people remember scents so strongly? How does scent memory work?

Hendler: The most powerful memory – even over your most powerful emotional memories – is scent memory. It’s the easiest memory for your brain to process and associate with a specific time and place. It’s like walking past a bakery and not going in, but sensing something in the air that reminds you of the cinnamon rolls your mom used to make. We hold on to these things in the right side of our brains and its unlocked when we smell something even vaguely familiar. It can take you through some wonderful times.

How do you work on creating scents for hotels?

My first job is to research what indigenous plants are growing in that specific place. You never just want to guess what a place is going to smell like. And then I figure out which one of these plants I can extract essential oils from. Then I have to ask what they are looking for until we get it right. Some places are harder than others, like Las Vegas. Las Vegas doesn’t really have much of scent, but you have to look around – it’s desert. What does the desert smell like? We go from there.

What’s the difference between your perfumes and commercial perfumes?

When you smell most perfumes, you’re smelling complicated chemicals. They’re real scents, but they’re petro-chemicals created in a test tube in chemical perfumeries. When you’re smelling natural perfumes, those are just made from plants. A lot of natural fragrances also distill the pollens and other things so you’re not getting a lot of the allergy-related effects that people tend to associate with heavily fragranced things. So if you have a lavender allergy, you’re not going have a reaction because the pollen has been extracted from it, if you’re using a naturally-derived fragrance.

There is no mandate on companies that says you can only say “natural” or “essential oils” if you’re 100-percent, like we are. They can just put the eensiest drop of essential oil into a vat of synthetic perfume and still be able to put “essential oil” or “natural” on their label.

What does the word “natural” really mean?

“Natural” really means nothing. It’s a marketing thing. The thing about buying “natural” products is that you have to be a vigilant consumer and understand the ingredients and what it means. The EWG (Environmental Working Group) is a good resource for that. Our website and ingredient dictionary is up to date on what our ingredients are.

What does Pierce Brosnan smell like?

Like leather. He is really big on the leather scent and he loves Hawaii. So there are lot of tropical notes, like plumeria, and leather notes that are ambery in nature.

He’s lovely by the way. When he walks into a room it’s like, shwooooo!

How about Alanis Morissette?

A lot of things. I created her custom scent when she came from Ontario, Canada, but then it evolved into our scent called “Big Sur.” And it quite literally smells like Big Sur. It’s this beautiful scent that opens up with bergamot, then champaca – that’s an Indian magnolia. It’s the sweet deeper floral and the base is just a bit of patchouli and sandalwood. But the base chord is this vanilla woods scent which is this resinous and woody vanilla.