Burren Perfumery

A Visit from The Burren Perfumery 

 by Erin, 6th Class

On Thursday the 6th of February, we were delighted to get a visit from Patricia and Sandra who both work at The Burren Perfumery.

First of all, we watched a video about the beauty of the Burren. The video was really informative and had some beautiful photographs of flowers in the Burren. Some examples of the flowers you can find in the Burren are the honey suckle, oak moss, elderflower and the wild orchid. It's hard to believe but before mankind came to the Burren, it used to be covered in trees. I wasn't surprised to find out after seeing the beautiful photographs in the video that the Burren is referred to as the most unique floral landscape in the world! 

After watching the video, we learned about the origin of the Burren Perfumery. The Burren Perfumery was created in 1972 by a man named Brian Mooney. It all started when Mr. Mooney made perfumes using the flowers growing in his own back garden and now it has grown into what it is today! Of course, nowadays Patricia and Sandra and all the workers at the Burren Perfumery don’t take away the flowers from the Burren to make their products anymore because if they did, there would be no flowers left in the Burren!

Next, we learned how to make perfume. They use essential oils to make the lovely fragrance coming from their products. The scent is broken down into three parts; the top note, the heart note and the base note.

The top note is the first smell you get from the product that lasts up to ten minutes. The heart note is the second smell you get from the product you are using. This lasts up to four hours. Finally, there are the base notes. These last up to twenty-four hours.

Learning about our Sense of Smell…

I was really surprised to learn that coffee beans are the secret ingredient to neutralize any scent. We got to smell a lovely fragrance called Ilaun which is the old Irish spelling for Oileán/ Island. Afterwards we smelt the coffee beans to see if we could remember what the fragrance smelled like after a couple of minutes. We did this because the olfactory gland connects smells to your memory.

After that, we smelled Aran which was my personal favourite. I really liked it because it smelled quite tangy and citrusy. We then took a vote and Aran was the favoured scent although it was quite close between the two.

Then we found out the correct way to apply perfume to your wrists. It turned out I have been doing it incorrectly my whole life! When you apply perfume it is important that you do not rub your wrists together as this actually ruins the smell.

Then we tried on Atlantic Breeze lotion which was really nice and moisturising. Soon after we learnted how they make their candles. They make them by melting soya wax and adding essential oils to the mixture. They use a lemon wick in their candles. We were told that putting the wick into the candle as straight as possible is the hardest thing for a candle maker, when making a candle, which was very surprising to me.

Soap Making in the Perfumery

Then the conversation turned to soaps. They make around 10,000 soaps per year! They use various oils and shea butter to make their soaps. To mix it together they use a big whisk and mix it for fifteen minutes and then add the essential oils to make it smell really nice. It takes about six weeks to make one bar of soap.

Then we smelled lots more scents that go into their perfumes. First of all we smelled bergamot which was really nice. After bergamot we smelled grapefruit-which I loved! The next scent was a mystery scent-one we had to guess. Only a few people guessed it right. The fragrance turned out to be lime. Lemongrass was next which was really nice but quite strong for my taste. Next was Patricia’s favourite which was Neroli. Neroli comes from orange blossom. Although it smells great, it costs €10,000 for just one kilogram! Last of all we smelled Lavender which was very nice. We then got to smell all of them together which smelled like… heaven!

by Erin 6^th Class

A Visit from The Burren Perfumery

- written by Ellie, 6th class

Yesterday Sandra and Patricia came from the Burren Perfumery to teach us about what they do. To start, they showed us a ten-minute video about the Burren and about all the species of flowers and plants used in perfume-making which live there. 

They told us about Brian Mooney, the man who started the perfumery in 1972. They still work in the same place that he did. They next explained to us the science of making the perfume. They told us about Sadie, their perfumer. 

They explained to us that you smell things with your olfactory gland, which is located at the top of your nose. Next we got to smell some samples of their perfumes. We got to smell ‘Ilaun’ and ‘Aran’. They smelled really good!

After that, they told us about how they make their lotions. We got to use some of it on our hands.

Then they explained to us the process of making their candles. Patricia passed around some of the soya wax that they use to make their candles. They also passed around their lime and grapefruit candle. It smelled so good.

They went on to explain to us about their soaps. They us a very unique process to make their soaps. They mix together essential oils and shea butter. We got to feel some shea butter. We also got to smell some of their essential oils. We got to smell lemongrass, lime, bergamot and grapefruit. After that we got to smell lime and lavender ones and guess what they were. Then we got to smell them all together. In between these, we got to smell coffee beans, to refresh our noses and make sure our olfactory gland didn’t get tired. 

Then we got to smell neroli, which is a very precious oil that comes from the neroli flower that costs €10,000 for just 1kg! It did smell very nice. Sandra told us that when she went to Grasse-the home of perfume-she got to pick some neroli herself. They used to only sell neroli to Chanel.

To finish, we all got 3 samples of their perfumes to bring home.

Things we said about the visit in our room…

Sophia says “I liked that we got to smell all the perfume and sample the hand cream.” 

Caoimhe 5th Class: “I thought the visit was very good because we learned all about the flowers in the Burren, the exotic species and how smelling coffee beans refreshes your nose!”

Eoan, 6th Class: “I liked getting the three samples and comparing them”

Sarah, 4th Class: “I liked experiencing the different scents and perfumes and the different ingredients in perfume- like kelp and seaweed!”

Seán, 5th Class: “The way I experienced the visit was that it was so calm and relaxing- like when you smelled all the different scents and that the lemon scent stood out”

Mark, 6th Class: "I enjoyed the visit because we could interact with all the perfumes and use the hand creams. I didn’t know that organic flowers were used to make perfumes before today!”

And as for me? I really enjoyed the Burren Perfumery visit and I would definitely say it’s worth a visit.

By Ellie, 6th Class