At your local scent bar, drink in the fragrance

Sometimes you wanna go...where everybody knows your smell.

You know — like "Cheers." Only with odors, not drinks. A "scent bar," in fact. But served with all the friendliness of Sam and Carla mixing a cocktail. A place like Alchemy in Montclair — since July 2021, putting its own spin on a trend that has been gaining ground in New Jersey, and in some other parts of the country. The Scent Bar. Or Candle Bar, as they're sometimes called.

"We want everybody to feel welcome here" said Deanna Critchley, founder and owner of Alchemy Scent Bar. "The customers become our friends. They come here over and over."

When you walk into Alchemy, on Church Street in downtown Montclair, you will see, to your left, a series of shelves. The "Fragrance Wall." Some 100 scents in small jars, of every conceivable and inconceivable kind: Anjou Pear, Baked Bread, Barbershop, Bourbon, Cake Batter, Cilantro, Lettuce, Mahogany, Key Lime, Wood Shop, Maple Syrup, Ocean Air, Peony, Patchouli, Earth, Tomato Leaf, Pipe Tobacco, Basil, Bamboo, Cannabis, Tupelo Honey, Wasabi.

Nothing that smells like Teen Spirit. But pretty much anything else you could think of. And all available for sniffing.

You fill out a small card, like the ones a brew pub gives you when you order a "flight." You write in five or six of your preferred scents. Then you sit down at the bar, and wait for your odor — er, order — to be taken.

"When we work with customers, we say to them, tell us the vibe," Critchley said "Give us a word. An adjective. Tell us what room you're going to use it in."

Scents, and sensibility

Like Sam Malone and company in "Cheers," the folks at Alchemy are friendly. They'll encourage you, no matter what your smell.

"I love it," Critchley says, as together we hand-mix a selection of essential oils: balsam fir, cedar, sandalwood, lemongrass, lemon verbena.

Maybe a little too much lemon? From a squeeze bottle, we add another drop of cedar oil into the tiny beaker — just to cut the citrus. Then whisk well.

"I love it," Critchley says.

What Chitchley, and other "alchemists" — the scent-bar equivalent of a barista — really want is for you to love it.

"I don't let them leave unless the love it," she said. "There are no rules. If you love it and it speaks to you, that's all that matters."

With the help of your "alchemist," you whip together the exact mix, in exact proportion, of the scents you like, until you get the exact aroma that rings your olfactory chimes. "Alchemy," reads a legend on the lintel. "/Alkeme/Noun. A seemingly magical process of transformation, creation or combination."

Once you hit on your ideal fragrance, you can turn it into body lotion ($32), hand sanitizer ($26), hand/body soap ($26), aromatic mist ($28), or perhaps your very own custom-designed scented candle ($32).

Though candles take a little while: be prepared to spend a couple of hours wandering around Montclair's boutique district while they set. "Candles take two hours to cure," Critchley said. "Any other product can be taken immediately."

Something in the air

If taste can be a curated experience, why not smell? Such is the unspoken question behind scent bars and candle bars.

These establishments can be found scattered around New Jersey, and elsewhere in the country: ReWax and UnWine Candle Bar Jersey City and Union, Camoni Candle Bar Atlantic City, The Village Candles & Co. Candle Bar in Manahawkin, and Midnight Candle Company in Belmar are some others.

"I'm finding this is a new experience for so many people," said Matt Dates, owner of Midnight Candle Company. Every Thursday, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., he invites people into his store on Main Street in Belmar to curate their own candles. They mix scents — agave, amber, honeysuckle, maple butter, rain, sandalwood — and from them, candlemaker Dates assists as they create their own tapers.

"They come in thinking they're going to pick out something they know they're going to like," Dates said. "And I'm noticing they're getting more involved than they thought they might be. They're spending more time smelling two things together and thinking about them. They're saying, 'This is my environment, I better make sure I can enjoy it.' "

Wine bars, oxygen bars, cheese bars have helped us become more discriminating consumers. Why not a bar that caters to the nose? With a knowledgeable staff, and a happy clientele who have come to sniff and socialize?

"We offer a party-like environment complete with karaoke and candle trivia, while the candles are drying," said Ashley Shillingford, CEO of ReWax and UnWine, a franchise business with seven locations nationwide, including Jersey City and Union.

"The wide variety of scents available allows customers to create personalized candles that reflect their individual tastes and preferences," Shillingford said.

Of the five senses, smell is typically the least developed in humans, though it can be very sophisticated in our animal cousins. Yet smell affects us powerfully. A whiff of a familiar odor, and we are suddenly back in our grade-school classroom, or at the beach, or on a subway platform at 3 a.m. Back, in short, in our past — like Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol."

"He was conscious of a thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares long, long, forgotten!" Dickens tells us.

"Scent is the most powerful in bringing back memories," Critchley said. "People come in here and smell something and say, 'Oh my God, it's my grandmother's house' or 'Oh My God, it's summer camp.' " (Those particular memories might be triggered by "Baked Bread" and "Cedar.")

Leading by a nose

Whether they're are pleasant or not, of course, depends. Aromachology — the psychology of aromas, as opposed to aromatherapy, the therapeutic use of them — is complicated. "You and I could smell the same thing, but you could have a traumatic experience, and I could have a great time," Dates said.

That's why each Alchemy experience is individually curated. "Fresh Cut Grass" might be a cheerful smell to you, but it reminds Deanna's husband, Sean Critchley, of football practice. Not something he's anxious to relive. "It reminds me of a hot August double-session of football in high school, 30 years ago," he said.

His wife embarked on this new venture at the height of the COVID lockdown period.

It was a time when many people were taking a time out, reexamining their lives and their choices. Deanna Chitchley, originally from Livingston, was one of them. She had been a successful Essex County lawyer for many years. But she discovered, when she looked inward, that it no longer sparked joy. "It's never too late to make a change in life," she said.

Her's came when she and her husband and two sons did a road trip to Charleston, S.C., in June 2020, and walked into a candle bar. "I'm one of those people who loves smells," she said. "It's the sense that leads. I made a candle, and that planted the seed. I thought, 'Oh my God, this is amazing.' "

Also timely, she decided.

During the pandemic, many people were shut in, sensory-deprived. And some, due to COVID infection, had lost their sense of smell completely. "They say that one of the things that helps people regain their sense of smell is to keep smelling different smells. It's kind of smell therapy."

Sweet smell of success

Some have come into Alchemy for just that purpose. But more often, they come there for the same reason people come to any kind of bar — to relax, to socialize, to be with friends in a pleasant atmosphere. Lubricated in this case, not by drink, but by fragrance.

"I wanted it to feel glamorous, but clean, chic," Critchley said. Bouquets dangle from the ceiling. Clear-globe lighting fixtures provide friendly illumination. There is music — right now, The Indigo Girls. "The music is key. We ask people when they come in, what kind of music do they like?"

Couples come in to make candles together: a bonding experience. Kids bring their mothers; grandmothers bring their grandchildren. "Everyone loves something that smells good," Critchley said.

And people come in for more personal reasons.

"This woman came in, her husband had passed away," Critchley said. "And he smoked a pipe. She brought in the the tobacco in that pipe. And she said, 'Can you make something like this for my kids, so when they smell it it reminds them of their dad?' And we did it. We matched it. The alchemists all got together, and worked on it.

"To be part of something like that, that's an important thing," she said. "To bring somebody back like that."

Go...

Alchemy Scent Bar, 30 Church St, Montclair. alchemyscentbar.com

Midnight Candle Co., 1108 Main St, Belmar. midnightcandle.com

ReWax and UnWine Candle Bar, 2 Division St, Jersey City; 1999 Morris Ave, Ste 2 Union. rewaxandunwineevents.com

Camoni, 124 N. Michigan Ave., Atlantic City, inside Tanger Outlets. camoni.co/pages/the-candle-bar

The Village Candles & Co. Candle Bar, 364 N Main St Suite 2, Manahawkin. villagecandlesco.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Scent Bars are a winner by a nose