A love letter to the smells of Christmas | EP 032

December 15, 2025

The podcast 'Todos os caminhos vão dar ao aroma' is sponsored by Jarilo. In this podcast, Mariana, the founder of Jarilo, explores the world of perfumery and tries to discover how perfume is made.

This article is the transcript of EPI 032. Diluting ingredients — the math of it

[Start of transcript]

↳ When you think of December, what is the first scent that comes to mind?

↳ I dare say that December is the most olfactory month of the year. We experience various olfactory sensations that shape our memory, identity, and culture. This is the month when, even without realizing it, almost all of us celebrate our own olfactory culture.

↳ We have an episode, number 22, dedicated to olfactory culture: but for those who haven't heard it: olfactory culture is a term that describes the importance of odors — of smells — of aromas in human life, in different societies around the world.

↳ In this episode, I will share what my olfactory culture is like during this very special month, and I would love for you to take the opportunity to reflect on your own experience and share it with me — I would love to know what we have in common, and even where our aromatic tastes might diverge.

↳ December is the month when we transition from Autumn to Winter and we feel some extremes in our aromatic experience. It's a time when we both smell the metallic, cold, and humid scent after the rain, which is called petrichor, and we also smell the green, resinous, and dry scent of the sun at the end of the afternoons illuminating any wall covered in lichens.

↳ A curious thing is that as it gets colder, people start to use sweeter, amber, highly spiced, and more intense perfumes to feel warmer. I feel that at this time of year we are all more perfumed and we overuse vanilla, clove, sandalwood, and burnt sugar, the perfumes that smell like sweet foods.

↳ This month awakens a universal desire to seek and provide comfort: it is the favorite time for rituals at home, for lit scented candles, for reading books by the fireplace, for steaming and prolonged immersions where that more expensive bath foam is the ideal excuse to soak longer.

↳ Without much surprise, certainly, but here at home, this is the time of year when I light more Jarilo candles. Often just to change the atmosphere of the house, which then becomes more welcoming and warm, functioning almost like a 'den' effect. The candle I've been using most lately is IGNIS, because it has a very cozy and sweet smell of steaming freshly baked cakes.

↳ Christmas is the main culprit for this time of year being so fragrant; even Christmas decorations can (and should) be fragrant. The pine tree, if real, has an incredible smell that fills the entire house and lasts all month. However, here at home, we prefer to only have arrangements with small branches carefully collected from living pine trees, because we disagree with the act of felling such dignified and beautiful trees just for them to wither and dry in our living rooms for two fleeting weeks.

↳ Regarding food, December is not at all ashamed to be intense — and I remind you that, in practical terms, the sensory apparatus corresponding to the act of eating is not only taste but also smell.

↳ Heavier and warmer foods become part of everyday life. We use food to warm ourselves from the inside out. And I, another thing I love to do to warm myself up is drink a tea, often after dinner. For me, tea is a perfume you can drink — and my favorites are peppermint, chamomile, hibiscus, honey, and lemon teas.

↳ Cinnamon, ginger, clove, anise, chocolate, the multiple smells of 'bolo-rei' (king cake) invade the places I frequent. In my house there is always the typical scent of rice pudding — that little smell of lemon, or preferably orange, laced with cinnamon (I actually use orange peel instead of lemon peel) — such a scent brings me enormous comfort, which comes from childhood: rice pudding was a delicacy my mother often made at home.

↳ The smell of roasted chestnuts instantly makes neighborhoods comfortable, their smoke hovering over the sidewalks and we walk through it as if a dream has come out onto the street. And drinking a hot coffee on a park bench while eating a dozen chestnuts is a perfect date with ourselves.

↳ This month is a reminder that smell is not just a sense: it is a way of experiencing the world, it is a language.

↳ I invite all listeners to notice the smells they feel this December. It could be the petrichor smell of the cold street in the morning, or the pine fragrance at home, the aroma of a steaming coffee, the slow burning of chestnuts, the slow burning of a candle lit in the center of the table, or the perfume of someone we fortuitously cross paths with on public transport.

↳ I suggest you jot down these smells on your phone, or in a notebook, wherever you like, describing in a few words what you felt at that exact moment when you caught such a smell — and if that smell triggered any memory or desire.

↳ This way, you exercise your sense of smell, which in turn becomes more refined and ready for the first rule of Perfumery — which is: Know your materials. With these notes, you feed your olfactory diary with memories.

↳ In the next episode, we will talk about this first year of the podcast and the plans for the upcoming year 2026.

↳ I also take this opportunity to remind you that Jarilo has launched a new collection — the Four Elements Collection. I will leave the respective link in the episode notes.

↳ I will also leave the link to our WhatsApp community. Here you can access exclusive offers and news.

↳ Thank you for listening to this episode of the 'Todos os caminhos vão dar ao aroma' podcast. If you enjoyed it, don't forget to subscribe — share with friends — leave a comment — or send an email to todososcaminhosvaodaraoaroma@gmail.com.

↳ Until next time.

Happy olfactory experiences!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas!