RURAL BUSINESS
In remote west Ireland, Sadie Chowen creates perfumes and potions inspired by the flowers of the Burren National Park
When Sadie Chowen first saw the Burren National Park on Ireland’s west coast, she was bewitched. “I came here 30 years ago to visit a friend,” she says. “As we drove across this wild, rocky landscape, rich with wild flowers, I had the strongest sense of coming home. I spent a summer here and, within a few months, I’d bought a house in Carron, a village nearby.” Sadie was in her mid-twenties, working in film production and was about to buy a flat in London, but decided, on impulse, to change direction entirely.
For a few years, Sadie worked with horses and did some freelance translating. Then she got a job at The Burren Perfumery as the owner’s right-hand woman, planting the first herb garden and helping with admin and accounts. Three years later, in 2001, when the opportunity came up to buy the business, she jumped at the chance: “It was a much smaller affair back then, but I had a distinct vision of what it could become.” The perfumery had been founded in 1972 and was based in 200-year-old stone farm buildings surrounded by ten acres of pristine Burren countryside, with a strong sense of place. “This is a very special area where every season has its magic,” Sadie says. “It feels grounded and there’s a sense of freedom. That’s what drew me.”
FLOWER POWER
Today, Sadie and her husband and business partner Ralph Doyle employ 35 people handmaking products, including perfumes, face creams, body lotions, soaps and candles, in their on-site workshop. “The Burren’s flora is our inspiration,” she says. “It’s a hugely significant habitat, as over 70 per cent of Ireland’s native wild-flower species, such as spring gentian and shrubby cinquefoil, can be found here. But it is also protected, so the florals we use aren’t picked locally.” Instead, borage and comfrey come from the UK, thyme is sourced in Spain and fragrant orchid in France. Each of the perfumes they make has fresh aromatic notes and evocative names such as Autumn Harvest or Winter Woods.
Although Sadie was born in England, she grew up in the Dordogne in France: “We were surrounded by growing and we shopped in local markets. I’ve always made that connection between landscape and using fresh products.” She sees no boundary between what we eat and what we put on our skin: “I treat my cosmetics like I treat food. I want to recognise the ingredients, know where they come from and why they’re there. When I started, that was an unusual stance but we’ve rem
