We often talk about the sights and tastes of travel, but its scent lingers, too – the pine-sweet air of a coastal road, sun cream on a beach day, espresso in a quiet Roman square, tomato vines hanging in the heavy air of a summer’s afternoon... Often, it’s the most powerful evocation of nostalgia when daydreaming of lazy days in the south of France or crisp autumn mountain hikes in the Dolomites.
From tomato vines in greenhouses to the quiet stillness of Japanese onsens, Earl of East has long crafted candles that distil place into fragrance. For its latest collection, Primavera Estate, the London-based homeware brand’s founding duo – Niko Dafkos and Paul Firmin – took to the road in Italy, chasing the scents of sun-warmed stone and roadside cherries. For them, fragrance is more than a product – it’s a passport.
From tomato vines in greenhouses to the quiet stillness of Japanese onsens, Earl of East has long crafted candles that distil place into fragrance. For its latest collection, Primavera Estate, the London-based homeware brand’s founding duo – Niko Dafkos and Paul Firmin – took to the road in Italy, chasing the scents of sun-warmed stone and roadside cherries. For them, fragrance is more than a product – it’s a passport.
The new Primavera Estate Collection, left, and Niko Dafkos
We sat down with Dafkos and Firmin to explore how scent shapes our experience of place, why memory so often begins with smell, and how their travels through Italy became a sensory map of summer, culminating in a trio of candles whose gourmand fragrances are like a long, golden evening bottled: layered, nostalgic and unapologetically joyful.
We sat down with Dafkos and Firmin to explore how scent shapes our experience of place, why memory so often begins with smell, and how their travels through Italy became a sensory map of summer, culminating in a trio of candles whose gourmand fragrances are like a long, golden evening bottled: layered, nostalgic and unapologetically joyful.
Your new candles smell like grape, cherry and citronella, respectively. What’s the story?
We wanted to capture the essence of Italian summertime in its most vibrant form. Citronella is practical but also familiar. It’s the scent of evenings outside gathered around a table with friends. Cherry is joyful and nostalgic, reminding us of fruit stalls by the roadside, and Grape is rich, ripe and refined, like a long lunch in the hills with a glass of something local. Together, they’re a sensory ode to the food, culture and rhythm of a long Italian summer. Depending on the time of day or mood you’re after, you can burn them individually or layer them to create a more immersive atmosphere. They all reflect the spirit of “Vivi, ridi, amore” – Live, laugh, love.
Italian moments captured by Earl of East's founders, from Italian markets and morning coffees to colourful evening meals
Food felt like the natural place to start. We’ve been exploring gourmand scents for a while now – from tomato in our Greenhouse scent to our viral Café Collection – and this felt like the next chapter. Italy just offers such a rich sensory palette, so it made perfect sense to lean into those experiences and translate them into scent.
Food felt like the natural place to start. We’ve been exploring gourmand scents for a while now – from tomato in our Greenhouse scent to our viral Café Collection – and this felt like the next chapter. Italy just offers such a rich sensory palette, so it made perfect sense to lean into those experiences and translate them into scent.
How do you capture the complexity of a place like Italy in a candle without it feeling like a cliché?
For us, it’s not about recreating a specific landmark or region; it’s about capturing the mood of a moment. Instead of replicating specific places, we focus on emotional resonance. The result is more universal – a scent that might remind you of your own travels, even if they took place somewhere else.How does scent bring travel memories to life for you?
We believe scent is our most powerful sense and it is incredibly transportive – it can take you somewhere instantly, even if it’s thousands of miles away. That’s why it’s such an important part of our travel memories. Every candle in our core collection is inspired by places we’ve visited and loved: Strand is rooted in our memories of Copenhagen, Viagem transports us straight back to Lisbon, and Onsen is about the quiet stillness of Japanese bathing rituals. Primavera Estate fits into that world. It’s about bottling a feeling – not just a fragrance.Were there any moments on your trip that surprised you, shifting how you think about travel and scent?
Florence really caught us off guard. We expected to love it, but the depth of inspiration it gave us was something else – the markets, the food, the way scent lingers in the air from morning till night... It’s a city of layers and you experience it in waves: coffee and pastries in the morning, warm stone and sun cream by afternoon, rich pasta and cigarette smoke at night. That rhythm of scent stuck with us and reminded us just how layered travel can be when you tune into your senses.
Dafkos and Firmin explored Tuscany's rolling hills, historic hotels and market squares in search of inspiration for the new candles
How important is storytelling in the design of your candles?
Storytelling is at the heart of everything we do. We’ll brainstorm everything – colours, moods, meals, music, smells – then strip that back to a core memory or emotion. From there, it’s about choosing fragrance notes that capture that feeling. With Primavera Estate, we wanted it to feel like a scent souvenir – something that brings a moment back to life as soon as you smell it. Even the packaging plays a part. It’s designed to feel like a postcard you’ve just pulled from a drawer of summer memories.What was the most unforgettable scent you stumbled upon while in Italy?
Driving through Tuscany with the windows down, we were hit by the scent of cypress and pine in the summer heat. It was an earthy, herbaceous mix of warm bark, crushed herbs and dry earth. We often travel by car as it means Piper, our dog, can come too, and seeing the landscape shift in real time is a beautiful part of the journey. That moment captured the wild abundance of the countryside, and the smell has stayed with us ever since.
Moments, rather than specific scents, were the inspiration for the new collection
Did any Italian dishes make you want to bottle their flavours into a candle?
Yes – the smell of a ragù slowly cooking, with a hint of fresh basil! That rich, comforting smell of home is a scent we’re exploring for the second drop later this year, which leans into the deeper, more savoury side of the season.Did hunting for scents make you experience Italy in a new way?
It changes how you travel. You pay more attention to the plants growing by the roadside, the spices in the air at markets, the herbs on your plate... It made us slow down and tune in. Travelling with scent in mind makes the whole experience more immersive.If you could capture one travel moment in a scent forever, what would it be?
That feeling just before dinner, when the sun is setting and everything’s golden. The air is warm and there’s citronella burning on the table. It’s clean, sun-lotioned skin mingling with the scent of citrus, herbs and food cooking. That’s the moment we’d bottle – the promise of a long night ahead, and nothing to do but enjoy it.