Refined taste, room to grow.

You know what you like — and that's a real skill. Most people never figure it out. Our offer is gentle: keep curating, but leave one door open.

Your strengths

You're someone who appreciates comfort and balance. You'll dabble in new fragrances when something piques your interest, but you also know what your tried-and-true favorites are. You have discerning taste and are particular about what you bring into your home.

What to work on

With a discerning palate comes the possibility of becoming too stuck in your ways. Remember: scent is personal, and our preferences are based on our personal experiences AND cultural upbringings. Many notes that the Western world considers unpleasant are highly coveted and celebrated in the places where they are natively grown. Take patchouli: As a native plant of Southeast Asia, it's been beloved in the region for centuries—but in the West, it's considered divisive. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to learn to like scents you thought you hated. Maybe you've had that experience with food: You try something once and hate it, then try it again years later in a different dish and realize you love it? The same thing can happen with fragrance, especially when you're intentional about it.

What to try

Instead of jumping to label a scent as "good" or "bad," focus on how you are receiving it. What memories and emotions does it bring up for you? Are there any beliefs tied to these that you can dismantle? Challenge yourself to spend time with scents you "don't like" and see if you can appreciate the fragrance as a complete piece of work, and identify one thing you appreciate about it. Repeat this exercise each time you encounter something that gives you a strong negative reaction. You're not going to like everything you smell, and that's okay: The goal is to be able to appreciate different points of view, even if it's not something you'd personally wear or have in your home. An open mind is a more peaceful mind.

Your two New Savant scents

Architect's Daughter — Built for the discerning. Juicy grapefruit, salty tears, and fresh bergamot up top, then crisp paper, orange blossom, and petit grain in the heart, then cedarwood shavings, rubber eraser accord, and golden amber at the base. It feels like a desk you actually want to sit at, with a quiet emotional throughline in the heart — classic New Savant.

Library in a Forest — Our most-requested candle, and the one that most rewards a curator's attention. Pine needles, cool mint, and sunny citrus give way to crisp book pages and earthy patchouli, with worn leather and red cedar at the base. Read it the way you'd read a good novel. Slowly, more than once.

A note from The New Savant

We're a queer, women-owned fragrance studio. Every scent we make starts with a story — grief, queer longing, identity, joy, the in-between — and we pour them into candles because we want you to slow down, pay closer attention, and let your nose lead.

Smell is the only sense we never really stop training. The more you use it, the more it shows you. That's the whole point of what we do.