The strong connection between scent and memory has been well documented. Detroit native Jordan Lee Cook is the founder of Loomen Labs — a scent and floral bar in Queen Village where she teaches guests how to create their own signature perfume, candles and floral bouquets. As a way to continue exploring her love for fragrances, Cook combines her love for scents, memories and writing with the launch of her newest business venture, Love, Jour. Love, Jour is a luxury collection of seven eau da parfums and a corresponding fragrance diary. Cook spoke with the SUN about the creation and inspiration behind Love, Jour.
Cook experienced the benefits of essential oils during her journey to mental wellness. gift for her
“When I created Loomen Labs, I created it because I was kind of dealing with some disparities in my mental health and I was using the essential oils to figure that out a little bit,” she said. “When I was dealing with those essential oils, I thought maybe I should make candles out of them.
One Mother’s Day, I decided to make candles for my mother and I used these essential oils in the candles not knowing that you don’t actually use essential oils in candles — you use fragrance oils instead. Working with that — and wrongfully making candles — piqued my interest in how to actually make them correctly. From there I realized, I like mixing my own scents, and I wanted to give everyone the platform and ingredients to mix and match their own scents.”
Discovering a new love for creativity with scents led to the opening of Loomen Labs.
“We opened our brick-and-mortar in 2021,” Cook said. “There, you come in and make your own candles, make your own perfume, and it really kind of got my mind wondering about how much further I can go with the scent creation. At the time, it was just candle making, so it really opened the door to perfume-making that we now do and incense that we do through Love, Jour.”
The pairing of the collection and fragrance diary came about organically as Cook documented her daily life.
“I carry around a daily journal,” she said. “As I was creating the scents, I was kind of just jotting down my feelings and thoughts about the scents, and also the things I was going through in my daily life. In retrospect, I looked back at the journal and pulled poems and pros to create the fragrance diary.”
Cook recently celebrated the official launch of Love, Jour at Jane Gallery in Old City. Love, Jour, which Cook describes on the packaging as “romantically curated, inquisitively complex” includes seven signature fragrances: No. 228, No. 04-035, No.14, No. 23, No. 6, No. 5606, and No.10. The corresponding fragrance journal includes 35 poems.
“Scent is very subjective, so it’s going to go based on what you’re looking for,” Cook said. “As I was going through certain periods of time, I wanted to smell certain notes — I think that’s the overall background of being a perfumer. The same way you express yourself through poetry, you express yourself through scent. You create a mixture that has these memories behind it, but also a functional scent that can help you get through these emotions that you’re feeling.”
Although each scent brings its own set of notes that correspond with specific emotions for Cook, she is currently drawn to one scent and poem in particular during the season this interview was conducted, which was mid-autumn.
“I don’t have a favorite scent, because it’s like a certain period of my life that I see them as,” she said. “However, there is one that I’m resonating a lot with more, especially in this fall season, and it’s definitely going to be the 228 scent. This October fall season is when marigolds are in full bloom and it’s kind of just making me really nostalgic [for] my childhood home. My mom actually just got her marigolds in. So I think right now I’m just holding that extra close to my heart.”
“I think the chapter in general that I keep revisiting is going to be 10,” Cook added. “I think because it’s so reminiscent of October, but specifically “The Empress” poem in 10. It does have a complimentary mini scene that my best friend Michael Piantini wrote. I think right now the words that he wrote resonate super close to my heart. I’m a little more used to the cold weather of Detroit, but I’m in such a cozy mood right now.”
Love, Jour is a fully online business. The intentionality Cook has dedicated to the visual and written representation of the brand identity has allowed her to find her niche.
“A lot of our brand identity is going to come from our social media marketing,” she said. “Right now, we’re really trying to put together the overall image of Love, Jour because it is so complex, and sometimes it feels like each poem has its own universe and storyline behind itself. I think following us on Instagram and TikTok will be where you get most of the information, but we also plan on starting a blog with lengthier posts where people can dive into things. Overall, I think our demo will be bibliophiles and people who just like to sit down and read and be with themselves. I do also believe there’s a market for scent lovers, and I think our scents are a little bit away from the realm of where scent is going right now. I think it will be nice to see how people feel about our more natural organic scents.”
For more information on Love, Jour, visit: www.lovejour.com and follow the brand on [email protected].
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