I was little, sitting at my mum's dressing table in Glasgow, when I found a gold compact with something written on the lid: Whoever opens this must have a kiss.

So I opened it. Estée Lauder Youth Dew, solid perfume, 1971. Heavy amber, nothing like anything else I had seen or smelt before. I went straight out to the garden and filled my hands with rose petals, trying to make my own scent. Just like mum's.

That compact sits on my desk now. It's the heirloom that started Heirloom.

Every memory a fragrance

Scent became the way I remember things. Freshly ironed clothes and wax crayons on my first day of school. Pine resin and damp moss in the New Forest, where we rode horses at weekends. Heather and wild ferns at Loch Lomond. Baked pastries and sweet champagne at my 21st, with far too much body spray over the top of it. The soft, sugared warmth of my newborn twins asleep on my chest.

Every memory a fragrance. Every fragrance a story.

What stopped me

I spent 25 years in corporate media. I was good at it, I have the MBA and I moved forward without pausing for most of my career.

On 9 August 2024, Women's Day, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was 49. My late mum was also 49 when she was diagnosed.

That stopped me long enough to ask what I really wanted to do with my life. The answer had been sitting on my desk all along.

How Heirloom is made

I spent a year learning perfumery (and I continue to learn every day). I formulate every fragrance myself, here in Cape Town, near the ocean I walk beside most mornings. Soleil de Jour and Soleil de Nuit are both built from specific memories of this coastline: early mornings, salt on skin, the shift from sunrise to sunset.

Not an interpretation of those moments. The actual memory, bottled.

Why Project Flamingo

When I was diagnosed I had a loving family, medical aid, and access to fast care. Most South African women facing this disease have none of that. A portion of every online purchase goes to Project Flamingo, who dramatically cut surgical waiting times for women in the public health system.

It's the part of this business I'm proudest of.

New to Heirloom, start here

If you're new to Heirloom, start with the Discovery Set. Two 5ml vials, one for the day and one for the evening. Enough to wear properly and find out which one is meant for you.

R350, delivered free anywhere in South Africa.