Lynette Reed

I still recall, as a child, rubbing my hands on the lavender, rosemary, tomato, and geranium leaves in the garden of my California home. Years later, when I lived in Zurich, I was hypnotized by the mouth-watering scent of fresh-baked pastries wafting from bakery windows. In Milan, I was obsessed with the aroma of chestnuts roasting on street corners at Christmas time. I'm even drawn to the smell of old books and a worn leather chair. I’ve spent my whole life stopping to smell not just the roses but the gardenias, tuberose, jasmine, and orange blossoms in Southern California and the lilacs, lilies of the valley and heliotrope in the Northeast. For me, fragrance has always been my first love. In 1994, after a decade of working as a model and actress in New York and moving to Los Angeles, I opened a small retail store, Illume, and filled it with what I knew and loved: CANDLES.