Scent and sound have a few things in common: they can both transport you to another place and time and bring back memories – and they both form the basis of Earl of East’s new candle collaboration with south London musician Sampha. Sensory Nectar is a limited-edition candle that’s been two years in the making. Inspired by the musician’s 2023 album Lahai – and taking its name from one of its tracks – the candle is evocative of Sampha’s lush, atmospheric music and is the product of the time Sampha and Earl of East’s founders Niko Dafkos and Paul Firmin spent in one another’s studios. It’s the latest collaboration between the London home fragrance company, following on from past partnerships with Annie Lennox, Olivia Dean and Bon Iver.
“[The collab] felt immediately aligned because Sampha’s approach is intentional and not trend-led,” Dafkos says. “He quietly makes work that’s deeply considered and meaningful, which mirrors how we’ve built Earl of East – ritual-focused, and largely kept in-house. His focus on craft and atmosphere made him a natural partner for translating mood into scent.”
Base notes including cedarwood and cade, leavened with woodsmoke. The scent is lifted with cypress and juniper, as well as a hit of orange for lightness. It’s blended in-house in small batches using essential oils, while the packaging is by east London designer Jonny Lu Studio, who designed the Lahai cover art.
“Spending time in Sampha’s London studio – his ‘home away from home’, full of instruments and objects from his travels – set the tone,” says Dafkos. “The resulting scent is reflective, calming, and earthy, echoing the atmosphere and intention of Lahai rather than directly mimicking its sound.”
The candle underwent seven rounds of refinement and rather than building a traditional fragrance brief, it was informed more by mood and instinct. Sampha says he hopes the candle creates “some sort of grounding and earthly connection which I feel at times emotionally severed from.
“During the recording of Lahai, I was really fascinated with these ideas of temporality and belonging,” says Sampha. “So just like music can help to imbue a motion picture with accented or magnified spirit, scent sometimes really helps to create a part of the world I was looking to explore in the record.”
The Earl of East x Sampha candle is available at Earl of East’s stores and online.
