Joan Woods, who sells organic perfume from Glandore, was chosen to create a scent that will represent Ireland in Japan
AN ORGANIC perfumer in West Cork has been selected to represent Ireland at Expo 2025.
Joan Woods is one of a number of highly creative people who will be curating a vision of all that Ireland has to offer in Osaka, Japan, from mid-April to October.
Joan collecting seaweed for her perfume. (Photo: Alun Callender)
The woman behind the successful Waters + Wild organic perfumery isn’t exactly sure how she was selected.
She thinks it might have been based on the work she did working with Luke Casserly as part of his theatre offering called Distillation.
That was an experiential, interactive production that ran at The Abbey theatre in Dublin, as well as travelling to theatres in New York, Washington and Canada.
It was a unique blend of performance, art, and featured a circular custom-made table by sculptor Ger Clancy with the audience seated around it.
At the heart of the table was the makings of an Irish bog, while miniature bottles of fragrances, created by Joan, were presented to the audience.
Joan recalls travelling to the bog and peatlands in Luke’s native Offaly, where they lay on the ground, inhaling that heavenly scent, before gathering sphagnum moss and other things to replicate the smell.
Joan is currently in the process of getting the licence for this Oak and Oud perfume, which will be featured alongside her other four signature scents at her shop in Glandore.
What she is creating for Expo 2025 – which has as its theme Creativity Connects People – is still a work in progress, but Joan said she is enthusiastic about the process.
Her mission is to create a scent that encapsulates the green earthiness of Ireland, something that will connect the island people of Ireland with the island people of Japan.
It is the latest challenge in a career that has evolved since Joan’s days of running not one but two beautiful concept stores – Platform on Lemon Street and Platform Éile on South William Street in Dublin.
Selling high-end, international, and interesting items was her passion for about 15 years before moving to London, where she and her partner Richard had two children.
In 2006, they made the ultimate pivot away from business and banking by purchasing a house near Union Hall.
The house, which Joan describes as being ‘up a boreen,’ is actually beautifully situated overlooking the sea at Reen. It’s so beautiful, in fact, that it has been featured in Image Interiors.
‘Our lifestyle was very simple for many years. I did an arts degree on Sherkin Island, which was lovely. But I really enjoyed just being grounded, and being with the children for a large number of years until I felt the need to do something else.’
It was in a barn, adjacent to her home, that the company Waters + Wild officially began in 2016.
Joan qualifies the date saying a lot of background work went into creating, learning, and finding the sources for her unique signature scents.
Another creative change came in recent years when she relocated her business to Glandore.
There, in the heart of the village, overlooking the sea, she established her manufacturing facility, offices, and new store. It even has a coffee dock!
Having a background in retail, it should come as no surprise that Joan would, one day, build a retail outlet around her perfumery.
‘The perfumes are my fundamental love – my way of creating,’ she insists.
Great reviews of Joan’s organic scents, including an entire page by India Knight in The Sunday Times, sent sales skyrocketing, but Joan said it has slowed in many ways because of Covid.
She is unperturbed by this. ‘I work very much in what suits me,’ she said. ‘It has to work with my family, my children, my way of life here. I could be much further along the curve but my life took precedence over those things.’
Her passion for her business is evident when she says things like: ‘I buy the things I love. It is eclectic, but everything has to have a sustainable, slow element to it.’
Joan takes the same approach to her business. Waters + Wild, for example, wouldn’t be out of place on Grafton Street, yet it is the only shop in Glandore.
‘I enjoy the location. That’s why I’m here,’ she said. ‘I would hate to have gone into a town. It was the being here, being able to put a sign on the door: “Gone swimming” that appeals. Literally, it was a lifestyle choice.’
Joan is creating a brand new scent to bring to Japan.
Today, the children are gone – they are off in college – so Joan is now focusing on her contribution to the World Expo.
In keeping with working in a way that chimes with the seasons, Joan said she is only open at weekends for now. Waters + Wild will be moving to a longer week after St Patrick’s Day.
Then, it will be the same high-season madness that affects all of West Cork after Easter.
