When each candle is crafted from the highest quality natural ingredients, when each candle is tailor made, exquisitely simple, refined with a touch of the unexpected, then it is all about Scent of Copenhagen.

No distance is too far, if I wish to find out more about a brand I am interested in, in order to create a {DESIGN PORTRAIT} for you.

Guess where I have found Morten T. Jensen, the owner and founder of Scent of Copenhagen? In one of his favorite cities, in New York. While the sun was rising in the New York City and Morten was starting to drink his first coffee, I was preparing my third one and was a little bit excited. My phone was ringing… We had an interesting and long conversation. I have gathered some of the most important details for you.

Morten T. Jensen is 46 years old and has MBA in International Business. He is lucky to be a father of a little girl. He has been traveling a lot during his whole life for private or business purposes and was looking for inspiration and new ideas.

Traveling became an important part of his life, so it is like work and hobby at the same time. During 24 hours you can find him in New York, Baltimore, Washington DC and Los Angeles. No wonder, because he loves to see the differences in the cities, people and circumstances. This kind of observations are important for him. Additionally this way of life makes him happy, because he can visit his friends all around the world.
An absolutely no go are the things of the bad quality or things that doesn’t function in a proper and easy way. For sure you can see the reflection of the high quality philosophy in the scented candles and anything else Morten is passioned about.
His favorite international designer and architect is Zaha Hadid, because she is so unique and innovative. And his favorite danish designer is Bjarke Ingels. Because of its organic shapes Chieftain chair from Finn Jul could be mentioned as his favorite piece of furniture!

Because traveling is an important part of his life, there are many cities around the world he could call home. This could be Tokyo, Los Angeles or Copenhagen. In case you would like to meet Morten in Copenhagen, you can bumb into him in the area of Kastellet where he loves to run. Because he spends many days on the road, it is difficult to say, if he has a business trip or vacation at the moment. The places he loves to spent time are California and Italy. And who knows, maybe he is already on his way listing to “Blinding lights” from The Weeknd.

Photo credit: @SCENTOFCOPENHAGEN – Morten T. Jensen, founder and owner.

Dear Morten, how did you get the idea of creating your own scent candle company?Actually everything started with ARCHITECTMADE. After founding and running this company for many years, I used this experience and know-how and brought it into the new company. During that time I was traveling a lot and every time I was back in Denmark, I brought scented candles from the US. They intrigued not only me, but also my friends, so I thought there could be a market for it. My idea was to create highly complex scents in a distinctly Danish design. This was the beginning of Scent of Copenhagen.

There are 2 collections “Copenhagen” and “Art of time”. Please tell us more about each.

The first collection called “Copenhagen”, where each candle is named by a district of the city. The story goes back to New York, where I first saw “made in Brooklyn” on a product. Not made in USA. Even not made in New York. But made in Brooklyn!

Also in Copenhagen there is an elevated distinctiveness in each of the areas. These unique differences I wanted to transmit into the scents of this collection adding the clean Danish looking design.

The collection “Art of time” has an apothecary look, which goes back to the roots of handmade scents. To be back in time, this is the feeling I would like to spread with this collection. This idea is also deeply rooted in its name and should make one stop up and notice not only the TIME of the day but also the FEELING of the TIME of the day. Like, its an enchanted evening instead of only its 20h45.

If you should choose only one candle of each collection, which 2 candles you will choose as your own favorites?

Oh, for the first collection I would say definitely Østerbro, because I have spent a lot of time in my life in that area. For the other collection “Art of time” I would choose the Morning Mist, not only because I am a morning person, but also because it is my absolute favourite scent in the collection.

Where comes the inspiration for the different notes?
We worked with one the best “noses” in America, a perfume artist, who helped us compose the different ingredients to obtain the complex notes in each candle.

Could you please describe your brand in 3 words?
This is an interesting question. The design is simple, but the scent is deep and complex. Maybe the best way to describe it will be: Simple yet complex!

I can imagine, that the creation process of a scent candle should be very exciting. What are the difficulties, challenges and highlights?
The challenge is to make a high quality candle for an affordable price, but we feel like we have succeeded and the response from our customers around the world shows it too.
The other challenge was to put Copenhagen as much as much possible into the candle. So we started thinking about what symbolizes Copenhagen in the best way. For us bikes are the epitome of Copenhagen lifestyle. This is why we have focused our visual concept around the bike.
The highlights, are seeing people around the world via instagram buying our candles in the local shops and showing them in their homes in New Zealand, Germany or China. It is a good feeling to see that people from different countries and continents love our scented candles.

“Imagine biking in your favorite neighbourhood of Copenhagen fused with fresh yet intricate scents captured in a reusable glass jar with a light wood lid.”

Is there any story connected with Scent of Copenhagen you would like to share with us?
For sure SCENTOFCOPENHAGEN is a young company and the most interesting stories are yet to come, still there is something that touched me. We wanted to get into the biggest candle shop in the world, Candle Delirium, based in Hollywood. They are so well curated and can choose any company to work with, because obviously everyone wants to be part of it. After we send images of our candles to the owner, he wanted a meeting straight away. He loved the scents and after testing the scent distribution he brought the whole collection in with a beautiful display in his impressive shop. This was the best sign we could get that we were on the right way.

“The collection “Art of time” has an apothecary look, which goes back to the roots of handmade scents.”

What do you wish for Scent of Copenhagen in the coming years?
I have many ideas for new lines. The Nordic kitchen is world famous so it would be fun to have a line with candles, called, Noma, Geranium, etc. If any of you are listening give us a call ha ha… Soon we will have diffusers, but overall i named Scent of Copenhagen exactly Scent of Copenhagen, because it should be like a touch (or bite) of Copenhagen, so it can easily developed into a lifestyle company showcasing everything about the relaxed and “hyggelige” lifestyle of Copenhagen.

Dear Morten, thank you so much for this interesting insight and the fascinating details.

I wish you and the Scent of Copenhagen all the best for the future, which is going to be full of exciting news, I am sure.

Greetings from France,

Arminka aka Petit Sourire

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In collaboration with Scent of Copenhagen