There’s no denying incense is having a revival with artisanal brands such as This is Incense bringing it to a new audience. Three Balls Red caught up with founder and creative director Sophie Marshall to chat about the brand’s beginnings, sustainability, Sophie's personal daily rituals and the large-scale renovation of her family’s surf treehouse at Yamba
Can you tell us a little about your background and the This is Incense back story?
It has been one of those stories of trusting in the universe and running with what it delivers…
Rewind two years ago - I was a full-time working mum of two young boys, I was travelling a lot for work as Global Product Manager at Rip Curl. I had randomly bought some incense in New York and at the time, I was really looking for any way possible to be able to de-stress and walk in the door and transition from “crazy work life” to my second job as a mum. I found the simple use of burning incense helped me do this, it also calmed our moments with the kids and soon became my daily ritual.
A few weeks later, an idea came to me in the shower one morning. A thought popped in my head, “You need to make incense!” I jumped out of the shower and told my husband that we were going make incense. He thought I was crazy, but he supported me in the initial discovery process, which included some rules if we started:
One, it had to be easy, secondly, it had to be self-funded and three, we’d have “a good humans-only policy” dealing with only good people, which still stands today.
I still can’t believe that after 27 years in the surf industry, I had an unexpected career change to creating products which aren’t apparel, products that I am personally obsessed with and that help provide people with a beautiful daily ritual.
The collection is named after iconic Australian places including Byron Bay and Bondi Beach, evoking memories connected to those places. How do you go about creating these scents?
To create a bespoke scent for each place, I really went back to experiences I had in each of the places and the way it made me feel. I wanted to create this exact experience through scent.
Bells is where we got married on the beach with a traditional Welcome to Country smoking ceremony and the smell of this takes me back to the bush smell of Eucalypts and sandalwood.
I spent my teenage years in Margaret River, so I created this scent to remind me of the salty, good times chasing surf and music down there.
Yamba is our new home and I wanted to capture a scent that is paradise in a box, which is the best description of it.
I brief in each scent and place and work closely with a perfumer who specialises in essential oil blends. She brings my vision of scent experience to life.
Incense has had a revival in recent years, with artisanal brands like This is Incense bringing it to a new audience. Do you think the pandemic and the fact people are living and working in the same space and are looking at ways to improve their environment and also reduce stress has contributed to this?
The hectic way we have been living as a society - the way I had personally been living - our family really did need something to change.
It was unsustainable.
Even though we were in lockdown in Victoria for 263 days, there was a silver lining to really reflect and make changes.
Prior to the pandemic, my husband and I were travelling every six weeks and were away from the kids for work a lot since they were born. Suddenly, there was no travel for two years and, by default, we reconnected as a family, learnt how important it was to take it slow and most importantly, to value our mental health.
Routine and rituals in lockdown became very important and incense became a big part of people’s space and everyday use at home. Using our own product really helped our household during the two years of lockdowns and I know it helped a lot of people, also. Lighting that little stick bought so much calm and peace for many during this crazy time.
What role does sustainability play in your business?
Sustainability is such an important topic within our business, and it must be viewed holistically. It needs to be considered not just as environmental but in also making business decisions that ensures we will be a sustainable business, in terms of longevity.
So many small businesses don’t survive - they grow so quickly leading to burn out and making unsustainable decisions that leads to short-term gain but long-term pain.
For us, this includes ensuring we can deliver to our customers in the best way possible, considering aligning with stockists that are aligned with our brand values to ensure we grow sustainably with them, that we don’t run out of stock/raw materials or take too much on that we are stretched too thin, or suffer burn out that leads to our customer service suffering.
Saying no can ensure sustainable business practices.
With our incense packaging, we have used no single-use plastics, and we work with our suppliers upstream to ensure that they also eliminate waste and use recycled materials where we can.
Incense has had a revival in recent years, with artisanal brands like This is Incense bringing it to a new audience. Do you think the pandemic and the fact people are living and working in the same space and are looking at ways to improve their environment and also reduce stress has contributed to this?
The hectic way we have been living as a society - the way I had personally been living - our family really did need something to change.
It was unsustainable.
Even though we were in lockdown in Victoria for 263 days, there was a silver lining to really reflect and make changes.
Prior to the pandemic, my husband and I were travelling every six weeks and were away from the kids for work a lot since they were born. Suddenly, there was no travel for two years and, by default, we reconnected as a family, learnt how important it was to take it slow and most importantly, to value our mental health.
Routine and rituals in lockdown became very important and incense became a big part of people’s space and everyday use at home. Using our own product really helped our household during the two years of lockdowns and I know it helped a lot of people, also. Lighting that little stick bought so much calm and peace for many during this crazy time.
What role does sustainability play in your business?
Sustainability is such an important topic within our business, and it must be viewed holistically. It needs to be considered not just as environmental but in also making business decisions that ensures we will be a sustainable business, in terms of longevity.
So many small businesses don’t survive - they grow so quickly leading to burn out and making unsustainable decisions that leads to short-term gain but long-term pain.
For us, this includes ensuring we can deliver to our customers in the best way possible, considering aligning with stockists that are aligned with our brand values to ensure we grow sustainably with them, that we don’t run out of stock/raw materials or take too much on that we are stretched too thin, or suffer burn out that leads to our customer service suffering.
Saying no can ensure sustainable business practices.
With our incense packaging, we have used no single-use plastics, and we work with our suppliers upstream to ensure that they also eliminate waste and use recycled materials where we can.
The use of incense dates back thousands of years and is synonymous with ritualism. Can you share some of your daily rituals, and how you personally use incense?
My daily rituals change with seasons and how I am feeling. I am also learning to adopt new gentle habits.
My morning one is incense, coffee, a yoga playlist, and stillness time on the balcony. I crave this time and look forward it every night when I go to bed.
During the day when I need to be creative, I also use our incense and at night I use it to create calm within the house. I have also been known to light one in the car on a road trip with the dogs to make the car smell amazing!
New gentle habits I have also started to adopt is to head down to the beach during a lunch break and immerse myself in the water with a dive mask and enjoy the sun streaming through the water.
Incense holders have also become a covetable piece of interior decor. Do you have any favourite brands?
I love discovering new artisans. Mason Wylde, The Slow Hands and The Clay society are some of our favourites.
We know it must be like picking a favourite child but which scent is your favourite?
OK, this is incredibly hard as I am SO close to all of them and use them all at different times for different moments but my favourite right now is the new Electric Dreams scent we have developed with Sophie Bell – aka Peppa Hart. It is next level with amber and vanilla notes and I’m in love every time I light it. I can’t wait for you to smell this!
You are currently renovating your Yamba Surf Treehouse, which the Three Balls Red team is thrilled to be working on. Can you share a little bit about this project?
We have been planning this for over a year. In fact, as soon as we decided to sell up in Torquay and move to our holiday house, the plans were drawn up.
I wanted to really focus on a house that is fun and that everyone could enjoy.
We are focused on using local trades and builders who wanted to tackle something different, including our floors. As the local paths around Angourie have crazy pave, I was inspired to use this inside our house. Seeing the Peppa Hart x Three Balls Red collaboration pavers used in her cubby, I knew we had to take the task on for the downstairs living and entertaining areas. I hit Sophie up to ask her opinion on it if we were crazy to tackle this for inside and she said, ‘DO IT!’
I cannot wait to wake up every day and see this on the floors. Stay tuned for this massive project!
What is next for This is Incense?
We have a busy few months ahead which includes moving into a new warehouse but the most exciting part is launching Gentle Habits TM [Positive Outcomes], our new overarching brand. This will house This Is Incense and our new products including our Ritual Shower Oil and Ritual Body Balm in Noosa, Yamba and Byron Bay, our new diffuser oils in all of the scents, some fun new products that will create help create positive outcomes, and the coolest new dive masks.
