What does a county smell like?
It sounds like an odd question until you really begin thinking about it.
Is it the landscape—the smell of bogland, woodland, salt air or rain? Is it something growing there? Is it connected to local history and industry? Or is it simply a scent that brings back the feeling of arriving home?
This is the question I have been asking myself repeatedly while developing the Janni Bars County Soap collection.
The idea is to create a handmade soap for every one of Ireland’s 32 counties. Each county has its own wrapper, colours, imagery and, most importantly, its own individual scent.
It would have been much easier to make one soap and put 32 different wrappers around it. However, that never felt like enough. If I was going to represent every county, I wanted each bar to have its own character and a genuine reason behind the fragrances chosen for it.
The result has become a much bigger project than I probably appreciated when the idea first entered my head.
More Than 32 Different Wrappers
When you first see the County Soap collection, the wrapper is naturally the thing you notice.
Each one features the county name in both Irish and English, with an illustration and colours chosen to reflect the county it represents. But the wrapper is only the beginning of the process.
Inside every wrapper, I wanted there to be a scent that also felt connected to that particular place.
That means creating 32 different fragrance combinations, making 32 different batches of soap and trying to ensure that each one feels distinct while still belonging to the collection as a whole.
There are only so many ways I can tell myself that I have created a “small, straightforward project” before I have to admit that it has become something rather enormous.
Still, it is also one of the most interesting collections I have worked on.
Instead of beginning with a particular ingredient or skin benefit, I begin with a place. I have to consider what that county feels like, what it is known for and what kind of fragrance might communicate some part of its character.
Starting With the Landscape
The landscape is often the most natural place to begin.
Ireland may be a relatively small island, but our counties don’t all look or feel the same. We have Atlantic coastline, lakes, mountains, bogland, woodland, rich farmland and busy towns. Some places feel wild and windswept, while others feel softer, greener or more sheltered.
Even the light can feel different as you travel across the country.
A coastal county may naturally lead me towards a clean, airy or mineral fragrance. A county known for forests, mountains or bogland might call for something earthier, smokier or more deeply woody.
The challenge is capturing that feeling without making the scent too literal.
Nobody necessarily wants their morning shower to smell exactly like a wet field, regardless of how accurately it represents home.
The fragrance still has to be beautiful. It needs to evoke the landscape rather than reproduce every part of it.
For Roscommon, I was drawn to a combination inspired by turf, smoke and lavender. The smoky, earthy notes create that connection to the land, while lavender brings softness and makes it into a fragrance you genuinely want to use.
Longford, where Janni Bars is now based, became a woody blend of vetiver, cypress and cedarwood. It is deep, green and grounded—a scent that feels connected to trees, earth and the quiet rural landscape surrounding us.
For each county, I try to find that balance between representation and enjoyment.
Looking Beyond the Obvious
Some counties immediately suggest several possible scents. Others take more work.
There are the obvious connections, of course: the coastline, a famous local crop, a particular landscape or something strongly associated with the county. Those can provide a useful starting point, but I don’t always want to settle for the very first idea.
I want the soaps to have a little more depth than that.
That has led me into local history, traditional industries, old stories and the Dúchas archives. I can begin with one fairly simple question and emerge much later having read about local plants, old soapmaking practices, historical buildings and traditions that have almost disappeared.
Anyone who knows me will not be surprised to hear that I occasionally fall down a research rabbit hole.
Not every detail I discover makes it onto a wrapper or directly into a fragrance. Sometimes the research simply helps me understand the county more clearly. One little piece of history might suggest a plant, material or feeling that becomes part of the final scent.
It is what gives the collection roots.
These aren’t simply 32 attractive fragrances with county names attached. The aim is to create something thoughtful, where the ingredients, imagery and story work together.
Translating a Place Into Fragrance
Once I have gathered the ideas, I still have to turn them into a scent.
A county is a complicated thing to reduce to three or four fragrance notes. It can contain coastline and farmland, old industry and modern towns, tranquillity and noise—all within the same border.
There is no single scent that will represent every person’s experience of a county.
Instead, I am trying to capture a particular interpretation of it.
Sometimes I begin with one dominant note and build around it. A woody fragrance may need a floral or herbal note to lift it. Something sweet may need freshness to keep it from becoming overpowering. A smoky scent often needs softness around it so that it still works beautifully on the skin.
I also have to consider the collection as a whole. I don’t want to reach the end and realise I have made 17 broadly similar lavender soaps or that every county along the coast smells exactly the same.
Each bar needs its own identity.
That means there is quite a bit of changing, testing and occasionally abandoning an idea that seemed perfect in theory but didn’t work once the fragrances were blended.
Then the Soap Has Its Own Opinion
After all that planning, the soapmaking process still gets a vote.
Fragrances can behave very differently once added to soap. Some will cause the mixture to thicken much faster than expected. Others can change its colour, behave unpredictably or produce something slightly different from the scent I had imagined.
There are fragrance combinations that sound wonderfully sophisticated on paper but become far less charming when I am faced with a rapidly thickening pot of soap in the workshop.
At that point, the thoughtful creative process becomes a race to get everything into the mould.
That is the reality of making these products by hand. You can research, plan and calculate, but occasionally the soap decides that it has other ideas.
Each County Soap is made here in County Longford using a base of plant oils and butters. Once made, the bars need time to set, cure and become the hard, long-lasting soaps that eventually reach your bathroom.
There are no instant results, which means I also need to plan well ahead. By the time a new county appears online, quite a lot has already happened behind the scenes.
Why Our Counties Mean So Much
One of the things this collection has reminded me of is just how strong county identity is in Ireland.
People might move away, live in another county for decades or even leave Ireland entirely, but they usually still know where home is.
County loyalty appears in sport, family history, accents, colours and the gentle—or occasionally not so gentle—rivalry between neighbouring counties.
Ask someone where they are from, and the county is often an important part of the answer.
That gives these soaps meaning beyond their practical purpose.
A County Soap can represent where someone lives now, where they grew up, where their parents came from or a place full of memories. It can be a little reminder of home for someone living abroad or a thoughtful addition to a gift being sent overseas.
Someone may choose their own county automatically. Someone else might select a bar because they simply prefer its scent. Both are completely acceptable—although I know there will be people who consider using a rival county’s soap an unforgivable act of disloyalty.
Everyone Remembers a Place Differently
Scent is closely connected to memory, but those memories are deeply personal.
A fragrance that reminds one person of summers by the sea may remind someone else of their grandparents’ garden. Woodland notes might mean long walks to one person and the smell of home fires to another.
That means my interpretation of a county will never be the only possible one.
In fact, one of the loveliest parts of building the collection has been hearing what other people associate with their counties. People suggest plants, places, local foods and memories I might never have discovered through research alone.
The collection is being created by Janni Bars, but the conversations around it are becoming part of the process too.
As more counties are released, I hope people will continue telling me what they think their own county should smell like. I can’t promise to use every suggestion—some would produce more wearable soap than others—but I genuinely love hearing them.
Welcome to Wexford
The newest addition to the County Soap collection is Loch Garman—County Wexford, scented with Apple Blossom, Sea Air and Rose Geranium.
The timing for this launch couldn’t have worked out much better, because I have just spent the past 24 hours in the Sunny South East.
And I can confirm that it definitely delivered.
We had the sunshine, the beautiful light and that open, summery feeling Wexford does so well. It felt like the right moment to come home and officially add Wexford to the collection.
The fragrance combines the fresh coastal character of the county with its softer, greener side.
Sea Air brings a clean, breezy freshness and connects the soap to Wexford’s long coastline. Apple Blossom adds a delicate fruity-floral note rather than an overpowering sweetness, while Rose Geranium ties everything together with something green, floral and uplifting.
The finished fragrance feels fresh and outdoorsy but still gentle. It has the brightness I associate with the Sunny South East, without becoming an obviously summery novelty scent that can only be enjoyed for a few weeks of the year.
It is a soap designed to remind you of open air, coastline, greenery and sunshine—even if the Irish weather outside your own window isn’t cooperating quite as enthusiastically.
Wexford Is Now Available
Like every bar in our County collection, Wexford is handmade here in Longford and individually wrapped in its county design.
It is made to be used, not simply admired on a shelf—although you are allowed to appreciate the wrapper for a little while before opening it.
The Wexford County Soap is now available online, joining the growing number of counties already completed.
There are still plenty more to come. I am continuing to work my way through all 32 counties, one landscape, one story, one fragrance combination and one occasionally troublesome pot of soap at a time.
And now I want to hear from you:
What does your county smell like?
Is it sea air, woodland, flowers, turf smoke, rain, freshly cut grass—or something entirely different?
Your suggestion might just help inspire one of the counties still waiting for its turn.