‘Fragrance, faith and the power of story’

I’m a passenger in a car, cruising out of Belfast and up the M2, bound for the newest boutique hotel on Ireland’s North Coast. Beside me sits a glamorous woman, eyes forward, quietly preparing to lead 30 women through a perfumery masterclass. It’s hard to believe that just eight years ago the same woman, Tonya Kidd-Beggs, was living the rhythm familiar to so many mums – juggling school runs, packed lunches, sports drop-offs and parent-teacher meetings. For two decades, she had poured herself into life as a stay-at-home mum to her four children. It was the world she knew, and she was perfectly content in it – until a one-week trip to Grasse in France changed everything. 

The lure of Grasse

 “Scent has always held deep meaning for me,” Tonya reflects. “Even as a child, I found it powerful. My grandmother passed away before I was born, but my mum kept her perfume on the sideboard. She was a hotelier who had broken many glass ceilings in her day. I like to think that I have inherited her entrepreneurial spirit. I used to spray her perfume and feel connected to her, as if I had known her – as if the fragrance built a bridge across time.”

Tonya describes herself as a lifelong fragrance enthusiast, someone who could happily lose herself in the perfume section of Space NK. After reading Jo Malone’s autobiography and learning that she had travelled to a place called Grasse, a spark was ignited. “I remember thinking, maybe I could do that too.” 

The plan was to go to Grasse – the world’s perfume capital – accompanied by her mum, find a perfumer and enjoy a scent experience that would culminate in the creation of her own personal fragrance. 

“My kids were growing up; my youngest twin girls were about to start secondary school and I felt it was time to do something for myself: to explore a new hobby.

“Grasse is truly magical. The streets are thick with the scent of orange blossom, rose and jasmine; they bring your senses alive. I was there to learn the art of perfumery and began working with a wonderful Russian lady, ‘Lez Nez’, which is French for ‘the Nose’, who was a master perfumer. I started the process by blind-smelling raw ingredients and something unexpected happened: memories I thought I’d lost began to resurface.”

A change of smell

Tonya’s life had already followed a winding path up until this point; the most defining turn came during her childhood. Tonya shares: “When I was twelve, I was sexually assaulted. I didn’t tell anyone. I felt responsible and carried that shame into my teens. For years, I had no good memories of anything before the assault; it was as if my early childhood had vanished.”

The trauma Tonya endured at such a young age had blocked out all the joy and light of her childhood. Unable to process what happened, it manifested during her adolescence in years of self-destructive behaviour. It wasn’t until Tonya came to faith and began counselling to confront the trauma that healing began to take root. Yet, the memories from those early years remained locked away. 

“After counselling, my sense of smell changed, how and why I do not know, but I recognised that it represented me coming out of the darkness into the light. Coming out of pain and sorrow into forgiveness and wholeness. There was one scent in particular that used to envelop me. I couldn’t explain it, but I longed to capture it. It was this scent that I wanted to try to recreate many years later, while in France. That became STORIES Nº.01.”

The power of scent

Few things rival the evocative strength of scent: the smell of a familiar perfume, freshly cut grass or sea air can instantly transport us to a long-forgotten moment. Unlike sight or sound, our sense of smell bypasses the brain’s relay centre (the thalamus), creating a more instinctive, deeply emotional response. It’s extraordinary how something as subtle as scent can have such a powerful impact. This is beautifully illustrated in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, when Paul describes how the aroma of Christ can impact those who sense it:

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life.”

The most dramatic impact of scent on Tonya occurred when she was sat at the perfumer’s organ (so called because it looks just like an organ and is the place where a perfumer organises their base ‘notes’), curating a second scent – she encountered a memory that stopped her in her tracks.  

“I was transported to my grandfather’s garden. As I learned to blind smell – I had no idea what I was blending, as everything is coded, so I used my own intuition to guide me to blend top, heart and base notes – in an instant I was transported into a memory: prior to the trauma, playing in my grandfather’s garden, being watched under the loving gaze of my father and grandfather – their faces obscured by tobacco pipe smoke. I remembered playing in the wet leaves at the base of my grandfather’s garden by the river, skipping across his precious rose garden. It was then I was reminded how loved and safe I felt with them. This was the first memory I had that resembled safety and love, prior to the trauma. Tears ran down my cheeks.

“It was in that moment that I decided to share my story through my scents in the hope that others, too, would connect with their own stories – past, present and future. Our sense of smell is the most powerful of all our senses, closely linked to memory, mood and emotion, and from this passion, STORIES Parfums was born. I came home and told Ian, my husband, that I was going to start a perfume brand. He didn’t even blink. He’s always been my encourager.”

Kingdom values

Unaware of the beauty world’s intricacies or that she was stepping into one of its most oversaturated categories, Tonya packed her two unbranded bottles into a suitcase and headed to London with two scents and a story. 

“I was new to the industry and had a lot to learn, but I became a sponge and learned from some of the greatest in the industry. Many of those early meetings opened doors and gave me the confidence to keep going.”

It may have been Tonya’s story that birthed the brand, but it is God’s story that breathes life into every part of Tonya’s journey. She seeks to share the pleasing aroma of Christ in all the rooms that she finds herself in for STORIES Parfums. As a Christian businesswoman, she strives to build company practices on kingdom values, with one of the brand’s defining pillars being sustainability. Though not always the most cost-effective route, Tonya decided early on to remove plastic from all her packaging. 

“I felt it was important to honour the planet. Our perfumes and candles are refillable, and our body care comes in aluminium bottles with stainless steel pumps. Every material we use is recyclable, from the rock paper labels to our zamak caps.”

Tonya also strives to change the stories of others through counselling and healing ministry. Drawing from her own journey of healing, she now helps others to overcome trauma and reclaim their stories. Her personal transformation was so powerful that it led her to become a trained Christian counselling practitioner, with a focus on inner healing and deliverance. She has spent years working with young adults, helping them understand how unhealed trauma can cause cycles of destructive behaviours. 

“I want people to know that their past doesn’t define them. There’s a greater narrative. Healing is possible. Freedom is real.”

Seven years in, STORIES Parfums continues to grow, with new fragrances in development and an expanding global presence. As Tonya looks to the future, her purpose remains rooted in transformation – through fragrance, faith and the power of story.

“I hope that what we create doesn’t just smell beautiful but carries something meaningful into people’s lives. Fragrance can shift atmospheres. My prayer is that the work I do, through STORIES and beyond, brings something good, lasting and redemptive wherever it goes.”

STORIES Parfums is offering an exclusive 20 per cent discount to Woman Alive readers for the month of October. Please use the code WOMANALIVE20 at the online checkout. storiesparfums.com

Words by Lisa Skinner