Meliusse - More than Scent Alone

Suddenly everyone on social media seems to be holding a tiny microphone.

I even saw someone accidentally drop theirs because they suddenly needed both hands. Not quite the mic-drop moment they’d planned. 🎤😂

And given that hands free options do exist, it made me wonder…

When does something stop being a useful tool and become a social cue?

We copy fashion.
We copy phrases.
We copy poses.
Apparently, we copy microphones too.

There’s something wonderfully human about it. We look around to see what everyone else is doing, often without even realising it. It’s how trends are born. Not because anyone told us to, but because belonging feels safer than standing out.

No judgement. I probably do exactly the same with something else and don’t even know it.

Maybe the microphone isn’t the interesting part.

Maybe it’s our instinct to belong. Unless someone can tell me why we are favouring these over hands free versions 🤔

Sprinting in My Knickers

Not exactly the title I imagined for my latest blog...

What do an angry swarm of wasps, a faulty dishwasher and your subconscious mind have in common?

More than you'd think.

One rather undignified afternoon in my garden led me to discover why we keep repeating habits we know aren't serving us, even when we desperately want to change.

It has nothing to do with a lack of willpower.

And everything to do with the invisible pathways your brain has been building for years.

If you've ever wondered why breaking old habits feels so difficult, this one's for you.

Link in comments or just head over to my blogs at Meliusse.com

I'm becoming increasingly frustrated by being told what I should do.

Wake up at 5am.
Journal.
Meditate.
Have the perfect morning routine.
Have the perfect evening routine.
Take this supplement. No, wait… this one.
Eat this. No, don’t eat that. That’s bad for you.

As though we’re all living the same life.

What happened to asking ourselves…

What do I choose to do?

What suits my life?
My family?
My work?
My personality?

Perhaps we’ve become so used to looking for answers that we’ve forgotten to ask ourselves the question that matters most.

What might be best for me?

Someone wrote to me after reading my blog asking me this specific question. The conversation that followed was layered with complexity and this post can't do that justice.

However, apart from becoming a habit, there were some crucial elements underpinning that opening sentence "I can't stop checking my e mails on holiday". In their case, validation, need, emptiness.

Read the full blog (see my bio) on how to make that transition past 5pm.

If you’ve been following Meliusse for a while, you may have noticed that not every post is about fragrance.

That isn’t by accident.

Beautiful scents can transform the atmosphere around us, but lasting change comes from within. The choices we make, the thoughts we carry, the perspectives we hold, and the moments we choose to pause all shape how we experience the world.

When I created Meliusse, I wanted it to be about more than beautiful fragrance. I wanted it to offer moments of reflection alongside beautifully crafted scents.

So you’ll find posts about fragrance, alongside reflections on the ideas that help us better understand ourselves and the people around us.

Some will be about scent. Some will be about life. Together, they’re all part of what Meliusse has always been about, more than scent alone.

I hope you'll enjoy following the journey

If you love your career and those late-night wins make you feel validated, you might ask yourself: Does overworking even matter?

The answer is simple: It isn’t a problem... until it is.

Chasing validation through your professional output works beautifully right up until the moment it doesn't.

When you struggle to step away from your emails at night, it is rarely a time-management flaw. It is an identity problem.

The human brain is wired to seek safety, predictability, and validation. The corporate world is a masterclass in providing all three through clean, immediate feedback loops: ⚡ You input effort ➔ You get a clean output. ⚡ You fix a crisis ➔ You get a thank you.

But outside the office? Life is rarely that tidy.

True intimacy is vulnerable, parenting is unpredictable, and rest doesn’t hand out gold stars.

When you close the laptop, your brain experiences a literal chemical drop-off. That restless, anxious "twitch" to check your phone at 8 PM isn’t a sign you have more work to do—it’s a dopamine withdrawal symptom.

We need to stop trying to earn our right to rest.

I’ve broken down the exact psychology of "inbox addiction" and the 15-minute transition ritual you can use to protect your finite energy in my latest blog post. You'll see it in the comments below.

Does this late-night 'twitch' feel familiar to you? Drop a message in the comments.

Cheap or expensive?
Not all diffusers are created equal…
…but not every expensive one is worth the price either.

What’s really making the difference?
The quality of the fragrance oils, the base and the reeds all affect how a diffuser performs and how long it lasts.

When fragrance becomes something more.
The right scent doesn’t just fill a room.
It can become an anchor for how you want to feel.

A beautiful fragrance fades.
The feeling it reminds you of doesn’t.

Read the full article at Meliusse.com/socials and click 'blog'

One of the strange things about creating home fragrance is that I rarely experience it the way my customers do. I’m surrounded by my products every day, so I barely notice them anymore.

This week I walked into the beauty salon, Extensions de cils & maquillage permanent📍Sérignan and for the first time in a long while, I was the customer.

The fragrance greeted me at the door and stayed beautifully in the background throughout my appointment. It reminded me exactly what I hope every customer experiences when they walk into a space scented with Meliusse.

Btw. Natalie does do amazing lash extensions even if her passion is permanent make up. For my English friends she also speaks English if needed x

Hurtling along the narrow streets of the Medina in a Tuk Tuk was the unexpected hilarious highlight of our Marrakech trip. But the food waiting for us at the Berber Duchess was well worth the adventure 😍

If you can't smell your diffuser try:

* Flipping the reeds. Turning them weekly gives the scent a refresh

* Moving it to somewhere where there is movement and airflow but not next to an open window

* Changing the reeds.

Changing the reed type from willow to fibre (or vice versa) or even the diameter of the reeds can help the fragrance travel easier. And sometimes they just get blocked.

And if all those fail it might be time to change your brand, one designed for stronger scent throw. People have different 'noses' for smells. I can shove a strong diffuser under the nose of my husband and he just looks confused tbh 😂