Sir Candle Man doesn’t just describe scent, he translates it. Raised among rose bushes in Zimbabwe, pine trees in the Eastern Highlands, and the grounding green notes of his mother’s flower shop, his world was perfumed from the beginning. Today, he treats fragrance as a form of presence, as a way to mark time, to shift energy, and to come back home to yourself.
In this week’s SIDIA Stories, he reflects on scent as storytelling — from the perfumers who merge art and science to the sensory language that shapes how we feel, remember, and connect. We speak about softness in digital spaces, the power of ritual, and the quiet relief of being fully known — the version of self that unfolds only in the presence of those who witness you wholly, and without condition.
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What’s your favorite SIDIA scent — and why? What emotion or memory does it unlock for you?
"Every day, I love showering with SOAKED - cypress and musk. It’s just the perfect everyday skin scent fragrance, perfect to start the day off. It’s almost like meditation in the shower. It unlocks the feeling of going on a countryside vacation where you wake up to a dewy morning that’s really green and fresh but cozy —like the day ahead, everything is gonna be okay."
Do you trace your love of scent back to anyone in particular? A parent, grandparent, or a moment that stayed with you?
"In retrospect, my childhood was filled with scent. My mother was a florist, so her store had those floral, green, earthy grounding notes I love. My dad is from Nyanga, which is in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. When you drive there, there are pine trees—they’re like tiny green needles with this smell that I love. In our home in Zimbabwe, we had these rose bushes, lots of them, and those roses were really sweet and strong."
"Growing up, I was just obsessed with colognes. Fragrance has always been who I am—I would’ve been a perfume TikToker if I was a teenager in this time. And my aunt worked in a department store, so she would bring us back samples. I was just always smelling new scents."
Lighting a candle is an act of invitation — a soft return to self. What does that moment look like for you, in your own day-to-day life?
"I light a candle every single night. For me, it’s an exploratory experience to understand new scents and to go on new journeys. It’s almost like a meditative state because it takes me out of my body into this experience of fragrance and kind of regulates my nervous system. So what it looks like for me is an end-of-day unwind, recentering and grounding through the stories told through scent."
"Scent has solidified my love of craft.”
Your work is deeply intimate — it’s not just about fragrance, but about how we live. What’s something you’ve learned about yourself through scent?
"Scent has solidified my love of craft. When I started in the world of fragrance, I was reviewing candles. And then I met perfumers and fragrance makers, and through that I learned about fragrance making in general."
"You can tell these stories whether it’s home fragrance, body care, fine fragrance, car fragrance—the list goes on. You can tell stories and evoke emotions. And that ability for perfumers to take an idea and a brief and use their art and science to turn it into something that evokes emotion has put me in deep reverie for the art form of making fragrance. The perfumers are scientists and artists."
"It’s made me want to be better, made me more creative, made me more inquisitive. Honestly, more aware of the world and more present. I’ve learned that I like to be present, and I’ve also learned to appreciate every moment, every space, because it has a smell."
You write about scent like it’s a language. If you couldn’t use words, what smells would you use to describe who you’ve become?
"I think of myself as like a digital renaissance man—I have multiple endeavors. I work in technology, I work in fragrance, I have a podcast, I’m a global citizen. So my smells would have to be kind of mysterious and alchemical. Definitely frankincense or some type of resin that captures the magical amalgamation of who I am."
"Something that leaves a trail—I want to leave positive memories in people’s lives. So those airy, musky white ambers that kind of linger. And I want to be a sweet inspiration to people, so I would add in a juicy stone fruit or like a juicy blood orange. That would be my combo."
You’ve built a digital presence rooted in emotion, slowness, and care — what does it look like to protect that softness while living online?
"Screen time management is key. I spend a lot of time online, but I also know when to put the phone down. Tomorrow’s another day to smell more amazing things."
"I’ve come to learn that what people show online is truly just a piece of who they are, so I have a lot of empathy knowing that humans are much more multifaceted. That is, in and of itself, a way of self-protection—I do that so I don’t get triggered."
"And lastly, I like to follow people that inspire me. That’s self-care online. You don’t need to be dragged into negative vibrations."
When do you feel most like yourself — not the version people see, but the version you know?
"When I’m with my family or my friends—I’m not so curated, I’m not someone who’s always “on.” I’m just relaxing in casual clothes at my parents’ home in Johannesburg. That’s me. I feel most like myself when I’m with people who know me well, at home."
Kudzi's Ritual:
