Our Story

Brooke & Shoals was founded by Alison Banton in the picturesque seaside town of Greystones in County Wicklow, known as the “Garden of Ireland”. Alison’s passion for fragrance was inspired by the divine aroma’s of the petals she picked as a child in her great-aunt Mollie's circular rose garden. Mollie used to say the 'babbling brook and the whispering shoals' would help her turn Alison's rose petals into perfume. But overnight, the kind old lady would add real perfume to the little girl's watery mixture; fooling her into thinking she had created the wonderful aroma!

'My great-aunt and the mysterious brook and shoals awakened my interest in perfumes, so I added an 'e' and turned it into a name that has wonderful fragrance memories for me'. - Alison Banton, Founder & CEO, Brooke & Shoals Fragrances

How We Grew...

Alison decided to create her own range of candles that were superior to other Irishmade candles on the market. Her vision was simple, high quality, divine fragrances, natural wax, beautiful packaging and Irish made. Her customers loved them. She built on her experience of fragrance by going to Grasse in the South of France, the capital of fragrance, to study it in more detail and gather new inspiration.

Originally, Alison’s wonderful fragranced candles were sold only in her own shop in Greystones. However an increasing number of enquiries from other stores to stock her ranges, led her to scale up the business to meet the growing demand for her high quality, Irish made, design-led products. Now, Brooke & Shoals divine natural wax candles, home fragrance diffusers and natural body product range can be found in many high quality stores in Ireland and the UK and increasingly in mainland Europe. See our stockist list for details.