Burning Brightly

Field Day is an Irish home fragrance brand that ticks all the boxes when it come to beautiful fragrances, stylish packaging and most importantly sustainability. Here we chat to founder and owner Alix Mulholland.

Founder and owner of Field Day, Alix Mulholland, has watched as the home fragrance market has grown massively over the years. Alix started Field Day in 2002, a recent business graduate working in the tourist sector, she had a clear vision of the business she wanted to set up.

‘The seeds for Field Day were sown during my time at university in Glasgow,’ explains Alix. ‘My father passed away during this time and although I remained to see my degree through to the end, I noticed how much I missed home and the smells that reminded me of walking through the fields in the Irish countryside. In fact, my final year business plan was the model for Field Day and my lecturer never thought it would work! In her defence it was over 20 years ago and home fragrance wasn’t what it is now.

‘Also as a child I was really exposed to retail because my father ran a shop in Belfast and my mother was always making and doing. In fact, our recently launched Jam Jar Collection is inspired by my rose-petal perfume making in jam jars as a child.’

Back in 2002, Alix taught herself how to make soaps and candles and took her product along to her first trade show in Dublin. ‘From this point the business began to grow slowly and organically as we built up a loyal customer base. You have to remember this was all before the days of social media. Now it feels like you could set up a business and have hundreds, if not thousands of customers in a flash! I was working from my kitchen table for a long time and gradually over the years I have proudly watched it evolve from here in to our dedicated premises with a team often. As Alix’s business has grown, so too has the demand for home fragrance and Field Day, although a well established brand name, is now part of a very crowded marketplace and in 2020 Alix felt that it was time for a brand refresh.