There’s something about the sweet scent of creosote after a monsoon that puts Arizonans at ease. Stacey McClure, the owner of Oro Valley-based candle and fragrance company CICADA, longed to create a scent that smelled like home, so during the pandemic, she began making candles as a creative outlet. “I started just trying to find a way to bring these scents of the landscapes and these memories back into the home,” says McClure. According to McClure, “Memory No. 1” is one of CICADA’s top sellers in Arizona, and we can understand why, given desert dwellers’ nostalgia for the intoxicating aroma. McClure has also expanded CICADA’s product line to include 10 other Sonoran scents, plus linen spray, perfume and hand cream.  

We chatted with McClure about her origin story and the process of translating memories into fragrances. 

How did the idea for CICADA come about? 

I grew up in Phoenix, so I grew up in the Sonoran Desert. I’ve always been obsessed with the classic monsoon scent, creosote, and the feeling of monsoons. During the pandemic, I was trying to find something creative to work on that was mine. I thought, “How could I create this scent?” You don’t see a lot of monsoon-scented candles. So, I started trying to find a way to bring the essence of the landscapes and these memories back into your home. You could return to them, smell them and be kind of brought back to certain points in time. 

Why did you make the connection between scent and memory? 

I spent time away from Arizona while I was in grad school. I always missed that scent of home. Memory always connects you to the place that scent does. At first, I was just going to do a scent of the desert, and then it became a memory of that moment, of when the desert blossoms are blooming. 

How did you go about creating the scent for Memory No. 1? 

My background is in architecture and engineering. It took a long time to figure out how to make the right candle. And they don’t just make a creosote fragrance oil, so I had to make my own. 

It didn’t smell right, because it was so flat. And so, I really had to work on developing the other layers in the desert that make it feel this way: the smells of the earth. It just took a lot of trial and error. I kept working with it till it felt right. 

Were the other scents CICADA makes easier to develop? 

I think they’ve been a little bit more interpretive.  The others, like desert blossoms, are a little looser. We use musk in it. I feel like the hardest one was “Memory No. 1” for sure. It’s one of our best sellers here in Arizona. Stores in other states don’t usually pick up that scent the way they do our other scents. 

Is CICADA now your full-time job? 

I launched in October of 2021. I thought it was just going to be something to do for fun, like a creative project on my own, something that was mine. It has taken off, and now we’re in over 200 stores nationwide, so I have a team of three. We have a facility and are making products while trying to evolve the brand more this next year.