She remembers smelling the thunderstorm, butter cookies and guineps.

“It was really rainy, it was dark, and everyone was out dancing in the streets except for the chickens who were hiding in the doorstep.  And I just have these really visceral scent memories from that moment of the earth and the rain and the fruit,” Lawrence said. “So this perfume is kind of this balancing act between the first experience of grief but also the celebratory nature of this moment with my family.”

— Na-Moya Lawrence on making a perfume inspired by her great-grandmother’s funeral. Read more in What does death smell like? This LA perfume exhibition takes your nose into unusual territories at LAist.