About Me

Hi! I'm Frauke and I want to help you harness your sense of smell to be well.

I’m a Certified Level II Aromatherapist, smell coach, and teacher who’s spent her career in Perfumery, and I want to help you feel more vitality, joy and calm. 

I want to teach you how to use (or regain) your sense of smell, with support of essential oils and nature, to improve and maintain your smell health.

I'm often referred to as “the smell lady” because of my deep passion for connecting people with their sense of smell. I believe that smelling is a privilege and that society undervalues this beautiful and critical sense. My philosophy encourages a mindful connection with smelling for both health and well-being.

I'm also an Ambassador for the non-profit U.K. organization Fifth Sense, a charity focused on supporting those with smell and taste disorders. It's my mission, as a person with “smell-ability,” to bring more awareness and compassion for people with smell dysfunctions, especially those affected by the inability to smell. My aim is to bring closer those who have the privilege to smell with those who are unable to smell. Because, through perspective, we can all learn from each other.

I founded FALK Aromatherapy not only to share my passion for all things aromatic, but also to help people help themselves - all through the power of smell. I hope to educate, engage, connect and inspire as many people as I can. I hope you'll join me along the way.

My Aromatic Journey

I remember it like it was yesterday. My family and I landed at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on a warm and sunny April day. I was a little immigrant girl from Germany arriving in this new, unfamiliar place and unsure of where the journey would lead me. I remember seeing the commotion, a myriad of people rushing about the arrivals hall, arms brushing each other, as they scurried about to grab their suitcase from the carousel. I remember hearing the many languages being spoken, most notably English, of which I didn't understand but a few words.

But what takes me back to that day more than anything else is the smells that greeted me in this new, unfamiliar country. The waft of air as we stepped outside for the first time, smelling of grit and of the exhaust from the cars (this was the early 70's after all). But mixed in was a freshness, a faint smell of spring greenery from the surrounding area. I felt welcomed by these assorted smells and, although different from my home country that I had left behind, they are imprinted in my memory to this day.

I believe that the power of scent has been a guiding thread in my life's journey from an early age. The feelings scent evokes, the memories it builds, and the connections it creates have been nothing short of awe-inspiring to me.

In my professional career, working in the consumer packaged goods industry for Johnson & Johnson and Unilever for 6 years, I saw first-hand what a primary role scent played in connecting consumers to specific brands and how it could make a seemingly mundane task, like washing your hair or massaging your baby, even a little bit more enjoyable. I was hooked and I wanted to learn more.

So I joined the renowned fragrance house Firmenich and, over the next 14 years, I spent hours and hours with perfumers and fragrance developers, absorbing as much knowledge as I could, and providing my clients with guidance on every aspect of scent, from the harmony of the individual ingredients in a composition, to the pivotal role the fragrance could play in a finished consumer product.

During my time in the fragrance industry, I was particularly fascinated by natural ingredients, and essential oils specifically. I began dabbling a bit with oils I bought at my local natural food store. I tried to make simple perfumes for my wrist and blends for my diffuser. I shared with friends, too. I loved how the essential oils made me feel and how they made my family and friends feel. I had an emotional connection to their natural aspect - simple to understand, familiar from moments in time, true to nature because they were nature. They were good for you, right? I read a lot on the internet and bought essential oil books. But information was conflicting and not consistent. I was hesitant about how much I should use and what I could safely use. I instinctively knew essential oils were having an effect, but I didn't understand how or why.

So the next phase in my journey brought me to aromatherapy. I decided to go back to school and become a Certified Level II Aromatherapist in order to truly understand everything there is to know about essential oils, including their chemistry and therapeutic uses. I enrolled in the internationally recognized and NAHA accredited Aromahead Institute of Essential Oil Studies and learned, through an evidence-based curriculum, how to emotionally, physically and spiritually support my health and wellbeing.

In the end, I decided to start my own company to both share my more than 20+ years of scent experiences, but to also help people help themselves. All through the power of smell.

My Philosophy

Often people ask me if I’m focused on supporting those who can’t smell, or those who can smell. Which is it, Frauke? Well, to me it’s not an either/or. To me it’s all about our sense of smell. Period. Which means it’s a spectrum, it’s this and that, and everything in between.

Yes, I’m a person who is able to smell (normosmic). And I’ve worked / am working in two industries (fragrance and aromatherapy) that focus heavily on smelling. We love to smell, and we appreciate this undervalued sense.

But go outside this bubble and you soon recognize that our sense of smell is more complicated than that. There are millions of people around the world who, dare I say, have a very complex relationship with their sense of smell. Some never had access to it (congenital anosmia), some aren’t able to access it anymore (acquired anosmia), some barely have a relationship with it (hyposmia), some are occasionally startled by it (phantosmia), some are disgusted by it (parosmia), and some are overwhelmed by it (hyposmia).

Our sense of smell can serve our wellbeing in many ways. But I believe we need to meet people where they’re at. We need to first acknowledge how they feel about this sense. And recognize that it’s not the same for everyone. In fact, it’s different for every single one of us.

Truth be told, it’s complicated. But I’m up for the challenge. I’m committed to this indifferent, messy, complex, contentious, and joyous sense that is our sense of smell. If wellbeing means the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy, then I commit to helping move people towards that.

My mantra is “smell to be well” and that means helping everyone on the osmia spectrum strive towards that for themselves.