Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan's Second Wave's On the Ground Kalamazoo series.
 
KALAMAZOO, MI – In a few seconds, a scent can transport you back to a memorable event, a special relationship, or a great place that you haven’t been in years.
 
“Your nose, your sense of smell, is connected to your prefrontal cortex,” explains Tanya Thompson. “That’s where the memory, mood, and emotional part of your brain is. It’s so incredible.”
 
CourtesyKalamazoo's inaugural The Aroma Labs is located at 352 S. Kalamazoo Mall .She knew that when she started creating personal care items at home with her two young daughters about 15 years ago, and when their facial scrubs and fragrances were so well received, she began selling them at pop-up sales events here in the summer and fall of 2019.

“We can all connect through scents, with ourselves and each other,” Thompson says.
 
Later that year, she began using studio space inside the Park Trades Center in downtown Kalamazoo to do ticketed events and pre-booked experiences. But she pivoted when the COVID-19 pandemic surfaced in 2020, “when noses and gatherings weren’t welcome.” She began marketing scents to businesses.

'Scenting' for businesses
 
“I started ‘scenting’ for businesses — real estate agents, mortgage brokers, loan officers,” Thompson says, referring to creating special scents for them. “The first client I had was a gentleman who sells about 50 cars a month. And every time he sold a car, he would give away this fun little car fragrance.”
 
CourtesyThe Aroma Labs founder Tanya Thompson says, “Ultimately the whole thing is about connection – the connection that you can have with yourself about creating something very unique to you.”Among others, she created fragrances for a clothing boutique, a barber shop, hair salons, a pest control business, and a local church. “That helped me stay alive,” she says. “ … I’ve had the universe bring beautiful people into my life.”
 
With that, her focus shifted to helping others create their own special scents. And that gave birth to her business, The Aroma Labs. She relocated it four years ago from an 850-square-foot studio in the Park Trades Center at 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave. into about 900 square feet of space at 352 S. Kalamazoo Mall in downtown Kalamazoo.

Aromatenders, special events, and signature scents

The Aroma Labs allows people to choose and combine fragrance “notes” to create their own custom scents. The Labs have 40 fragrance oils to mix and match, according to information provided by the business, “from bright florals (top notes) to juicy citruses and cozy spices (middle notes), to deep, woody scents (base notes).” The labs’ base products are made in-house and involve skin-friendly ingredients.
 
COurtesyJulia Labadie, an “Aromatender” at The Aroma Labs, shows a range of products that can be produced from the scents. The business describes itself as a “gender-neutral experience designed to give anyone a greater sense of identity.”
 
“Once you’ve perfected it,” Thompson says, “our expert Aromatenders take over — measuring and mixing it for you at the blending bar while you watch the magic happen.”
 
“Aromatender” is the name the business gives to members of its customer-care staff.
 
There is no set cost to create a custom scent, they say. Creators pay for what they choose to put in, with prices typically ranging from $25 to $85. The Kalamazoo boutique is open from 1 to 7 p.m. on weekdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
 
CourtesyA group of women create their own fragrances inside The Aroma Labs location at 352 S. Kalamazoo Mall in downtown Kalamazoo.“We get a lot of different people in here,” says Aromatender Julia Labadie. “People will come in on dates, to get something for each other. There are a lot of birthday parties. It’s nice because it seems like it’s not something too difficult for kids to do. So a lot of kids come in.”
 
Of couples, friends, and others who collaborate on a scent, Thompson says, “I love what happens between humans when they make something together.”
 
“We have been a part of people coming in and scenting their nuptials, preparing a scent for their special day,” says Thompson, 46. “We’ve had a proposal in the Kalamazoo store where they reached out to us beforehand, and the team set it up and prepared the ring. We’ve been invited to weddings because we were a part of their dating story. They had come in for a date. We’ve done the Brown Sugar Book Club. We’ve done Latina Connect. We’ve done Friends With Disabilities. ... We do the Kalamazoo Parks and Recreation’s department kids."
 
CourtesyPeople have been finding their way to The Aroma Labs during dates and as groups. This group of friends is shown in the Detroit location 1435 Farmer St. in the Parker’s Alley area of downtown Detroit.Thompson says the business has also had a group of friends who were celebrating one friend’s last day of chemotherapy. Then there was a woman who visited, saying she had had a tough year. Her mother had died at the beginning of the year. But it turned out that the mother and another family member had visited The Aroma Labs in the past. And Thompson says, “My daughter was able to look up the blend that her mother made when she was there. My daughter made it and gave it to her so she could always have her mother’s scent.”

Making something together
 
Thompson was a 31-year-old mother with two young daughters living in Las Vegas, Nev., when her husband died. The couple had lived in several different cities. But after his unexpected death in 2010, she chose to relocate back to the Kalamazoo area where she was born and raised.
 
Using their creativity and hands to take their minds off their loss, she and her young daughters, Lena (then 6), and Ava (then 3), started making personal care items as a hobby. They made fragranced body scrubs and enjoyed positive feedback when they gifted some to friends, teachers, bus drivers, and others. Over time, their wares grew to include lotions, lip balm, suntan lotion, bug spray, and other self-care products.
 
CourtesyA woman checks some of the 40 unique fragrance oils that can be mixed and matched at The Aroma Labs. They include bright florals, juicy citruses, cozy spices, and deep, woody scents.Thompson says the various jobs she held before and after her return to the area have helped her in business. They have included stints as a patient care assistant for the elderly, a property manager, a distribution manager for a communications company, a bartender, a house cleaner, and a personal trainer. She had previously earned an associate’s degree in business administration from Kalamazoo Valley Community College but returned to school from 2013 to 2015 to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Western Michigan University and then from 2017 to 2020 to earn a master’s degree in the same discipline from WMU.
 
Of her hobby-turned-business, she says, “Scent is so integrated in people’s memories and emotions. I knew this.” But she says she didn’t get to feel it and see how it affected others until she started helping people create their own scents.
 
“I love what happens between humans when they make something together,” she says.

A spreading scent-sation

Thompson anticipates fast growth for her business and says she has embraced the resilience it takes to be an entrepreneur.
 
The Aroma Labs opened a second location in the fall of 2021 in Grand Rapids (downtown at 76 Monroe Center St. NW). It opened a third location on April 20, 2024, in Detroit (at 1435 Farmer St., Suite 122 in the Parker’s Alley area), and a fourth location in September of 2024 in Chicago (at 50 E. Oak St. in the Gold Coast area).
 
CourtesyThese are four seasonal scents crafted by The Aroma Labs for the state’s Pure Michigan campaign. From left, they represent Spring, Fall, Summer and Winter and can be sprayed as body mists, or to add fragrance to rooms or linens.In early July, she was exploring a location for another Aroma Labs in Atlanta. She anticipates rapid expansion of The Aroma Labs concept, with hopes to eventually open locations in Indianapolis, Ind., Columbus, Ohio, Nashville, Tenn., and Milwaukee, Wis.

This summer, the business began supporting the Pure Michigan campaign by creating seasonal scents to try to capture the essence of Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall in the Great Lakes State. Pure Michigan will use the body, room, and linen sprays in its promotional efforts, including out-of-state tourism conferences and scratch-and-sniff magazine advertisements.
 
Thompson hopes to see her operations become strong as they grow to other cities and, within a few years, attract investors to help add five to 10 new stores per year for the next five years.
 
“I’d like to see one in every state,” she says. “I’d like to grow beyond the United States, into Canada and beyond. And maybe even an experience on a cruise ship. And then ultimately I want to fund women.”
 
She says she hopes to help encourage and support other female entrepreneurs.

Going mobile with 'Big Blue'
 
In March of 2024, the business introduced “Big Blue,” a mobile Aroma Labs experience. It is a 20-foot-long, Ford F-550 box truck with glass sides that can accommodate 10 fragrance creators. It has been used at business events and parties here, but Thompson plans to utilize it as the business expands out of state.
 
The Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, and Chicago locations can accommodate parties of up to 24 people. The Detroit location can manage up to 16. Walk-ins are welcome, but reservations are suggested for people trying to plan an occasion. Reservations are required for groups of six or more.
 
CourtesyTanya Thompson stands outside of “Big Blue,” The Aroma Labs’ large Ford F-550 mobile experience. “Ultimately, the whole thing is about connection — the connection that you can have with yourself about creating something very unique to you,” Thompson says. “And the connection you have with the guest that comes with you — be that a date night, … or a birthday party, or a bachelorette party. We have all different types of humans that come in and make something.”

CourtesyTanya Thompson, center, is joined by family members and friends in April of 2025 in East Lansing after being named one of the top Women-owned Small Businesses of the Year by the Michigan Small Business Administration. See list of names below story.

From left to right: friend Shelly Plugis; daughter Lena; daughter Ava; friend Amelia Murphy; Tanya Thompson; husband Rory Murphy; step-daughter Lily Murphy; and consultant David Hatfield.