Cloon Keen: A Grand Fragrance Story Born from the Irish Landscape

“Other countries have artisan perfume brands that tell the story of their own culture through scent. When I became convinced that Ireland could do that too, everything began to move.”
— Margaret Mangan (Co-Founder of Cloon Keen)

Essential Information

Founded: 2002
Founders: Margaret Mangan (Creative Director) and Julian Checkley (packaging and set design)
Official website: cloonkeen.com
Based in: Galway, Ireland (shops at 21a High Street and Powerscourt Townhouse, Dublin)
Production workshop: Spiddal, County Galway

The Founders and the Brand’s Origins

Coming Home to Ireland from Canada

To understand the story of Cloon Keen, it is necessary first to trace the life of co-founder Margaret Mangan. Born in Newfoundland, Canada, to Irish parents, she says she was interested in scent from an early age. A teenage part-time job in a beautiful perfumery quietly set the course for what would follow.

“As a teenager, I had a part-time job in a really lovely perfumery. That nurtured my interest in the industry from a young age. I was fascinated by the stories behind great perfumes.”
— Margaret Mangan

After graduating from university, Margaret travelled to Ireland and looked for work near Galway, where her family lived. She took a position with an American film-production company newly established in Connemara. Although she had no background in film, the role led to many years of a stimulating career. Her experience ranged from production support in the art department to film financial management, and she later worked as a financial controller at an advertising agency.

Yet film work is also, by nature, a world without a guaranteed “next job.” Once a production is finished, one must start again from zero. Margaret had begun to feel a certain weariness with that instability.

“Film jobs only last a few months. Every time one ended, it was back to looking for work. It was like a roller coaster.”
— Margaret Mangan

An Article Nurtures a Seed

The catalyst for change came, unexpectedly, from far away. Around 1991, Margaret read an article about the candle industry in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper. It presented the field as a business relatively easy to enter even without manufacturing experience, and she kept the article in the back of her mind.

Then, around ten years later, she told her husband, Julian Checkley:

“Ten years after reading that article, I said to Julian, ‘Maybe we should start making candles.’”
— Margaret Mangan (laughing)

While living in Windsor, England, the couple first made trial batches of candles at home and took a stall at a local market. The small batch sold out in less than a day. This gave them confidence that it could become a business.

In March 2001, they moved to Galway, Ireland. They finally put down roots in the west of Ireland, where Margaret’s parents came from and where the couple had met through film work. They tested the Irish market with a candle presentation at a friend’s home, reportedly finding overwhelming support for handmade Irish products. The following year, in 2002, they formally established Cloon Keen Atelier.

Turning to Perfume: A Commitment to “Learning 3,000 Materials”

For a while, the business focused exclusively on candles, but Margaret’s interest gradually turned to serious perfume-making. The turning point was a book she acquired in 2008: Perfumes: The Guide (in Japanese), by the famously forthright perfume critics Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez.

“I decided to train my nose. I bought samples of the perfumes in that book one by one. I wanted to see whether I could smell the quality of the ingredients for myself. The book has a five-point rating scale, from ‘tolerable’ to ‘masterpiece.’”
— Margaret Mangan

What she emphasises is the complexity of making perfume.

“Perfume-making has both an artistic, creative side and a chemical side. I had to learn at least 3,000 materials.”
— Margaret Mangan

Her experience earning a postgraduate qualification in public relations would also contribute to building the brand. Margaret herself says that the ability to “think on her feet” and the financial knowledge she acquired in the film industry have supported the business ever since.

Julian Checkley: “Another Talent”

Margaret’s husband and co-founder, Julian Checkley, is a special-effects artist, set designer, and model maker. He designs Cloon Keen’s bottles and containers and handles its artwork down to the smallest details. He is also a Guinness World Records holder, with several records in the field of gadget-equipped cosplay costumes. He runs a creative studio in Spiddal, Order 66 Creatures and Effects, which collaborates with Cloon Keen as a sister business.

“Julian has brilliantly transferred the skills he developed during his film-industry career to Cloon Keen’s beautiful bottle designs.”

The two met on a film set and honed their skills in “creating believable worlds.” That background runs through the very heart of Cloon Keen’s world.

What Defines the Brand

The Philosophy: The Idea of a “Splendid Meadow”

The name Cloon Keen derives from the Gaelic “Cluain Caoin,” meaning “splendid meadow.” It was also the name of an Irish house and place loved by Margaret’s father.

“Cloon Keen evokes memories of a splendid meadow. A place that is everywhere, yet exists nowhere. Always in the mind, slipping away when you try to grasp it.”

The brand’s philosophy is not a superficial staging of “Irishness.” The skills Margaret and Julian learned on film sets, “creating worlds in which to tell stories,” are transplanted directly into fragrance. They believe scent bypasses thought and goes straight to the heart of memory and belonging.

The design concept is “Dramatic Simplicity”: a philosophy of pursuing the essential beauty within simple design while drawing out the emotional storytelling of scent to its fullest.

Handwork and Craftsmanship

Every product is handmade in Galway. Perfumes are poured, bottled, and labelled individually by hand. Candles have their wicks fitted manually, natural wax is poured in small batches, and each candle is quality-checked. Production is said to take place in batches of 50, and because natural fragrant materials are used generously, even slight differences in scent between batches can be enjoyed as part of a creation’s character.

It takes around two years to complete a perfume. Throughout development, customers are repeatedly invited to smell it, and the scent is refined through accumulated feedback.

Attention to Labels: A Printing Workshop Founded in 1859

The attention paid to the bottle labels also illustrates the brand’s philosophy of craftsmanship. They are made by the long-established London printing workshop Baddeley Brothers, founded in 1859 and specialising in die-stamping, a process that raises the printed surface. The labels are die-stamped on uncoated Strathmore Bright White paper, with the CKA logo and border foil-blocked in pearl white.

Margaret reportedly found Baddeley Brothers while searching for “the best printer in the world” to make just 20 black-and-white labels for a special limited edition created for Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Ireland in 2011.

Sustainability: Refillable Bottles

Environmental awareness is another core commitment. All Cloon Keen perfume bottles are designed to be refillable, and 200 ml refill bottles are available. The bottle cap incorporates a removable screw-fit atomiser, making refilling easy. The philosophy is to minimise waste by keeping high-quality bottles in use for a long time.

Collaborations with World-Class Perfumers

Rather than developing formulas entirely in-house, Cloon Keen takes an approach of co-creation with leading perfumers from around the world. Representative collaborators include:

• Meabh McCurtin: From Galway. She studied biochemistry at the National University of Ireland, Galway, before joining IFF (International Flavors & Fragrances). She trained under French master perfumer Dominique Ropion and has created fragrances including Róisín Dubh and Lá Bealtaine.
• Delphine Thierry: Creator of Castaña and Frosted Moon.
• Céline Guivarc’h: Creator of the latest fragrance, Báinín.
• Stéphanie Bakouche: Creator of the early fragrance Bataille de Fleurs.

“My Irish roots seep into the fragrances I create. Storytelling is an essential ingredient.”
— Meabh McCurtin (IFF Perfumer)

“Composing a fragrance is like writing a book or a song. You start from nothing, get partway through, erase sections, go back, like it and dislike it, and finally arrive at what you had imagined.”
— Céline Guivarc’h (Perfumer)

The Fragrance Lineup

The current official website offers eight eau de parfum titles. Each has a clear “story,” drawing on Irish culture, mythology, nature, and memory.

CASTAÑA

The signature creation that brought Cloon Keen international recognition. It is inspired by childhood memories of Andalusia, Spain, and the scent of street stalls selling roasted chestnuts. Composed by Delphine Thierry, it opens with a roasted-chestnut accord and caramel, followed by Haitian vetiver, cardamom, red pepper, cassia, and jasmine.

In 2018, critics Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez awarded it five stars, “Masterpiece”, in their revised Perfumes: The Guide 2018. Given that Margaret had picked up the first edition of this very book in 2008 to train her nose, it is moving to consider that her own creation appeared in its pages ten years later.

From Turin’s review: “Outstanding from top note to drydown, and still wonderful a day later.” — Luca Turin

Róisín Dubh

The fragrance won the Best Independent Fragrance award at the 2019 Fragrance Foundation UK Awards, a first for an Irish product.

“Róisín Dubh” means “little black rose” in Irish and is also a figure in an old song symbolising Ireland itself. Perfumer Meabh McCurtin took inspiration from the memories of four Irish writers who stayed at the Grand Hôtel Corneille in Paris’s Latin Quarter: James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, J. M. Synge, and Samuel Beckett. For her research, McCurtin travelled to Paris and walked around the cafés and restaurants they frequented.

“To capture the sensuality of these great Irish writers, I created the main axis of the scent by combining a special quality of rose called Rose Essential with suede and ink accords. The suede and ink accords pay homage to their identity as writers and balance the feminine, sensual, poetic rose.”
— Meabh McCurtin (Perfumer)

Lá Bealtaine

A fragrance themed around Ireland’s ancient Celtic Bealtaine festival, the celebration of the transition from spring to summer when the sun turns toward the earth. Also composed by Meabh McCurtin, it begins with her memories of May growing up in County Clare. Bergamot, mandarin, neroli, Egyptian jasmine, Turkish rose, and tuberose combine in an ultra-feminine floral fragrance.

Báinín

One of the latest releases, launched in 2024. “Báinín” means “little white” in Irish and refers to the unassuming white of the Irish wool worn by fishermen in the Aran Islands for generations. Perfumer Céline Guivarc’h expressed the gentle feel of wool and the atmosphere of its Connemara homeland through a wool accord, coumarin, and powdery violet.

“The sound of this lovely, rhythmic word perfectly captures the cheerful nature of the scent. I wanted to place a wool accord at the centre and create a fragrance that unravels seamlessly from there into the Connemara landscape.”
— Margaret Mangan

Énbarr

A fragrance themed around Énbarr, the immortal horse of Celtic mythology. Released in 2022, it is described as “an intoxicating oud with a modern anisic signature.” Top notes of saffron, sweet fennel, and thyme lead to a heart of geranium, plum, and patchouli, then agarwood, styrax resin, and a leather accord. It has the highest price in the lineup (€170), reflecting its use of rare agarwood.

Frosted Moon

A fragrance by Delphine Thierry themed around “the light of a frosty moon.” Angelica seed, orris root, vetiver, and galbanum attempt to bring together seemingly contradictory qualities: “passionate and warm, yet with a cold powderiness like moonlight.” It was selected as a finalist in the 2014 Fragrance Foundation Awards.

Bel Étage

A fragrance named after the “room with the most beautiful light,” the bel étage, of Dublin’s Georgian architecture. A contemporary interpretation of the classical eau de cologne formula, with a history of at least 300 years, it combines Italian bergamot, lemon, neroli, lavender, rosemary, oakmoss, and vetiver. Released in 2022.

Sybarite

An oriental fragrance that opens with bergamot and rum absolute, moves through a rich heart of Bulgarian rose, jasmine, and patchouli, and continues into a base of sandalwood, amber, musk, and incense. It is described as “an ode to the art of cultivating oneself; elegant, refined indulgence.”

The Brand’s Journey and Honours

Queen Elizabeth’s Visit to Ireland (2011)

One event that brought Cloon Keen widespread recognition in Ireland and beyond was Queen Elizabeth’s historic visit to Ireland in 2011. Cloon Keen was selected to create a full range of toiletries for the Queen’s private quarters at Dublin Castle. The occasion, for which bespoke soaps, creams, diffusers, and candles were made, dramatically raised the brand’s profile.

Around the same time, Cloon Keen’s Antique Library candle was also presented to Michelle Obama, then First Lady of the United States, as a St Patrick’s Day gift.

Fragrance Foundation UK Awards (2019)

In 2019, Cloon Keen Atelier won the Best New Independent Fragrance award at a gala ceremony in London, a first for an Irish brand. The winning fragrance was Róisín Dubh. Often called the fragrance industry’s “Oscars,” these prestigious awards also feature global names such as Chanel, Dior, Diptyque, and Carolina Herrera. Margaret describes the win as “a career-defining achievement.”

The same year, 2019, also brought a second honour when the Galway shop won the Best Specialist Shop category at the Irish Times Best Shops Awards.

Incidentally…

• Cloon Keen’s products are said to have reached U2, Michelle Obama, and even the Vatican.
• As an anecdote about an early “failure,” Margaret recounts: “We ordered a huge quantity of inexpensive tins from China, and every one leaked, letting the melted wax run out. We ended up sealing 20,000 tins by hand.” She adds, “When you buy cheap, you get cheap results. It was a good lesson.”
• As a special-effects artist, her husband Julian Checkley holds a Guinness World Record for the “most functional gadgets on a cosplay suit,” a Batman suit with 23 gadgets. He also holds the record for the “tallest Star Wars cosplay costume,” a 2.69-metre costume depicting the character Grummgar. A partner in a perfume brand who is also a Guinness World Records holder is something of a rarity.
• The first place Margaret smelled “niche perfume” was Les Senteurs in London. Cloon Keen later became one of the brands stocked there. As Margaret herself says, “I first smelled niche perfume there, and now my own perfumes are being sold in that same place.”
• In spring 2026, Cloon Keen Atelier reportedly plans to enter a new field alongside its perfumes and candles: making leather goods. “Perfume is so ephemeral. I wanted to make something more tangible too,” she says with a touch of humour.