Sarah McCartney is the founder and perfumer of 4160Tuesdays, an award-winning artisanal fragrance company.
Born in Saltburn-by-the-Sea in Yorkshire, she worked as a semi-professional musician and jewellery maker, before running events for the Guardian and Observer newspapers, then joining Lush as their chief writer. After writing a novel featuring a problem-solving perfumer, she decided to make the fragrances she had invented for the book.
Since 2012 her West London perfumery has been making adventurous scents inspired by happy times and places, past, present and imaginary. She also co-wrote The Perfume Companion, a myth-busting, entertaining guide to choosing a perfume, published in 2019.
She believes that everyone should write at least one story, paint a picture, and make a perfume in their life, and set up her Scenthusiasm online scent school to help make this happen.
Currently she is encouraging perfume-makers to concentrate on sustainable sourcing - both materials and packaging - to make fragrances which have low environmental impact with no loss of loveliness.