On Historic 25th Street, Ru Pudlewski and Larry Baird make memories in their tea and fragrance shop, Making Scents. Pudlewski and Baird opened their shop four years ago.

After 15 years as a licensed massage therapist, Baird wasn’t satisfied with the products he was buying to use on his clients, so he started making his own, eventually customizing them and selling them to his clients and at farmers markets.

“Prior to opening, we did farmers markets, craft shows from central Idaho to southern Utah,” Pudlewski said. “What we’ve come up with is our own line of bath, body and aromatherapy products. We offer shower gels, bubble baths, lotions, exfoliations, body sprays, air fresheners, just to name a few.”

Not only do Pudlewski and Baird make their own products as naturally and environmentally friendly as is possible, but all of their products are also blank, meaning customers can fragrance their product to their liking at no additional charge.

“You can do something simple like lavender, vanilla, or, if you want to mix different fragrances, to make your own signature fragrance,” Pudlewski said. “I usually joke with people and say if you want to mix bacon, Cheez-Its and motor oil, we do have those fragrances. We have over 500 different oils. We also can get designer men’s and women’s fragrances. We have Love Spell from Victoria’s Secret, Acqua di Gio for Men, Dolce & Gabanna, Old Spice, so we’re able to find designer types and offer them to clients.”

In addition to bath and aromatherapy products, Pudlewski and Baird are ambassadors for the Republic of Tea.

“(The Republic of Tea has) been around for over 20 years,” Pudlewski said. “A lot of the restaurants, cafes and coffee shops around here can serve it, but we’re the only retail shop that can sell it. They look for a specific niche, for something that will go with their product . . . If we wanted, we could open up an entire store of nothing but Republic of Tea. We have some of their looseleaf teas that we sell, as well as some of their teabags.”

Making Scents offers free tea tastings every Tuesday. People can come into Making Scents and try a free cup of tea, as well as mingle and talk with other tea enthusiasts.

Baird said the motto of Making Scents is “Smell good, feel good.” Their philosophy is that when a person has the chance to smell good, it’s also a chance to boost self-esteem and bring back memories.

“No matter how bad the economy is or how bad the issues are in your life, you can feel good by smelling good,” Baird said. “Smelling good makes you feel good about yourself. It’s a positive self-esteem thing . . . Everyone smells differently; that’s why we have over 500 different fragrances.”

Baird also pointed out that no other store he’s aware of offers the same type of experience or product that Making Scents does.

“As far as we know, there’s nowhere else where they can go and get a good product fragranced the way they want it for a reasonable price,” he said. “You can go to other chain stores and say you want a bottle of lavender and honeysuckle shower gel and they’ll give two bottles, one of lavender and one of honeysuckle, when all you wanted was one bottle of both.”

Kierstyn Miller, a freshman studying history, said she loved the idea of making personalized body products. She also said she enjoyed the ambiance and atmosphere of the store.

“It was kind of a little overwhelming at first, because there were so many different fragrances,” Miller said. “But I really liked it. It was a really quaint little store. I think that’s cool, because you get the scent you want and not what other people think is good.”