Heavy / Getty Ben and Erin Napier
HGTV host Erin Napier opened her Scent Library in November 2022, and began documenting the process of opening this new business in the latest episode of her and her husband Ben Napier’s hit series “Home Town”. In a March 12 Instagram post, Erin wrote about the two “redemption stories” in that night’s episode.
The first redemption story was that of their client, Mike, who works in Guest Services for the Napier’s Scotsman General Co. “Mike spent a troubled youth in prison and turned his life around, met [his wife] Cornise: a nurse, fell in love, and they’ve since dedicated their lives to service including by turning their guest cottage into a safe haven for people in need,” Erin wrote in her post’s caption, “Redemption story # 2: together with our best friends Josh, Mallorie and Jim, we take the worst building in town that most would have called unsavable, unredeemable, and turn that ugly duckling into the most elegant swan of a storefront in the south. My retail baby, the [Laurel Mercantile] Scent Library. It’s one of my favorite episodes of all time.”
See behind-the-scenes photos from the March 12 episode of “Home Town” below.
Erin Napier is Reviving Her Home Town on ‘Home Town’
The March 12 episode of “Home Town” is titled “Second Chances”. Since Mike and Cornise were only enlisting Ben and Erin’s help with their guest cottage, the Napiers were able to begin devoting time to their new retail venture as well. They went with their “framily” members Josh Nowell and Jim and Mallorie Rasberry to visit the location for their soon-to-be Scent Library, though at the time it was an abandoned mattress store right in the middle of downtown Laurel.
“There is a formula for how you bring a town back to life, how you make a town healthy again, and it has to do with jobs, experiences, and homes. And this is the next step for us,” Erin said.
The building was in bad shape when the Napiers got to it, from a leaky ceiling to a hole at the foot of the staircase to no flooring in the space. While some of their team members had initial reservations about the space, Erin came up with a vision for what the store could look like once finished.
The Napiers made major progress on the renovation, installing floors, picking out the glass for the storefront, and working on some of the signature scents for the candles they planned to sell. By the end of the episode, the Napiers were having the grand opening of their new store.
Erin Napier Filmed Segments For Multiple Episodes in 1 Day
Erin and Ben have both taken to Twitter in the past to answer fan questions about their show and share behind-the-scenes information. After the “Second Chances” episode aired, one eagle-eyed fan noticed that in one scene, when she was developing a candle scent with her friend (and cousin) Mallorie, Erin was wearing the same pink and purple sweater that she had on in the prior episode (“What’s Good for the Goose”) and asked her, “Wondering if [Erin Napier] taped the segment with candle options the same day she painted Lucy the Goose,” to which Erin replied, “yes!”
Lucy the Goose is a goose statue Erin and Ben’s client owned that was a prized possession as it held memories with her grandmother, so when Erin was ready to paint a watercolor of their new home (a gift she gives to all of her and Ben’s “Home Town” clients), she added a small painting of Lucy the Goose to the finished image.
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