We at Alex and Moo love how Smencils are more than just good-looking pencils. We also love that the outside is made entirely of newspaper. But let's be honest here, a huge part of why we love them is that each of the 10 different Smencils has its own scent. 

Let's get personal here. We were gifted one many years ago. It was stored in its little eco-friendly tube while not in use. It recently showed itself and the scent is just as strong as it was when we received it. 

Don't believe us? at the small price they are, it's worth the risk.

With tightly rolled sheets of newspaper around the #2 graphite writing cores until pencils of typical thickness are formed. Then they’re hardened – allowing them to be sharpened just like wood pencils. Next, we soak them with our gourmet liquid scents (made by an award-winning fragrance company). Once they’re dry, we attach the erasers and apply the stickers around them that identify which scent was infused into each Smencil. Lastly, we put each Smencil into its own corn-based biodegradable Freshness Tube.

Being responsible for the environment is an important part of doing business in today’s world. That’s why the materials and processes that go into making Smencils are healthy for the environment.

Here are the facts about Smencils: 

1. An average-sized cedar tree will make about 172,000 wood pencils.

2. 172,000 Smencils can be made from 430 newspapers.

3. Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times saves about 75,000 trees.

4. The average tree can filter about 60 pounds of air pollution per year.

5. If everyone in the United States recycled one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25 million trees each year.

6. Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, 58% water savings and 60 pounds less air pollution.

7. The 17 trees mentioned above can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.