Fragrant Musings

What might we glean from the reflective surface of the Cancerian shell this season? Whether this is a time to lean into care or to extend it, here are our chosen olfactory allies to keep you afloat through deep pools of sentiment, each selected for their ability to open and envelop the heart.

  With feet I stayed, and with mine eyes I passedBeyond the rivulet, to look uponThe great variety of the fresh May. Canto XXVIII, Purgatorio   With this message we celebrate the notes of Jasminus grandiflorium & sambac, also known as Common Jasmine or the Poet's Jasmine. Aptly, we choose to revere these notes during the estimated month of birth of Dante Alighieri, writer of the Divine Comedy, and whose Canto XXVIII, marked by the appearance of the Proserpine-like character of Matelda in Purgatory, is a lush display of the blooms of May and their rapturous fragrance. Let us herald the Jasmine of the poets and those who...

With this message we celebrate this year's Beltane, situated midway between the Vernal Equinox and Midsummer. Historically & ritualistically celebrated in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, Beltane served to mark the beginning of summer and to protect the cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth. As Beltane favours fire and ash for its protective powers, Lavender Absolute, with its forest-driven scent, burns bright with verdant growth and potentiality. Let us celebrate the eve of this new celestial chapter with the Absolute, the true scent of lavender in perfumery, and evoker of the purple, fragrant sprawl that adorns the French mountainsides. With this message...

Saffron—or crocus sativus—is not only the most expensive spice in the world, but an olfactory material (derived from the dried stigma of the autumn bloom) that has been used for over 4000 years in sacred applications, to induce visions, and to stimulate desire. The scent of the dried saffron has a fatty-herbaceous undertone that follows a truly unique, hotly sweet and spicy odor.