Aquarius ♒︎ enfleurage fragrance
a l c h e m y ♒︎
To serve a sign renowned for originality, my new Aquarius blend weaves together several of my most unusual personal extractions. Smoke, precious woods, tea, and incense for the free spirit. I have burned Palo Santo in a variation of enfleurage, capturing the Ecuadoran wood as incense. Warmer than the essential oil, this extraction has the feel of firewood with Palo Santo's trademark floral and powdery back notes. It joins two forms of Piñon pine (Pinyon). The essential oil is buttery, floral, woody, with hints of peach. The absolute I have extracted from hunks of resin has a darker, gooey feel. It's a fiery red hue, and smells of resin, booze, and pine needles warmed by the sun. Where the essential oil is crisp, ethereal, and clear, the absolute renders the tree as a gentle, pipe-smoking grandfather. Lapsang Souchong tea, the leaves of which are smoked over pine fires, balances the incense and the Piñon while adding the calming element of tea. I have tinctured and evaporated Lapsang into an absolute that is smoky, rich, and mysterious. Layers of spicy sandalwood poke through. The essential oil can be quite subtle; so as not to be overshadowed by the powerful players already mentioned, I made an absolute from Santalum Album (Mysore Sandalwood) chips. It has incredible tenacity, perceptible on a fragrance strip for days. Unlike the milky tears from the essential oil, my handmade Mysore sandalwood absolute is sticky, red, and spicy. This ethereal but potent essence swirls in the base notes, a suave baritone. Petitgrain sur Fleurs from Egypt lifts the composition out of the woods, above the smoke, and into bright sky. It's floral, woody, and spare. Earthy raw beeswax and Breuzinho resin smear sweet, woodsy wax. Representing the Amazonian jaguar, Breuzinho was once revered by Ancient Mayans as a holy resin. Its airy correspondences make it perfect for Aquarius, and like Aquarius, it is a bit unconventional. As with most resins, Breuzinho exudes from trees. But before it hardens, Amazonian bees drop pollen into it, imparting the resin with a complex pollen note that is something like hay, something like honeycomb, and something like grassmilk. It is bittersweet, earthy, grassy, coumarinic and musky. The absolute I have produced from Breuzinho binds the smoke, precious woods, and conifers in Aquarius with a beautiful warmth. Color may vary.
For any gender, particularly those with Air in their charts.
Suggested fixatives: Amber, Conifer, Dry, Earthy, Henna, Hive, Monsoon, Mossy, Sage Scrub, Tea, Tobacco, Woods. Wild Veil's natural perfume fixatives act as primers for the skin. Applied prior to perfumes, they can extend the longevity of your fragrance.
Amber fixative contains classically amber base notes from my handmade resinoids that I extracted from raw, wild resins using organic high proof alcohol. It is warm, powdery, and slightly boozy. Resinous with caramel undertones.
Conifer fixative contains stirring and wintry evergreen base notes from my handmade tinctures and absolutes of wild Vermont conifers, with many boughs collected from wild stands in my old growth forest: blue, red, white, black, and Norway spruces; fir balsam; Northern white cedar; white pine; scotch pine; and Eastern hemlock. The blend is a complex, deep green and balsam thanks to the various tree parts I have extracted: bark, boughs, needles, and resin/sap. In the background is the cool, fresh, early spring of brisk forest air scented with sticky sap and the snap of firewood.
Dry fixative possesses dry base notes. It crackles with a warm, subtly smoky aroma, and smooth resins layered over a gently bracing botanical musk.
Earthy fixative contains earthy base notes. It is green and smoky, with the comforting aroma of wet musk from the depths of the earth.
Henna fixative is centered around my homemade extraction of the henna plant: Lawsonia inermis. I first tinctured the plant material, then I evaporated the solution naturally to create a concentrated absolute. My henna absolute is inky and rich. Although I might say it is earthy, it is more metallic and dusty than dank soil smelling. It's unlike any other base note I have encountered, which is why I thought it deserved its own category of fixation.
Hive fixative primes your skin with the sweet and musky base notes characteristic of a honeybee hive. It features my handmade in-house absolutes of raw honey, beeswax, comb honey, propolis, royal jelly, bee bread and pollen, and as such, changes seasonally depending on which extracts are fresh and mature. Some of the ingredients may come from colonies that collected nectar from Apalachicola Tupelo gum trees, North Carolina and Midwestern wildflowers, wild blackberries, sweet clover, thistle, black locust, poplar, prickly pear cactus, goldenrod, asters, buckwheat, orange blossoms, purple sage, and avocado trees.
Monsoon fixative evokes the smell of wet earth, rain after a dry spell, geosmin, petrichor. It features my homemade absolutes of clays and soils I have tinctured for their unique aromas. These include: Multani Mitti clay from volcanic ash, Rhassoul clay from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, and sod (topsoil from my Vermont gardens). The sod from my garden has a mysterious agarwood note that becomes prominent after the soil has been upturned and left in the sun, and which I like to think of as an earthworm musk.
Mossy fixative contains mossy base notes. It is wet and lush, with whispers of roots and earth.
Sage Scrub fixative features dry, desert herbs characteristic of southern California's coastline and the Baja California peninsula. It includes my handmade, organic absolutes: chaparral, and dried Salvia apiana (white sage), Salvia mellifera (black sage), and Salvia leucophylla (Baja sage), all grown in my gardens from open pollinated seed. Notes of tumbleweeds, dry rush, and Pacific bluffs. Earth crust amber, a dab of black and white sage honey, sun-activated trichomes sticky with sand and ocean salt. Baja California's version of a "fern" (fougère), crenulate and rough.
Tea fixative blends warm, malted, fermented yellow-orange-amber teas with notes of honey, cocoa, dark woods, savory earth, caramel, and Brazil nuts. This fixative includes my tinctured absolutes of Assam Marangi, fermented Mannong Pu-erh, yellow dragon, Oolong Eastern Beauty, and roasted Oolong. This is a mellow fixative that will work well beneath just about any type of fragrance.
Tobacco fixative features my organic handmade absolutes of organic cured leaf: American Virginia Flue, Burley, and Canadian Virginia Flue. I also infused the raw beeswax and propolis (used in the base) with my aged tabacum tinctures to deepen the husky warm qualities of the composition. Sweet, amber, blackberry and mulberry notes with the anticipation of hand rolled smoke. Depending on the season and availability, it may include extractions of my homegrown nicotiana leaves and flowers.
Woods fixative contains classically woody base notes. Dry and warm, white cedar mingles with lactonic, creamy Mysore sandalwood. Simple but exquisite.
Photos: Cistus creticus grown from open pollinated seed in my organic perfume garden, old stock Palo Santo from Ecuador, and the solid perfume in 5ml and 10ml black violet glass jars.
s i z i n g ☽•☾
Solid perfumes are available in sizes of 1ml (a sample of approximately 20-25 drops), 5ml and 10ml. 1ml (sample size) comes in a hinge top pod. 5ml comes in a clear glass jar. 10ml is available in a glass jar or a round tin. Please make your selection from the menu.
r a w ☽•☾ m a t t e r
Wild Veil natural perfumes are composed by me, Abby, using homemade, wildcrafted and organic aromatics in Vermont. These include my handmade enfleurage, tinctures, enfleurage extraits, absolutes, resinoids and concretes, and floral waxes. I spend as much time growing plants and foraging as I do composing perfumes.
l i q u i d ☽•☾
Wild Veil oil perfumes are suspended in an odorless base of organic MCT coconut oil. As they do not contain water, liquid perfumes do not expire, and may improve with age. While the volatile top notes (the ones that hit your nose first) will fade after a year or more, the base and heart notes will deepen and grow more complex.
s o l i d ☽•☾ b e e s w a x
In solid perfumes this silky transparent base (above) mingles beautifully with the earthy, honey musk of organic beeswax. Raw beeswax traps the aroma molecules, releasing them over time for an intimate experience.
h o w ☽•☾ t o ☽•☾ w e a r
The best way to experience a natural perfume is to apply it to well-moisturized skin, without rubbing in (absorption only shortens the wear time of fragrance) and without scrubbing off. Natural perfumes are dynamic and take a minimum of 2 hours to reach their final stage, or dry down. Enjoy the alchemical changes as they unfold from the initial intensity of top notes, to the warmth of the heart, to the depth of lower base notes.
☽•☾ Wild Veil ☽•☾ alchemy between earth and ether ☽•☾
☽•☾ All aesthetic material copyright Abby Hinsman 2019 ☽•☾