Bluebeard's Wife* ☽•☾ natural perfume
a l c h e m y ☽•☾
Saffron powdered peaches, roses, frangipani and ylang stuck in balsamic resins. Curiosity complete. Bluebeard's wife discovers the horrors of his past marriages when she unlocks the door to a forbidden chamber. A disgusting secret collects inside: the heads of the wives he murdered. An elegy for the beauty in decomposition. Peach juice and rose water stream in sunset rivulets. A drunken smear of resins, frangipani breastmilk, and all the incense in the kingdom cannot disguise the wanton odor of ylang. Here he comes, traipsing down the saffron trail with a procession of tolu, gurjun, cinnamon balsam and nagarmotha leather. His beard glows blue against a crescent slice of peach that he chews. Vegan. Color may vary.
*A note on my description of Bluebeard's Wife. At some points it has been interpreted as celebrating murder and violence against women, which is not at all what I intended, even though I do not avoid descriptions of death, grue, and violence. With the title of the perfume I hoped to indicate that the perfume is about the survivor, who is his last wife. The writing is meant to convey her very disturbing feelings as she makes the discovery about her husband. She is the woman (some feminists have called her a detective), who uncovers the horrible secrets in his past: that he murdered his wives. She also survives, and yet the tale is often called "Bluebeard." I thought the title of the perfume would be a sufficient clue that in my opinion the tale should be renamed from centering the subject of Bluebeard to centering the subjectivity of his wife, the unnamed woman in the tale who, escapes, survives and presumably is the source of the story material. She is the holder of the knowledge of the fates of his previous victims (whose bodies he keeps locked in his castle) and of his true nature. And yet she is never so much as given a name. In addition to having my own personal experience with the psychological power of Bluebeard, I meant the perfume to be a critique of the traditional framing of the narrative (paying homage to such luminaries as Margaret Atwood and Angela Carter).
Suggested fixatives: Amber, Animalic, Botanical Musk, Hay, Hive, Powdery, Spicy, Tea, Tobacco. 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.
Animalic fixative features stunningly intense musk base notes. If you are looking to enhance the tenacity of your natural perfumes, and to fix volatile florals and top notes, this is a fixative worth investing in. Luxurious and powerful, its sleek fur coat undresses to warm amber powder underneath.
Botanical Musk fixative contains musky base notes. It is slightly dry and earthy, with intimate notes of skin, hair, and smoky roots.
Hay fixative conjures the scents of sun-dried bales of hay, as well as warm, dry straw stored in a barn.
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.
Powdery fixative contains powdery base notes. With notes of tonka, sweet myrrh, balsam, and ambrette musk, it tends toward dry and warm and will complement fragrances across a wide variety of scent families.
Spicy fixative contains spicy base notes from my handmade spice tinctures and absolutes: tulsi, ginger root, clove buds, true cinnamon, star anise, aniseed, and cardamom whole and hulled. Green herbs laced with anise, earth, and brown amber.
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.
This fragrance is part of my fairy tale series: Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding Hood, Witch, Allerleirauh, Snow White, Bluebeard’s Wife, Rapunzel, Gretel, Rose Red, Briar Rose, Mermaid, Feeding Hansel, Unicorn, and Sea Witch.
Photos: heirloom rose in my organic garden of old roses, my handmade peach absolute, my saffron crocus with red saffron threads, freshly plucked saffron threads; liquid perfume in 5ml amber glass, solid perfume in 5ml and 10ml black violet glass jars, and liquid perfume in 5ml and 10ml black violet glass roller ball bottles.
s i z i n g ☽•☾
Liquid perfumes are available in sizes of 1ml (a sample of approximately 20-25 drops), 5ml, and 10ml. All liquid perfumes are packaged in glass vials or glass bottles. 1ml comes in a sample glass perfume vial with an applicator cap. PLEASE READ: 1ML IS A SAMPLE. 5ml and 10ml sizes come in a brown amber glass bottle with a lovely white cap with orifice reducer. 10ml is also available in a frosted glass roller bottle.
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 ☽•☾