Feeding Hansel ☽•☾ solid natural perfume
a l c h e m y ☽•☾
He asked the witch if he could stay: her cottage was quiet, warm, and deep. Wanting to lose his way, Hansel fed on the edible forest. He picked wild blackberries and sipped her tea, smoked by the swamp cedar logs. They ate wild fungi and made muscatel moonshine from the fen. However, without noticing he was changing, suspicion crept in like twilight. Hansel started to believe the witch was poisoning him. What had been to him her creature comforts twisted into a source of terror as he wondered if all that was delightful was actually deadly.
Feeding Hansel is a botanical, solid perfume from handmade absolutes and resinoids, including: old growth swamp cedar, muscatel, wild balsam poplar bud, wild eastern cottonwood bud, wild quaking aspen bud, blackberries, spices, incense, fire tea, mountain tears, henna attar, boreal reishi. It can be worn by all genders. Color may vary.
Wild Veil's natural perfume fixatives act as primers for the skin. Applied prior to perfumes, they can extend the longevity of your fragrance. Suggested fixatives:
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.
Gourmand fixative contains gourmand, or edible, base notes of vanilla Madagascar, cocoa, and frangipane. It is not overly sweet, but rather dark and sultry, with a hint of sugar. The compounds used to scent the paste include my handmade absolute of raw, wild cacao beans (Theobroma cacao) from Peru, and my absolutes of bourbon vanilla Madagascar (Vanilla planifolia) and Vanilla tahitensis (Tahitian vanilla). The bourbon is from vanilla beans that I grew at home on my vanilla orchid vines by hand pollinating the flowers. I then cured and tinctured the beans in high proof organic alcohol, producing a completely organic absolute.
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.
Leather fixative contains leather base notes. Its smoky, sharp edges give way to a deep underlying warmth. Slightly furry, with notes of wood and musk.
Mossy fixative contains mossy base notes. It is wet and lush, with whispers of roots and earth.
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.
Woods fixative contains classically woody base notes. Dry and warm, white cedar mingles with lactonic, creamy Mysore sandalwood. Simple but exquisite.
Woolen fixative features funky sheep, meadow, and pasture notes from my handmade raw wool absolutes. These I concentrated by cold evaporation method from three types of unwashed sheep fleece that I had tinctured in high proof organic grain alcohol: Romeldale, Icelandic, and Churro. The unwashed Romeldale fleece is unbelievably soft. Romeldale-California Variegated Mutuant is an endangered breed of American sheep that produces high lanolin, very fine, multicolored wool. The resulting absolute has a creamy spring field and pasture scent. It’s sweet and reminds me of candlelight. The unwashed wool from a black Icelandic wether is funky and animalic. It is by far the oiliest and fattiest smelling of the three fleeces. Even with the barnyard leather overtones, it is warm and inviting. From another rare breed, the Navajo Churro wool has alfalfa notes amidst a southwestern desert profile. It's as if the heavy aroma of lanolin has been lightly dusted with sand and sage, and baked by the Arizona sun.
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: the solid perfume in a 120ml glass jar; homemade spun absolutes for Feeding Hansel; the Wild Veil primeval forest; freshly harvested wild poplar buds prior to tincture; 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 ☽•☾