Bastet ☥ botanical kyphi fragrance
a l c h e m y ☥
Egyptian temple perfume inspired by Bast, goddess of cats and perfume. Mysterious, ancient palm fronds fan the goddess. From an alabaster urn she scoops out a hunk of black, sticky incense spun with crushed spices, honey wine, currants, figs, mossy tendrils, mint, sweet fir, and balsams imported from the Horn of Africa. Precious woods-- oud and boozy poplar-- coated in a sweet varnish, spearmint, and cinnamon dusted bread rise off of the sticky black cube as it begins to smoke. If kohl were candlewax, it would produce this warm, buttery, black glow. Inky, creamy, iconic. Saffron makes pungent stabs but melts into adipose petals of rosy honeycomb. Pine needle boughs brush the air. A soft rush, heart of fir set in dark paste. Cloves run wild. Pastilles of perfumed wax melt on your temples, dripping onto bare shoulders and feet pounding the temple stone to dust. Temple to temple, dust to dust. Bastet lingers in rich and spicy relief on a trail of cooling, licked skin like a scented fingerprint from a long-lost ritual.
Dark and sensuous, kyphi is a traditional temple incense dating back to ancient Egypt. This fragrant compound purportedly held medicinal and therapeutic properties, but ancient Egyptians would also burn kyphi as part of ritual, invocation, and a sensual celebration of aroma. Kyphi recipes vary by source and culture. It may include honey, wine, raisins, myrrh, juniper berries, papyrus, pine, calamus, rush, aspalathus, mastic, bitumen, sorrel, cardamom, cassia, cinnamon, saffron, spikenard, bdellium, mint, henna, or mimosa. Bastet can be worn by any gender and is vegan. Color may vary.
Suggested fixatives: Amber, Animalic, Botanical Musk, Conifer, Dew, Dry, Earthy, Ferns, Gourmand, Grass, Hay, Henna, Hive, Leather, Meadow, Monsoon, Mossy, Oceanic, Powdery, Sage Scrub, Spicy, Tea, Tobacco, Woods, Woolen. 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.
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.
Dew fixative features light, springy, and dewy notes redolent of sunrise on sprouting blades, droplets cradled by meadows, and the brief post-dawn lingering of wet cobwebs in field grasses.
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.
Ferns fixative, made with mise en lieu tinctures of wild ferns from both the moist De Luz jungle and Vermont old growth forest. The scent is wet, damp, lush, and cool.
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.
Grass fixative, made with a mise en lieu tincture of Vermont wild grasses, clover, sun dried new mown hay, and spring greens, features soft, warm, green notes that conjure fresh cut grass and summer fields.
Hay fixative conjures the scents of sun-dried bales of hay, as well as warm, dry straw stored in a barn.
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.
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.
Meadow fixative evokes yellow fields of prairie grass, wildflowers, drying husks still attached to the earth, and the sun in late August.
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.
Oceanic fixative primes your skin with a sea garden of base notes. Combining my handmade in-house absolutes of wakame, kombu, sea lettuce, nori, kelp, dulse, bladderwrack, and Irish moss, it offers a complex seaweed bouquet brimming with brine, sherry, tidal foam, and malted amber. The Ocean Fixative will deepen and extend the wear of marine, ambergris, amber, and floral compositions.
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.
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.
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.
Photos: my handmade black kyphi resinoid; liquid perfume in 5ml amber glass, solid perfume in glass jar, 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 ☽•☾