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Rose Otto Bulgaria
Aromatically speaking, this is an incredibly beautiful rose otto, bursting with rosa damascena’s sparklingly fresh dewy rose notes, juicy pink lychee, waxy lemon like citrus, green tonalities and a touch of spices to give it a full bodied profile that is breathtakingly beautiful.
One of the world’s most precious aromatics, this distillation comes from Bulgaria’s famed Rose Valley near Kazanlak and is extracted via steam distillation; it can take up to 40kg of hand picked flowers to produce just 10ml of this precious oil. One sniff though and you know that the effort is absolutely worth it.
As this is an otto, it’s incredibly diffusive and vibrant and works wonders in natural perfumery blends, bringing a sweet floral rosiness that is intense, uplifting and diffusive. In contrast, the absolute tends to be a lot heavier with more earthy and spicy undertones and as such does more of its work in the background of a blend.
Personally, my favourite is the otto by far and, if you had to pick one, I would definitely recommend this for both its profile and potency, though both have their uses of course and can be combined with excellent results.
In the ancient lands of Arabia, rose essential oil (otto) is also traditionally combined with oud to create one of the most beautiful pairings in all of natural perfumery: the exquisite rose-oud combo. It is also used as a carrier oil in musk macerations where its intense sweetness acts as the perfect counterbalance to musk’s pungent animalic notes.
All in all, this is an absolutely gorgeous aromatic that makes for an excellent alternative to the much more rare and pricey Taif rose (which we also usually stock), especially where cost is a factor, and as such is an excellent choice whether neat to experience one of the world’s most breathtaking aromatics or for use in musk macerations, rose-oud combos and all manner of ambers, orientals, chypres and other perfume compositions.
• Please note that this oil will crystallise at lower temperatures, which is a sign of purity in rose ottos. Simply hold in your hands or gently rub and it will return to liquid almost immediately.
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Santal Ceylon Red
Distilled from wild santal roots in 2021, Santal Ceylon Red is a gorgeous Sri Lankan sandalwood oil oozing with notes of gourmand red woodiness throughout.
Unlike many other Sri Lankan santals which open with sharp piney-camphoric top notes - which I also adore - this oil is all about deeply rich base woods from the get-go.
Opening with freshly sawn woods alongside perhaps a slightly lactonic touch, it soon begins to transform into a sweet honeyed profile that reminds me of powdered almonds and tonka bean’s coumarinic marzipan-like goodness.
This golden-hued coumarin-like sweetness balances out a base of freshly sawn, almost dark red woods throughout the oil's journey, with some creaminess, and perhaps even a slightly musky animalic warmth deep down in its layers adding to its beautiful complexity and depth.
Overall, with its rich woody character and gorgeous sweetness, this makes for an exceptional sandalwood oil to wear neat. I also think it would work fantastically in blends and macerations, especially where musk or civet is used or where a strong woody character is desired.
Ruh Khus 2020
This is a beautiful example of India's famed Ruh Khus, the essential oil distilled from the roots of wild vetiver plants (Vetiveria zizanioides) in northern India.
Distilled in 2020, it now has a beautifully soft and rounded profile with almost no harsh notes, displaying a soft and yet ultra-dense character instead (much like oud and sandalwood, vetiver improves with age, the scent becoming deeper and more rounded).
Testing on my skin, it opens up with a quiet, complex and yet very smooth leathery and rooty profile - a touch more than others I've encountered - before slowly revealing its classic Ruh Khus profile: an incredibly rich bouquet of green grass along with leafy, earthy, rooty, leathery and woody notes that lasts for many hours.
Gorgeous worn neat as a standalone attar, its excellent tenacity and fixative properties also make it an exceptional base note and ingredient in natural perfumery, working well in fougères, chypres and mossy, woody and green accords amongst others.
Note:
• As with all natural materials, the scent, colour, and profile can vary slightly from batch to batch. Please note reviews include those from previous batches
Collection:Â Kannauj Chronicles
In the Kannauj Chronicles, I explore and share with you the wonderful natural oils and attars of India’s historic perfume capital, Kannauj. The oils in this collection are pure botanical extracts and attars distilled in sandalwood oil by some of Kannauj's most renowned and trusted artisans, who share our passion for distilling the highest quality of aromatics and attars.
These attars are distilled using the ancient ‘deg and bhapka’ apparatus; a traditional distilling method largely unchanged for 400 years. I hope you enjoy these breathtaking scents of nature from a bygone era, an era fast being forgotten in today's race towards modernity and industrialisation at all costs.
Patchouli, India
Botanical Name: Pogostemon cablin
Origin: India, 2022
Process: Iron-Distilled Essential Oil, Dark
Note: Base
Perfumery: Excellent fixative
This is a gorgeous iron-distilled Indian patchouli oil bursting with its characteristically sweet, warm, rich, herbaceous, spicy, minty, woody, and earthy profile that makes it so valuable in natural perfumery and perfumery at large.
Comparing this Indian distillation to the more common Indonesian one, I personally prefer the Indian variety due to its deeper and richer profile that feels more earthy, chocolaty, and almost caramel-like in its sweetness, compared with its more herbaceous, minty and fruity Indonesian counterpart that feels lighter and more top-note heavy.
An incredibly versatile oil due to its outstandingly beautiful and complex profile, patchouli is a great fixative that can find use in almost all accords, from earthy, green and forest-type blends to spicy orientals, florals, and woods. It also improves with ageing if stored correctly, and should become smoother, rounder and fuller in profile with time.
Bourbon Vetiver
This is an exceptionally beautiful Bourbon Vetiver essential oil from Reunion Islands that is rich and complex and yet ultra suave and smooth, making it gorgeous worn as an attar or as an ingredient in the natural perfumer's arsenal.
Testing on my skin, the aroma immediately oozes with the soft warmth of baked earth, clay, roots and dry soil with a touch of woods, petrichor and campfire smoke. I also detect a beautiful undercurrent of warm sweetness throughout, calling to mind labdanum, tolu balsam, sandalwood, and a variety of other resins and woods that it would pair well with.
As a heavy base note, it displays typical soft projection with incredible tenacity, lasting for many days on a paper strip. It also makes for a great study in comparison with Ruh Khus, the wild North Indian variety, which is a much more green, grassy and wet soily affair.
Overall, this is a truly beautiful vetiver oil and one that I'd definitely recommend for vetiver connoisseurs and natural perfume enthusiasts alike.
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