Strange Invisible Perfumes has launched two new limited edition fragrances, Dimanche and Tribute…
Strange Invisible Perfumes Elektrou, il Profumo Cannabis, Ginger ~ new fragrances
Strange Invisible Perfumes has launched Elektrou, a new limited edition perfume named for the ancient Greek word for amber. The scent is described as “the essence of fall”, and the notes include amber, sandalwood and vanilla…
Strange Invisible Perfumes Tahitian Honey & Vacances ~ new fragrances
Strange Invisible Perfumes has launched two new limited edition fragrances for summer, Tahitian Honey and Vacances:
Both celebrate the idyllic locales of summer…
Natural perfumes: a few favorites
About the author: Trish Vawter is the creator of Scent Hive, a blog dedicated to natural perfumes and beauty products. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two boys, and is a practicing nurse midwife.
I come to this guest post with sincere excitement and admittedly, a dose of trepidation. Since I write primarily about natural perfumes and beauty products at Scent Hive, I am acutely aware that discussions can get heated around the “natural” topic. While I do prefer natural perfumes, I don’t want this post to become a natural vs synthetic debate, mostly because I don’t believe one to be superior to the other. But I do have reasons for my preference which I will share with you.
Beauty is ephemeral, and I appreciate that in a fragrance. It’s not quite the first thing most people regard as a virtue in perfume, but there’s delight in reapplying perfume over the course of a day. Oftentimes it’ll be a different perfume depending on my mood or where I am going. But there’s a balance to be struck: a perfume that’s too fleeting is frustrating, so I want my perfume to last a few hours, if not longer, which most high quality natural perfumes do. Yet, I don’t like a perfume to last into the next day, or to have huge sillage. Less tenacity and more intimacy are the qualities I seek. Additionally, longevity and sillage are commonly enhanced in synthetic perfumes with phthalates, a petrochemical I try to avoid in all beauty products.
While I find the evanescence of naturals compelling…
Strange Invisible Perfumes Essence of IX ~ fragrance review
I don’t drink much (anymore) and maybe (or maybe not?) that’s why I’m such a sucker for booze notes in perfume. Stuff like this…
She commissioned a twelfth-generation master distiller, also located in Napa, to produce an exquisite batch of French oak essence for the perfume. One of the defining alchemical accomplishments of the composition, the oak essence was triple distilled in old European copper stills from a wine called ‘Esprit de cognac’ which is aged in French oak barrels.1
…gets my attention, and add in rose, white sage, black currant, wild honey and lavender (ok, in all truth I can often do without lavender) and you’ve got something I’d like to try. The ‘she’ in the quote above is Alexandra Balahoutis, of indie botanical line Strange Invisible Perfumes, and the perfume is Essence of IX, a limited edition project in collaboration with California winery Colgin Cellars.
Essence of IX opens quite boozy (really, maybe it’s just the alcohol) and herbal, and it’s slightly medicinal to boot…