If you are a fan of fragrance history, you may be familiar with the Egyptian god Nefertem. He is the personification of the Cosmic Lotus in the Egyptian creation myth. Nefertem is the protector of dawn and patron of Egypt’s beloved blue lotuses. Nefertem rises from the river at daybreak each morning with his flowers…
Category: Resin
The Odour of Sanctity: When the Dead Smell Divine
If corrupt smells are a sign of a corrupt nature, what happens when a holy person dies? It is in this Western mind-body dualism that the concept of the Odour of Sanctity is born.
If A24 Films Were Perfumes
It’s a tradition around these parts that we ring in Halloween with a special post by pairing fragrances with costume ideas, but that did not feel right this year. As we round the corner on year two of this pandemic, I don’t have the bandwidth to pretend as if I might actually be going to…
The Perfumed Lionheart
Richard I of England was blessed with a great head of hair and a great nickname, Cœur de Lion, Lionheart. He was also the great-great-grandson of William the Conqueror. Born into the Plantagenet-Angevin royal family, he inherited immense wealth and privilege even if his parents were the dysfunctional Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Richard…
Spooktacular Fragrance Pairings for Halloween: 2020 Edition
The year was 2015, Obama was still the US president, most of us had never heard of a ‘coronavirus’, no one thought Brexit was really going to happen, JK Rowling hadn’t lost her damn mind, and it was the last time HALLOWEEN FELL ON A SATURDAY! It was the year I started this project, which…
The Rise of Miasma
This post is part of the Scented History of the Plague series. If you are not familiar with the history of the plague in Europe, you may want to pop over to our primer first. In this post, we’re discussing the rise of Miasma Theory during the Second Pandemic and how it impacted European olfactive…
More Spooktacular Fragrance Pairings for Halloween
Spooky season has descended upon us once again and with it the age-old quest for the perfect Halloween costume. Personally, I’ve been oscillating between Dolly Parton and Pugsley Addams this year. That’s right boys, get you a girl who can pull off both Dolly and Pugsley! All this mulling has led me back to one…
Scented Prayers: Copal & the Day of the Dead
With the success of movies like Coco and The Book of Life, along with the popularity of children’s books like The Dead Family Diaz, it is clear that the English speaking world is more familiar than ever with Día de Muertos (aka Day of the Dead). Overall I think this is a good thing. Latin American…
The Perfumed Mummy
Now we reach the intersection of material culture, belief systems, and death with the physical preparation of the body, which used many aromatic ingredients. The creation of the archetypical Egyptian mummy was a complex evolution that embraced the olfactive elements of the putrid and the divine.
10 Spooktacular Fragrance Pairings for the Perfect Halloween Costume
Perfumers are not all sugar violets and sunshine. The darker aspects of nature have inspired these alchemists to create some of the most beautiful scents. Here are a few fragrances that celebrate doom and gloom and add the final touch to the perfect costume.
The Death Scent Project 
You must be logged in to post a comment.