We fell in love with these incredible perfume and potion bottles handmade by arabic artisans in Fez and have decided to use these same artists to create the custom bottles for the Dar Cap fragrance line.
An amazing selection of aromatic oil concoctions inspired by our recent trip will include blends like Ramage, Hortensia, Tourmaline, Alligatore, and Buste. As gorgeous as these little vials are they are no match for what’s inside. The oils we brought home are like nothing we’ve smelled before – ancient, organic, and beyond sexy, we cannot wait to bottle these up.
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I’m typically into scents of the French and Indian varieties, but this British Isle jewel is what every American apothecary-come-lately wishes it was.
Founded in the late 1860′s by Royal Barber and Perfumer to Queen Victoria’s court, William Henry Penhaligon’s eponymous perfume house has been awarded Royal Warrants by her Majesty Queen Alexandra in 1903, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh in 1956 and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales in 1988.
Penhaligon’s, which once had famous customers including Oscar Wilde and Sir Winston Churchill, has had its ups and downs. The Great Depression forced the company out of business in the 1940′s but was resurrected in the 1970′s by fashion designer Sheila Pickles.
Penhaligon’s first fragrance, created in 1872, was named Hammam Bouqet in honor of the famous Turkish Baths in Jermyn Street, St. James. This scent remained the Penhaligon’s personal favorite and is still one of Penhaligon’s bestsellers. It was a favorite of Italian film directors Luchino Visconti and Franco Zeffirelli. Personally, Hammam falls into my top two with Bluebell, which the company describes perfectly: “Tremendously evocative of wet earth, moss and rain, it softly detonates across your scent receptors and instantly throws you into mythic woodland, surrounded by dripping leaves, skin tingling with spring.” Get the whole story »
One good thing about the weather getting colder – Tallba Swedish Pine Soap. Keep the box.
I am determined to figure out why these six scents have been selling out for over thirty years. I for one, am a lover of obscenely expensive fragrances that have a drugstore, old lady perfume quality. So I think I just might like these…
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I’ve had this internal battle about whether or not to write this post since we started this blog. Because it’s virtually impossible to find a fragrance that you love, let alone a scent that no one you know has ever worn I’ve kept my favorite perfume house a secret since I first discovered it. However, in the interest of olfactory democracy, here it is.
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The explosion of eastern and fringe religions in the U.S. can be attributed to a myriad of causes – from the public flogging the Catholic Church has received lately, to the widespread violence of religious fundamentalists in the Middle East. This big-religion weariness has not only created an unprecedented interest in the Eastern traditions, but also in the cruder (and once taboo) syncretic religions of Santeria, Voodoo, and Palo Mayumbe. According to many accounts, more and more Anglos are turning to these African-based religious traditions for the simpler, non-political, and more organic spiritual experiences they offer.
As a Cuban American, I am most familiar with Santeria – a tradition that emerged in the 1600′s when African slaves arrived in the New World and were immediately baptized en masse by the Catholic bishops. Their religion suppressed in this strange new land, they clung to their beliefs by attributing the virtues of each of their holy deities to a Catholic Saint. Now they could worship freely under the guise of Catholicism.
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