Last May I started thinking about an idea that I call “the retrograde files“. It came as a little brainstorm about taking the time when Mercury is retrograde (an astrological phase that makes it look like the planet Mercury is sliding backward in its orbit when seen from Earth) to look back at projects that I haven’t completed, perfumes that I once launched but for what ever reason decided to discontinue, and the like, and to consider re-imagining. Thus, using the ‘energy of the times’ to good advantage and taking what was good and making it better, clearer, and ultimately new again. (Art, if nothing else, is recycling and filtering inspiration through one’s unique lens and the exact time and space it’s created in). So as Mercury has gone into its retrograde phase I started looking through what is now a surprisingly growing section of my notebook.
Passionflower Perfume Poems was a small collection that I started releasing around 1999 – 2000 with a young, ‘millennial’ audience in mind. It never quite hit the target the way I wanted it to… although a few of the perfumes have lived on in the form of special orders and requests by devoted clients who have loved the perfumes as their signatures for the past – wow – almost 20 years. Lately the requests have come in with more frequency and something sparked: these Passionflower Perfume Poems scents seemed to be the perfect first candidates for inclusion in the retrograde files.
Say hello to April.
I didn’t rework this design too much, as it’s fans would be pretty bummed if I’d changed it a ton. I did add some cool, humid notes via some molecules that I didn’t have in my studio c.2000, like cyclal-c and cucumber aldehyde. It’s just as fresh and lively as the first design but with an additional pump up of the sweet pea and the green clover notes. I’m really enjoying the energy of April with its clean but not soapy freshness and soft fruity-floralcy. Fruity-florals aren’t usually of great interest to me (maybe that’s why I missed the mark with my first attempt at a ‘youth’ collection) but this one is fresh, green, and ‘unsweet’ enough for a more grown up audience and to keep me coming back for more. I hope you like it and the other two heading your way this Spring. ❤
I thought I’d share one of the original stream-of-consciousness poems that went with the original launch. I still think they’re fun:
April (poem)
green clear soft white frosty dew • ethereal morning fresh • delicate blossom dawn breath
emerge enlighten evolve • imagine breezy serenity rain • shining meadow flowers dream
sublime veils smiling senses • relax renew refresh • awaken cherish clean bright light pools
glistening shower sweetness • invite pure beauty april be spring
DSH notebook 