This morning I was spreading mayonnaise onto a sandwich and I was suddenly 19 again, working as a cart girl at the nearby golf course. At the beginning of each shift, I prepared big batches of chicken salad and tuna salad for the snack bar and I guess the smell of the salads’ mayo has stuck with me for 15 years. As I sunk into the memory, I remembered that time period of slipping mix CDs into my car stereo, belting along to early 00s bops; I remembered meeting friends at Jimmie Cone, my hometown soft serve ice cream spot, laughing hard and licking up rainbow sprinkles; I remembered the river by my college, tanning my legs and avoiding writing that essay.
All this to say, scent transports you. Not that making big batches of tuna salad is a particularly enticing scent to connect with, lol, BUT the point is, I was able to access so much of my memory, my emotion, and my body simply from a sniff of a common condiment. Our olfactory system holds ancient power and wisdom.
Conjure a few of your own scent memories: maybe the smell of fresh cut grass…or baking snickerdoodles…or your mother’s face cream. What comes thru for you? How does the scent land in your body and your heartspace? Do you get joyful feelings? Sad feelings? Maybe even traumatic feelings/memories? (If this is the case, take tender care of yourself, friend.)
Why does any of this matter? Why should you care about scent? Well friends, to me it’s all about the simple sensory aliveness of it. The imagination and creativity it can open. The spirituality it can offer. The simultaneous presencing AND transporting qualities of it. The common joy it can elicit. The recognition that our sensory bodies are ALIVE and AWAKE. I personally spend so much time circling around thoughts or staring at screens or working on a to-do list, that sinking into scent and what the scent brings forth feels like pure pleasure and aliveness (most of the time) to me.
And we haven’t even talked about PLANTS yet! So, bring magical, medicinal plants into a scent experience…and you have yourself a Powerful, perhaps Pleasureable, Potion. Plants are alive, ancient, wise, queer, etc. They are a part of us. They are our ancestors (thanks to Ash Gravity for this wisdom). So when we smell certain (or any) plants, we are tapping into feeling, knowledge, healing, memory, body, universe, and beyond. And all plants have evolved with special and/or unique properties, whether that be color, certain potent smells, certain healing abilities when consumed or touched, a combination of these, etc. (Just like our ancestors have perhaps passed on certain skills or abilities to us–farming, entrepreneurship, healing abilities, open kindness, activism, humor, etc.).
Consider: You perhaps drink chamomile tea to access a sense of calm; You sprinkle black pepper on your foods to add energy and spice to a meal, and thus, to your own bodily system. You buy roses for a loved one to make them feel special and adored–something about that flower conjures a deep sense of intimacy and inner romance.
These plants have abilities. Like, scientifically, it’s proven that simply sniffing lavender can soothe anxiety. Or that smelling ginger can ease digestive discomfort. So, bc I invest in ethically-sourced, essential or absolute oils of plants, and include these oils into my perfumes, my perfumes are extra powerful. They are not just about smelling yummy–they are about your confidence, your self-worth, your sense of calm, your pleasure, your presence…basically, if you resonate with the plants included in these perfume potions, you infuse your own personal intentions into the bottle. And then each spritz becomes a spell.
My customers have experienced a range of magic due to their scents…connection with the planet Saturn, hot first dates, creative writing flow, deep self-connection, a release of healing rage, extra confidence, stability through a breakup, simple pleasure, and more. All due to a whiff of an intentional plant combo, a spritz to the wrists and neck.
IN CONCLUSION, colloquially, we may know “potions” are of liquid nature and contain magical properties. Magic, to me, means possibility. It matches the awe of this universe–like, how the flip did we get here?! Have you really thought hard about WHAT the big bang theory IS?! Like…WHY HOW WHAT IS MANIFESTING ALL OF THIS ENERGY AND SHAPE AND COLOR AND GORGEOUSNESS AND!
If allllllll of the universe exists…what else is possible? I’ll tell you one thing…in collaboration with gorgeous, delightful, powerful plants, my perfumes–my POTIONS*--facilitate possibility. And YOU get to decide what is possible while playing, perfuming, luxuriating in, accessing your ALIVENESS and EXPANSIVENESS as you spritz my potions. <3