Rose Water
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A Spirit, Katie Perfume Oil
Out of StockOn my arrival (June 5) all appeared fair enough. I found the mediums established on the second floor of a small house in Ninth Street near Arch. There were but two rooms on the floor, a front parlor and a bedroom; the lower floor under both rooms being occupied as a shop for the sale of musical instruments. In a back corner of the parlor was a walnut cabinet, seven feet wide and eight feet high, with a door that opened into the parlor, and two apertures, five and six feet high respectively, both curtained with black cloth. We had lamp-light, shaded but sufficient to enable us to recognize faces and to see everything that passed in the room. After we had examined the cabinet, the medium entered it, closing the door.
Soon at one of the apertures appeared a fair, thoughtful young face, a girl of eighteen apparently, by whom I was cordially welcomed in a low, pleasant voice. She returned and spoke to us several times. At the close of the sitting she twice appeared, robed in white, just within the cabinet door; not coming out, however, into the room: the first time (so I was told) that she had ever shown herself in full form.
It was evidently a living, moving, thinking being. Yet I suspended judgment. One of the mediums was out of our sight. Then there was a door — locked, padlocked, and otherwise effectually secured, it seemed, but yet a door — from the cabinet into the bedroom adjoining. The possibility of a confederate suggested itself.
Forty memorable sittings followed. Gradually test conditions were perfected, and every imaginable ground for suspecting deception was removed; and then, instead of failure, all the phenomena came out in greater perfection than before. I select the more remarkable; to copy my notes in full would involve tedious repetition.
June 7. Katie allowed Dr. Child to feel her pulse; its beats were distinct, about seventy-two a minute. A lady offered her a gold ring, and asked me to put it on her finger. I did so. The hand, beautifully formed, was like that of a mortal woman, nearly of the same temperature as my own, and slightly moist. At the close of the sitting she advanced into the room, dropped a finger on my head, and touched several other persons.
June 9. I gave her a long chain, composed of Violet’s hair, a present to myself more than forty-five years ago: hoping, as I told Katie, thereby to attract Violet herself in accordance with her promise. I observed that Katie wore the gold ring. But when, at the close of the sitting, examined with a light every nook and corner in the cabinet, neither ring nor chain was to be found.
June 10. Katie called me up to the aperture, handed me back the hair chain, and said: “Violet wishes you to keep this, in memory of her, until you are called to meet her in her spirit-home.”
– Touching Visitants From a Higher Life, Robert Dale Owen
In memory of her: green cognac, rose water, and Italian bergamot.
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Blue Blankie Perfume Oil
Out of StockLilith has several blankies that mean the world to her, and this is one of them. She’s had it since she was a baby, and she still sleeps with it every night. This blankie has been all over the US, has been to innumerable conventions, and has visited Paris, London, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Salzburg, and Berlin. This blankie has been a comfort in sorrow and a companion in joy. It has been clutched in laughter and has been succor in illness. This blanket has seen thousands upon thousands of dreams.
May it always keep you warm, safe, and happy, Lilith.
French lavender, skin musk, and a drop of rose water.
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Eve Perfume Oil
Out of StockEve is eternal: in three-thousand years, she has likely traveled the length and breadth of the world, immersed in innumerable cultures throughout the ages, observing the ebb and flow of humanity and the imperishability of nature itself. Despite her age, she is the character that seems most rooted, always experiencing each moment with open eyes, always fully present.
Her scent is one that travels through the eons: the Irish moss, yarrow, and hawthorn of the Iron Age Britons, ancient Rome’s omphacium and honey, myrrh and calamus from Egypt, the frankincense and damask roses of the Florentine Renaissance, white sandalwood from the Far East, Moroccan saffron and rose water, and a swirl of incense from the souks.
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Fainting Couch Home & Linen Spray
Select OptionsLush velvet cushions and prim tea rose, a splash of rose water on a lace doily, strong black tea, a whiff of pomander, and an orris root sachet.
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Girl at the Beach Perfume Oil
Out of StockEdvard Munch
Wave-smoothed stone, indigo waters, a cascade of amber, salt-damp linen, crushed pearls, and rose water.
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Hypatia Perfume Oil
Add to cartHYPATIA of Alexandria (c. 355 CE – 415 CE)
Hypatia of Alexandria is the earliest woman philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician whose legacy has survived. Her teaching attracted students from wealthy and influential families, including the future bishop Synesius of Cyrene, whose letters “To the Philosopher” are some of our few primary sources about Hypatia.
She succeeded her father, the Greek mathematician Theon, as head of his Neoplatonist school.
After living and teaching peacefully amidst dangerous religious conflict, Hypatia drew the ire of enemies who resented the accomplishment of a woman – and hated that a “pagan” had become the era’s preeminent astronomer and mathematician.
Math is hard.
Bishop Cyril of Alexandria needed only to spread slanderous rumors to provide sufficient pretext for the parabalani – a violent militia of Christian monks – to savagely torture and murder an unarmed scholar. Some say they hacked her to death with clay roofing tiles; some say they wielded oyster shells. Either way, the cowards were satisfied they had silenced her.
Following this atrocity, Hypatia’s work was disparaged and her writings were “lost.”
Hypatia is not forgotten.
The ancient philosopher and astronomer is memorialized on Earth (presolar meteorite fragment “Hypatia” stone), on the Moon (Hypatia crater, Rimae Hypatia), and in the heavens (main-belt asteroid 238 Hypatia).
Synesius of Cyrene Drags Athens in a Letter to his Brother
…may the accursed ship-captain perish who brought me here! Athens has no longer anything sublime except the country’s famous names! Just as in the case of a victim burnt in the sacrificial fire, there remains nothing but the skin to help us to reconstruct a creature that was once alive – so ever since philosophy left these precincts, there is nothing for the tourist to admit except the Academy, the Lyceum, and – by Zeus! – the Decorated Porch which has given its name to the philosophy of Chrysippus.
Today Egypt has received and cherishes the fruitful wisdom of Hypatia. Athens used to be the dwelling place of the wise: today the beekeepers alone bring it honor.
Rose water and a mineralic, star-dappled blend of white musk, crystalline amber, and sweet oud.
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Justice for Mary Perfume Oil
Out of StockThis year, Lilith wrote her first report, and after a lot of deliberation, she chose to write about Mary Todd Lincoln. She was fascinated by the seances that Mrs. Lincoln held in the White House, and she was horrified by how Mary Todd has been remembered by historians and wanted to learn more about her. I didn’t know much about Mary Todd Lincoln myself, so it was educational for me, too, and I was blown away by the conclusions Lilith drew. I’ll let Lil speak for herself –
Who was Mary Todd Lincoln? People said that Mary Todd Lincoln was an unpopular First Lady but I think she should be remembered better than that. She had a hard and sad life and a lot of what happened to her was because of patriarchy, which is when society is run by men and men make all the rules, and misogyny, which is prejudice against women. She had so many people die in her life too. People said she was “crazy” and “uncivilized” and “insane” and one White House staffer even called her a “hellcat.” I don’t think she was insane but she was misunderstood.
Mary remembered her childhood as “desolate.” She was born in 1818 on December 13 in Kentucky. Mary was the daughter of an important banker. She was a privileged well-educated child of a wealthy slave holding family. However, Mary did not like slavery and grew up to be an Abolitionist. Her mom died in childbirth when Mary was six. Her dad remarried two years later and Mary did not like her stepmother. They did not get along. Mary was an Abolitionist but most of her half-brothers were Confederate soldiers that died in the Civil War, which was sad.
Mary met Abraham at a party in Springfield Illinois. They broke up and got back together. Then they got married on November 4, 1842. On Mary’s wedding ring Lincoln engraved “love is eternal.”
When Abraham Lincoln became President of the United States Mary became First Lady. When she first became First Lady people did not like her right away. Mary was from the South and Abraham was a poor man from Illinois. They judged her and were snobby to her. They said she was “uncouth” and uncivilized and unproper. That she had bad manners and bad fashion. A lot of people in Washington gossiped about her and said mean things and I bet that hurt her feelings a lot. She started to throw really fancy parties and spend a lot of money on clothes and to decorate the White House to try to fit in and make people like her. It didn’t work and people just started saying she spent too much money. She got stressed and that’s why she was spending so much money but it actually made people like her even less. She wasn’t good at talking to people and she was easy to influence and manipulate with stuff like gossip, probably because she didn’t have a lot of friends or people she could trust.
Mary had a lot of tragedy in her life and her sadness made her act in ways that people thought was strange. She had four sons: Robert (1848-1926), Edward (1846-1850), William (1850-1862), and Thomas “Tad” (1853-1871). His dad gave him the nickname “Tad” because he had a big head like a tadpole. Only one of Mary’s sons lived to become an adult and all of them died really young. After William “Willie” died from typhoid Mary started going to seances and hosting seances so she could contact his spirit. Seances are where you are bringing back the ghosts of the dead to come talk to you. When Willie died, Mary was all alone. President Lincoln was in the middle of fighting in the Civil War and couldn’t be there for her. Mary started talking to mediums who are the people who spirits talk through and who lead seances. She would have mediums come to do “calls to the dead” in the White House Red Room.
She also had a rough life because her half-brothers were all killed in the Civil War. Her husband was then assassinated in the theater when she was sitting right next to him holding his hand. That’s really sad.
When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated Mary became a widow. She had a lot of debt because of all the money she spent – or other people would say “wasted” – and she had to go begging to the government for money which was probably really embarrassing and hard. She moved a lot and eventually her son Robert asked the court to declare her a lunatic. He had people spy on her, he paid doctors to say she was insane, he paid store clerks and shopkeepers and hotel employees to testify that she was insane. He tricked her and she had no time to prepare her defense. He had people say that she spent too much money, would hurt herself, hold seances, could not take care of herself. The jury only took a few minutes to convict her and she had to spend months in an institution!
Back then, men could use laws to put women in asylums and hospitals if they were troublesome. In Illinois in 1875, there was a law that said that “married women may be detained in hospitals at the request of the husband without evidence of insanity.” Women had almost no rights back then. If men wanted to they could have their wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, and other women in their lives locked up for being annoying, rude, improper, disobedient, strange, or weird. Almost any reason they could come up with. They could probably even do “cuz I feel like it.” Mary was probably a victim of this. She was not mentally unstable and was not in danger of harming herself or anyone else. Her son just thought she was annoying and hard to deal with.
She wasn’t crazy. She was just stressed and sad and worried. When she was younger, people said that she was witty and charming and smart, but also that she had a bad temper and was sarcastic and moody. She was more interested in politics than most women of her time. She didn’t fit in.
In the end, Mary went to live with her sister. She died from a stroke exactly eleven years after her son Tad died.
#justiceformary
A forgotten lemon verbena sachet and a splash of rose water, neroli, and orange blossom.
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L’Heure Verte Perfume Oil
Add to cartRecoiling, you back away from the dicing. A large tent striped in many shades of green grabs your attention, and you walk towards it. You peer inside the open tent flap and see a room crowded with people in various stages of profound intoxication. Tables are littered with glasses filled with thick, cloudy emerald liquid, and candlelight glints on discarded silver spoons. The scent of spilled absinthe, opium smoke, lilac blossoms, and rose water permeates the stifling air of the tent. As you close the tent flap and turn to leave, you see a scantily clad server bend close to a rugged laborer that is sitting slumped in a sagging chair. A low velvety voice voice asks, “Another drink for you, Monsieur Lanfray?”
Spilled absinthe, scorched sugar cubes, opium smoke, lilac blossoms, and rose water.
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Lucy’s Room Home & Linen Spray
Out of StockLucy turned her head and looked at us, but said nothing. She was not asleep, but she was simply too weak to make the effort. Her eyes spoke to us; that was all. Van Helsing took some things from his bag and laid them on a little table out of sight. Then he mixed a narcotic, and coming over to the bed, said cheerily:-
“Now, little miss, here is your medicine. Drink it off, like a good child. See, I lift you so that to swallow is easy. Yes.” She had made the effort with success.Rose water and fading lilies, opium and honey, pale cologne and bloodstained white lace.
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Razors in a Doll’s House Hair Gloss
Out of StockRose water, cognac, and lace slashed with gleaming silver.