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  Swarmageddon Perfume Oil

  The cry of the cicada

  Gives us no sign

  That presently they will die

  – Matsuo Bashō, translated by William George Aston

   

  This year, the forests of the eastern United States will be abuzz (pun intended) with the concurrent emergence of two separate broods, the 17-year-old Brood XIII and 13-year-old Brood XIX. A cicada extravaganza like this one hasn’t been seen since 1803!

   

  A scent fit for a Swarmageddon: soft, dark soil, black pepper, tonka bean, decaying leaves, licorice root, ambrette seed, sweet vetiver, bourbon vanilla, oakmoss, brown labdanum, elm bark, vegetable leather, clary sage, 13-year aged patchouli, 17-year aged patchouli, and two bright red specs of dragon’s blood resin.

   

  Art: Kingfisher, Cicada, and Willow Tree, Qing Dynasty, China

  Out of Stock
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  Seven Inches of Blood Perfume Oil

  The grave of the Countess Mircalla was opened; and the General and my father recognized each his perfidious and beautiful guest, in the face now disclosed to view. The features, though a hundred and fifty years had passed since her funeral, were tinted with the warmth of life. Her eyes were open; no cadaverous smell exhaled from the coffin. The two medical men, one officially present, the other on the part of the promoter of the inquiry, attested the marvelous fact that there was a faint but appreciable respiration, and a corresponding action of the heart. The limbs were perfectly flexible, the flesh elastic; and the leaden coffin floated with blood, in which to a depth of seven inches, the body lay immersed.
  
  A shimmering pool of coppery red musk, Dracaena cinnabari, clove bud, cacao, and lead.

  Out of Stock
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  13 December 2024 Perfume Oil

  13 is significant, whether you consider it lucky, unlucky or just plain odd. Many believe it to be unfortunate…

  … because there were 13 present at the Last Supper.
  … Loki crashed a party of 12 at Valhalla, which ended in Baldur’s death.
  … Oinomaos killed 13 of Hippodamia’s suitors before Pelops finally, in his own shady way, defeated the jealous king.
  … In ancient Rome, Hecate’s witches gathered in groups of 12, the Goddess herself being the 13th in the coven.

  Concern over the number thirteen echoes back beyond the Christian era. Line 13 was omitted form the Code of Hammurabi.

  The shivers over Friday the 13th also have some interesting origins:

  … Christ was allegedly crucified on Friday the 13th.
  … On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrests of Jaques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and sixty of his senior knights.
  … In British custom, hangings were held on Fridays, and there were 13 steps on the gallows leading to the noose.

  To combat the superstition, Robert Ingersoll and the Thirteen Club held thirteen-men dinners during the 19th Century. Successful? Hardly. The number still invokes trepidation to this day. A recent whimsical little serial killer study showed that the following murderers all have names that total thirteen letters:

  Theodore Bundy
  Jeffrey Dahmer
  Albert De Salvo
  John Wayne Gacy

  And, with a little stretch of the imagination, you can also fit ”˜Jack the Ripper’ and ”˜Charles Manson’ into that equation.

  More current-era paranoia: modern schoolchildren stop their memorization of the multiplication tables at 12. There were 13 Plutonium slugs in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. Apollo 13 wasn’t exactly the most successful space mission. All of these are things that modern triskaidekaphobes point to when justifying their fears.

  For some, 13 is an extremely fortuitous and auspicious number…

  … In Jewish tradition, God has 13 Attributes of Mercy. Also, there were 13 tribes of Israel, 13 principles of Jewish faith, and 13 is considered the age of maturity.
  … The ancient Egyptians believed that there were 12 stages of spiritual achievement in this lifetime, and a 13th beyond death.
  … The word for thirteen, in Chinese, sounds much like the word which means “must be alive”.

  Thirteen, whether you love it or loathe it, is a pretty cool number all around.

  … In some theories of relativity, there are 13 dimensions.
  … It is a prime number, lucky number, star number, Wilson Prime, and Fibonacci number.
  … There are 13 Archimedean solids.

  AND…
  … There were 13 original colonies when the United States were founded.

  Says a lot about the US, doesn’t it?

  Thirteen scents of comfort; a supplication for safety and succor during turbulent, dark times. Warm wool, fresh baked bread, steaming black tea, and a gooey brownie spiced with fresh ginger, green cardamom, black peppercorn, coriander, clove bud, fennel, star anise, honey, and cream.

  Out of Stock
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  Monastery Garden in the Snow Perfume Oil

  Carl Friedrich Lessing
  Curls of monastic incense, moss-stained stone, snow-laden cypress, medicinal herbs buried deep in winter soil, and glittering icicles splintering from a gargoyle’s frozen scream.

  Out of Stock