The Darkest Bloom

The scent The artist Try a sample first!  Based on the mythical dahkai flower from P.M. Freestone’s series, Shadowscent, imagine a dark flower, with an irresistibly narcotic scent and magical healing powers – what would it smell like? Perfumer Sarah McCartney decided that rarely used osmanthus, narcissus, and magnolia absolutes were called for, lending an opulent, honey-like, blooming sweetness, that unfolds like a spell from the outset. Then, fruity apricot and the sun-drenched citrus of mandora intertwine with the dark, balsamic depths of spicy-sweet resins like opoponax and labdanum, making a mystical potion of summered petals and fruits that seem to sing in atonal jazz harmony, beautifully tense and otherworldly captivating. This one is an indescribable, can’t-miss smell, made in realms unknown to us mere humans, truly worthy of a fantastical quest.   Notes include osmanthus absolute, narcissus absolute, magnolia absolute, citrus, apricot, blackcurrant, mandora essential oil, buchu, styrax, opoponax, labdanum, musk, and woody notes.   We've met a lot of people in the perfume world, and Sarah McCartney of 4160 Tuesdays is one of our very favorites. Want to know why? Sarah, in her own words: "As a little girl, I did not make perfumes from rose petals. That was for softies. I made magic spells and wanted to be a witch when I grew up. When I was 16 I bought a bottle of Diorella. I studied maths and sciences, practised music and French, wrote books on brands and their evil twin—counterfeiting—and online marketing, and learned to dance Argentinean tango. "For 14 years I was the head writer for Lush while the company grew from four shops—one in Poole and three in London—to 700 worldwide. I was writing 50,000 words every three months for the Lush Times, aiming to encapsulate the products' scents in their descriptions. During that time, I bought and read 200 books on essential oils and herbalism and learned the essential oils the founders gave me to educate myself. "At the end of the 14 years, I took some time off to write a novel featuring a problem-solving perfumer. In it, I described the scents that she made and I wanted to have them available for people to smell. So I set off on a quest to see if I could buy them. This turned out to be impossible - and pretty expensive - because no one was making exactly what I wanted, so I started another quest to see of I could make them instead. Of course that turned out to be even more difficult, but once I'd started, I just kept going. 4160 Tuesdays perfumes is the result."