Autumn arrives to JSP: Serin, American Perfumer Podcast, Limited Editions
John Biebel
As some of you know, I love autumn and the influx of cold weather over the landscape. Summer indeed has its joys, but the landscape truly comes alive in this weather here in New England. September saw the release of the 7th perfume in the January Scent Project line, Serin: an exploration of four accords; incense, sage, marigold, and heliotrope. The fragrance is accompanied by an artistic rendering of a face over a field of Chinese red, with incense-like fumes slinking upward. Here is a view of the poster from its installation in the window at our New York purveyor, Twisted Lily:
Serin
Window view at Twisted Lily in Brooklyn
January Scent Project has been fortunate to receive reviews, interviews and podcasts over the spring and summer that have illuminated and added new and fascinating interpretations of the brand and its perfumes.
YouTube reviewer stills, The Sniff, podcasts and interview from The Perfume Chronicles
Burvuvu is included in the line up of Top 10 Autumn/Fall Fragrances from our friends in England at Wafts From the Loft. After meeting the award-winning blogger The Sniff in Milan this April (Nicola Thomas,) she crafted a wonderful brand guide for January Scent Project at her blog. She writes, “Strange things which are also beautiful are the most fascinating of all creations, and January Scent Project have been clever enough to beguile and delight in equal measure.” YouTube reviewer ImagineScent goes through the line-up after a visit to Twisted Lily, and has some fascinating thoughts about Selperniku.
Also, while visiting the Esxence conference in Italy, I met perfumer, writer, brand ambassador, and all-around creative magician Alexandre Helwani. His blog The Perfume Chronicles is a dream of scholarship and creativity. You can read his interview with me here. I was also interviewed by Dave Kern of American Perfumer in his fascinating podcast series. We have a great conversation about everything from Rhode Island to word-less music to the wonders of Annick Goutal’s Sables.
The limited edition perfume Pahkamiskip, now available.
I’ve been able to realize an idea that’s swirled around for a while since I uncovered a special spice accord that I developed over two years ago. I constructed a perfume that could only be created once: It includes some very special ingredients that I’ve accumulated, or received as gifts, that I will likely never have again. So in celebration of the ephemeral nature of perfume, I created exactly how much I was able to make with the ingredients I had available. I spent a long while creating very special reusable art packages for the perfumes: custom wooden boxes, each hand painted in ink and finished in wax, fitted with hand-sewn linen cushions to secure the bottles. Each of the bottles is different, a custom vintage glass or crystal bottle that I’ve collected over the years specifically for a project like this.
The perfume is called Pahkamiskip, a word from the far northern native American language Passamaquoddy-Maliseet which means “nape of the neck.” It’s a pepper-floral perfume that includes rare ingredients like Sichuan pepper essential oil, hyacinth accord, and chrysanthemum tincture. The first bottle is now available, and the remaining bottles will be released on the website over the next week to ten days. As this is published, there are still about 20 sample vials of Pahkamiskip remaining for sale. (Edit: There are now 8 samples left, and the first 2 bottles have sold. Three remain.)
I’ve had the chance to write some in-depth articles for Fragrantica over the past few months, ones involving a good amount of research. I wandered through some extinct plants to find out what they could smell like, explored the smells of the sea, and matched perfumes to the paintings of French symbolist artist Odilon Redon. You can read them here:
There is still yet over two months of 2019 and more interesting paths down which January Scent Project shall be traveling. Thank you to everyone for their support throughout the year so far, with very special thanks to the Fragrantica staff and Twisted Lily for creating a sense of family and support. So much more to come!