Leaves in Summer

Much has occurred in the past few months that it feels like an effort to play catch up to the constant fluctuations of each day. Friends, colleagues, perfume fans, arts lovers: We all know what a wold-spinning time we inhabit. A few times I’ve thought, “Now is a good time to take a breath and reflect,” but that time doesn’t come: A new event, crisis, twist occurs and we all find ourselves recalculating what happens next.

Rose Geranium leaves, Rhode Island.

The global health crisis has had an impact on my view of the world, mostly of the physical nature - I tend to look out from windows and not around me while walking on the streets. I look a lot from the vantage point of my desk out on the street in front of my house to see the world adjusting to new realities. This was the case for many months when I would spend much of my time here. The arrival of summer has been wonderful, but mid-July has found us seeing a resurgence of covid cases around the world, so I believe we’re all wondering how long this will last.

But many things continue, and ought to… as part of the sense of solitude, I reached out to start teaching classes with the Institute for Art and Olfaction, which has been an excellent experience. My writing with Fragrantica continues, and I wrote my thoughts about fragrances and the work of a very favorite painter, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva.

I’m grateful for the support from JSP customers new and former, who’ve continued to be part of the great story of scented development. I’m fortunate that my studio is not very far from my home, and it remained open during the past few months to make for an easy continuation of the business. The new January soaps have been developed and were released in April, and some new fragrance projects are in the works for entities outside of JSP (more news to come in the following months.) I’m excited to say that development on the new perfumes for 2020 is coming along rapidly, with one release nearly complete, and the second and third shortly behind.

January Scent Projects Soap No 1 and Soap No 2

I’ve also seen the garden around the house blossom into great, bold growth - with a vigor and strength I didn’t see last year. It’s given me some hope about the viability of everything in the world despite so many difficulties.

Ferns and Queen Anne’s Lace, Rhode Island.

I hope that everyone finds some time this summer to enjoy the radiating sun, the joyful waves of heat, and the voices of friends as we slowly emerge from a long slumber.

Autumn arrives to JSP: Serin, American Perfumer Podcast, Limited Editions

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:

• Lost Smells: Extinct Plants and the Allure of the Unknown Perfume

• The Smell of the Sea

• The Symbolic World of Scent of Odilon Redon

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!

Winter, Twisted Lily, Currier Museum, Perfumology, New Reviews and Olfactif

There is much to celebrate this New Year, perhaps most excitingly that January Scent Project was featured in a review of “log cabin scents” in the New York Times in December. 

Earlier this season in December, I had the incredible pleasure of releasing the latest perfume, Dinudisit, at Perfumology in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. This special niche shop run by Nir Guy is an oasis of great smells just a hop away from Philadelphia. It was a hugely successful venture and I’m glad to be represented with Nir and team.

Highlights from an evening at Perfumology, King of Prussia, PA.

I also curated and presented an evening at the Currier Museum in Manchester, New Hampshire, “Components of Smell,” in which I allowed museum goers the opportunity to smell separate “parts” of perfume in 14 different glass cloches. It was a broad range of smells from the smooth wood-musk of Cashmeran, or the pungent sourness of Oakmoss essential oil, to the almond and fruit flourishes of Heliotropex (Heliotrope reconstruction.) It sparked a fascinating array of conversations, memories, and very mixed reactions (particularly when people were smelling Birch Tar, that strong, smoky essence that helps to make the Russian Leather accord.) This was part of the Currier Museum of Art’s Art for the Senses program as part of the Currier After Hours event.

Evening of Scent / Components of Smell at the Currier Museum in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Only two days later, it was off to Brooklyn for the launch evening at Twisted Lily. It’s with much excitement that I can say we have a representative in New York City, a goal I’ve wanted for January Scent Project since its inception. The evening was a great success, and the shop became a packed house by 7:00 pm. Huge thanks go out to Eric, Stamatis, Olivia and Shawn for all their dedicated work in making this happen.

Reception at Twisted Lily, Brooklyn, NY. Photos courtesy Mathew Underwood.

This February, January Scent Project is also included as part of Olfactif’s Up in Smoke collection for women, featuring our perfume Smolderose. Join this fascinating subscription service for monthly curated scent experiences.

January Scent Project has also been the subject of a wide range of video reviews over the past few months. Tommelise gives an in-depth review of our latest perfume, Dinudisit (water flowers), the legendary Joey Cannoli reviews a number of scents from January Scent Project in his very particular style, the British duo Wafts From the Loft take on three of the scents in their particularly poetic and energetic review. Burvuvu has had three reviews in particular, by Redolessence & Brooklyn Fragrance Lover, Aetherelaist, Steven Sturgill, and The Scentinel. The release of Burvuvu has been a particularly fascinating journey for January Scent Project because it seems to have struck a chord with a number of wearers, something that you can never quite imagine when you compose a perfume... but you always hope for the best when you send it out into the world.

Collection of Vloggers from YouTube: Tommelise, Joey Cannoli, The Scentinel, Wafts From the Loft

As we move forth through the end of winter and into spring, new adventures await as plans for a new fragrance take shape. April will see some more travel, and some possible collaborative projects may appear, all in extremely early iterative stages. Meanwhile, for the next two weeks, please enjoy the following discount at January Scent Project. Through the end of February, enjoy 20% off all orders over $30. Simply use the code FEB2019 at checkout to receive your discount. Offer valid through end of February 28th, 2019.  Thank you again for your interest in January Scent Project, and I hope you are enjoying a restful but energizing start to the new year 2019. 

Best, John