Ojiim - limited edition perfume - coming soon in December 2020.

I’m excited to announce a new limited edition perfume that will be available in December 2020. It is called Ojiim. The name comes from the Ojibwe language and means “kiss”. It’s pronounced o-JIM (emphasis on the second syllable.) I have mixed a batch which will produce approximately 30 x 30ml bottles, with enough remaining perfume to make a certain amount of samples as well. I’ve been teasing out some information about the visuals and design of the project on Instagram, and was quite surprised at the keenly enthusiastic response (thank you all for this.) I am still working out the most equitable means of making the perfume available. I believe that I may make a limited number available as a presale, samples available at that same time, and then release the remaining bottles. I have a few days over the Thanksgiving holiday to figure it out (but not many!)

Ojiim Perfume Extrait, 30ml, January Scent Project, 2020.

Here is some additional info about this release: As some of you may know by following my social media activity, I came into possession of a group of antique / aged oils from a dealer here in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, US. They are approximately 100 years old, and they’ve all aged remarkably, some of them becoming quite mellow and very nuanced. I knew upon obtaining them that I’d like to do some very special projects with them, and that will transpire over the next few years.

I have used three of the oils in Ojiim (Antique Citron essential oil, Oil of Palmarosa, and Styrax absolute.) There are still about 15 more vials of wonderful things I will be working with as time progresses and ideas present themselves.

I decided to group these particular oils with a very particular, spicy and full-bodied note: Cumin CO2. For those who don’t like perfumes with cumin, this may be your train stop (and it’s ok…) but it’s important to explain what a curious phenomenon the CO2 extraction of cumin smells like - it’s far airier, brighter, greener, “alive” than the cumin most of us may be used to smelling in spice jars. It’s a real thing of beauty.

A significant chunk of rose de mai was added, along with a synthetic castoreum accord, bergamot, pink pepper, Australian sandalwood, treemoss, and agarwood. There’s a hint of orange added as well which works into a kind of synergy with rose and cumin and jumps out at the very beginning of the perfume.

Because some of these oils are antique and in very limited supply, the perfume itself is a bit archaeological. It would be very difficult to remake it precisely. I may try to make a second batch if I can find similar materials, but it would be a challenge, and not for another few years at the earliest.

I will be sending out an email shortly with details about Ojiim. Thank you all for your interest and support, and I hope you all enjoy a safe and warm Thanksgiving holiday.

New Work and Autumn Arrives

I was fortunate to spend a few days with JK de Lapp (perfumer, Chinese medicine doctor and perfume source material expert) and some oud enthusiasts at a kind of retreat in the deep woods in Georgia recently. The exposure to so much raw material, from ambergris to palo santo, to (of course) agarwood / oud was so refreshing. Many friendly faces were there to share in this event. I’ve sometimes seen oud as “beautiful but somewhat unobtainable” as some of the best ouds are so far out of our reach cost-wise, but even enjoying the burning smell of a sliver of oud can be an amazing experience. In short, it was a creative boon after months and months of isolation.

Poster design for Horla Eau de Parfum.

I have also (somewhat quietly) released the latest perfume, Horla. It’s an exciting event, though, because I feel that this work is markedly different from the others so far - maybe reaching into new perfume territory for January Scent Project. It also began to develop a more distinct theme than some of the others, weaving itself around a specific work of fiction (Guy du Maupassant’s story Le Horla from 1887.) Although the short story and the perfume are not direct depictions back-and-forth, they became like a haze of past and present, and reminded me often of the surreal world we’ve been living in during COVID-19, sometimes traveling back and forth between studio and home, seeing very few people and being in a kind of sensory bubble. The main character of du Maupassant’s “Horla” has a similar relationship with a boat that is moored out in the harbor near his home in France. I started to feel the presence of this fragrance hovering around like the boat, The Horla and it becomes an obsession to our narrator. We can become similarly obsessed, I believe.

I’m glad to present it to the public and some thoughts from the outside world are trickling in again. It’s good to release, connect, and create that loop of communication.

I have plans to release yet another perfume before the end of the year - I will endeavor to do so. There has been such a bounty of fragrance releases all over the world this autumn - have we all waited to see if we emerged from the seclusion ok? Time will tell, of course, but the isolation gave way to that feeling you get when you’ve studied and studied and then finally passed an exam. I have a few more exams to take before the end of the year, but I believe I’ll pass them as well - I’ve had abundant time to prepare.

Enjoy the encroaching Fall / Autumn season and its incredible sensory delights. More info to come by email very soon. ~ John

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.