For me, it’s about wanting to honor the original art of perfumery that placed such an emphasis on botanical essences. I would never say people who use synthetics should pack it up and go home. There’s room for both.

— Perfumer Alexandra Balahoutis of Strange Invisible Perfumes, quoted in Eau Naturel at the LA Times. (found via Natural Perfumers Guild at Twitter)

Indie botanical brand Strange Invisible Perfumes continues their zodiac series (Virgo & Pisces launched last month) with the debut of Libra…

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Indie natural brand Strange Invisible Perfumes has launched Virgo and Pisces, the first two in a series of limited edition unisex fragrances based on the zodiac signs…

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For anyone who was waiting for one or another of them, all of the Strange Invisible Perfumes fragrances in the regular line are now available in Eau de Parfum concentration. The nine new additions to the Eau de Parfum line (Heroine, Tour d'Ivoire, Lyric Rain, Narcotic, Persica, Galatea, Trapeze, Etrange & Tosca) come in glass bottles engraved with 22 karat gold, $175-220. (via press release)

Strange Invisible Perfumes has launched two new limited edition fragrances, Dimanche and Tribute…

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Strange Invisible Perfumes has launched Elektrou, a new limited edition perfume named for the ancient Greek word for amber. The scent is described as “the essence of fall”, and the notes include amber, sandalwood and vanilla…

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Strange Invisible Perfumes has launched two new limited edition fragrances for summer, Tahitian Honey and Vacances:

Both celebrate the idyllic locales of summer…

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About the author: Trish Vawter is the creator of Scent Hive, a blog dedicated to natural perfumes and beauty products. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two boys, and is a practicing nurse midwife.

I come to this guest post with sincere excitement and admittedly, a dose of trepidation. Since I write primarily about natural perfumes and beauty products at Scent Hive, I am acutely aware that discussions can get heated around the “natural” topic. While I do prefer natural perfumes, I don’t want this post to become a natural vs synthetic debate, mostly because I don’t believe one to be superior to the other. But I do have reasons for my preference which I will share with you.

Beauty is ephemeral, and I appreciate that in a fragrance. It’s not quite the first thing most people regard as a virtue in perfume, but there’s delight in reapplying perfume over the course of a day. Oftentimes it’ll be a different perfume depending on my mood or where I am going. But there’s a balance to be struck: a perfume that’s too fleeting is frustrating, so I want my perfume to last a few hours, if not longer, which most high quality natural perfumes do. Yet, I don’t like a perfume to last into the next day, or to have huge sillage. Less tenacity and more intimacy are the qualities I seek. Additionally, longevity and sillage are commonly enhanced in synthetic perfumes with phthalates, a petrochemical I try to avoid in all beauty products.

While I find the evanescence of naturals compelling…

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I don’t drink much (anymore) and maybe (or maybe not?) that’s why I’m such a sucker for booze notes in perfume. Stuff like this…

She commissioned a twelfth-generation master distiller, also located in Napa, to produce an exquisite batch of French oak essence for the perfume. One of the defining alchemical accomplishments of the composition, the oak essence was triple distilled in old European copper stills from a wine called ‘Esprit de cognac’ which is aged in French oak barrels.¹

…gets my attention, and add in rose, white sage, black currant, wild honey and lavender (ok, in all truth I can often do without lavender) and you’ve got something I’d like to try. The ‘she’ in the quote above is Alexandra Balahoutis, of indie botanical line Strange Invisible Perfumes, and the perfume is Essence of IX, a limited edition project in collaboration with California winery Colgin Cellars.

Essence of IX opens quite boozy (really, maybe it’s just the alcohol) and herbal, and it’s slightly medicinal to boot…

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Indie botanical line Strange Invisible Perfumes has launched Essence of IX, a new limited edition fragrance created in collaboration with California winery Colgin Cellars and named for Colgin’s IX Estate vineyard:

In its latest pure perfume, Strange Invisible Perfumes taps this Colgin mystique through a blend of rare…

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