MALA

Extrait de Parfum

“When I returned to New York, I missed my old [New Delhi] haunts and scents of the little Gold Leaf cigarettes I smoked, tea, spices, garlands of rose, carnation and marigold dangling from the wedding shops, so I recreated that place in this perfume, Mala, as in, a garland of flowers, beads, and stories; in Spanish, a bad woman. I use a single drop of scent of a loose woman°—choya nakh oil—to fix the perfume, so it lingers.”

—Tanaïs, “Mala,” In Sensorium: Notes for My People

Inspired by flower garlands threaded for rituals commemorating life, love and death in New Delhi, with swirls of temple incense, saffron and henna. Mala is a memory scent, a forceful blend honouring Tanaïs' nostalgia for Delhi, its abundant flora and the thrills of glorious sin. Woven hazily through the composition is the smoke of narcotic tobacco, the papery, spiced odour of those Gold Leaf cigarettes, renowned for their ability to permeate and linger in hair and on fabric.

The scent of sea stones and beach fire flows in and out of Mala, achieved with choya nakh, a rare attar made by roasting shells of particular molluscs at high temperatures. The result is utterly unique: salt and the ashes of charred shells. Incredibly potent, requiring only a tiny drop to fix a perfume, choya nakh is Tanaïs' essence of the bad woman: the note that makes Mala not only transport but imprint on your senses.

Composition:

• Clary Sage, Saffron, Rose Essence
• Coriander, Rose Maroc, Marigold Attar, Carnation Essence, Cardamom
• Tagetes Absolute, Nag Champa Incense Accord, Sandalwood, Choya Nakh (Roasted Seashell), Tobacco Absolute

inci list: organic cane alcohol, isopropyl myristate, essential oils, resins, absolutes, fine fragrance raw materials