SPITE EAU DE PARFUM

Eau de Parfum

Spite Eau de Parfum takes place in an imagined garden, a hyperreal timespace where a group of spiteful spirits have gathered for the day. They meet below a lattice dripping with molle jasmine vines, interlaced and connected like synapses, as connected as these congregants are to each other. They haven't met to seethe together, but instead to plot out a plan of action in support of one another.

Shakespeare’s seafaring gender-bender, Viola, is the first of them. She appears as two unique essences made from white rose of York—crystalline rose otto and thick rose absolute—as well as tuberose and orange blossom. There's a third rose material as well, but it's her secret to keep.

Cynara, the mortal who Zeus transformed into a goddess and brought to live as his paramour on Mount Olympus before striking her violently back down to earth, sits in a chair woven from rose vines, with thorns and all, cradling a bouquet of peonies. When she hit the soil after her fall from the Mount, she sprouted into the world's first artichoke—fresh and green yet oddly odorous and somewhat fruity, like guava, and covered in tiny thorns. A perfect form to protect her soft heart, represented here by a supple French lavender absolute.

Oscar Wilde, the third congregant, arrives with his signature floral pinned to his lapel: a green carnation, another bit of hyperreality, rendered here via an accord of ruh khus, Iranian galbanum, clipped nasturtium stems and green sacra frankincense.

And fourth is Magdalene, who wears the oil of nard, thyme and sandalwood that legends of her say she anointed Christ with during their first meeting. She's also brought along a chrysanthemum, a mandalic symbol of the manner in which tales tend to grow as they repeat themselves over time, especially when those tales are lies. They spread outward and expand. Sometimes, as in her case, they explode.

But Spite, these gatherers know, is wrongly maligned. It is not an altogether negative behavior, but one that exists quite to the contrary. Far more often than not, when we act out of spite, we do so knowing full well that we will personally absorb the cost of a single action's small consequence in order to bring larger adaptive advantages to kinfolk we choose to keep close and want to see thrive. Underneath the exterior, thorny layers of spite, like Cynara's artichoke, lies a soft and nourishing heart. Spite is the garden from which acts of altruism grow.

Composition:

• Iranian Galbanum, Thyme, Spikenard, Clove, Guava, Nutmeg, Pimento
• French Lavender Absolute, Chrysanthemum, Artichoke, Jasminum Auriculatum, Nasturtium Stem, Peony, Orange Blossom, Rose Absolute, Rose Otto, Rose Stem, Tuberose
• Omani Green Frankincense, Sandalwood, Ruh Khus (Vetiver)

Perfumer: Carter Weeks Maddox, 2021

inci list: alcohol denat., fragrance (parfum), may contain any of the following: amyl cinnamal, amyl cinnamyl alcohol, anise alcohol, benzyl alcohol, benzyl benzoate, benzyl cinnamate, benzyl salicylate, cinnamal, cinnamyl alcohol, citral, citronellol, coumarin, eugenol, farnesol, geraniol, hexyl cinnamate, hydroxycitronellal, isoeugenol, limonene, linalool, hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde, methyl-2 octynoate, alpha-isomethyl ionone, evernia prunastri (oakmoss) extract, evernia furfuracea (treemoss) extract