Maydelle, Texas, photo by Hans Hendley

“From father to son, bloodlines like branches outreaching, rings like years spiraling towards the heart.” – Hans Hendley

It started with a jar of oil that his father distilled from an eastern red cedar tree grown on the family land in East Texas. Brooklyn-based perfumer Hans Hendley took one breath of the jar his father sent him and knew immediately he had to use the evocative raw material in a fragrance. What was born is a sooty, dense scent of evergreen, moist earth, exhaled expanses of hooded woodland climbing the hills, of campfires and twigs crunching underfoot. Smoke curling on the air somewhere nearby, and the pure joy of a blue sky on a brilliant day. This is Bloodline for American Perfumer.

Hans Hendley

Bloodline for American Perfumer traces its DNA to Hendley’s rambling childhood in East Texas, and is redolent of the loamy smells of soil, tobacco and great red cedar trees of his family home. With its precise, hyper-realistic campfire and coniferous twang, this is more than perfume as recollection, but a living memory of place. Hendley explains, “Themes of smoke, wood, resin, and soil have been recurring in a lot of my work. For this edition I wanted to place the cedar note front and center in an attempt to capture a vivid, woody naturalness that I hadn’t smelled in a perfume before. I worked with several handcrafted materials that make the perfume truly unique and limited. Alongside my father’s cedarwood oil, I used a tincture I made with pieces of white pine fatwood, an artisan distilled pinyon pine needle oil, and a five-year-aged vanilla bean tincture.”

Raw materials for Bloodline for American Perfumer (Hans Hendley)

The heart of Bloodline is that unique red cedar distillation, which necessitated a limited output of only 15 30ml bottles at 30% parfum concentration. Forget what you know about the smell of cedar: Bloodline will make you rethink its melancholy attic scent. The cedar here is vibrant, fruity vinous; more wine cask than linen chest. Added to that is a generous handful of mulchy tobacco and chilly pine needle, and Bloodline becomes about careful, coherent contrasts as it broadens out. Oaky, aged vanilla adds another woody layer and some welcome richness without becoming at all sweet, like the smell of dried bourbon barrels. Patchouli emerges somewhere in the middle section, adding fresh earth and bitter chocolate facets that deepen the sense of being outdoors somewhere wild.

Red cedar, photo by Hans Hendley 

A small charred note makes it way into the vanilla, and I get a quick sensation of roasted marshmallow. The pine, tobacco and cedar stay prominent but don’t compete running alongside each other like canyon streams, each distinct but twined in complete accord with the other. Because of its opacity and smokiness, Bloodline would seem to be a natural for winter, its warming woods-and-ground cover aromas perfect kindling for chill. But I am wearing it on a lazy summer evening, the temperature hovering in the low 80s, no breeze breaking the torpor.  Hans Hendley Bloodline for American Perfumer, as it heads towards sunset, is lovely in this heat: the smoke dies down to a smudgy fog while the wood notes, tobacco and vanilla merge and settle into a rich, very natural timeless smell of woods and earth. This is a perfume for nights deep in the woods, pine and cedar trees keeping their counsel while tall tales are told over an open fire. Father and son sit quietly and gaze into the crackle and jump of the flames as the day folds down.

Notes: Pinyon needles, pine fatwood tincture, eastern red cedar oil, oakwood, vanilla bean tincture, tobacco, oakmoss absolute, labdanum, dark patchouli.

Disclaimer: Sample of Bloodline kindly provided by Hendley Perfumes. My opinions are my own.

– Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

All photos from Hans Hendley unless noted

Photo of American Perfumer courtesy of David Kern

Editor’s Note: Bloodline for American Perfumer is the 3rd bespoke created for Dave Kern, founder and owner of American Perfumer. The  second American Perfumer limited edition was by Maria McElroy Desert Bloom reviewed by Robert and the 1st was the Art and Olfaction award winning Colorado by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz reviewed by Gail. Recently,  Contributor dana sandu reviewed Untitled by Hans (not affiliated with American Perfumer here)-Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief

Hans Hendley Bloodline for American Perfumer sample

The 15 bottles of Bloodline were created exclusively for American Perfumer in Louisville, Kentucky, and sold out in an hour. But thanks to the generosity of Hendley Perfumes, we have a 2ml sample of Bloodline for American Perfumer for one registered reader in the U.S. Please register or your comment will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what appeals to you about American Perfumer Bloodline and whether you have tried any perfumes from Hans Hendley. Draw closes July 4, 2019

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