Waving Barley photo by Jacob Meister©

“Life encompasses the 3 Bs: it is brief, brutal and beautiful.” ~ Ida

That brutal beauty, so heartless that it takes away our breath – can be unearthed in Edinburgh perfumer Euan McCall’s labor of love, his own Jorum Studio (and Jorum Laboratories, which created Senyokô’s singular perfumes) recent collection Progressive Botany Vol.1.

Jorum Studio Progressive Botany Vol.1 collection via Jorum Studio

Euan generously sent me the collection of six fragrances (15 mls each) for my perusal. I was overwhelmed by the gesture, presentation and quality of these botanically inspired perfumes. It has taken me awhile to digest, sit with and explore them in order to corral my impressions and emotions. As it happened, two wildly dissimilar scents reached out and grabbed me by the throat: Jorum Studio Carduus and Nectary. I either cannot or will not decide which to review, so I’ll review both.

Jorum Studio Carduus courtesy of Jorum Studio

 Jorum Studio Carduus: “‘Nemo me impune lacessit’ (‘No one can harm me unpunished’, in Latin) – the Order of the Thistle. The defiant motto of Scotland, an ancestral virtue.” ~ Jorum Studio (Also the motto of the Royal Stuart dynasty. The Stuart Victoria tartan is pictured here in the background. ) Carduus nutans is the musk thistle.

photograph of thistle outside Edinburgh in The Duns along the Tweed River by Jacob Meister©

Jorum Studio fragrances reveal a love of indigenous landscape. Carduus appeals to me precisely for that reason; I’m enchanted by the quotidian and I long to smell Euan’s environs. This fragrance encompasses aromatics which festoon pastures, hillsides, are native to Scottish terrain. What could be more emblematic than the Thistle? Or the evocation of botanicals flourishing along the roadside, nibbled by deer and livestock?

Jorum Studio Carduus is nothing if not earthy. It sings in authentic herbal tenor graced with haunted woods and fleurs fanées. The initial sweetness springs from that touch of honey and heliotrope with its powdery/almond note. Bracing, nose-tingling herbs awaken the senses soon after – a profusion of chamomile, clary sage, marjoram with its whispers of soft anise, deertongue with its complex scent profile including tones of salt, bitter dry hay and tonka (Deertongue’s lore is as delightful as its scent. Rumor has it that it will ensnare a new lover and increase sexual desire.). Local plant life is pressed into service and the list is extensive: meum, for example – is plentiful and its umbrella-like tops resemble wild carrot with its feathery foliage much like dill (it’s also eaten as a root vegetable). Vetch, a flowering plant/legume; tormentil (the rose’s relative), which blooms upon the heath; sea holly with its coriander-like aroma. Euan’s inclusion of clove bud is just piquant enough; pepper assumes a sweet/tarry smoky/leathery facet which waxes companionable with drier notes. A touch of tobacco and cocoa is followed by cherrywood and mahogany notes. The florals re-emerge at various intervals in Carduus’ unfolding, a wisp of tuberose and rose accented by intensely fresh eucalyptus-like myrtle. At some juncture the perfume’s quiet naturalism takes a turn in the manner of the sanctity of daily things. Carduus smells holy to me because it rings true to nature. I love it for the affectionate veracity in each drop, lightweight, enduring as tradition filled with character and a decided twist.

Notes: Chamomile, Bengal Pepper, Honey, Clary Sage, Sea-holly, Marjoram Tea, Myrtle, Rose Absolute, Vetch, Clove Bud, Hart’s Tongue (fern),Tuberose, Musk-thistle, Heliotrope, Tormentil, Mahogany, Cocoa Absolute, Tobacco, Meum, Deertongue, Cherrywood

Jorum Studio Nectary via Jorum Studio

Jorum Studio Nectary: the glands in flora responsible for producing the honeyed liquid which attracts pollinators. That’s a grand starting point.

“Oh, the prickle-eye bush; it pricks my heart full sore!

And if ever I get out of that prickle-eye bush, I’ll never get in it anymore.” ~ traditional folk song

photograph of Sea Holly outside Edinburgh in The Duns along the Tweed River by Jacob Meister©

So we intone each and every time – but when I stumbled upon Euan McCall’s brambly wild garden, I resolved to remain in the comforting folds of its savagely beautiful gown. Nectary is a disorderly floral created with a gardener’s eye and wisdom emanating from the inherent loveliness of chaos. Why the bramble (prickle-eye bush)? Bramble is also known as the blackberry; pollinators are attracted to its blossoms and butterflies adore them. They grow like wildfire in the British Isles, protected by their dense mantle of spiny thorns – just as the rose is. There exists a fairytale relationship between these two.  Jorum Studio Nectary’s appeal mirrors that of ballad and lore; much like Parsifal or the rescuing prince, one must overcome obstacles in pursuit of the Grail, the Other. Only the courageous may heal the kingdom, wrest wholeness from a complete lack of order… Nectary is an about-face in contrast to Carduus. We’ve swung from pastoral to mythical, all the while entrenched in the botanical realm. There seem to be so many interweaving tendrils that my mind leaps from one to another and I’d like to attempt to take you along with me.

Edward Burne-Jones the Rose Bower from Briar Rose series via wikipedia

Enter rose and the berries: rose being such a complex creature that there are olfactory links between the two and it’s delicious when they converge. Rose is lonely and seeks out blackberry (aka bramble), but its season ends in early autumn just as cranberry season continues this thread with increasing tartness. We’re still in Scotland, mind; the countryside is dotted with herbs, plants utilized as medicine. These include the hardy selfheal – eaten raw, boiled, in salads and teas – it thrives in fallow areas, gardens and abandoned places. Selfheal might find itself in the company of roseroot, aka rhodiola rosea – a rose-scented flowering plant used in traditional medicine to ameliorate depression and anxiety; they frequent similar locales. How intricate the tale becomes! Our exquisite rose is now wreathed in berries and herbs; peaches from summer’s orchard have wended their way to her cottage door and lie abed with slumbering rose.

Pre-Raphaelite Society painting of The Knights and the Briar Rose, Burne-Jones

Seasons pass as rose sleeps; massive walls of thorn surround her cottage. Somberly sensual oud joins forces with beach-found ambergris and sylvan/river creatures (deer representing musk, Scottish wildcat referencing civet, the beaver, castoreum). Dusky labdanum’s leathery amber deepens the olfactory palette laced with incense (olibanum). We too lie in wait with rose: who will approach to break the spell? Is there a Parsifal in the offing? Was the bond between rose and bramble akin to that of Sweet William and Barbara Allen in the ballad? I leave you with these possibilities to ponder.

The one certainty I have is profound admiration for Euan McCall’s work and an unrestrained love for Nectary, beautiful as Jesus’ crown of thorns.

 

“Barbara Allen was buried in the old churchyard
Sweet William was buried beside her,
Out of sweet William’s heart there grew a rose
Out of Barbara Allen’s a briar.

They grew and grew in the old churchyard
Till they could grow no higher
At the end they formed a true lover’s knot
And the rose grew round the briar.”

Notes: Bramble, Cranberry, Peach, Rose Absolute, Oud, Ambergris, Roseroot, Olibanum, Selfheal, Castoreum, Civet, Labdanum Absolute, Musk

Euan, I cannot thank you enough for my sample set. I cherish it.  My nose is my own…

~ Ida Meister, Senior Editor and Natural Perfumery Editor

Photo by Ida©

Thanks to the  incredible generosity of Euan McCall of Jorum Studio we are offering a complete sample set of the Progressive Botany Vol.1 collection (6 x 15mls), which for one registered reader in the EU, USA or Canada. You must register here or your comment will not count. To be eligible, please comment upon what appealed to you in Ida’s review of Jorum Studio Carduus and Nectary and where you live. Draw closes November 13, 2019

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(Photographs of Scotland courtesy of Jacob Meister taken last summer in The Duns.)

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