St. Clair Scents Backyard & Inspiration, courtesy of the brand
From the time of Virgil’s Eclogues and the Idylls of Theocritus, nature has been a place of ideal retreat, nostalgia, and escapism. Rolling hills, forest paths and gentle breezes evoke a golden era of past ease and pleasure held up against the instability and alienation of modern times. The ideas and discourse that have enforced this ‘nature versus culture’ divide have transformed into something much more interesting and dynamic in the 21st century. An independent and artisanal perfumer that is working within this exciting liminal space, where the edges of nature and culture overlap, is Diane St. Clair of Saint Clair Scents.
Flower Garden by Gustav Klimt, 1906, wiki
Perfumery is the art that is best suited to today’s post-pastoral moment. Perfumers working with aroma molecules understand the unique technical problems and opportunities of exploring the edges of where the natural and synthetic meet and overlap. It is within this continuum that perfumery can explore questions of macro and micro-ecologies, economic and animal welfare practices, the ethics of the Anthropocene, and the ways that environmental issues destabilize science, politics, and value. Perfumer Diane St. Clair shows a keen ability to recognize and articulate the need to find new forms in this face of these new and changing conditions.
Independent Perfumer Diane St. Clair, courtesy of the brand
St. Clair Scents is Diane St. Clair’s small-batch, artisanal fragrance house located on her working farm in the Champlain Valley of Vermont. Her experience as a farmer appears essential to the insight in her work that what was once the nature/culture distinction is, in reality, incalculable interactions of hybrid elements and emergent unpredictable effects. Diane St. Clair is a poet of scent whose work expresses the ideas and feeling of unending connections between bodies, human and nonhuman, across and within the biosphere.
St. Clair Scents Edge Effect, courtesy of the brand
St. Clair Scents Edge Effects (2022) is a fragrance that explores the phenomenon in ecology when two or more habitat areas border each other. At the edge of these overlapping ecosystems, species from both habitats are found traveling and interacting. Over time, diverse species that live in neither of the original habitats are discovered to have adapted to the boundary edge and created new species growth. According to Diane, “Edge effects, the perfume, is a metaphor for the concept in nature, mashing two different perfume categories—fougère and chypre—toward each other to create an area of biodiversity (fruits, flowers and spices) in between.” Bright citrus warms an herbal bouquet grounded in the sweet wood of lavender, itself finding dynamic integration with geranium and fir. Floral layers add depth with musks and woods in the dry down. The interplay of fougère and chypre is a delight.
St. Clair Scents Edge Effects Notes: red mandarin, petitgrain bigarade, coriander, tarragon, basil, lavender maillette, geranium absolute, Indian sandalwood, vanilla, aldehydes, bergamot, labdanum absolute, oakmoss, hyraceum, fir balsam absolute, patchouli, musks, peach natural, champaca red absolute, jasmine absolute, ylang ylang, tomato leaf, Damascone.
St. Clair Scents Gardener’s Glove collage, courtesy of the brand
St. Clair Scents Gardener’s Glove (2018) carries the scent of environment and human body dynamically existing together as one. The gardener’s soft and pliable leather glove, worn down from work, is a liminal medium of woods and soil as well as sweat and toil. The ambrosial elements of the garden (sumptuous jasmines, roses, green blossoms and ripe fruit) celebrate a redemptive possibility of to be found in our daily relationship with nature. The leather at the center of this fragrance is extraordinary, as wafts of green grasses, flowers, herbs, trees, and rich garden soil swim around it, creating a rich atmosphere.
Gardener’s Glove Notes: meyer lemon, tomato leaf absolute, galbanum, bergamot, jasmine sambac absolute, jasmine organic extract, apricot, black currant bud absolute, linden blossom, lily, rose absolute, leather, saffron, patchouli, ambers, vetiver, benzoin resin, castoreum, fir needle
St. Clair Scents Blue Marble, courtesy of the brand
St. Clair Scents Blue Marble (2024) is a work exploring the beauty, complexity and fragility of Earth’s intertwining systems through scent. The fragrance is comprised of 7 accords representing oceans, soil, cold flowers, wet rocks, woods, green plants and metals. According to Diane, “it allows us to think about and experience the intersection of these endangered ecosystems personally, as they move across our skin, through time and space.” One of the underlying intellectual models Diane studied for the fragrance is The Gaia hypothesis, proposed in the 1970’s by scientists James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, contends that Earth is an enormous ecosystem, comprised of many smaller systems. Together, they represent a dynamic and self-regulating process in which oceans, atmosphere, plants, animals, fungi and the Earth’s crust, interact to maintain and adjust conditions for life to exist on the planet. This theory has informed emerging hypotheses such as earth system science, which takes a holistic approach to how geology, oceanography, ecology, and meteorology all affect the health of the Earth and its ability to sustain life. The movement and change over time with this fragrance is a feat in itself; it’s rare to find a scent that pays such close attention to its journey over time. Moments of floral breezes, forest floor, rocky coastline, and stemmy vegetation are extraordinary.
St. Clair Scents Blue Marble Notes: bergamot, Dihydromyrcenol®, clove, elderflower, muguet, narcissus, jasmine, geranium, geosmin, fossilized amber oil, ambergris, petitgrain, violet leaf, beeswax, coumarin, Javanol®
Perfumes were all purchased by me; opinions my own.
~ Rachel K. Ng, Editor
Thanks to the generosity of Diane St. Clair, we have a reader’s choice of 8ml of St. Clair Scents Edge Effects OR Gardener’s Glove OR Blue Marble. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what sparks your interest based on Rachel’s reviews and which you would like to win. USA only. Draw closes 1/14/2025
Diane St. Clair is an Art and Olfaction Finalist 2020 for St. Clair Scents Eve, (reviewed by Ida here). St. Clair Scents Gardener’s Glove was awarded a top ten perfume of 2018 by Editor Emeritus Robert Herrmann (R.I.P.). St. Clair Scents Blue Marble was awarded a top ten perfume of 2024 by me. Please read more about Diane St. Clair in her Profiles in American Perfumery
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