$60.00
This Virtual Scent-Trip is an Incense & Tea Ceremony that is inspired by Jules Verne's novel and the ongoing travel restrictions: an evening around the world through scent and aroma. We'll follow Phileas Fogg's route with his French butler Passepartout - enjoying French lavender, sipping English tea, exploring Calabrian Etrog, and exotic incense and perfumes such as Egyptian Kyphi, Ethiopean myrrh, Indian Attars and Nag Champa incense, Sandalwood incense from the Buddhist shrines of Hong Kong, rare aromas from the Japanese ceremonial bath and incense games, and we'll complete our round trip with North America's botanical treasures - Western Redcedar, White Sage, Tobacco and Sweetgrass, before returning to London for more tea and hot scones with jam.
Can be scheduled in person at a date and time that is convenient for you and up to 8 other discerning souls; or online via Zoom for up to 20 people, with an accompanying kit of all the incenses, teas and perfumes to experience that you will receive in the mail in advance when joining remotely, and a winning recipe for scones (the kit is included in the pricing).
P.s. This unique scent-trip is in loving memory of Ruth Moriel, who has circumvented the world more than once in her first 88 years of life. She lived on for another nine years traveling to shorter distances, not any less enjoyable and adventurous. She has survived WWII, escaped the Holocaust and countless wars and battles in her life, until she crossed over to the other realm peacefully in her sleep during the first COVID-19 lock-down in April 2020. Ruth will be forever remembered, loved and missed by her daughters, grandchildren and great-grand-children, and many other family members and friends for whom she has always been a source of inspiration and support.
$120.00
Omixochitl, the Aztec name for tuberose (Agava amica), means "Bone Flower", alluding to its white colour and nocturnal behaviour, and use in funeral rites. Tuberose is a haunting flower with a complex profile, narcotic, simultaneously heady, creamy and smooth, redolent of high-pitched blossoms and undergrowth.
Guided by the philosophy that what grows together goes together, an especially creamy and intense batch of tuberose was paired with other botanicals indigenous to the region: in-home infusion of copal oro resin, palo santo and vanilla absolute, balanced by the freshness piñon pine, and a bitter-herbaceous white sage.
Each rectangular tin contains approximately 10 grams of long lasting and concentrated tuberose solid perfume.
$39.00
Four Sages Incense cones are a purifying herbal medicine, inspired by the Indigenous People's smudging ceremony of clearing space and aura. Here I used ethically wildcrafted botanicals and ones grown in my garden from both the West Coast of Canada and the Western Galilee, where I now live.
Four Sages incense cones contain Coastal Mugworth, White Sage (Sagebrush), which are both types of artemisia, a pinch of wormwood and clary sage from my garden, and of course - three-lobed sage that is the iconic scent of the Galilee.
These are hand-rolled in the traditional technique, made from finely ground sage leaves, and bound with natural gums or wood bark.
No saltpetre or charcoal used in these cones. Cones are generally faster burning than a thick joss stick (range of burning time may be from 7-15min, and produce more smoke. They are more convenient to burn while traveling and outdoors, and they stand on their own base, and therefore don't really require special equipment or vessels.
Burning instruction: Prepare a heat-proof vessel, on a sturdy surface away from flammables and out of reach of children and animals. To prevent scorch marks, it is recommended that you layer some sand, earth or ash on the vessel. Place the cone and light the tip of it, and allow the flame to extinguish. Because these are handmade cones, each has a different burning times.
$49.00
Turtle Island Kyphi is a contemporary interpretation of Ancient Egyptian Kyphi recipes, using wildly foraged botanicals and resins from across Canada. Healing plants and vibrant vegetation and unusual botanicals were used: spruce pitch, balsam poplar buds, Western Redcedar, fir and spruce needle tips, sagebrush, white sage, sweetgrass and sacred tobacco. The result is a forest kyphi that has the life-giving energy of the seven directions and is meant to heal and connect us and the Earth.
The majority of the ingredients were foraged by myself and friends in Golden Ears park in British Columbia, as well as in Ontario and Quebec. Each raw material was ground separately, then they are all compounded together in a mixture of raisins soaked in organic white wine and wild honey. This not only binds together the ingredients but also creates an alchemical process that truly transforms the aroma of the incense and creates a heavenly smoke when burnt on a charcoal. It can also be used by placing on an aromatherapy diffuser (place on a piece of aluminum foil to prevent it from sticking to your diffuser).