mala

Vibe ° Floramber ° Sacred Temple Garland ° Incense

Inspired by flower garlands threaded for rituals commemorating life, love and death in New Delhi, with swirls of temple incense, saffron and henna. Deep, sacred, dark and sensuous.

“When I returned to New York, I missed my old [New Delhi] haunts and scents of the little Gold Leaf cigarettes I smoked, tea, spices, garlands of rose, carnation and marigold dangling from the wedding shops, so I recreated that place in this perfume, Mala, as in, a garland of flowers, beads, and stories; in Spanish, a bad woman. I use a single drop of scent of a loose woman°—choya nakh oil—to fix the perfume, so it lingers.”

—Tanaïs, “Mala,” In Sensorium: Notes for My People

°medieval Indian double entendre for roasted seashell oil, perhaps because of the long fingernail like shape of this mollusk

Fragrance Notes: 

• Head Notes: clary sage, saffron, rose essence
• Heart Notes: coriander, rose maroc, marigold attar, carnation essence, cardamom
• Base Notes: tagetes absolute, nag champa incense accord, sandalwood, choya nakh (roasted seashell), tobacco absolute