(see also, Oils & Unguents, Original Collection, Elements, Spiritus, For the Men
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This collection is about reclaiming and embracing. The Jungian anima is the feminine aspect of man's unconscious mind, be she the femme fatale archetype, the maiden pure as the driven snow, mother, sister, daughter, etc. Anima also translates towards soul and/or mind in Latin. Jung's anima is manifest in dreams, behavioral tendencies, and stimulates creativity. It is not difficult to place this within the context of mythology and art, and the motivation behind such storytelling.
We have a soft spot at Mandrake Apothecary for the feminine aspect drawn up as monstrous, dangerous, or edgy, in mythology and legend. Particularly, the femme fatale has great potential for exploration because at heart she is human and therefore flawed. The following women weren't necessarily plotters or schemers, but men relied on them for their lives or fates, indeed.
Circe - She was the powerful goddess (or nymph, or sorceress, depending on who is telling the story) who inhabited the island of Aeaea. Her father was Helios, one of the Titans, and her mother was Perse, an Oceanid. Most of us know her as the plotting poisoner who poured a pearly green liquid into the wading pool of Scylla the nymph, which transformed her into a monstrous beast with six dogs' heads. And we know of her dalliance with Odysseus. Circe has always invoked a sense of quiet loneliness yet a vibrant well-lived life for me, and I sought to create that contradiction with her perfume. Knowledge brings power, but to what affect when one is essentially alone?
Dry but golden patchouli, soft Bulgarian rose, musky ambrette, fiery ginger, dusty cedarwood, overwhelming ylang ylang, the sourness of bergamot.
Purchase 5 ml for $30.00, or 1 sample for $6.00
Medea - She was the daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis, and most of us recognize her from the story of Jason (via the Argonautica, a myth from Apollonius of Rhodes, 3rd century BCE). She was also a niece of Circe, and therefore related to Helios the pre-Olympian sun god, and we figure she was a priestess of Hecate. She was a skilled herbalist who could enchant and had the gift of prophecy.
Green carnation concrete, frangipani and rosa damascena form the base of a heady floral which features ginger lily, pink lotus, clove bud, and blood orange.
Purchase 5 ml for $30.00, or 1 sample for $6.00
Sophia - First and foremost, Sophia is Greek for 'wisdom'. Her story is rife with controversy, especially if you take to heart the version that she was written out of the Old Testament. In gnosticism (which is to say, what has survived as being gnostic philosophy), Sophia was the Divine Feminine to Jesus' Divine Masculine. The elements of the world: fire, air, water and earth emanated from her. Not a dangerous being at all, but one who has been lost to much of the world, it would seem.
Essences of the ancient world compose the base: frankincense, myrrh, a touch of spikenard and galbanum. The heart seeks to express the sweetness of knowledge: vanilla, champaca, white lotus and orange flower.
Purchase 5 ml for $30.00, or 1 sample for $6.00
Lilith - She was originally a Mesopotamian demon believed to harm male children at night, and possibly appears as a demon in the Epic of Gilgamesh, but has come to interpreted as the first woman created. However, Lilith defied Adam and left Eden of her own accord, refusing to lie beneath him. Whether this interpretation is valid or not, it makes her powerful indeed, because she needed only to utter the name of God in order to leave the garden, before the ultimate fall of Man.
Her perfume is evocative of looking but not touching, essences that draw a person in instinctively, only to not possess. Three kinds of frankincense, a drop of diluted mitti (a hydrodistillation of baked mud from the Ganges in sandalwood), ambreine, orange flower concrete, and then clary sage, neroli, zdravetz and bergamot. Forbidden fruit, indeed.
Purchase 5 ml for $30.00, or 1 sample for $6.00
Jezebel - A queen of Israel, but originally a Phoenician princess who worshipped Astarte rather than the Hebrew God. The phrase 'painted Jezebel' possibly refers to the Biblical passage in which she applies her makeup before being thrown out a window to be eaten by dogs. Her story is several things at once, a woman who never accepted the religion of her husband and who was doomed to be remembered unfavorably, a woman who was absolutely corrupted by absolute power. In any case, any scheming or ambitious woman, or faintly sexual woman, is viewed as a 'jezebel' at the drop of a hat. We're embracing the sexual side with this perfume in her name.
A faintly leathery accord of ambrette, antique cade, beeswax, myrrh, tolu and benzoin is the base for a hedonistic jasmine heart, which contains the round-bottomed sinister sweetness of oleander absolute in addition to jasmine grandiflorum and jasmine sambac. The top is smooth antique nutmeg and heavily diluted mimosa. Highly suggestive and narcotic pretty poison.
Purchase 5 ml for $30.00, or 1 sample for $6.00
Can't decide? Purchase all five Anima Perfumes for $135.00, or all five Anima Samples for $28.00 |
