"“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, "This is what it is to be happy.”

Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar

With the Halloween limited editions now available, I thought this might be a good time to bring you another installment of the infrequent series on some of the weirder and rarer oils in my collection. And since Vampire Hunter contains two of those oils, how about a double feature?

Let's start with styrax. Specifically, let's start with styrax resinoid, which is a product of the beautifully-named liquidamber orientalis tree. The sap of the tree is harvested through gradual stripping of the tree bark, after which it is placed in boiling water to soften it, and diluted with water to keep it soft and preserve the aroma. The finished product has a variety of medicinal uses, including for anxiety and bronchitis.

When it comes to perfumery, styrax resinoid has a beautiful oriental scent, subtly honeyed and slightly syrupy. It's main purpose in Vampire Hunter is as a fixative - an oil that increases the tenacity of the other materials and slows down the dispersion of the scent. So if you pay close attention, or your skin chemistry really loves this material, you will notice a faint "golden" note to the warm, woodsy mixture, but this is not an "in-your-face" material.

What might be considered a bit more "in-your-face" is nagarmotha, also known as cypriol, but personally I prefer the Hindi term for it. Nagarmotha is a plant that grows wild in certain regions of India and is prized for its uses in aromatherapy. Like styrax, it has plenty of medicinal uses, from treating fevers to pain reduction to digestive system disorders. It's also used an insect repellent, and it's rumoured to bring success in love affairs to boot.

That's all fascinating, but what I love nagarmotha for is it's dirty, musky, leathery notes. There's something wickedly masculine about this oil, and as soon as I knew I wanted a Vampire Hunter fragrance for Halloween, I knew I had to work nagarmotha into it. I've used a leather fragrance oil in some of my other scents, most notable in Duskblade, but that's very much a "new leather" scent. For Vampire Hunter I wanted the smell of a worn, battered, much-loved leather duster, one you've owned for years and really should throw away but can't stand to give up. Nagarmotha, with its warm and earthy nuances captures that feeling perfectly for me. And like styrax, it's a fixative, so it really helps hold the spice and nut notes together and keep them bold and strong.

These are two materials I can see being really valuable, especially as I develop more all-natural blends and work on my Secret Project (coming soon, probably!). I adore my millions of fragrance oils, but there's a real buzz to be had from creating something from purely natural ingredients, and the more diverse oils I can add to my collection, the more unique perfumes I can offer you. Enjoy!