"O river, I see drifting deep in your flux of silver those great goddesses of peace."

Lorelei - Sylvia Plath

Through dangers untold* and hardships unnumbered**, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City  blog to take back the child that you have stolen finally tell you about the new Raw Brimstone collection.

Can you believe I thought I'd be launching this back in August? I can't imagine what I was thinking. But perhaps November is a better month for this particular collection anyway, inspired as it is by the goddesses of death, darkness, and the underworld.

I'm a folklore and mythology buff, and I'm never happier than when working myth and legend into my creative projects. For this Raw Brimstone collection, I knew I wanted the focus to be goddesses, but that really was too broad a scope by itself. From the Greeks to the Celts, from Hinduism to Vodun...sometimes there's such a thing as too much choice. So why go for goddesses associated with death? Bit morbid, right?

Right, but also fascinating. Each goddess represented in the collection is not simply a goddess of death, but has numerous other associations and roles within their respective mythology. Kerbechet, for example, is a deification of embalming fluid in Egyptian mythology, and gave water to the spirits of the dead while they waited for their mummification. Marzanna, a Polish goddess, was tied to seasonal rites linked to death and rebirth, wherein an effigy of the goddess is drowned or burned to symbolise the end of winter. Maman Brigitte is a death loa who protects graveyards and drinks rum infused with hot peppers...Once I started researching, I was struck by how every culture's take on death and the underworld varied so wildly, and I knew I'd found my theme.

Serket

The challenge of the Raw Brimstone line is creating beautiful, unique perfumes using all-natural materials. It would have been great to make a Maman Brigitte perfume with rum fragrance oil, for example, but it would also have been cheating. One of the reasons this collection is coming so late in the year is that I've spent a lot of time this year sourcing some of the weird and wild essential oils featured in these perfumes. That itself has lead to some failed experiments...I had planned to include a perfume using green tea absolute in this line, but it turns out green tea absolute is the consistency of dried chewing gum and...well...I made a real mess of a perfectly good mug and several spoons before I decided that perfume wasn't going anywhere...

What I have ended up with is nine dark and delicious all-natural perfumes that are absolutely perfect for heading into the long, cold winter months. Whether your inner goddess is tempestuous Kali or ancient Ereshkigal, I've got something for you. 

Want a sneak preview?

Belet-Seri - A Babylonian goddess of the underworld known as The Scribe of the Earth and the Queen of the Desert. Her scent is a rich, Oriental-type with warm spices, luxurious flowers, and just a hint of desert heat.

Dea Tacita - A Roman goddess of death, Dea Tacita was known as the silent goddess. She was the personification of the terror of obscurity. Her scent is a calm, still blend of greenery and soft florals inspired by the Italian wilderness.

Ereshkigal - The Mesopotamian Great Lady Under Earth, ruler of the land of the dead. Her scent is earthy and deep, infused with sweet exotic fruits and flowers.

Kali - Surely a goddess who needs no introduction. She is the goddess of time and change, ferocious, destructive, and frenzied. Her scent is a hot, wild blend of spices and deep, dark incenses, with a hint of a blazing fire.

Kebechet - The Egyptian goddess of embalming, daughter of Anubis. Her scent combines the traditional ingredients of the embalming liquid, coupled with a touch of fragrant flowers.

Maman Brigitte - Wife of Baron Samedi, a loa who is today equated with Mary Magdalene and Saint Brighid. Her scent combines fiery peppers and spices with sharp fruit and elegant florals.

Marzanna - Polish goddess of death, winter, and nightmares, tied to the change of seasons. Her scent is that of a winter forest awaiting spring, woods and trees with a hint of cool rose.

Santa Muerte - A folk saint associated with not just death, but healing and protection, Santa Muerte is venerated in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Her scent comprises some of her favourite offerings - tobacco and fruits.

Serket - An Egyptian goddess of venomous stings, once a deification of the scorpion. She is a protector of the dead and patron of the Pharaohs. Her scent combines sticky-sweet honey with sharper resins and extravagant florals.

Sound good? Excited? Can't wait to try them? Don't worry! I will be taking a short break in the first week of November to stock-take and catch up on some custom requests, but after that, this line will be launched and available for sale. Keep an eye out on the week starting November 10th. In the mean time, I'm off to research the next line...

*Family stuff
** A sinus infection