Cinnabar

CINNABAR (SIN-uh-bar)
Greek, "vermilion red."

The Greeks called it kinnabari, a heavy red mineral ground into pigment for walls, manuscripts and lacquer. Alchemists prized it as the ore that yields quicksilver. The Romans, as cinnabaris, also used the name for a deep red resin. One word covered a stone, a pigment and a resin, each of them red, each made to last.

The fragrance enacts that red. Raspberry opens dark and jammy, with saffron laying a dry, bright spice over it. Rose follows, deep as velvet, while incense rises behind it in a thin line of smoke. The base is resin: oud and benzoin, smooth and slow, holding for hours and staying on cloth into the next day. It is rich without sharpness, and it carries a long way.

A red that holds.

Top: Raspberry, Saffron
Heart: Rose, Geranium, Incense, Frankincense
Base: Oud, Benzoin, Birch

Extrait de parfum, 20–30% fragrance oil. Hand-blended in small batches in Ontario.