Olfaction

Holiday 2025: A Haze of Gilded Dust

✨️ Top Notes: Aldehydes, Spun Sugar
🌿 Heart Notes: Carnation, Green Florals
🪨 Base Notes: Vanilla Planifolia, Tonka Bean, Ambrette Seed, Sandalwood, Musk

This is vanille in all its gilded glory. Layers of different vanillas laced with tonka bean and spicy florals, woven with a polyphony of musks... as if wrapped in the sweet warmth of your favorite blanket, as the Sandman blows shimmering sand to lull you to sleep and into Dream, while Santa drops in for your presents.

Limited run, only for the holidays. This will be archived once sold out. Samples available now; full bottles will be available in Golden (gold flakes and stone cap) and Basic (no gold flakes and round black cap).

And since it's the holidays, I've priced this as low as I possibly can - around half my usual price point ✨️ Note, though, that because of that, the packaging is very simple and much more economical compared to my usual extra-ness.

AVAILABLE NOW ✨️ DM for orders, or head to tinyurl.com/AHazeofGildedDust 💛

Grabe. Such an amazing win -- for *the* Filipino Nose, and for Philippine perfumery. 🥹🥳

The future looks (and smells) bright for Philippine perfumery given this feat. Read the full story through the link in the comments.

divination (Queen of Cups)

In her chalice lies the message delivered by tea leaves.
She peeks down and a maze of thorns she sees.
Soon, she walks the path between reality and delusion,
Figuring out what is to be deciphered through the illusion.
She circles her way around the maze of thorns,
With gashes and scratches and clothing, torn.
Each turn forms winding meanders
in the end, she chooses to surrender.
With eternal surrender, she accepts her fate.
She assumes the position of the queen who waits.
So she steps back and looks at the leaves
An image of a rose soon she sees.

✒️ CJ Chua

X: Keeper of the Lost Library

You know you're in a dream, because how can this all white misty place exist? You look around, thinking of which direction to go to, when the feel of soft movement by your ankles surprise you. A kitten with its tail around your ankles looks at you expectantly. Before you can lean down to touch it, the little thing begins to walk behind you, pausing to make sure you're following.

You do not walk for long before you see a small stone structure with ornate double doors ahead. The cat reaches it, and places its left paw on a tiny glowing orb at the base of the door. They open silently and you step into a massive library; the smell of old books fill you with memories long past.

Your feet takes you forward, but the sound of the kitten's meow makes your turn. It is standing by a low golden bowl; half-filled. Or no -- half-empty, it seems, for the kitten meows again and nudges the bowl with its nose, then looks up towards a high shelf holding a jug of cream. You laugh as move to grab the jug, pausing to smell it (yup, good cream), before filling the kitten's gold bowl. As you stand back up, the kitten meows, then proceeds to drink loudly.

You sit beside it, staring at it fondly, keeping your hands close to you as to not reach out and disturb it. It drinks for a while, and you decide to lie down and curl beside it, feeling cozier by the moment. It comes close to you and places its little paw on your forehead, before walking towards the tables on the other side of the hall.

It hops to the top of a tall counter, and pauses in front of an enormous open book. It paws through the pages until it reaches the one it needs, touches what looks like an ink pad, then proceeds to imprint on the corner of the page. It then looks up at you, moves to nudge a pen, and meows.

You come close and see your name and everything about you in the page. At the bottom, before the line for your signature, says:

"I swear to uphold the sacred duty of filling the Keeper's bowl."

You laugh once more as the Keeper meows again, urging you to hurry. You sign the contract, and wake to the feeling of your cat licking your face. 🐈