7 Orchards

7 Orchards is a multifaceted perfumery expression on the life cycle of citrus orchards; in blossom with flowers, fruiting, harvest and barren winter where brunches are pruned for firewood. This expression begins from when you first open the cylinder that holds the sticks, your first smell of the sticks where you will note touches of orange peel. Then as you hold the sticks in your hand you will feel the texture is like small citrus twigs. When you light the sticks you will experience the feelings conjured when citrus fruits are being cooked in a pot utilising wood from citrus trees. Such expressions are a method of telling the story of life in the old Chinese tradition of incense.

The core ingredients to achieve this work of art is not citrus but rather Royal Hojari Frankincense from Oman and Somali Myrrh. Working with resins is never easy, and incense composition that includes resin isn’t an exception. Royal Green and White Omani Hojari freshly harvested is soft and malleable, impossible to ground into a powder and a powder is needed if we are going to make sticks! The Somali myrrh used in this composition I had been aging for some 5 years so it was nice and dry, easily milled into powder. The delicate issue however with the myrrh is that so little of it can over take the whole composition, and if not enough of it then as an ingredient it may work as a back drop for an array of other ingredients. My aim was to have the myrrh and frankincense work together to give a citrus and citron vibe, with the richness of the leaves, trees and fruits included.

The composition I employed is an old formula for blending resins with woods. It was a 5-month journey and a very labours and difficult composition. 7 Orchards is a pure toil of love as the cost could never recover the time and tears spent on these amazing expressions of perfumery art.

Top: orange blossom, orange peel, citrus leaf

Middle: Hojari frankincense, malt, caramel

End: Myrrh, leather, woods, trunks and tree roots.