The Journal.
Written irregularly. Posted by hand. No newsletter, no algorithm — you'll find new entries here when there is something worth saying.
- Entry 07
On the eighty-third trial
The trouble was the iris. For three months it sat too cold in the heart — chalky, almost medicinal, refusing to bloom. Then one morning I doubled the benzoin and it walked into the room.
March 14, 2026
6 min reading
- Entry 06
Letters from buyers I will never meet
Forty-one reservations in the first week. I read every note. One was from a woman in Kyoto who said her husband wore an oud she has been trying to find since 1998.
February 02, 2026
4 min reading
- Entry 05
Why a single perfume
Houses release four fragrances a year because retail demands it. I have no retail. I have one bench, one nose, and the patience to be wrong for a long time.
December 18, 2025
5 min reading
- Entry 04
Ambergris, the patient material
A friend who walks the beaches near Dunedin found a piece the size of a fist in July. It will age for six more years before another perfumer touches it. Mine had aged twenty-two.
October 30, 2025
7 min reading