Maison Shehu

My goodness, is it that time of year already?
As the cold, dark and slow winter months lay ahead, so we enter the season of bonfires, travelling spirits, offerings and disguises.
This year I am taking the High Priestess’ advice and will embrace quietude, inner landscapes, introspection and stillness.
Wishing you all a blessed All Hallows’ Eve (eve).

A✨

I thought I’d show my face for once and say a quick hello 👋🏽
On another note: I’m taking some time off and heading over to the Motherland 🇫🇷
We’ll be back on 13/10 so dispatch will resume then.
Wishing you all a relaxing rest of the week… à bientôt !
A x

🇫🇷
‘Mignonne, allons voir si la rose
Qui ce matin avait déclose
Sa robe de pourpre au Soleil…’

🇬🇧
Sweetheart, let us go and see if the rose
That this morning had unfolded
Its crimson robe to the Sun…’

I had to learn this poem by Pierre de Ronsard in primary school and while this is all I can recall (be kind, this was last century!), I do remember that feeling of longing and impermanence.

The rose has been an enduring and recurring theme in poetry, across centuries and cultures. While most famously tied to love and devotion, she’s also been a symbol of spiritual transcendence.
In perfumery she’s been hailed the ‘Queen of flowers’, prized for her rich and complex profile, a heart note that bridges mythology, opulence, romance and mystery.

Do you know how ´La Rose Secrète’ came to be?
The perfume was created for British artist, author and occultist Ithell Colquhoun (1906 - 1988) and her very distinctive tarot deck. Ithell tried to join the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the 1930s, but her application was refused. However, the magical system of the Order would deeply influence her life and her art.

I wanted to create a scent that drew inspiration from the magical correspondences of the Order, and also embodied Ithell’s relationship with art and magic… rose as a heart note was an obvious choice.
The name of the perfume came from Ithell herself… the last line of one of her very own poems, an open love letter she wrote to the Order she longed to join but never could.

What does this rose perfume convey to you? I’d love to know your impressions 🌹

I’ve been rather quiet these past few weeks (months, actually), and to say that changes are afoot would be an understatement.

What started as a talismanic scent to bedeck a tarot deck (see what I did there), turned into a wearable oil perfume, and then a business. It was - and still is - hard work and I didn’t expect to make it this far.
I’m all the more grateful for it.

While we’re working on perfecting the packaging, finding solutions for a sample set etc. I’ve been slowly tweaking the next formula since last winter (see photo).

There is more over the horizon - including a major move - and I shall share the news (big and small) in due course… promise!

Thank you all for your support these past four years.

Stay tuned!
A x

🇬🇧
It was the feast of Mary Magdalene last week, patron saint of perfumers. July is also the month when our pink Lilium Orientalis come into full bloom; a timely and glorious tribute it seems. Basking in the warm and honeyed scent of these flamboyant stargazers - as it rises in the evening air - I’m suddenly reminded:
‘Now comes the time when, quivering on its stem
Each flower exhales its scent like a censer;
Sounds and perfumes swirl in the evening air;
A melancholic waltz, a languid vertigo!’

Which blooms, colours, smells epitomise summer to you?

Extract from ‘Evening Harmony’, The Flowers of Evil, Baudelaire (1857).
Photos courtesy of .shehu.ansell

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La semaine dernière, c’était la fête de la Saint-Marie-Madeleine, sainte patronne des parfumeurs. Juillet est aussi le mois où nos Lilium Orientalis roses s’épanouissent pleinement : un hommage aussi opportun que magnifique, semble-t-il.
Alors que je m’imprègne du parfum chaud et miellé de ces lys flamboyants qui s’élève dans l’air du soir, un poème se rappelle à moi :
‘Voici venir les temps où vibrant sur sa tige
Chaque fleur s’évapore ainsi qu’un encensoir ;
Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir ;
Valse mélancolique et langoureux vertige !’

Et vous ? Quelles fleurs et couleurs, quelles senteurs incarnent pour vous les mois d’été ?

Extrait du poème ‘Harmonie du Soir’, Les Fleurs de Mal, Baudelaire (1857).

🇫🇷
‘Quelle tranquillité dans un jardin, le temps
Est là qui se repose;
Et des oiseaux sont là, insouciants, contents,
Amoureux de la rose,
De la rose charmante, à l’ombre du rosier…’
Éloge de la rose, Anna de Noailles (1907).

🇬🇧
What tranquility in a garden, time itself
Rests here;
And birds are there, carefree and content,
In love with the rose,
The charming rose, in the shadow of the rose bush…

A new season
A halfway point
A time to look back and plan ahead
The peak of warmth, light and abundance
The longest of days; short nights.
The heady scent of jasmine flowers - intoxicating little stars - rising in the dark.
Photos courtesy of hubby .shehu.ansell, taken on the Summer Solstice.

As the month is about to close, I thought I’d share a poem that - to me - epitomises perfectly the scent of April: the delicate, powerful, powdery, intoxicating fragrance of the mighty lilac.
The sight of the frothy tree in our back garden never fails to lift my spirit.

Skin as Canvas…

Perfume placement says a lot about our relationship with scent.
My preference is the inner wrist, where blood vessels are close to the skin.

So tell me, where do you wear yours?