£120.00
Made by Stora Skuggan (Stockholm, Sweden)
Perfumer: Anna Barkne
Eau de parfum made by hand in Stockholm.
Notes—
Top: Wormwood, Salty Liquorice
Heart: Tuberose, Rosemary, Angelica, Belladonna
Base: Black Hemlock, Lichen, Patchouli
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“In rifleing the closet of the ladie, they found a pipe of oyntement, wherewith she greased a staffe, upon which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin, when and in what manner she listed.”
– Proceedings Against Dame Alice Kyteler, Prosecuted for Sorcery, 1324
Hexensalbe, also known as witches’ flying ointment, was a hallucinogenic salve used in witchcraft in the middle ages. It was a mixture of extremely poisonous ingredients.
The drug produced an ecstatic trance with powerful sensations of flying, images of otherworldly creatures and a primal sexual hunger. These hallucinations are at the core of the mythology of witches, where they fly to the sabbath at Blåkulla or Brocken to do it with the devil and other witches in unholy rites.
So, the image of witches flying can be traced back to the use of hexensalbe, but why on a broomstick? The ointment was so poisonous that eating it would be directly fatal, instead it was applied to other soft membranes of the body, armpits and more commonly the genitals. Because of the erotic effects of the high, the salve would often be rubbed directly onto a phallic object like the end of a staff or a broomstick. And so, the witch did not ride the broomstick like we picture her today. She actually -really- rode it.
Given which aspects of the story of hexensalbe has survived into the modern image of witches, and what has been suppressed, it would seem that the one thing more terrifying than witches or devils, is female sexuality.
ALCOHOL DENAT., PARFUM, AQUA, PIPER NIGRUM FRUIT OIL, HYDROXYCITRONELLAL, COUMARIN, LIMONENE, LINALOOL, BENZYL BENZOATE, BENZYL SALICYLATE, GERANIOL, FARNESOL, CITRAL, EUGENOL, ISOEUGENOL
Stora Skuggan
Stora Skuggan was founded by a group of five multidisciplinary artists – Anna Barkne, Tomas Hempel, Olle Hemmendorff, Jonas Nordin & Martin Nicolausson – who met in 2005 whilst studying together at Stockholm’s Beckmans College of Design. The five embarked on a journey of olfactive exploration, learning and experimenting over years, before officially launching in 2015 with their first fragrance: Fantôme de Maules.
Swedish for “the big shadow”, Stora Skuggan meticulously handcraft gender-fluid niche fragrances, each imbued with an enchanting narrative. Combining the essence of nature with the refinement of Scandinavian design, their six fragrances evoke an ethereal escapism. Drawing from the eclectic backgrounds of its founders, Stora Skuggan craft fragrances that seamlessly interweave cultural influence and theoretical underpinnings with an air of mystique – we encounter an intersection of Freudian analysis, Indian folklore, an nods to times long gone.
“We have not followed the traditional way to launch a perfume line by hiring established perfumers and design agencies and so on. We have done everything ourselves; every little detail has been formed by our hands.”
-Tomas Hempel, co-founder
In 2018, the label’s second launch, Silphium – built around an extinct plant used in Ancient Greece and Rome – was named a finalist in the Art and Olfaction Awards. Mistpouffer launched in 2019 after four years in development. The scent attempts to bottle the mystical, unexplained sounds sometimes heard along bodies of water, often likened to a cannon or sonic boom.
The fragrances are presented in sleek glass bottles with stoneware orb lids. Influenced by Scandinavian modernist design, the bottles simultaneously present the artistic divergence of ideas within the fragrance, whilst doubling up as a beautiful object.
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