All Stockholm-based Stora Skuggan fragrances were made in collaboration with perfumers Olle Hemmendorff, Tomas Hempel, and Anna Barkne. The reason this brand caught my eye is the crazy and fun bottles. I admit it! They have a similar concept to Nasumotto, I feel, but with disproportionally large round balls atop the boxy bottles. So fun-looking! Another thing I really like about the brand is the stories behind each fragrance. They’re so well-thought-out! But I have only read a couple of them so far.
Silphium
Let’s start with Silphium, a spicy amber fragrance targeting the ladies launched in 2017. It was created by Olle Hemmendorff and Tomas Hempel.
- labdanum (silphium accord and cistus)
- geranium, ginger, black pepper, clove, cinnamon, tobacco,
- olibanum, frankense, myrhh, cedar, leather
Silphium was a plant that grew in present-day Libya and was widely renowned as a spice, medicinal herb, and perfume ingredient in classical antiquity. Apparently, it was praised by Greek philosophers and writers, as well as Roman emperors and cookbook authors. It became more popular than both saffron and cinnamon but sadly, could not be cultivated. It was harvested to extinction. Storra Skuggan’s rendition of the plant was created by researching surviving assumed relatives of Silphium, using aroma chemicals to create an accord that might represent historical descriptions.
This one is very outdoorsy. I feel like I am walking through a meadow with tall golden grasses ready for harvest that surprisingly do not affect my allergies. I get black pepper and some spices. And there’s the geranium. It’s very green and cheerful. I like this. I love the base notes. That dry meadow leads right up to a country church and insense is pouring out of it. There are spices in here, and lavender I think, so I guess you could say it leans masculine. This would make for an excellent office scent. Negatives for me here are that it’s a tad medicinal and soapy. I don’t care for soapiness in fragrance. I’m also not into ginger, which I think might be here, but it’s not prominent.
Azalai
OK, next we have Azalai, a unisex, spicy amber fragrance launched in 2022. The nose is Olle Hemmendorff.
- blood orange, mint,
- dried fruits, saffron,
- amber, incense, velvione, acácia
This fragrance was inspired by a caravan route called the Azalai that passed through the Tenere (or Ténéré) region of the Saharan desert, where camel trains have transported salt and gold for a thousand years. Along the route stood one single acacia tree, the Tree of Ténéré, the last surviving plant from a time when the desert was more fertile than now which served as a landmark. The Tuareg (Twareg) caravan riders held the tree and its amazing fortitude in the highest regard, avoiding breaking its branches for firewood or letting camels eat the leaves. A drunk truck driver fell asleep and crashed into the poor thing in 1973 and killed it.
This is love at first sniff! Radiant, warm, spicy – beautiful blood orange and amber. It feels like sweetened dried fruit. Maybe saffron? Something a smidge campherous. I wouldn’t say it’s particularly original, but this is the type of Christmas-y composition that I enjoy very much. If the performance is good, this is worthy of a full-bottle-worthy.
Mistpouffer
Fragrance number three is Mistpouffer, launched in 2019 as a woody unisex scent. Cute name! The nose behind the fragrance is Tomas Hempel.
- bergamot, immortelle,
- pine tree, ozonic notes, fig leaf,
- sugar, smoke, cypriol oil, nagarmotha, malt, vetiver
A Mistpouffer is an unexplained natural sound, a sonic boom like distant cannon fire that is heard in waterfront communities. Apparently, it comes out of the fog over large lakes or rivers and has been recorded worldwide throughout history. Unsurprisingly there are legends associated with it. In Japan, the phenomenon is called uminari meaning “cries from the sea”. Machimoodus State Park in Connecticut gets its name from the Native American name for the area, which means “place of bad noises”. The Iroquois believed the booms were the sound of the Great Spirit continuing his work of shaping the earth. Possible explanations include solar winds resonating in the atmosphere, underground earthquakes, or gas bubbles being released from the deep. And of course, you get the extraterrestrial or subsurface civilization believers with their own theories.
This one is more challenging for me to decipher. It starts fresh but then gets a bit smokey and sweet. I smell pine, maybe black tar or rubber. I imagine myself outdoors. There’s a weird savouriness to the scent, like umami. There must be something aquatic here, which I am usually not a fan of, but I like it here. This one is creepy somehow, in an artistic way. It feels damp. I imagine I have entered Kappa territory and had better watch my back in case one of those Japanese creatures sneaks out and drags me beneath the waters. Yes, water. It smells metallic, smokey, green, and oddly edible. Very unique!
Fourth is Thumbsucker, a sweet and nutty unisex fragrance that launched in 2020. The perfumer is Olle Hemmendorff.
- honey, narcissus
- cherry, violet,
- bitter almond, beeswax, Himalayan cedar, styrax
Thumbsucker
The name Thumbsucker represents a compulsive need for physical contact and existential comfort. The fragrance began with the idea of creating a comforting and hedonistic cloud to soothe the pain of the morning after the night before – a hangover scent. The Storra Skuggan team also drew inspiration from the myth of Yuvanaswa and Mandhata. The ancient king Yuvanaswa had everything he wanted except children, so he got the holy sage Bhrigy to prepare a magic potion. In praying for a positive outcome, the king worshipped for 3 days straight and became thirsty. He looked around for something to drink and ended up drinking the magic potion prepared by the sage. The bummer is that the potion was intended for his wife. So what happened? Well, the king go pregnant. Luckily for Yuvanaswa, he was regarded highly by holy powers and the gods themselves, including Indra, King of Gods. They cut his thigh to deliver the baby boy, Mandhata, and Indra slit his thumb to “breastfeed” (thumbfeed) the child. Mandhata would go on to conquer the earth, and that’s why babies, being born with the memory of their divine ancestors, still suck their thumbs.
I love the bottle of this one best. I also like the name. This one is very familiar smelling, like some sort of cosmetic scent. It’s very soft and powdery. I think I smell honey, beeswax, and maybe violet? This leans more feminine to me. It’s like a gentle cuddle – very pleasant.
Hexensalbe
Last we have Hexensalbe, an aromatic spicy fragrance that launched in 2023. The perfumer is Anna Barkne.
- wormwood, licorice,
- angelica, rosemary, belladonna, tuberose,
- patchouli, black hemlock or tsuga, oakmoss
OK, Hexensalbe – you are inticing! There is something rooty and edible in here. Sweet, herbaliscious. But it’s a yummy white floral for the most part I think. Ah, it’s licorice! Isn’t it? I love that stuff. And this is not the salted variety; it’s the sweet gummy stuff. There are herbs in here – all of the kitchen variety. So Hexensalbe. A hex is a spell, is it not? Well, this is certainly a type of love potion for me. It’s unconventionally delectable.
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 that produced an ecstatic trance with powerful sensations of flying, images of otherworldly creatures, and a primal sexual hunger. The ointment was so poisonous that eating it would be fatal. Instead, it was applied to other soft membranes of the body, 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. The popular image of witches riding on broomsticks has survived into our times, but they historically rode them in a rather different sense. There are records dating back to the 1200s where women have been found naked in a delirious trance, pleasuring themselves with the spicy devil’s dildo. 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.
There are two more perfumes in the Stora Skuggan collection at this time. Now that I’ve gotten my nose on five of them, I’m curious to try the other two, which are Fantome de Maules – a spicy, woody, and aromatic fragrance. This was the first from the brand, launched in 2015 and by perfumer Tomas Hempel. Second is Moonmilk, and I remember the release of this one. Either on Fragrantica or perhaps here on Youtube, where someone was giving it some love. This is also a spicy woody concoction by Tomas Hempel.
OK, so of the five I tested, to be honest, I like them all. If I had to rank them, I’d probably put Siphium last. It must be the ginger. I am not a fan of that root in my sniffies, people. In 4th place, I’d put Thumbsucker. It has a great story, but this one is softer, not so much of my type of scent. I like the Thumbsucker bottle best, though, as I said. Maybe Siphium second. Azalai is wonderful, highly wearable, and juicy, but not as interesting as the two I place at the top. Mistpouffer is second. I love the name in addition to the haunting smell. The winner for me is Hexensalbe. It smells weird and different yet alluring. And because horney witches.
Including Siphium, I would welcome any of these fragrances in full bottle form into my collection. I’m curious to know how they wear – how they dry down or morph with time, and what their performance is like. Have you tried any from this quirky Swedish house? What are your thoughts?