Anu Essentials: Sea Scape Perfume

Sea Scape

Sea Scape Perfume by Anu Essentials is my ode to Auset, the primordial Great Mother.  In the ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) tradition, Auset is mother of mothers.  Known for her great capacity to nourish and nurture, she gives birth and life to all things. She is magic and mystery and all things deep and true. Her love and patient strength know no bounds.Auset is uncompromisingly devoted, especially to children and family. Children love and gravitate toward someone (female or male) in whom the Auset faculty is well-developed. That person is loving, understanding, patient and caring; she or he wants to feed you, wants you to feel loved.

Auset’s essence resides in the sea. She is mighty and unconquerable, yet she flows effortlessly under, around, above and beyond obstructions, always avoiding conflict.  She likes things that are watery, like lettuce, watermelon and cucumbers. These are among the items you’d take to the beach as an offering to the Great Mother, whose love for her children runs as deep as the sea.

As someone born under a fire sign and on a Tuesday (a day ruled by Mars), my tendency is to be other than the Great Mother. I’m more often fiery and impatient and am reminded that I need to do more to develop my Auset faculty.  And so it is with great desire that I set out to create a scent to help remind me to embody Auset’s essence. I know that I am drawn to those things that represent the Great Mother such as cowrie shells, pearls, crystals, the moon and I absolutely love being in the ocean.  So it is with the creation of Sea Scape that I set out to design a perfume to help invoke her energy, her demeanor and ways of functioning.  If the Great Mother doesn’t seem quite sexy enough, remember Auset is the source of that primal and irresistible magnetism through which pregnancy and birth come to be…Jasmine is one of Auset’s flowers and from the conception of this fragrance I knew I wanted this perfume to be centered around two primary essences, jasmine and seaweed. I was invited to participate in Monica Miller's Primordial Scents 2012 Perfume Project, which would launch in June. The challenge would be to make a perfume using these two dense elements in a harmonious way and not have it be too heavy for a June launch.Considering the depth of seaweed, I attempted to keep the rest of the base notes light with a boswella frankincense, Ethiopian opoponax, sustainable sandalwood and costus.  For the heart I have two jasmines playing off one another: a grandiflorum absolute and a jasmine e.o.  Blended with these two intoxicating essences are violet leaf for that lettuce element, a little pimento berry to spice it up, neroli and an exquisite rose alba.  I wanted to continue with lightness, so there are several citrus scents at the top.  They include petitgrain, white grapefruit, and clementine.My fragrance designs are often unconventional, I know. Perhaps it’s the classic case of a student new to the art unwittingly breaking the rules.  I know that experimenting with scents is enormously fulfilling. I’m excited, creatively inspired and in love with the process, even if I’m not always initially in love with the results. I sincerely hope that others will find something to love in something I’ve created.Sea Scape will be launched this June and will be available at the Anu Essentials website and at the Khamit Kinks salon.