Every Storm a Serenade

Danish spruce and eucalyptus strike first with a sharp, almost mentholated coniferous blast that's bracing rather than festive. Bergamot flickers briefly like sun breaking through storm clouds, but it's already being overtaken by the first wisps of smoke creeping through the trees. Within minutes, you're firmly in the forest, and something's burning.

The lapsang souchong tea dominates this phase, bringing its distinctive tarry, leather-tinged smokiness into full focus alongside vetiver's earthy, slightly bitter greenness. Crystalline musk weaves through the composition like morning mist, adding an airy quality that prevents the smoke from becoming suffocating. The interplay between the aromatic tea and the woody-earthy foundation creates a scent that's simultaneously rugged and refined.

Smoke persists but grows softer, more abstract, mingling with a subtle vanilla that emerges like warmth seeping from cooling embers. The sweetness never dominates—instead, it adds a resinous, almost balsamic quality to the remaining vetiver and spruce. What's left is quietly tenacious: skin-close but evocative, like the ghost of woodsmoke that clings to wool jumpers hours after leaving the fire.