Description
Stora Skuggan Hexensalbe Eau de Parfum is a profusion of herbal green ingredients foraged from a feral fairytale forest. Also known as witches’ flying ointment, hexensalbe is named after a hallucinogenic salve used in witchcraft in the middle ages. Like an intoxicating potion, the opening features a swirling cauldron of dark materials where a tangle of plants and earthy roots reveal their toxic side. Wormwood and pitch black liquorice conjure images of absinthe, the bittersweet tipple of choice for the Bohemians of Belle Epoque Paris who explored the dark side of the soul. Medicinal greenness is heightened by woody, phenolic rosemary, while hints of damp mushroom and truffle remind us that this herbal ointment is made from smudgy soil and all.
Stora Skuggan Hexensalbe is not just a salve for the soul. While anjelica may be aromatic and green in the heart, deadly nightshade, otherwise known as belladonna, hints at something more demonic.
In an inverted evolution from darkness into light, the moist, shadowy notes of the opening and heart dry down into the balsamic glow of cut wood in the base. Black hemlock (extracted from a North American evergreen conifer) oozes, a sweet, seductive balm that is so named as it is said to resemble the aroma of the highly toxic ‘poison hemlock’ plant. Lichen shimmers silvery green and treelike, mirroring the air of mystery that permeates nature in its wild and unpredictable form.
The historical potion known as hexensalbe was a mixture of extremely poisonous ingredients but the exact formula is not known, and several occultist scholars have died trying to recreate it. Among the most mentioned ingredients are the deadly nightshade belladonna, angelica archangelica, hemlock and even human baby fat. The drug produced an ecstatic trance with a powerful sensation 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 have a tryst with the devil and other witches in unholy rites.
In the eyes of the mediaeval church this was more than mere illusion, the drug created a link to the devil so he could bring the spirit of the witch into his domain. While her body may have remained in the physical world, she was still guilty of fornicating with satan. A woman, sexually free and at one with nature, what could be more terrifying to a world that domesticated them as wives and mothers? Wear Stora Skuggan Hexensalbe Eau de Parfum to rewrite your own biography and allow some dark magic into your life.
Top notes: wormwood, salty liquorice
Heart notes: tuberose, angelica, rosemary, belladonna
Base notes: black hemlock, patchouli, lichen
You can try the perfume with the samples and in 7scents:
1053 Budapest, Magyar utca 18, Hungary
Open: M-F 10-18 and Sat 11-17
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