Nature’s Intimate Relationships Inspired My New Botanical Parfum: Align

Align Eau de Parfum ~ Introducing a Midsummer Night’s Dream

I’m so excited to share my new fragrance with you. This is my second, limited-edition, seasonal scent: an Eau de Parfum that is perfect for a warm, rich, languid, sensual experience ~ An elixir that traces a scent trail to linger like a whisper as you move through the summer gloaming ~ capturing the magical, ephemeral transition between a warm summer sunset and the cool onset of night… A quiet memory…

Align is a botanical fragrance that captures the promise of a radiant summer day and its luminous feeling on your skin that melts into the long, soft, soft gloaming of a summer evening, just after the sun sets…

A midsummer’s dream, Align is inspired by the garden ~ where lovers whisper secret scents of attraction and in their cosmic cue align with their partner.

The garden’s glowing invitation pulses; petals use hidden messages to flash a synchronized spark, saying, "I am here, and I am ready." It’s being at the right place. At just the right moment…

The entire green world moves to this beautiful, timeless rhythm. When we look past single flowers, the grand alignment between all plants and their pollinators becomes a vast, planetary love story written in the language of perfect timing…

Align is a luminous, intoxicating, sun-drenched scent that opens with a bright, spicy, faintly herbaceous “just-showered” clean attraction, followed by the heady, carnal aromas of white flowers for a rich, narcotic, indolic romantic arousal, that finally melts into the intoxicating, warm sensuality of sandalwood, musk, and jasmine base notes. 

The magic of Align

Mother Nature knows a thing or three about seduction.  She’s been playing matchmaker long before any “swipe-to-find-a-mate” online app was a way to date. 

Plants align with their pollinators in that they share a fated dance, whispering secrets in scent and color, where the flower waits like an open hand and the visitor arrives like a long-awaited lover.. 

See, when plants align with their pollinators, it means their “Love Cycles” ~ their Phenology ~ match their physical shape, scent, and bloom time to their specific pollinators in order to attract and to, ahem, have intimate relations in order to bloom and “breed” (aka sex in the garden)! You get the idea.  You can just hear Sinatra crooning Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love)” with its refrain:“Birds do it; Bees do it” 🎶 

While plants attract pollinators by using bright colors, sweet smells, rich food, and specific shapes that act like a come-hither sign, so too do we. It’s natural.

Inspired by nature’s “Love Cycles” I created Align ~ a midsummer fragrance to celebrate that moment when the garden is in full bloom; alive with abundance, arousal, sensual beauty, and a sense of urgency that blossoms have to align with their mate; to savor the scattered sunlight of twilight and the gloaming that nestles into the garden illuminating their glowing invitations to discover that special relationship… Being open to the miracle of possibility…

As I learned in my perfume making classes from Grasse, France, every fragrance starts with a story.  Here is my story I dreamed before creating Align.  Then, I set about fulfilling the Align fantasy with nature’s garden botanicals. 

Align Eau de Parfum

The Story of Align Sillage 

Closing her pretty, watercolor botanical art garden calendar she’d been gifted at the start of the new year, she stared at the seemingly never-ending garden tasks needed to be completed this summer season ~ which, she could see by the X’s on the calendar she’d so dutifully crossed off neatly in each day’s square box, she swore silently to herself with a sigh, that summer was shrinking. It was midsummer all too soon. Mother Nature was a demanding boss. So much to do in such a short time.  

But if she was being honest with herself, she was also marking the time until he returned.  Her lover… She closed her eyes and snipped the memories of him. Of them together.  She mustn’t think about him now, she told herself.  Rather, best to focus on her sacred connection to her enchanted escape that she’d created for herself. And at one time, him. 

The To-Do list’s demands were just a guide, she reminded herself.  As if a square’d X could ever capture the tremendous amount of things to do in summer, she laughed knowingly as she peeled off the day’s gardening gear.  Nature was like a needy child or an ill spouse, she thought bravely, noting the garden as an infinite spirit; assiduously seeking such TLC as it seemed to hurtle through the summer’s all-too-brief season, clutching her as a lifeline; caregiver.

The plants seemed to say that their pollinators, their unique “dates” ~ their lovers, if you will ~ wouldn’t wait for them if they weren't ready. “Hurry, hurry.  I must be my best, I must be at my wanton best, I’m ready,” they whispered, urging her to get them primed for their flowering, reproductive mating ritual. The intimate interactions whispered Nature’s phenology. 

Love was in the air, there was no doubt about it. She smiled in spite of herself, feeling in simpatico; in alignment with their readiness for love…

It was time. 

The anticipation of spring’s flirty embrace had now accelerated to the seductive urgency of mating; a stirring of its quiet beauty and growing life.  Her garden now felt like one big love nest; poised and aligned to find true love. A lasting, deep, warm coupling.

Where was her mate? ~ she again wondered as she finished nurturing her garden residents, taking in the sensual beauty that enveloped her world while slipping into her robe. 

She stood in the outdoor shower now, the warmth of the cascading water like a tropical waterfall, washing away the hard-earned sweat and giving relief to her sore muscles.  

As she gently soaped her hot body with her garden’s floral soap, she too could feel the garden’s plants' urgent need to find its pollinator mate ~ to be lured by looks and scent, to tumble into its beauty and brush its body with the sex.  As she closed her eyes, the memory of him came to her as the soap’s musky scent floated to her nose ~ a heady mix of florals and spice. She thought she shouldn’t indulge in such prurient interests but the garden had affected her aura; it’s natural the garden seemed to reassure her. Abandoning all other thoughts, she dreamed of her mate. Her Lover. Where was he? She longed for his embrace and lingering salty summer kisses on her skin and lips.  She ached for him.

He said he’d be back by summer. And now, that midsummer dream was fleeting.

She felt again that while the longer, warm summer days were so welcome, she could also feel that so much extra garden work made her body need a bed. Her muscles needed rest. But she did not want to be alone this evening.  

Too soon, she noticed that the twilight and its scattered glowing sunlight was fading. 

The gloaming would soon be upon her and her coastal garden.  In spite of the welcome luxury of the summer shower on her warm skin, she reminded herself not to indulge too long or she’d be showering under the very stars themselves.

Still, she took a moment to feel both gratitude and joy that her garden world was admired by all for its natural looks and dedication to nature’s phenology ~ that mysterious, exotic, recurrent calendar that magically orchestrates the relationships among the plants, their pollinators, and weather. She smiled thinking of how often she’d look up from pruning or weeding to host curious passersby and more formally, garden clubs on a tour of her treasured plants.  All were  transported by the art of the garden’s romance and charm.  Truth was, she felt that shiver of excitement each time she walked the garden, too.  

Now, gently massaging the garden’s lavender body oil on her damp, cool skin, she turned up from wrapping the towel around her head, starting to step out to return to the house when she heard what was once a familiar sound: the pop of a champagne cork.  She froze, too excited to spoil the moment.  As she waited for the hissing, frenzied bubbles, she was enveloped in the sweet smell of the fading lilies, and the heady narcotic scent of jasmine, gardenias, and orange blossoms she’d brought out from the greenhouse to their potted presence in the outdoor shower, fueling the carnal aromas of the flowers’ romantic overtures.   Then, a musky scent delivered an exciting chill ~ a tingle that embraced the luscious, emotional pull of the garden’s rose petals.

The damp smell of ferns and the sweet resin of the nearby conifers was tantalizing and sensual as they mixed with the petally roses, phlox, and evening blossoms just opening their heady scents, sure to draw in their unique mates.

She turned and suddenly, there he was, two flutes in hand, stepping into her shower.  The champagne bubbles effervesced the night air, as did the emerging, gloaming evening sky ~ backlighting the evening stars that were replacing twilight’s scattered sunlight. The fireflies danced like stars bending from above.  The bees bustled for a few more late-day rendezvous.   The sea air mixed with the fresh sensuality of the summer’s heady mélange and the garden’s opulent scents. 

The garden’s whorl, its love pattern, its passionate crescendo had made her heart swell, igniting her desire. 

She melted into his arms and then thought, ”Am I dreaming?” 

💚

Align Eau de Parfum Raw Material Ingredients include:

Top Notes: 

Pink Peppercorn, Basil, Bergamot, Star Anise, Cardamon, Neroli, Lavender. 

A bright spicy opening that is sparkling, effervescent, slightly floral, with cool aromatic and slightly balsamic contrast before the scent settle into its soft Heart Note florals, and later, to its warm base notes  

Heart Notes: 

Gardenia, Solar Accord, Carrot, Ylang Ylang, Rose Absolute, Orange Tiare Accord, Ginger, Jasmine 

Luminous orange blossoms; a solar accord ~ heralded as a fantasy ~ a radiant impression of bright sunlight, a glowing that calls to mind the intimate sensation of sun-kissed skin. The slightly narcotic warmth; the slightly animalic white florals are heady and rich with romantic undertones that are also creamy and sweet. They balance the clean, soapy, just-showered freshness with a deep, sensual, and intoxicating edge and arousal. 

Base Notes:

Castorium, Olibanum, Ambroxan, Sandalwood, Musk 

These seductive base notes are warm, intimate, woodsy with a sensual resinous glow and primal elements that melt into the skin anchoring the scent with a depth that heats up your pulse points in an intimate, elegant aura to ground the florals and balance the citrus notes while enhancing the spicy notes of cardamom, and pepper.

** To Purchase Align Please click here to the Align Collection in the Garden Glamour by Duchess Designs Shop.

With Love,

Garden Glamour