A few years ago, I found myself standing in a store picking up perfume bottles and turning them over to read the ingredient lists.

What I noticed was surprisingly consistent.

The front of the bottle often told a beautiful story. There were descriptions of blooming flowers, distant forests, ocean air, citrus groves, and warm evenings. The marketing painted a vivid picture of what the fragrance was meant to evoke.

But when I looked at the ingredients, the story often became much less clear.

Many perfumes rely on a single word to describe what creates their scent: fragrance.

For most consumers, that word passes by without much thought. We see it on labels every day and rarely stop to question what it means. Yet for something as personal and intimate as scent, I've always felt it was reasonable to want a little more transparency.

After all, perfume is something we wear on our skin, spray onto our linens, breathe into our homes, and incorporate into our daily routines. It becomes part of our environment and, in many ways, part of our identity.

That curiosity eventually led to the creation of our Plant Perfume collection.

Rather than building fragrances around mystery ingredients or proprietary blends, I wanted to create scents that were rooted in recognizable botanicals. When someone picks up a bottle, I want them to understand where the aroma is coming from and how it was created.

Instead of relying on a single catch-all ingredient, our Plant Perfumes are crafted using seasonal hydrosols, witch hazel, organic fractionated coconut oil, and thoughtfully selected essential oils. Every ingredient serves a purpose, and every scent can be traced back to a plant.

Lavender.

Rose geranium.

Fir.

Pine.

Cedarwood.

Ylang ylang.

Vetiver.

These aren't simply fragrance notes written on a label. They're the ingredients themselves.

One of the things I love most about working with plant-based ingredients is that they carry a sense of place. Plants are shaped by the environments in which they grow. Climate, rainfall, sunshine, soil conditions, and seasonal changes all contribute to the aromatic compounds they produce. Every botanical has a story long before it finds its way into a bottle.

That connection to place extends even further through the hydrosols we use throughout the collection. A hydrosol is the fragrant botanical water created during the distillation of plants. While many brands purchase hydrosols from suppliers, I make many of ours myself using a traditional copper alembic still here in Tofino.

The process is slow and deliberate. Plants are carefully gathered, packed into the still, and distilled with water. As steam moves through the botanicals, it gently captures their aromatic compounds before cooling and condensing into fragrant hydrosol. The result is a beautifully aromatic ingredient that carries the softer, lighter characteristics of the plant itself.

Each Plant Perfume features its own unique hydrosol. Forest Bathing contains locally foraged spruce tip hydrosol. Flower Power features Nootka rose hydrosol. D O Z E contains lavender hydrosol, while Stubbs Island incorporates a citrus hydrosol. Together, these ingredients help create scents that feel layered, nuanced, and deeply connected to the plants that inspired them.

Another reason I find plant perfumes so fascinating is that they rarely behave the same way on every person. Skin chemistry, environment, and even the season can subtly influence how a scent unfolds throughout the day. The result is a fragrance experience that feels personal rather than uniform.

For us, perfume has never been about creating the strongest scent in the room. It's about creating a connection—to plants, to place, and to the rituals that shape our everyday lives.

Every bottle is made in small batches in Tofino and designed to be wonderfully versatile. While many customers wear them as perfume, they are equally at home on pillows, linens, clothing, yoga mats, guest rooms, or throughout the home. They become part of daily rituals rather than reserved for special occasions.

At its heart, the Plant Perfume collection reflects a simple belief: people should be able to understand the ingredients behind the products they use every day.

Because scent is powerful.

And when you know where that scent comes from, it becomes even more meaningful.