The Gables is a new blend launching this week inspired by The House Of Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts. It’s one of my favorite historic homes in New England and given that so many will not be able to make it to Salem this year for the festivities, I wanted to bottle a little bit of that magic.
This blend is centered in dark, dark, pitch black wood houses. There is an old wood aroma that is very specific to the 17th and 18th century homes here and it’s one that I always return to as a personal favorite. You can catch a glimpse of that particular aroma in my Autumn In Salem perfume, but here in The Gables, it’s the base and the star of the show. It’s crowned with charred violets, agarwood smoke, and fireplace embers. If you love dark, smoky, spooky wood aromas, this is your blend.
The top note here is violet, but it’s slightly charred by the other notes, so it’s dark and eerie while still remaining clearly violet (not a soapy violet, but an aged deep violet). Agarwood smoke dances with the wood and gives it a witch shop incense mood as it dries down, and combined with the fireplace embers, this blend gets smokier as it unfolds. After a few hours on my skin, it settles into a soft, smoky, aged wood that conjures visions of an old house with the smell of the evenings fireplace and incense offerings still hanging in the air.