the journal

seasonal musings from city, studio & garden


Briar Winters Briar Winters

the light of september

This month has been truly lovely in the garden, a spacious respite from the heat of summer. I’ve been very busy in the studio, releasing our botanical perfume, TILTH, and sending lots of treats out to our wonderful shop partners across the country.

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Briar Winters Briar Winters

august notes

At any given moment, there are usually dozens of drafts of various projects around the studio. Experimental aromatic tinctures infusing quietly in their jars, perhaps a box full of ten different tiny vials exploring a minute difference in the concentration of a formula.

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Briar Winters Briar Winters

late july

We are here in the thick of one of the hottest summers I can remember in New York City. The world is on fire in most other ways, too…

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Briar Winters Briar Winters

moons & junes

A week of sticky heat has finally given way to one breezy day of respite. The garden grows by leaps and bounds as we slide past the year’s longest day.

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Briar Winters Briar Winters

notes on may

Rose season begins again. Long the inspiration for so much of my work, this time of year brings with it a very special magic.

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Briar Winters Briar Winters

in april

The month of cherry blossoms. Harvested just before the buds are fully open, brined in salt, soaked in ume plum vinegar and placed carefully on trays to dry, and then packed in salt. A spring ritual for the ages…

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Briar Winters Briar Winters

the first bits of green

I can hardly remember a rainier, windier March. It’s been the perfect month to release a fresh batch of the rains, a botanical perfume based on mitti attar, a co-distillation of earthen clay and sandalwood that evokes the scent of rain on earth.

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Briar Winters Briar Winters

rituals for february

This month brings with it the celebrations fo the Lunar New Year outside our studio doors in Chinatown & the Lower East Side. Flowering quince branches and bundles of colorful carnations fill the shops, as family and friends reunite for the festivities…

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Briar Winters Briar Winters

an intuitive shift

As I shared in a recent newsletter, I’ve felt called to spend less time in social media spaces at the moment. Definitely not swearing off of them entirely, but really wanting to put far less energy towards trying to be seen in places where the deck is very much stacked against tiny businesses like this one…

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Briar Winters Briar Winters

in the heart of winter

A poem for the season, a little music, and various reflections I’ve come across this month. It feels like so many of us are craving a deep sense of reconnection to the natural world, and attuning ourselves to seasonal shifts is a beautiful doorway into that practice...

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Briar Winters Briar Winters

november notes

So many fresh seasonal treats are arriving in the shop each day, as the weather cools and we settle into the longer nights. I invite you to cozy up with a cup of something warm and spicy and to perhaps draw a forest-scented bath…

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Briar Winters Briar Winters

october days

Reveling in what remains of the slanting daylight this month in the studio and focusing in on the nurturing rituals that will hold us steady through the colder days ahead…

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