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. You’ll find fresh batches of so many of your favorites at stockists both old and new, including:

Atomic Garden (Oakland, CA), Take Care (DC), Cultiverre (online), El Dorado General Store (Detroit, MI), Botanic & Luxe (Santa Cruz, CA), Folk (Kittery, ME) & Nielsen Brothers Market (Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA).

I'm grateful to work with so many wonderful independent shops!

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It has been a delight to finally share TILTH with you after many months of work, a scent inspired by damp earth & reaching roots, with notes of:

ruh khus attar. sandalwood. green patchouli. galbanum. orris. ambrette seed & angelica root

Ruh khus is a beautiful traditional distillation from Kannauj, India (a city famous for the making of attars) of green vetiver and sandalwood, and its rich, verdant scent and jade hue are deeply enchanting. It’s an honor to be able to build a botanical perfume around this artisan essence to share with you.

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reading:

The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Laing

“Handmade things are made by bodies.”

this guide from the Wild Seed project on autumn-sowing native plant seeds. I’ll be doing this for a second time this fall. I had some great success last season (swamp milkweed!), and a few things devoured by small creatures (bottle gentian!), and I’m grateful to have the chance to try again this year!

To the Light of September

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listening:

to our autumn playlist

Jingul by Ustad Noor Bahksh, more background here

and the new single from Immanuel Wilkins who has an album coming out soon

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above:

Scenes from early autumn in the studio, including the debut of TILTH and the re-release of our autumn scent sampler. We’ve also just received another big box of beautiful soap from Nablus, Palestine, for our soap + solidarity efforts. So grateful to you all for continuing to help me send funds to support this mutual aid work. For updates on how these funds are being used, you can follow along with Gaza Mutual Aid Solidarity here.

This past month has also brought with it a few new projects, including a little analog catalog to include in your orders that I designed, print and fold myself at the studio. And in keeping with my continued interest in the analog, I’ve also created a photo postcard calendar for 2025 with scenes from our tiny city garden. Delighted to share these with you!

As always, I absolutely relish filling our curated vintage pieces with botanical perfume and sending them off to new homes with you. The beautiful treasure above right was filled with our rose, cardamom & sandalwood, and the gorgeous pieces below left have just landed in the shop and are ready to be filled. These truly make the most elegant, thoughtful gift, for yourself, or a beloved.

The fading of the daylight always takes me a little by surprise at this moment of the year, but I’ve been leaning into it at the studio by keeping things extra cozy. Such a treat to have fresh cool air coming in the window while I work.

The shifting of the season means I’m beginning to stock up on your cooler weather favorites, including our nourishing facial balm, nourishing serum and our rosehip & calendula facial tonic mist. Perhaps my best advice for the months ahead is not to skip the mist! Without the beautiful plant waters, your oils and balms will not absorb as well and will not truly lock in hydration as the days grow cold and dry. You will absolutely feel the difference when you are generous with your mist before applying balms and facial oil serums!

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This month in the garden, I’ve been gathering seeds from our native plants in preparation for my autumn sowing. The anise hyssop has been very abundant this year and germinates easily. I have so many of these seeds from my little plot, let me know if you want a few and I’ll include some with your next order. In the meantime, the asters and the goldenrod are flourishing, and our local pollinators are rushing to collect the last nectar and pollen of the season. If you ever come visit us at the garden, you’ll marvel at the abundance and diversity of insect and bird life here, right in the heart of New York City. It is truly a wonder.

This month I also had the great pleasure of visiting the gardens at the Cloisters again after perhaps a decade away. Absolutely divine. You must visit again if you haven’t lately. A balm for the spirit in these times.

With care,

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