Anita Pallenberg with Keith Richards Gram and Gretchen-Parsons

Great perfumes are always about surrender.  They should tempt and dare you to try things you’d never allow yourself to consider.   They should be able to stop time, or set you down in another altogether. Recently I came across a new house out of Montpelier, VT of all places – entitled Rebel Intuitive Perfumerie, which has released three rich, earthy and beguiling scents that instantly provide another state of being – you enter a soporific, trance-like and hallucinatory zone where anything is possible.  Rebel Intuitive scents seem to be meant as conduits of dark, sensually-loaded secrets.   I was drawn in immediately.

Katy Knuth and Perfumer Beckie Sheloske  

The truth is that Rebel Intuitive is brand-new, having launched three perfumes in November of 2014:  Grace at 67^th (a dark green scent), Ninon (spicy and dry), and Winter Lewd (a cool, fantasy-thuja style fragrance).  The house was formed by perfumer Beckie Sheloske and creative designer Katy Knuth.  Their vision for Rebel Intuitive centers around fiercely sensual, bohemian decadence.  (Beckie and Katy find inspiration in the girlfriends Keith Richards had in the 60’s, and their website features a photo gallery depicting languorous women reclining on divans and animal furs).

Nina de Lonclos Queen of the Courtesans

Their Ninon fragrance is named in honor of a French courtesan Ninon de Lonclos from the 17^th Century.  This is not a house for the timid forest creature seeking “fresh”, “clean” or “office-appropriate” scents. There is a rich strain of nostalgic artistry involved as well – these perfumes would have been welcome wafting through the writing salons of the 18^th century or worn by haggard, thin absinthe drinkers in Paris.   Rebel Intuitive makes fragrances not for today’s technology-saturated times, but instead harken back to a slower, sexier and darker era.

Floral arrangement by Prusak Floral Design

Perfumer Beckie Sheloske began her career in fragrance in 2009 by fashioning a lab out of a walk-in closet.  She read books like Mandy Aftel’s “Essence and Alchemy” alongside of Steffan Arctanders “Perfumes and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin.”   This led to discovering Enfleurage in New York City and gathering up raw animalic essences, and being gifted dried castoreum samples from friends involved in the furrier and trapping trades.  Soon, she was creating her own absolutes and accords, laced with vanilla absolules, resins and root sources. The result became a natural perfumery house, with Rebel Intuitive Perfumerie having been recently admitted to the Natural Perfumer’s Guild as a Professional Perfumer of this month. The three perfumes Rebel Intuitive offers are anachronistic, heady and voluptuous.  Allow me to be a tour guide of the landscape they inhabit for the curious:

Grace at 67th  (model Maggie Lenz-McQuilken photo by Heather Gray)

Grace at 67^th:   Grace at 67^th arises from a bed of sage, tarragon, basil and myrrh – a forest scent for folks who like their greenery thick, damp and close to the ground.   The sharp aromatic tang of the herbs is tempered by a hint of sweetness along with the turning over of the log.  This is the scent for the truffle hound – dark and damp and mysterious. Notes: Tarragon, Sweet Basil, Clary Sage, Neroli, Violet Leaf, Narcissus, Rose, Costus, Ambrette, Myrrh, Labdanum

NINON (Model: Hannah Satterlee Photo: Heather Gray)

 Ninon – Named after the 17^th century French courtesan Ninon de Lenclos, this scent is all spices and wood, with a hint of powdery carnation. It is  my favorite of the three – this is a smell of a room circa 1925, kitted out with Tiffany lamps, and beaded curtains, with old Oriental rugs and furs draped over wicker chairs.  A scent that is both narcotic and tempting in the same instant. Notes:  bergamot, red mandarin, lemon, palmarosa, carnation, rose, osmanthus, jasmine, vanilla, honey, sandalwood, Africa stone, styrax

Winter Lewd (model Katy Knuth, Photo: Heather Gray)

Winter Lewd:  An herbal and calming scent, with pronounced black currant and hay notes that settle the bones and calm the nerves. Winter Lewd is, despite the racy title, a therapeutic fragrance of blood oranges with a blue tansy heart.   A scent for Winter, and, as Rebel Intuitive would have it, as “an influence to focus on an enlivened state in the blue-black darkness.” Winter Lewd:  Notes: blood orange, tangerine, bois de rose, tagetes, blue tansy, nigella damascena, hyssop, davana, hay, black currant, agarwood, muhuhu

Rebel Intuitive fragrances have average power and sillage, and stayed present less than six hours on my skin.  I would have liked them to linger awhile longer, because of the trance-like state they brought on.  But perhaps it’s well that they don’t – any longer and I’d probably need a babysitter. Somewhere out in Vermont, Beckie Sheloskie and Katy Knuth are offering natural fragrances that definitely blur the lines of decency and curiosity, creating in their work a new and daring state of mind, illuminated by a trio of heavy-lidded and timelessly sexy perfumes.

Disclosure:  samples were provided by Rebel Intuitive Perfumerie for review

-Steve Johnson, Sr. Contributor

Thanks to Rebel Intuitive we have a sample draw of Grace at 67^th, Ninon and Winter Lewd for any reader in the world OR  if you live in the USA you can choose the sample set or a 15ml ($129) of  your choice. To be eligible please leave a comment on  what excites you about Rebel Intuitive Perfumerie and which of the three perfumes you think would appeal to you and where you live. Draw closes January 30, 2015

We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS option…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume