Heather Sielaff of OLO Fragrances courtesy of eyesandedge.com
OLO Fragrance is a small artisanal niche pefumery based in Portland founded in 2009 by Heather Sielaff. The scents are batch-made, hand-blended and have a torn-edge, selvedge quality to them. They have evocative names like Dark Wood, Lightning Paw, Tulare and Valens. Sielaff worked as a neuromuscular therapist in her own Wellness Centre and continued expanding her knowledge with aromatherapy training.
Dark Side of The Moon Vladmir Kush Surrealist painter
This attention to emotion and how we feel informs her dense and smouldering line. The smells are real and picturesque. We navigate through dark, dry pine forests, drink rain from the skies, warm our skins at cracking campfires and sleep under stars, inhaling the scent of night blooms and oozing verdancy. Often the move from blending aromatherapy oils into perfumery can seem forced and simplistic, but Heather’s compositions are strikingly bleak and rugged. They have a signature echo of smoky, resinous ambiance but this seems almost like weather for the other notes to roll across and infiltrate.
Metamorphisis by Vladmir Kush
There is much to admire in Heather’s feral gathering of notes. They vibrate with a dark sense of reality, like skies decorated with shifting, unexpected clouds; each time you return to your skin, things have moved, deepened, mellowed. I revisited the samples kindly sent to me by Heather and noticed this time around how sombre and painterly the scents are, like washes of inks bleeding into wet paper, notes picked out like scratches of pen against the mix of ochres, slates, mosses, umbers, ash and dirty snow.
Flowers: Vladmir Kush
This time around I adored Lightening Paw, with its unexpectedly sensual mix of bright jasmine, patchouli, warm vanilla and acerbic bergamot. It stands out from the darkness of the range due to the smiling joy of the jasmine, and it’s a very beautiful jasmine, not ashen or overtly indolic, just creamy and pure, as if emerging from a protected folded sleep.
Painting: Vladmir Kush
The best for me though is Erastus, tobacco, whiskey, silver needle, oakmoss and wood. Simple on paper but good lord the power and glory on skin! The OLO fragrances are unconventional in terms of olfactory descriptions; they do not fit into the classic categories say of chyprés and orientals we may all be used to. They have their own rhyme and reason. Erastus reeks of bitter smoke with a saline, pickling edge, grassy and filled with memory. The whisky note is difficult at first to discern, but resembles the look of sweating amber glass as it settles on the skin. It is a very strong and pretty linear fragrance; anyone looking for classical constructions should look elsewhere.
Clockwork Apple: Vladmir Kush
There is however a great sense of softening awe and beauty in the gradual sweetening of the notes as the forest floor and leaf litter begin to temper the smoke and foggy ritual. I’ve smelled a lot of smoky, pyrotechnical things over the years and sometimes I wonder if I really want to wear something as real and as pungent as this. But the answer of course is yes; my skin loves fumes and fog. I smell like I am constantly looped into bonfire night, cold skies, toffee apples and the whiff of dying fireworks.
Walnut of Eden Vladmir Kush
OLO Fragrances are not for everyone, they are not grandstanding boudoir perfumes or elaborate avant-garde art-scent, but Heather Sielaff has created a portfolio of particular aromas that enhance skin and senses with a wild palette of familiar and compelling references. Grass, weather, forest, water, rain, bloom, storm, fire, smoke. Who doesn’t know these things? Wearing them integrates us, we feel accepted.
—The Silver Fox, Contributor and Editor of The Silver Fox
Art Direction: Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief
Disclosure: I recieved my samples of OLO fragrances from Heather
Thanks to Heather Sielaff and OLO we have a draw for two readers as follows:
USA readers have three options. A choice of a 9ml Erastus
OR
OR
Editor's Note: What I love most about the world of fragrance, is that there are no country boundaries in cyberspace and The Fox, who lives in the U.K, discovered OLO before Our USA Contributors and Editors. The odd name Milk Milk Lemonade was the result of an earworm; Heather's head was filled with three songs, Tiny Dancer by Tina Turner and The Theme of the Smurf Song but the dirty little childhood ditty "Milk Milk Lemonade" won out. Their Instagram is live as is their twitter; OLO is an artisan brand to watch. I received a set of OLO fragrance samples from Heather and smelled them while reading The Fox's Reviews. I chose the Surrealistic art of Vladmir Kush who juxtaposes nature with the magical to bring the fragrances reviews to life. –Michelyn Camen, Editor In Chief
To be eligible please leave a comment with what you found compelling about The Fox's reviews of Erastus and Lightening Paw and OLO, what your choice of OLO Fragrance would be and where you live. Draw closes 7/16/2014.
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.
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