ERDE and VERDA parfums

These natural fragrances capture the ephemeral, speculative and sometimes tenacious nature of the mineral and botanical world while reflecting upon the uncertain future faced by fragile ecologies and threatened landscapes. It is a unique blend of two lifetimes of knowledge. The residue is an exploration of the landscape, in the field and in the lab to select, stabilise and encapsulate molecules of magic. They are a simple yet tangled co-existence of unique configurations of soil composition. Fragrances that offer optimism and a sense of fundamental values in the often highly demanding mosaic of contemporary life.

The parfums can be experienced as a form of respite or refuge where the handcrafted maturation process trains the molecules into a homogeneous pattern of deep fragrance, where the landscapes they are drawn from are expressed with a new clarity and form that is evocative and compelling.

A form of sustenance drawn from a re-awakened sense of awareness of the critical nature of soils, their preciousness and life-giving force. To rekindle humanity’s ancestral sensory power to detect earthy compositions of the soil, profound and distinctive, especially after rain.

ERDE

Meaning Mother Earth in Anglo Saxon, invites immersion in the sensory experiences of a hidden habitat of great complexity.

VERDA

Meaning spring green, capture the moment of germination and growth and the optimism of the regenerative process while sharing ERDE’S same earthy foundation.

BIOS

JOJO GIBBONS RDI is one of the UK’s most respected landscape architects. Her award-winning body of work as founding partner of J & L Gibbons, spans four decades during which time she has evolved a passion for the protection and enhancement of soil biodiversity. This has become her driving force and the foundation of her research and practice as designer and activist.

MADALINA HENECK is a self-taught perfumer and the creative director of Wild Olive Artisans, a Cape Town and Bucharest based business that promotes artisans from the two countries through high quality handmade products. In her perfume laboratory, she uses only 90 natural perfume ingredients of exceptional quality, from regenerative and organic farms and suppliers that she has personally selected.

Together, JOJO and MADALINA’S vision and experience have combined in an unfaltering mission to evolve a parfum that dares to create meaningful reconnections to the emotional and sensorial components of the landscape itself. An invitation to re-acquaint with humanity’s innate ability to detect and comprehend compounds in the soil, that we forgot we had.

CREDITS