Lapsang Souchong Ravenscourt Apothecary

Everything is a space somewhere. Is this a room? Perhaps the walls are made of paper, so that what is evoked here can be projected onto them.
There are rock needles from the Wuyi Mountains, smoldering like chimneys, deep black tea leaves over crackling, glowing pine roots, fir wood fires sputtering with resins, upon which the aromas float up to the ceiling, sticking together with ethereal clouds into oils that linger in the smoke for months, before they fall in sparkling threads onto a sandalwood tea table. Here I sit cross-legged, immersed in dark vapors of smoke and camphor, dreaming of the river of the Nine Twists made of tiger balm and wood fire, which sometimes shimmers reddish from resin and cinnamon, then glows coniferously green in relief on the sandalwood table, here on the dry earth, after a few quiet hours, the Te Tse Remonyi comes to an end.
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"Lapsang Souchong" is a perfume oil from Tanya Kuznetsova's Ravenscourt Apothecary, which she has been operating in London since 2013. In addition to the natural perfume oils, which are naturally limited in durability (about three to five hours) and sillage (rather arm's length to skin close), she also produces other products such as natural soaps. For "Lapsang Souchong," she infuses traditionally smoked black tea leaves in oil for several months before mixing them with the essential oils of sandalwood and rosewood, as well as patchouli and pepper. The result is a smoky-spicy, ethereal-green, and balsamic fragrance that feels very natural, cleansing, and calming.

(With thanks to Stanze)