Cold air · pale resin
← The six04 · The resinKemenyan
Kemenyan
Sumatra
Pale resin, balsamic warmth and one cold breath from the lake.
Resin and incense · eau de parfum · in composition
The materialThe resin · field record 04
One thing to notice
What is a resin, before it is incense?
A tree answering a cut. Kemenyan is gathered after the bark of a Styrax tree is tapped and its aromatic exudate hardens into pale tears. Extraction turns those tears into a warm, balsamic perfumery material.
On skinOpening · heart · trace
Opening · centre · trace
How Kemenyan Sumatra moves on skin.
Benzoin is warm, enveloping and faintly vanillic, held in the shape of incense rather than dessert.
Benzoin · incense
Warm wood · quiet sweetness
At 2°16′N 98°58′E
The scene behind the composition.
In the highland forests above Lake Toba, kemenyan resin hardens into pale tears against the bark. It comes down the mountain in sacks toward the market. By the lake, incense drifts through cold morning air and across the water.
Find Kemenyan Sumatra in the AtlasThe lasting trace
Incense on old wood, warmed by the body and cooled by air from the lake.
The first collection is still being composed. Letters from 8°S share what becomes clear along the way.
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