Hi there,
By the time this newsletter goes out, I will have hosted The Matriark Salon with Jan Planit. I’ll post about it soon, so if you weren’t able to attend, check in with us on Instagram on Monday for a glimpse of the evening. An invitation for our upcoming salon, happening on 10/29, will be going out very soon, so save the date and stay tuned!
Today I just want to share something I’m in love with: Ffern. This is 100% not a paid post and if you ever get them, you’ll know why I’m so crazy about them. I’m astonished by this company. They make the most creative and delicious fragrances, and what impresses me most is how they express their craft. It’s so difficult to convey the magic of fragrance online, for obvious reasons, but with their impeccable storytelling, beautiful artwork and absolutely stunning products, they are very hard to resist.
Ffern is a small perfume house in Somerset, England, founded by siblings Owen Mears and Emily Cameron, who grew up beside an organic herb farm. They release just four fragrances a year, one on each solstice and equinox, made in small batches from natural ingredients. And on top of it all, they also started an Artifacts Shop, and it’s beautiful.
Not an unboxing, a ritual
The outer box arrives closed with a paper ribbon that fastens onto itself. No glue, and nothing to tear. You slip it free, lift the lid, and the first thing you see is a folded hand-numbered, museum-quality giclée print resting on top: the season’s artwork, commissioned from an artist, with the story of the fragrance printed alongside it. My autumn bottle came with the work of Welsh illustrator Jackie Morris, beloved for The Lost Words. I unfolded it slowly, and read it before proceeding.
Beneath the poster lie two boxes. The slender one holds a small tester and a few little gifts: a pin, some tea or wild flower seeds, a special souvenir that completes the story.
You try the tester first, and if the scent isn’t for you, you can return the full bottle unopened. Why doesn’t everyone do this?
The larger box is sealed, and inside it a single paper cylinder cradles the bottle itself, a beautiful spray bottle waiting to be discovered.
By the time it is in your hand, you feel transported into a fairy tale, as if a parcel had found its way to you from just beyond the last page of a storybook.
The Scents
I got the Spring and Autumn 26 scents and they are SO good.
Autumn 26 · Moonlit Heather. Lavender sits at its heart. It arrives slowly, softened by honeyed immortelle and the powdery velvet of orris, then settles over something warmer: sun-dried hay, moss, the earth after dusk. It’s light and deep at the same time, airy enough to float and warm enough to hold you, like a cashmere shawl at twilight. It smells like walking home across a moor under a rising moon: a little wild, entirely tender.
Spring 26 · Wild Land. This one opens with citrus, fresh and orangy, as petitgrain, bergamot and neroli catch the light like dawn on dewy grass. Then white blossoms drift in, golden broom and a touch of creamy tuberose, never heavy and never sweet. It is fresh yet sophisticated, and so light it feels like a breath of morning air. It was created with Knepp, the rewilding estate in Sussex, and you can sense that wild, green freedom in every spray.
Why I’m hooked
There are so many ways companies can make things and deliver them to us, and this one is so special that you actually feel so cared for. You want to love their scents, and I did - and for a picky fragrance customer like me, that’s saying a lot. Both bottles won me over, and I can’t stop wearing them, and I can’t wait for their winter release.
Please do yourself a favor and check them out at ffern.co to see if they are for you. At the very least you’ll be entertained by their films and dazzled by the unboxing.
In times like these, dreamy and ethereal experiences like the ones Ffern creates are more than a luxury. They are a necessity.
With love,
Patricia