A Beautiful, Lingering Caress; Perfume For Your Inner Soul

It lingers around you, ethereal like a ghostly coat as thin as a whispery cloud and as sheer as the finest silk. It cocoons you and holds you like a delicate, intimate lover. Gentle yet powerful, a perfect scent lifts you, holds you and takes you back to you. Find out more about the perfume house Ode Ona here in A Beautiful, Lingering Caress; Perfume For Your Inner Soul. Image on left, Gretchen Lee.

Some scents shout, that’s their raison d’être, they want to be loud, proud and enter a room before you do. Other perfumes are a more intimate, sensual affair, there, more for the wearer than the audience.

Ode Ona is just that, a niche fragrance house founded by Ruth Chao, offering just this level of cherished emotional connection, melded for the inner exploration and self-reflection of the wearer. Each of the scents, with its minimalist yet evocative spirit, reflects the founder’s wisdom as a trained psychologist, so the perfumes are more about shaping emotions, memories and state of being rather than making a loud statement. Think almost as if the scents celebrate being in the moment, but the best moment, a calm, still, beauty of self-reflection and healing; an intimate journey of self.

Six Perfume styles make up the collection, each named with a consciousness that alludes to the very core of what the house stands for: Dawn Earth, exploring an earthy grounding experience. EverJet, an empowering leather fragrance. Teapot Sonder, a warming Tea fragrance celebrating a creative lifeforce, Eden Bond, a floral ode to love. Moonkissed Rhapsody, where Lavender and Musk meet in calming heaven and finally Carte Blanche, a woody, calming and cleansing creation.

So how do they work? Let’s explore Carte Blanche. Firstly, its opening comes with a brightness, but a softer brightness, not a whosh so much as a clean lightness. Created here with Bergamot, Mandarin and Pepper.

Its heart is intriguing as it is an unexpected fusion of green spice notes with herbal, and slightly camphoraceous Sage, with a yin-yang, complex of ‘cool-warm’ spice of Cardamon and woody, bold warmth from Tea

Its crescendo, albeit a subtle and nuanced finale, is made up of light, balsamic, and slightly smoky wood of Amyris alongside balsamic-sweet, sensual and sophisticated Sandalwood.

The clever blending here means that facets of top, heart and base echo back onto each other. Drawing the wearer through a melded collection of notes that wrap, calm, and bring personalised lightness. The perfume is like a gentle walk up a narrow set of spiral stairs, a cocoon and barrier surrounds, allowing for an intimate step-by-step experience as the elixir lifts and unfolds.

So this is an unusual perfume that the wearer is part of the fusion of the experience, more than just a physical spray. As if the scent allows each wearer to explore emotionally where they individually wish to traverse. The house is also committed to leaving a greener footprint on our globe and has gone to great lengths to build a sustainable company.

The perfume caps are made with 100% recycled plastic from post-consumer use (PCR), and are fully recyclable. Made with 100% recycled and recyclable papers, the product boxes are designed with full reusability in mind. As expected, these days the scents are Vegan-friendly and cruelty-free, and unisex, with the formulations designed and made in France, free of parabens, colourants and phthalates. Another really caring element of the house is that they partner with global NGOs to extend the journey of each scent, giving back to a charitable cause aligned with its way of being.

Each 50ml bottle purchased creates a quantifiable good in the world. Whether it be a tree, a meal or a solar light, we are proud to bring forth a visible impact that you can count on.

Ruth Chao

Life now is about the personal choices we make, about our individual free will, with the opportunities to tailor and explore our wants and needs. What we do, what we say, and what we wear do not have ot be driven by the collective but by the self, a kinder, more faithful individuality, so using a fragrance that speaks, firstly to us, is an extension of self-care, self-love, and self-discovery. In a universal world, be an individual.

All fragrances are Available in 8ml and 50ml options. Explore the collection here at odeona.com

If you enjoyed reading A Beautiful, Lingering Caress; Perfume For Your Inner Soul, why not read What is Love in Film Anyway, here

.Cent Magazine London. Luxury Mindset