Wild Veil

☽ Wild Veil ☾ Natural perfume grown in Vermont. Handmade aromatic extracts, including enfleurage, absolutes, resinoids, and tinctures.

Welcome! My name is Abby Hinsman and I am the founder of Wild Veil. As a grower-perfumer I specialize in whole plant fragrances composed from my own extractions of exquisite natural materials, many of which I grow organically, or sustainably collect from within the 6 acres of old growth hemiboreal forest that is my childhood home in Vermont. I recently broke ground on a second off grid site in the spectacular dew dusted wildlands of De Luz, California. This small five acre parcel is covered with wild white and black age, along with rare Engelmann oak trees that we steward, and now, five humble perfume gardens started by myself, my husband, and his three lovely daughters. I consider it a privilege to be able to shape with the natural landscape a fragrant and fruitful vision for our family.

I started Wild Veil in 2013 as a side project while I was writing a dissertation in Film and Media Studies. However, it quickly became clear that envisioning organic fragrances was my passion, and I eventually abandoned the PhD to make natural perfumery my life's work. I probably should have seen this coming as I chose my graduate program based on the way its location smelled: the sea, star jasmine flowers, orange and lemon blossoms, tar, and sage scrub of Santa Barbara.

In my product pages you will find photographs I have taken of my homemade enfleurage, tinctures, absolutes, and resinoids, as well as the aromatic plants, that provided key notes in the composition. All photography is my own. I draw all of the colored pencil artwork for Wild Veil, and I photograph products in my home, organic gardens, and in the wild. All fragrance orders come beautifully gift wrapped with pressed and cured flowers from my organic gardens, along with a handwritten note. Many of my perfumes come with handwritten labels, too!

I envision this shop as a virtual encounter with natural aromas, as you tour my cabinets and gardens. Please enjoy the roses, lilacs, honeysuckle, peonies, gardenias, plumeria, violets, tobacco, herbs, taiga, floodplains, and more. And don't forget to stop and smell.

ABOUT NATURAL PERFUMERY Natural perfumery is the art of creating alchemical fragrances from purely natural sources such as organic, ethically harvested, and wildcrafted essential oils, absolutes, flora, butters, and waxes. Perfumes are handmade to order to ensure vitality and potency. Many of my perfumes are purely botanical and vegan (with the exception of my solid perfumes, which incorporate raw organic beeswax).

I use alchemy to compose my creations using exquisite natural ingredients sourced from all of the world, or collected from my own backyard. This means that while every item is unique, there may be slight variations within a perfume depending on the season and the source of the raw materials.

Intimate and subtle, natural perfumes wear close to the body. They radiate their fragrance for a few hours before softening completely into the skin. Natural perfumes often smell quite different in the bottle than on your body. Make sure to test a fragrance on your skin before deciding whether or not it is for you! As your skin warms the wax or oil emulsion, the plant essences mingle with your particular biochemistry, activating a unique scent [*green alchemy*]. For me, part of the pleasure lies in reapplication, periodically renewing your sensual bond with organic matter. Botanical oils contain wonderful therapeutic benefits, and so you may find a blend rejuvenates not only your senses, but mind and body. My perfumes are handcrafted from essential oils, absolutes, CO2 extracts, and other botanical compounds, wild harvested or organic when possible. They do not contain preservatives, fragrance oils, artificial colors or flavorings, SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate), or parabens of any kind.