Ruth’s email came out of the blue: her mom had passed away at Christmas, she wrote, and she found three of her 1950s powder compacts. A friend had shown her a feature about my natural scents in LansScape Magazine, and she decided to contact me.
We met up in a tea room in Exeter, where she showed me the beautiful vintage compacts she brought with her. I laid out my array of botanical fragrances and let Ruth decide which one she liked best. It turned out that Ruth’s mom, Rosetta, was an avid tea-drinker, and Rooibos – or Red Bush Tea – was her favorite. Inhaling the fragrance, she said that it brought back memories of brewing it for her mom to enjoy. However, and I think it came as a little surprise for both of us, Ruth liked the Earl Grey Tea fragrance even better, and chose it to be the scent to have her vintage compact filled with.
A week later, when she received it back, shiny and filled with solid fragrance, she thanked me and mentioned that Rosetta would have been very pleased to see her things up-cycled in such an original way. I was simply moved by being allowed to give a piece of family history a second life, and felt grateful.

Ruth’s compact