The Scottish Partnership Blog

Fois

The Homecoming Perfume

Breathes there the man with soul so dead

Who never to himself hath said,

This is my own, my native land!

Whose heart hath ne’er within him burned,

As home his footsteps he hath turned

From wandering on a foreign strand!

The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)

As a Gael, of Irish extraction, now living as a crofter in the wild Highlands of Scotland, I learned the gaelic language as a child and took delight in the nuances of the language, especially in gaelic love poems. I have selected the beautiful and irreplaceable gaelic word – Fois – as the name for the Homecoming Perfume.

Fois refers to that particular quality of tranquillity or peace of mind which comes upon us when we are in the presence of powerful Natural places, such as the great mountains of the Scottish Highlands or the wild seas of the Scottish Atlantic coastline. I love this special feeling so much that in 1994 I named my croft house as Tigh-na-Fois.

The psychology of perfumery tells us that our most precious and our most intense smell and scent memories are stored for ever, deep in our unconscious. For the gael coming back to the Homeland, some of the most intense native memories will pour into consciousness through scents and aromas. These are the key elements we have featured in the design of this unique perfume.

Fois

The Key Notes in the Homecoming Perfume

The heart notes of the perfume are a medley of nostalgic Scottish olfactory themes – the soft notes of wild thyme and other herbs, blended with the fruity notes of whortleberry and wild Scottish flowers; with hints of the whin or gorze flower, and the heady green notes of broom.

Under-pinning the heart note is the unique scent of Highland Myrtle, Scotland’s contribution to international perfumery. This oil, which we prepare ourselves from local bog myrtle, is one of the most complex oils found in a perfume studio; and is one of the rare plant essential oils with an amber nuance in its scent profile.

There is a wonderful, light, heart-warming lightness-of-spirit about the perfume which comes from using the bright green notes from wild grasses; combined with the scent of Atlantic sea spray.

In the base notes of the perfume you will recognize the warming woody notes, reminiscent of the great native woodlands; together with wild ambery notes which are sometimes found on walks in the great mountains.

Even the aroma notes of celebrated single malt whiskies are subtly blended into the perfume. Sniff deeply and you will find soft silky smoky notes – gentle peat smoke on the wind – amongst the woody theme. Here we find the ancient olfactory theme of island single malts.

We took a particular delight as we created the perfume in our Scottish Perfume Studio, in celebrating the scents of the wild Scottish orchids. Anyone who has taken their ease on the machair, will know about the soft, gentle, dreamy aromatic atmosphere in which you slumber there. This scent magic comes from the tiny fragrant orchids. We are, of course, not permitted to extract the scent oils from these rare flowers, but we have recreated the soft musky floral notes using other oils. This intense muskiness will warm the heart of any Gael.

Fois for Men

The Homecoming fragrance for men uses the same oils as for the Homecoming perfume – but in a different blend. Here we have a more virile masculine fragrance, emphasising the woody notes and inserting a delicate hint of wild fresh earth for the hunting men.

The Scottish Perfumer – For The Scottish Partnership