Correspondence
Correspondence
Questions arrive at the house: about scent, skin, memory and the way we work. The ones asked most often are collected here, with the fullest answers we can manage. Names are left off. The answers belong to everyone.
“Why are some of the materials in your fragrances so expensive?”
Two reasons, and both are chosen. First, much of what we use is artisan made: distilled in small batches by local partner distillers whose names we know. The same stills quietly supply artisan houses overseas, though every name in that network stays sealed, NDA with everyone, ours included. Second, some key materials simply do not grow at home, so the house imports them, mainly from New Zealand, Italy, Russia, China and Thailand. Neither path is the cheap one. Both are the reason the bottle smells the way it does.
“Why are your fragrances not IFRA compliant or BPOM registered?”
Two honest answers. IFRA is a voluntary industry standard written largely in and for Europe, and in practice it serves the large fragrance houses while narrowing what an artisan is permitted to compose. But allergens are real, and the house does not wave them away: every HoM Haute fragrance is tested on the founder’s own skin before release, and every bottle carries a plain disclaimer, if your skin is sensitive, approach the first wearing carefully.
As for BPOM, its registration is built for factories, not ateliers. It asks for batches of three hundred to a thousand bottles, and some of what we work with makes that impossible by nature: materials too costly to buy at that scale, natural artisan oud that does not exist in such quantity, or an innovative co-distillation made exactly once and never repeated. It applies only in Indonesia; neighbours like Thailand and Malaysia require no such thing, which is part of why artisan perfumery flourishes there. So these perfumes will never sit in the mass market. They are made for the fragrance enthusiast who understands the case.
“Why does the house sell by pre-order instead of keeping everything in stock?”
Honesty about arithmetic. The materials we insist on are expensive, and a small house cannot afford them in great quantity, so we do not pretend to. Each run is bought in sufficient amount for the bottles actually spoken for, nothing more, nothing wasted. Pre-order is not a delay. It is how a small house affords to be uncompromising.
“I want to buy my first bottle from the house. Which one should it be?”
A good question, gently returned. Ask instead: when will you wear it? A first bottle should fit the life you already have, not the one in the photograph. Visit the Wardrobe, choose your hour and your weather, and let the moment choose the bottle.
“Does every purchase come with something extra?”
Yes, always. Local orders receive a random 10ml travel size with every bottle purchased: a second scent, chosen by the house, to travel alongside the first. Overseas parcels travel lighter, so instead you may request the samples you would like to try and we tuck them in. Either way, no bottle leaves the house alone.
And sometimes there is more than this. It depends on the product and on the timing, and it follows a small law the house has noticed over the years: those who expect nothing often receive more than they expected, while those who arrive expecting a great deal usually meet the basic bonus. The extras are given when the shelf can spare them, not when they are demanded.
“Do you make bespoke perfumes?”
Yes, though not for sale. A bespoke composition is currently the house’s gift to its loyal customers, kept on an internal waiting list rather than a price list. When a turn arrives, it can be built from a story of your own, or it can arrive the other way entirely: unannounced, a scent composed because the house was thinking of you. Loyalty is the only way onto the list, and patience is the only currency it accepts.
“What happens if my bottle arrives damaged?”
Everything we send is fully guaranteed. If a bottle arrives damaged, the return and the refund are free, and we will not make you argue for it. If you break one yourself, write to us anyway. We cannot promise anything, but when we can afford to, we try to send a small surprise to soften the loss.
“Why does the house release so many fragrances, so often?”
Because the archive is deep and the door is small. The creator composes almost daily, and behind that daily flow sits five years of work: nearly a thousand finished ideas and frameworks, each waiting to be finalized when its moment is right. And since everything is made in house, there is no minimum order to clear and no warehouse to feed, so a piece can be released the moment it is ready rather than when a campaign allows. It is an archive opening, not a race, and you are not asked to keep up with it. The full and honest account is in the journal: The Strange Pace.
“How should I store my bottles so they last?”
Perfume asks for very little. Keep it away from three things: direct sunlight, heat above thirty degrees, and extreme humidity. Each of them unravels a composition faster than time ever would. A box, a drawer, a shelf away from the window, all are enough. Treat a bottle the way you treat memory itself: away from harsh light, and taken out often enough to stay alive.
“Why does every fragrance come with a story instead of an ad campaign?”
Because the house does not believe in perfume as decoration. Scent is the most direct door to memory the body owns, and a campaign cannot walk through it. A story can. Some of ours are actual memories, lived and true. Some belong to the characters the house follows in Fiction. Many are both at once, memory wearing a mask. That mixture is what keeps a bottle alive.
“My fragrance disappears after an hour. Am I applying it wrong?”
Probably not. Your nose falls asleep long before the scent does: ask anyone who stood beside you at noon. Spray on moisturised skin, on warmth rather than on fabric alone, and stop chasing your own trail. Perfume is written for the room, and the room can still read it. The full science lives in the journal: why you stop smelling your own perfume.
P.S. The house reads everything. Send your enquiry by Instagram, and if it deserves more than a private answer, it will appear here, unsigned.