FAQ

Here are some of the questions that tend to come in regularly....

What are the things I need to know before placing an order?
You will fin all the necessary information here. I recommend reading this section: it will make for a smoother shopping experience, plus any order implies accepting all the terms. conditions, disclaimers, ... , explained there.  

Where are you based ?
The office, lab and general base is in Switzerland. We produce different aromatics in the Hindu kush and co-produce others in other parts of the world, notably Central, South and Southeast Asia, and Europe. 

Why is the website only in English?
Aaaa. You are touching a nerve here, and I hope some day it will change. In the meantime there is a way around it: Look here / Regardez ici / Hier schauen / Guarda jere / Mira jere / यहाँ देखो / انظر هنا

French is my mother tongue, and writing, in French, is an important part of my professional activities. I nevertheless came to the conclusion that for the time being English was the best: I have clients in the German part of Switzerland, but my German is woozy, and I have international clients on 6 continents... English is one lingua franca (universal language) among a few nowadays, and the only one I am fluent with.

So for now, it will have to be that. It already takes an incredible amount of time to research and redact all the materials on the website. In time, if the site grows, and if I can get more steady collaborations, I would love to add more languages to the site.

For now, luckily technology currently allows automated in browser translation, for example on Brave - or Chrome if you don't mind the privacy policies -  you just need to right click and chose your destination language via the option "translate to". Of course just write if you are uncertain about anything, or need more information.

Who is "you" ? And why is there an "I" and a "we" voice in the texts of the website?
Scentient Nature originated as the passion child of one person. While it is the main voice and subjective "I" when used, you will also find a  "we" voice on the website, as many parts of the work is collaborative: the orchard we run implies around 40 people year round (and more than 300 in rise season), then there are the saffron cooperatives, the people we co produce oud or sandalwood distillations, lab assistant, graphic design, illustration, video editing, administration, etc. ypu can read more about all that on here.

What do you offer here?
I offer rare pure 100% natural superlative quality aromatics (read the mission statement), some that I produce or co produce, some that I source. I also offer high-end natural perfume creations and some services. Small batch, artisan produced, expertly cured, etc. Unique stuff.

What about your prices?
Quality aromatics, produced sustainably, on a small scale, with uncompromising placed on priority on quality versus yield do come with a price, as one can imagine. 

Switzerland, where I operated from is also a very expensive country. For comparable plants, prices here are pretty close the to Swiss prices for good quality aromatherapy oils (which are in vast majority grand scale standardized productions, not small scale artisan' work, with of course many beautiful exceptions too)

For the niche and rare aromatics (notably oud/agarwood & some sandalwoods but quite a few others) the prices are aligned to the international artisan high quality market. Here you get the guarantee of absolutely pure products of high quality, tested both for their perfumery quality and energy properties.

As I compose my attars and alcohol based perfumes with a dominance of very  precious ingredients in their most qualitative forms (for ex. : rose, oud, orris, wild sandalwood, ambergris, saffron, jasmine, tuberose, lotus, frangipani, etc,), it comes also logical that their price reflect their worth, fragrancy, delicacy and vibrancy. There is never any low quality, synthetic, or the like , ingredient.

As a majority of places sell industrial-scale produced, synthetics based or, worse, degraded products, if you genuinely enjoy quality pure natural aromatics, you will end up saving money.

I do not dare to contemplate the staggering amount of money I dilapidated,  while learning the substances and markets, and trying to find new genuine producers to work with. I could have retired by now (slight hyperbole, but true in spirit. Luckily some of it was indirectly subsidized, as I reinvested my profits form the free lancing work for international luxury brands. Anyways, My prices are solid, but all you get is entirely genuine and worth their fragrant carats.

How do we attend workshops ?
You can organize one by contacting me or attend one that someone is organizing. I do not take in charge communication, organisation or registration myself. I do discuss and transmit communication material if needed, to help organizers.

And olfactive degustations, narrative experiences, meditations, etc. ?
Same as above :)

A non commercial blog on a site that includes a webshop? Really?
Yes! absolutely ! 100% non commercial : you can read about it here or just go blog homepage, it's called heartnotes.

There is also a completely separate blog for the shops news, etc also so things don't get mixed up.

Anything else good to know?
This website is a child of passion, not meant to be my main source of income, so it can grow at its own organic speed, or even not grow further.

Such an approach allows me to remain authentic with the products I sell and the information I share. It also allows me the freedom to tell the rare pushy, entitled or unfriendly customers to take their business elsewhere without any second thought.