FAQ

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

What are the things I need to know before placing an order?

You will fin all the necessary information here. We 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, development lab and general base are 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, as well as Europe. 

What do you offer here?
Scentient Nature offers rare pure 100% natural high quality aromatics (see the mission statement for more specific information), some that we produce or co produce, some that we source.

Small batch, artisan produced, expertly cured, etc. Unique stuff.

We also offer high-end natural perfume creations and some services.

What if my country doesn't appear at check out / doesn't let a check out be completed ?

This is because of the warnings from our main logisitics provider (SwissPost) that do not recommend shipping to your country. You can write to us if you want us to arrange an adhoc private courier like DHL or FedEX for you (the rates are costly though). 

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

Switzerland, where we operate from, is an expensive country. For comparable oils, prices here are aligned with Swiss prices for good quality aromatherapy oils (which are most often grand scale standardized productions, not small scale artisan' work)

For the niche and rare aromatics (notably oud/agarwood & sandalwoods) the prices are aligned to the international artisan high quality market.

The Swiss Franc is overall a strong currency, which  doesn't help international prices (for example in the two years since opening the webshop, it gained approx 20% value compared to the US dollar or the Euro). We are not in control of the exchange rate offered for currencies outside of Switzerland, which is automated by our webshop provider.  

We compensate by being generous with samples sent along every order.

Attars and alcohol based perfumes are composed with precious ingredients in their most qualitative forms. it comes also logical that their price reflect their worth, fragrancy, delicacy and vibrancy. There is never any low quality or synthetic ingredient. Here the costs are not spent on marketing illusionism, but on the actual contents of your bottles.

You get the guarantee of absolutely pure products of high quality, tested both for their perfumery quality and energy properties.

As a vast array of places sell industrial-scale lower quality oils, or even synthetic or degraded products, if you enjoy quality pure natural aromatics, you will end up saving money.

All you get here is entirely genuine and worth their fragrant carats.

You don't describe the aromatherapy properties of your oils, why is that ? Are they not suitable for that ?

Those are high quality oils so are very much suitable for that. The only reason I don't describe them is because of the tight legislation where I operate from. It makes me a bit sad, but it is what it is. The only upside to this is that it encourages people to do their own research into those. I have listed a few very olid entry points in the references section.

The only oils that are not suited are absolutes (a tiny fraction of offerings, always mentiond in the description), or vintage oils cured for a long time (also always mentioned)

For the absolutes it is because of the double solvent extraction (one at least petroleum based) which also implies that no absolute can ever be "organic" even if the raw material was.

For the vintage oils, it is becasue of ongoing ,olecular transformation as oils age. Studies of aromatherapy properties are made on young oils. Little is known about how / if they remain useful after that, or if they loose potency or even develop harmful facets. For olfactive enjoyment, and the effects and practices derived from that, they remain interesting if not better (for oils that age well and are well cured). 

Why are some reviews verified and others are not ?

The verified review badge shows on a product's review when customers who bought this item via the web shop subsequently leave a review.

Non-verified reviews were written by people who bought via different means (bought in real life, via a bulk order or a custom order, via samples). 

Testimonials are feedback we received via email or apps. 

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 rose orchard we run implies around 40 people year round (and more than 300 in harvest season), then there are the saffron cooperative, the people we co produce oud, sandalwood or other distillations with, then there are very part times collaborators : lab assistant, graphic design, illustration, video editing, administration, people who help with commercialization, etc. you can read more about all that on here.

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 an automated 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 other 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 relatively 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 growth calls for it, and if I can get more steady collaborators, I would love to add more languages to the site. French being a literary and creative language for me, I also do not want to AI translate things, nor do I want to AI generate content.

For now, and for broadstrokes 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 contact us if you are uncertain about anything, or need more information.

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, organization or registration myself. I do discuss the scope of the worskhops with the organizers to fit their interests, and do prepare communication material to help them with that.

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

Private degustations on appointment, time pending. 

More on the services page.

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 to blog's homepage, it's called heartnotes.

There is also a completely separate blog for the shop 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 a main source of income, so it can grow at its own organic speed, or even not grow further. There is no need to push for sales.

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