Honeydote

This was my entry for the Make Scents Make Sense competition late last year. At the time, I chose Litsea Cubeba (may chang) as my challenge because in all my born days, I had never once thought of using it (never—until I realized my pipette had practically melted into a Sorting Hat, haha). On top of that, if it wasn't rendered ultra-refreshing (which isn't my style and which I hate, because it always ends up smelling like mosquito repellent), I had no idea what to do with it.

When I first got Smoked Litsea Cubeba from LOSiam, I thought, "Huh, interesting." It carried a toasted, smoky facet combined with the normal Litsea profile—so weird! But it immediately made me think of honey, because honey absorbs smoky facets easily, and citrus notes naturally complement honey (honey-lemon, you know).

Even though it didn't win in the competition, I'm just glad I brought this creation to life exactly the way I wanted. It's my most expensive formulation (naturally, using Beeswax Absolute that isn't commercially available in Thailand, haha), took the longest to package (fighting with a 3D printer until I finally gave up and hired a printing shop, haha), and I'm genuinely thrilled I stepped out of my comfort zone to use materials I'd never touched before. Hopefully, I'll incorporate it into more things in the future.

Oh, and because the raw materials had to be ordered from overseas, I decided to make only 5 bottles—once they're gone, they're gone. For anyone I spoiled it to who loved it, better hurry up and grab yours!