Butter (perfume) & China Glass
Newsletter 4.2025
I swear by these Chinese medicated/ mentholated-to-the-max oils that come in very dainty glass flasks with strong plastic caps that I am always reluctant to throw away once they’re empty. Same with the nostalgic Tiger Balm glass jars!
Last month, while I was browsing AliBaba for a leak-proof option so that I could phase out my roller-ball attar bottles, I stumbled onto these miniature flacons on sale and much to my delight the Minimum Order Quantity was just a hundred! I also spotted some Tiger Balm jars that I wanted to buy from the Chinese manufacturer but their MOQ is much much higher.
As I keep reminding my well meaning friends who tell me to scale up and “do packaging”, I’m a very very small scale producer. I simply do not have enough money, means and resources to do more. And I don’t want to do more. I love producing small scale perfume artworks that do not compare to mass manufactured perfumes.
This commercial category of product has to be watered down in order to comply with stringent safety standards that ultimately exclude the rich and complex natural ingredient palette while increasing options on aroma chemicals. In this low-cost high-volume model, every formulation and its dilution is calculated down to the decimal by industry software. Now we are describing an object and its value determined by technology and market forces. Not art.
I make art, so asking me to scale up is like asking me, a fish, to invest in a bicycle, to compete in a race on land, where the prize is plastic rice produced by a billionaire.
Mutant Rice and Lab Rats: Bill Gates Sparks Outrage After Referring to India as ‘Testing Ground’ for Experiments
by GMWatch, May 21, 2025
At ten cents per 9ml flacon, I could afford to skip this competition entirely and continue swimming upstream on my own. Now let me show you these ridiculously adorable flasks!
I continue using my handwritten sticker labels on the bottles and neon paper wrappers to keep things simple. This month on, perfumes come in these cutie bottles, 9ml instead of 6ml, and still at the same price!
You know, each time, at various points in my career, I have (almost) cried at not having “proper” things for building a business— money, connections, family networks like an “uncle” who can help, but I gave myself that five minute pity-scene, so that I can go back to refining my critique and concepts to the point of intellectual and aesthetic sturdiness. The whole point of my practice — as an art critic or perfumer — is to give you the literal taste and scent of a luxurious world that is not yet lost.
Now let me show you the level of artistry I accomplished to create “Butter” with limited access to perfumery materials. (This too is an issue of scale - manufacturers in India sell by the kilo and it is the small relationships I have struck with handful industry people who can locally provide me some special materials in under 20 grams. So, my perfumery practice operates at a limited scope than so called Niche Perfumers in the global north).
BUTTER!!!
I’m going to disclose all the luxurious (and costly) materials I used to formulate this impossible sensory experience!
The foundation of this perfume is composed of natural ingredients: Nutmeg butter, Myrrh, Ambrette CO2, Fenugreek CO2, Hemidesmus indicus CO2, Sandalwood CO2, Sandalwood oil and Orris butter. Beeswax, Tonka bean diluted with a touch of ghee and maltol. Agarwood, Coumarine, Potato pyrazine and Hazelnut pyrazine add a floating toasty, popcorn sensation. Almost like you have a fresh baguette toasting in the oven! Synthetic heliotrope and chrysanthemum add a layer of freshness (as opposed to a staleness) and buttery creaminess.
Now, if you prefer your “Butter” smoked, then I can add a touch more pyrazines to tickle your nose-brain! This is a perfume suitable to colder climates but I have been wearing this in Pune where it is currently monsoon-y and humid, layered with my Smoked Patchouli perfume. It has made me feel very electric with hope and possibility.
I am always complaining, but turning to a perfumer from an art critic has been the best decision I have made. My practice and the way it has resonated with an audience has filled me with such affirmation, I am never plagued by a feeling of incompetence. Infact, sharpening my nose-brain has made further visible the many interconnected structures that are profiting off our sense of helplessness-worthlessness. No, we are not going to spend a minute more doing them the service of thinking we don’t matter.
One last thing: Please read this recent essay by Lily Kelting on the colloquial connotations of friendship in the marathi and broadly South Asian context:
brings back good memories of buying some of those cute little oils when in Taiwan
❤️am I the friend who keeps saying you should print labels??? 😼