A Smoky Perfume Born from Poetry and Transformation
Some perfumes arrive fully formed in my thoughts. Others must be summoned.
Invoke is a smoky natural perfume 1 year in the making: a fragrance inspired by longing, devotion, sensuality, and the mysterious creative fire that calls us back to ourselves. It launched on the Autumn Equinox, and it's now part of our permanent collection.
It is a scent of desire, transformation, and the traces we leave on one another.
The Literary Inspiration Behind Invoke
The spark for Invoke began with a poem I've loved for years: The Cinnamon Peeler by Michael Ondaatje.
In the poem, a cinnamon peeler imagines how his work would mark everything he touches with the scent of cinnamon bark. His lover would become so infused with his fragrance that she would carry evidence of their intimacy wherever she went. The scent could not be hidden. It would become part of who she is.
What makes the poem so powerful is its tension. The lovers long to be together, yet their connection leaves a trace. Scent becomes both a mark of devotion and a secret that cannot be concealed. Desire and fragrance become inseparable. (If you haven't read it, I hope you'll seek it out. It's one of the most sensual poems I know.)
That emotional landscape became the foundation for Invoke. I imagined a fragrance born of lush tropical heat, where spice grows and stories linger in the air, and I knew it needed warmth, white flowers, a powdery glow, and smoke.
What Does Invoke Smell Like?
Imagine standing in a warm, moonlit jungle as a distant fire glows through the darkness. The air is heavy with spice. White flowers open after sunset. Smoke curls through the trees, and the damp earth beneath your feet is rich with secrets.
Invoke opens with the sacred, resinous smoke of copal. At its heart, narcotic tuberose and spiced jasmine unfold against luminous orris butter, a floral softness that glows against the warmth. As it settles, the fragrance wraps the skin like the embers of an intimate fire, deep, smoky, and surprisingly smooth.
The result balances fire and tenderness, darkness and light.
Fragrance Notes
- Copal: sacred, resinous, softly smoky
- Tuberose: lush, creamy, intoxicating
- Spiced jasmine: warm, sensual, glowing
- Orris butter: powdery, luminous, skin-like
Like all of our perfumes, Invoke is 100% natural and unisex, and it will wear a little differently on each person. That's part of its magic.
The Personal Journey Behind This Fragrance
Invoke is more than a perfume inspired by literature. It is also the first new fragrance I created after becoming a mother.
For nearly two years, my creative energy belonged almost entirely to raising my daughter. Building a thriving baby asks everything of you. It is a beautiful and necessary surrender. But somewhere along the way, I found myself asking difficult questions:
Who am I now?
What do I desire?
Where has my creative fire gone?
Creating Invoke became an answer. This fragrance arrived in starts and stops. It took longer than any perfume I have made before, and it was by far the most challenging to birth. It felt vulnerable and personal. At times I wasn't sure where it was leading, yet the scent kept calling me forward.
Each time I returned to the formula, I felt something awakening: the same force that fuels artistic creation, and the same force that fuels desire. A spark becoming a flame.
Why the Name "Invoke"?
The name revealed itself slowly, much slower than most perfumes do. But once it arrived, I knew it was right.
To invoke is to call something forth: a memory, a spirit, a longing, a hidden part of yourself waiting to emerge. Creating this fragrance required exactly that. It asked me to call my creative self back into the world after a long season devoted to motherhood. Invoke became both the fragrance and the act itself, a ritual of return, and a reminder that creative fire never truly disappears. Sometimes it simply waits to be summoned.
Who Is Invoke For?
If you love a unique fragrance, or artisan niche fragrances that tell a story, Invoke was made for you.
This is not a clean, minimalist scent. It is rich. Atmospheric. Emotional. Lusty. Ethereal.
It is smoke glowing against darkness.
It is warmth on bare skin.
It is white flowers blooming after sunset.
It is devotion made visible.
How to Wear Invoke
Take three easy breaths into your heart center. Then apply Invoke along your pulse points and imagine your heart's desire expanding as the fragrance warms. What are you invoking?
For a scent that lasts even longer, smooth on Full Moon Rose Body Oil first, then layer Invoke on top. You'll find Invoke as a roll-on or Eau de Parfum, in our Signature Scent Gift Set, or as a sample in the Discovery Set if you'd like to try it first.