Spotlight // Hall of Spells
The world of Myla St. Crispin is as intoxicating as the perfumes she blends. Myla started her journey in the olfactory at four years old when a bottle of her mother’s perfume slipped out of her hands and crashed to the floor leaving her in an aromatic puddle. Instead of upset, a passion ensued.
I met up with the petite perfumer, who is best described like one of her potions: A rare beautiful flower with a whimsical yet very downtoearth disposition. She draws from the natural world for inspiration and remarks with a smile that “the fae, love, myths, dreams, maps, kisses, all flowers, all blooms, all winds, smoke and color,” are her muses.
Myla always knew that she was going to incorporate healing into her creative work and says, “healing has always been a part of my path for as long as I can remember.” She recalls growing up near a large rose garden, where she would take her friends to “gather all of the petals, talk to the flowers and the spirits. It was always something I did, I never separated the two.” So great was her passion to learn that as an
adolescent she would take her babysitting money to an apothecary in Berkeley to purchase essential oils that she would experiment with in making her first blends.
“In the beginning it was aromatherapy that attracted me the most because of how it could help people.” Years of self study lead her to Grasse, France, considered the world perfume capital, where she extended her knowledge and technical proficiency with perfume masters whom she says “validated my own artistic process.”
Myla combines her expertise in aromatics and healing by creating “perfume spells” that help people with all types of quandaries. She offers “readymade” formulas that focus on classic themes such as love and abundance, as well as one-on-one sessions from which a custom blend is prepared. During a consultation, Myla says clients ask about, “anything and everything from lifestyle questions, insights into things they are currently going through, to things they want to bring into their life.” She pulls from her
network of intuitive and technical skills including cosmology, clairvoyance, flower essences, crystal and sound healing. She says that the term “spell” is the most accurate way to describe what she does because of the “transformation scent can bring.”
Myla explains the importance of using natural materials such as oils from resins, woods and blooms as opposed to synthetic oils. The life force energy that comes from materials derived directly from nature cannot be duplicated by chemical compounds produced in a laboratory. “The “naturals” conjure a world you can exist in, that can actually happen versus a fantasy,” she says. She describes a relationship between the
perfume and the person. “There is a language, a synergy, a magic that happens when the two are brought together, and that type of magic is real.”
So what does a day in Myla’s world look like? “On blending days, there needs to be true stillness. It’s a very serene environment,” she says, describing how she works in a manner similar to a conscious dreamlike state. “Anytime I go into the studio to blend there is complete reverence. Imagine you are entering a temple to do your work. At the same time, it is creative process so it’s also a lot of fun!”
I am intrigued. The thought of wearing a beautiful, fragrant perfume (a spell no less) that has been crafted in a temple by a flower prophetess, with its mission directly to help you. Sign me up!
Myla’s desire to incorporate perfume, art and healing has lead her to a collaboration with award winning British artist Sam Spenser. We can expect to see their work together sometime this year.
Photography by Shanna Fisher
Words by Caren Motika McPherson
