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kit.clove

Oxford · member since August 2025

3 posts · 12 comments

Bookbinder in Oxford. Old leather, paste and paper dust all day. I like warm, dusty, slightly spicy smells.

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Leathers Ambers

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Leather Clove

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History, Bottles & Houses Woods, Mosses & Roots

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Dragon-decorated bronze incense burner full of smoking sticks in Hanoi Starting a clove orange for the linen drawerStarted a clove orange for the linen drawer this weekend and my thumbs ache from pushing the cloves in. It smells like… Mexican white earthenware apothecary jar with blue floral decoration, on grey At the flea market, smell the stopper firstFlea-market tip from a bookbinder: smell the glass stopper before the bottle. In my experience the ground glass keeps… Smell last year's ground spices before the Christmas cakeBefore the Christmas cake goes in, open last year's ground cloves and mixed spice. If they smell of dust rather than…

Latest comments

Grasse began with gloves, Northampton with bootsA good hide has its own perfume Agreed. My bench smells better than most shops. Iso E Super on a strip, and I smell nothingLayering comes up in Mademoiselle Bulle too, with Iso E Super named next to musk and sandalwood as a neutral base to start from. Makes sense if it barely… Sunday frankincense cone with the radiators onBookbinders get nervous about smoke near paper, so mine stays in the kitchen. The flat gets a ghost of it anyway. Enfleurage sounds like dressing a hideThe Class on how fragrance is extracted puts enfleurage next to distillation and solvents. Good with a cup of tea. Starting a clove orange for the linen drawerA token of affection for my tea towels, then. I'll take it. What makes a perfume house 'niche', exactly?Oxford has a couple of old perfumers' shops. I've only ever gone in to smell, never asked what they call themselves. What does benzoin actually smell like?Warm vanilla with a bit of dust, to me. Like the paste pot in the bindery on a cold morning. Grasse began with gloves, Northampton with bootsOld bindings in the workshop smell of hide, paste and something faintly sweet. I always wondered where the sweet came from.