“I like perfumes that are elegant, rich, and multi-layered. I model my formulas after vintage classics and use notes that unfold over time so that the perfume is always changing —mellowing and merging with body chemistry.

As for favorite ingredients, it’s hard to pick just one... but it would have to be ambergris. I buy beach-cast ambergris from New Zealand and make a tincture as a base note for all of my perfumes because I love the scent and permanence that it lends.

The world is full of magnificent smells, but the best are difficult to capture and prevent from fading. Honeysuckle is notoriously evasive. The essential oil of rose has an exquisite scent, but it’s expensive and dissipates rapidly. There are many other examples. The perfumer’s challenge is to enhance and extend the natural beauty of precious ingredients such as rose. Perfumery demands sensitivity, creativity, research, science, rare ingredients, and a lot of trial and error. All of my perfumes are the result of many failed mixtures, finally leading me to a formula that “works.”

My Field to Fragrance™ portfolio is an amalgamation of my travels and memories. “Neroli” captures the citrus flowers and sea breezes I encountered on visits to Liguria. “Classic No. 9” smells like my childhood memory of grand perfumes worn by sophisticated women: a lifetime of becoming. “Fougère” is my attempt to recreate the legendary Houbigant parfum from 1882 -not the modern version, the old-fashioned one- which I have never smelled, but imagine whenever I see ferns. “Jasmine Blossom” exists because sweet, velvety, narcotic Jasmine Grandiflorum deserves a perfume all her own. “Ace” is a celebration of refined Vetiver and the unparalleled charm that it imbues upon a gentleman. “Grenada Orange” captures the scent of a sun-kissed man on holiday in the Island of Spice. “Tabac” is beautifully masculine and dear to my North Carolinian heart. “Ruby” is a bold and juicy bouquet celebrating a wonderful woman and an ardent supporter of the arts.

Thank you for sharing my love of old-fashioned perfumery, an increasingly rare art.

— Kelly Heaton, 2018”