Athar means a trace

What's left behind after something has passed. A footprint, a reputation, ink on a page. It is also the only honest description of what a fragrance actually is.

Why our name is on the bottle and not someone else's

Most of this market sells you a familiar name in an unfamiliar bottle. We don't, and the reason is not modesty.

Every pound spent building a brand that carries another house's name builds their name. Ten years of that and you own nothing. So each of our fragrances carries a name of its own — and each one means a kind of trace, so the range says the same thing ten different ways.

What we do tell you, plainly, in the description of every bottle, is the fragrance it was built to emulate. You deserve to know what you're buying. You just won't find it on the label.

How they're made

Fragrance oil and alcohol don't become a perfume the moment they're combined. They need to sit — maceration — and how long depends entirely on what's in the bottle.

• Fresh and citrus: seven to fourteen days. Left much longer, bergamot and lemon oxidise and the fragrance turns sharp.
• Spiced and oriental: thirty to forty-five days.
• Woody and oud: thirty to sixty.

This is why our winter fragrances arrive in November while the fresh ones are here now. The winter range was blended first and sold last. It is the opposite of how it looks from outside, and it is the whole reason we can't simply launch everything at once.

We mix in dated batches, and each bottle tells you which batch it came from.

What we won't do

• Put another brand's name on our label
• Claim a longevity figure we haven't measured
• Sell a fresh fragrance that has sat long enough to oxidise
• Argue with you about a return

That last one has a page of its own.