0

Ofrenda de Humo

Umbral. Ofrenda de Humo, a perfume of memory.

  1. Walk up the candle street and the stair to the painted church.
  2. Her joined hands burn open in gold, and the butterfly carries you into Mina's chapel, at the end of a path of marigold petals.
  3. You come close to the altar, where La Sahumadora burns copal.
  4. The copal smoke grows until you cannot see her anymore.
  5. The smoke turns and the calavera woman stands in it. She steps aside, and the perfume, Ofrenda de Humo, rises out of the smoke beside her: a ritual you wear on your skin.
  6. Her mask returns, the skull paint turns to a golden ritual pattern, and then she is a living woman.

    She brings you to your true self.

    A ritual you wear on your skin.

    Umbral

    Ofrenda de Humo

    Eau de Parfum

    A ritual you wear on your skin.

    Top notes · the first minutes

    Marigold and magnolia

    It opens bright, like the petals that mark the path home.

    A perfume of memory

    Scroll to walk

    The Ofrenda de Humo bottle in black clay, the calavera face carved in relief with marigolds and smoke

    The Offering

    An offering of smoke you can wear.

    In the first days of November, many homes in Mexico lay marigold petals from the door to the altar, light candles and burn copal. Ofrenda de Humo follows that path in scent, from a green, bright opening to what stays warm on your skin. A perfume of memory, told in nine essences.

    Ofrenda de Humo · Eau de Parfum

    The Essences

    Nine essences, in the order they unfold: their stories, not a formula.

    I · The path

    1. Material
      A green, bright flicker, like crushed leaves and green apple, bitter and sweet at once.
      Origin
      The altar flower is native to Mexico. In perfume, only a trace of its cousins, or an accord.
      Transformation
      Loose petals become a path of colour and scent, from the door to the altar.
      Meaning
      By tradition, the souls follow that scent home. Here, it opens the way.

    II · The living heart

    1. Material
      A creamy white flower, heady and waxy, with a buttery warmth.
      Origin
      Born in Mexico, grown there long before the Spanish arrived. Most tuberose extract for perfume today comes from India.
      Transformation
      Great baskets of fresh flowers give only a few drops of extract. The oldest way laid the petals in fat.
      Meaning
      In Nahuatl, omixochitl, bone flower, for its shape and colour. Life, opening slowly.

    2. Material
      Lemony and creamy, a pale flower with a dry note of tea.
      Origin
      Mexico has its own magnolia. The magnolia oil in perfumery comes from white flowers of southern China and Java.
      Transformation
      The flowers are distilled with steam, though most magnolia in perfume is rebuilt as an accord.
      Meaning
      In Nahuatl, yolloxochitl, a fragrant flower shaped like a heart. Tenderness, held open.

    III · The smoke and depth

    1. Material
      Pale resin that burns into a sweet white smoke, lighter than frankincense.
      Origin
      Resin of Bursera trees. In the Balsas basin, copaleros cut the bark in the rains.
      Transformation
      Distilled, copal smells bright and piney. Its smoke in a perfume is an accord.
      Meaning
      By tradition, its smoke lifts the prayer and cleans the space around the altar.

    2. Material
      Roasted beans, bitter and earthy, with a shadow of tobacco and leather.
      Origin
      Cacao for perfume is grown in West Africa and Latin America, from Ghana to Peru.
      Transformation
      The beans are fermented and roasted, and their scent is drawn out into a dark, concentrated extract.
      Meaning
      Nearly five centuries ago, Indigenous towns offered cacao for their dead in place of wine.

    3. Material
      Hard golden tears of resin, sweet and balsamic, close to vanilla and almond.
      Origin
      From Styrax trees in Laos or Sumatra. Mesoamerica had its own balsam, liquidambar, once burned with copal.
      Transformation
      The bark is scored, the resin seeps and hardens for months, then is gathered by hand.
      Meaning
      A cut in the bark closes into a sweet tear. It keeps the warmth close.

    IV · What stays on the skin

    1. Material
      Cured black pods, sweet and a little powdery, the warm note of the bean.
      Origin
      An orchid native to Mexico. Today Madagascar grows the most.
      Transformation
      A yellow flower, then a pod that turns black as it is fermented and dried.
      Meaning
      In Nahuatl, tlilxochitl, black flower, for the cured pod. What darkens turns sweet.

    2. Material
      Warm, waxy and honeyed, with soft notes of hay and cured tobacco.
      Origin
      Its perfume extract comes from honeybee comb. The Maya kept stingless bees and traded their wax.
      Transformation
      Wax becomes candlelight. In Axochiapan, Morelos, it is still shaped into flowers, petal by petal.
      Meaning
      A candle lit for someone, its warmth still on your skin.

    3. Material
      Dry and warm, a little smoky, like dark leather softened by years of wear.
      Origin
      No oil comes from a hide. Every leather note in perfume is an accord.
      Transformation
      In Grasse, gloves were once perfumed. The leather trade faded, and the perfume stayed.
      Meaning
      The shape someone leaves in what they wore. A trace that stays.

    The Ritual

    An offering can begin with a small light. A candle is lit, a piece of copal is laid on the coal, and the smoke rises slowly through the room. Petals are scattered from the door, so the path is clear. Ofrenda de Humo asks for a few gestures of the same kind. Choose a moment that matters to you. Wear it on your wrists, at your throat and over your heart, and let the first bright notes open and fade as you walk. Later, only the warmest part remains: wax, vanilla and a trace of leather. When you come home, some of it has stayed with you.

    A black clay copal burner shaped as a woman in calavera paint, crowned with marigolds and golden rays. Her raised hands hold the bowl, where copal glows on the embers and smoke rises.

    The House

    Casa Umbral, house of the threshold.

    Umbral is Spanish for threshold. On many altars, a flowered arch marks that doorway.

    We are a small perfume house between the Netherlands and Bolivia. It began with a dream of Día de Muertos: candlelight, marigolds, copal smoke, and a woman in calavera paint at the altar. She became our guide.

    Monarchs fly ahead of her. The Purépecha took their arrival as a sign that the dead were coming home.

    Each fragrance is a film you wear. The tradition that moves us is Mexican, and we keep learning from the people who hold it.