All Dark Tales perfumes and other items in our boutique are handmade. We work with small batches to ensure the end product's highest quality, correctness, and safety. We make our fragrances from scratch, mixing and blending essential oils and other aroma molecules, creating accords that are added to the purest carrier base. Everything is made with careful attention to the smallest detail. Many ingredients are handpicked and studio-produced: some plants are distilled, and others are made as infusions* or tinctures**, which often take months.

Then, it also comes to the story and philosophy behind every product and every scent. Each fragrance is a tale we want to tell you; therefore, the narrative and the idea are another significant aspect of our work, making your olfactory journey with us truly remarkable - your Dark Tales.

* Infusion (Maceration) - a fragrance extraction from a plant by placing it in the carrier oil in a certain way.

** Tincture - to extract components from plants, its materials are placed in a jar of high-strength alcohol.

All perfume oils are PARFUM (also known as Pure Perfume or Extrait de Parfum), which means that the fragrance contains between 30-35% aromatic compounds and is also the highest concentration.

Our line of perfumes is unisex, meaning anyone can wear them. However, the scent’s performance may vary for different individuals depending on their body chemistry. The fragrances tend to have a woody undertone on male skin, while they will remain more floral and powdery on females. It's important to note that perfumes can vary for each person.

We use a combination of natural ingredients (essential oils, absolutes, concretes, CO2s, and floral waxes of the highest quality) and professional aroma molecules. Jojoba oil with a drop of Vitamin E as perfume oil base and candelilla (plant) wax with jojoba oil for solid perfumes.

In rare cases, you may experience a slight allergy reaction when getting our fragrances on your skin, as they are based on pure essential oils (cinnamon oil can cause slight irritation, for example). Some people may also be sensitive to certain aroma molecules. However, this is very individual and varies from person to person. If any allergic reaction occurs, immediately discontinue the use of the product, wash the affected area thoroughly, and consult with your physician.

Do not use any of the fragrances while pregnant or nursing.
Do not consume internally.
Always keep fragrances away from children and pets.

IMPORTANT:

Notes of the fragrances are not their chemical ingredients. If you have allergies to certain chemical ingredients that you know of, please contact us to double-check if a product contains it. For example, linalool, limonene, eugenol, citronellol, and similar are the most known allergens in organic essential oils.

The full INCI list is provided for every product.

Most solids consist of the following ingredients:

Base: Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Tocopherol (Vitamin E).

Fragrance: organic essential oils, absolutes, CO2s & perfume aroma molecules.

They are vegan.
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Some solid perfumes may have a base of natural beeswax and shea butter. Those are not vegan, and it will always say clearly in the description of the product.

No, we love animals and do not perform any tests on them. Moreover, we do not support when others do, and we do not use any ingredients that were tested on animals.

Yes. We do not use natural animal scents - only an organic imitation of it (for example, musk).

Ambergris is a cruelty-free ingredient.

Three years after opening. But it all depends on the storage. If you keep our perfumes away from direct sun and heat exposure, they will last up to 5+ years and longer. All of them are self-preserving.

First, it comes to the nature of perfumes containing organic ingredients - they do not smell overwhelmingly strong. Perfume oil will never create a cloud around you. Natural perfumes are, by default, a lot more delicate than spray-applied purely synthetic fragrances. Solid perfumes are even more discrete (intimate).

Secondly, there is a definition of cold/hot skin. When you have minimal or no physical activity, your skin is also peaceful. But as soon as you start moving, you activate the blood circulation that will wake the scent from its sleep mode, too. So, wearing perfume oils will be an olfactory rollercoaster throughout the day.

Thirdly, perfume wear time is very individual. For some people, it may last over 8+ hours on the skin and 3+ days when applied on hair ends; for others, the same scent may stay only for a few hours. This goes down to body and skin characteristics.

And lastly, perfume oils are not for everybody. Due to individual body chemistry, the wear time for some people can be very short because the skin keeps eating oils. Applying a fixator before perfume oil is the only way to prevent this. It can be a complimentary or a different solid perfume or a fixative pommade that we offer in our boutique.

No. This is connected to the nature of perfumes containing organic (botanical) ingredients. The molecules of certain materials (essential oils/resins/absolutes) of the perfume are heavier than the others. So, after the perfume has been standing on the shelf unused for a while, some ingredients may layer and cause light sediment or cloudiness. This is normal behavior and does not mean the perfume has gone bad. Just shake it thoroughly before the next application.

This is also explained by the moderate filtering that we use - we purposely leave heavier molecules in perfume so that maturing (aging) is more beautiful and complete.

To know that the perfume has gone bad - you will feel it by the smell change. It will have a distinct scent of old oil. However, this is an exceptional case because we use vitamin E in formulation to prevent any bacteria growth inside bottles.

Do not use any of the fragrances while pregnant or nursing.
Do not consume internally.
Keep away from children and pets.

Do not apply perfumes when attending beaches or spending a significant amount of time exposed to direct sun*.

*Some perfumes contain citrus notes (orange, mandarin, lemon, grapefruit, neroli, bergamot, and similar) that can cause photo-sensitization during prolonged direct sun exposure.

Always test with a small amount of perfume on your skin before using it full-time.