We are back from a great holiday through Scandinavia. Almost 3 weeks driving through Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Family, new impressions, culture, nature and much more. But also a search for a new scent for our beard oil. A real Viking scent, but one without the standard clichés such as wood scents, mead and so on. I can tell you that after a while of searching this turns out to be damn difficult. Why is this difficult?
Be a viking king ...... and smell like a moose
The seduction ritual of a moose
The answer is quite simple, anything Viking related (and not cliché) stinks. In my previous blog I was still hopeful in my search for a real Viking scent. However, when I came face to face with a large moose and was taught by the moose expert in the seduction ritual of the moose, I lost my courage. To educate and entertain; a moose man is a king during the bronze age (early autumn). The other months he is a passive wimp who loves flowers. The moose female is a queen all year round. During the bronze, the man's urine smells extra because of all the testosterone. The moose king pisses a large puddle on the ground and smells if it stinks enough. He continues to do this until the stench is to his satisfaction. Then he starts stamping in that puddle with his front legs so that his whole chest is covered with his own urine. If he smells enough then he walks with his head raised into the wide world in search of his queen…. Please explain to me how to draw inspiration from that.
Beautiful encounters
Especially because I was able to make good contacts with a local Swedish producer of hydrosols and essential oils. She makes the best smelling pine oil I've ever smelled. So pure and natural. Not so strange in itself, given the fact that the region where she picks the needles by hand has been pesticide-free for decades and where the farmers only use natural resources and methods. It is a water catchment area and full of life. And this is reflected in the end product. They also make a number of other oils, but they smell and are therefore not suitable for a nice beard oil. It is a young company so who knows what they will deliver in the future. When they come to the Netherlands we will meet again, but in my lab. In the meantime, I am left with the challenge that a pine scent is so cliché again.
Many flowers
Sweden and Norway are full of wild flowers, especially lots of purple flowers but that aside. Unfortunately the flowers we have seen have little smell or, here we go again, they stink. It is true that full of pure nature and beautiful properties, but if you would distill the oil, the end result would stink.
I was especially curious about mooseweed, a very beautiful wild purple flower that you saw everywhere, but unfortunately without any noteworthy smell. You will also encounter moose moss everywhere, but what can you do with it except to decorate your model railway. In short, we should not expect much from the flower corner. Perhaps lavender or heather. The lavender is of course a nice cliché, and I haven't been able to find a really good example of the heather yet. Our new contact will soon be distilling a batch of heather, so who knows, maybe there's something beautiful in there. In short, we are stuck again.
The journey
The trip was great, we got to sniff Viking culture, meditate like a god (Buddha) at the top of a waterfall, saw wildlife, experienced wonderful nature, admired beautiful starry skies, smelled wonderful natural scents. And on top of all that almost bought a mega large moose skull. But the final conclusion is that I have no idea yet for a new viking scent. So you see, not everything ends in success.
Below is a short impression of our trip.
