Some perfume you wear to smell nice. Stora Skuggan is the kind you wear because you cannot stop thinking about it. The Stockholm house has built a cult following by turning forgotten myths, extinct plants and unexplained phenomena into eau de parfum, and a growing number of New Zealanders are seeking it out. Wally is the exclusive New Zealand stockist of Stora Skuggan, so here is the full collection, and the story behind each one.
The Stora Skuggan story
Stora Skuggan (Swedish for "big shadow") is the work of five friends: Anna Barkne, Tomas Hempel, Olle Hemmendorff, Jonas Nordin and Martin Nicolausson. They met in 2005 at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, where a shared curiosity about scent turned, over years, from mixing essential oils for fun into a serious craft. They launched in 2015 with Fantôme de Maules, and still run nearly every part of the house themselves: the formulas, the bottles and the artwork. They call their shared process "a nose in unison".
Why Stora Skuggan is different
Most perfume houses sell you a mood or a signature note. Stora Skuggan sells you a story. Every fragrance starts with a piece of myth, history or natural mystery that the team researches deeply, then builds into scent. The fragrances are unisex, and there is no house "signature" tying them together, only the curiosity behind them. It is perfume for people who read the label and want to fall down a rabbit hole.
The collection, scent by scent
Fantôme de Maules
The house's 2015 debut, named for a real local legend: a masked figure said to roam the forests around the village of Maules in French-speaking Switzerland, glimpsed picking and smelling flowers before vanishing into the trees. A scent about mystery, and about the rare person who feels no need to explain himself.
Moonmilk
Named for the soft white mineral that forms deep in alpine caves, first described by a 16th-century Swiss naturalist who wrote of moonlight gathering in the cave like mist and dripping from the stone. One of the most loved scents in the range.
Hexensalbe
German for 'witches' lube', after the hallucinogenic flying salve of medieval folklore that, as the story goes, is the real origin of the image of witches soaring on broomsticks.
Azalai
Named after the ancient salt-caravan route across the Ténéré in the Sahara, and the Tree of Ténéré that once stood along it: for centuries the most isolated tree on earth, 150km from any other, kept alive by roots reaching an underground pool.
Silphium
A reconstruction of antiquity's most prized spice, a plant from ancient Cyrene so sought-after it was harvested to extinction. Built around ancient incense, woods and leather.
Thumbsucker
Drawn from a Hindu myth in which a king drinks a fertility potion meant for his queen and bears a son from his own thigh, a child then suckled by Indra, king of the gods.
Monkeyflower
An ode to the Victorian 'Common Musk', a flower once grown across England for its rich musk scent, which around 1900 mysteriously lost its smell in gardens and in the wild alike, and has never regained it.
Mistpouffer
Named for the unexplained booming sounds, like distant cannon fire, heard over lakes and seas around the world and never fully explained (in Japan they are called 'cries from the sea'). Reportedly four years in the making: foggy but not aquatic, smoky but not heavy.
Pine
The house at its most deadpan. In their own words, “It's Pine. It smells like Pine.” A straight, beautiful pine, and proof they do not take themselves too seriously.
How to choose
Each Stora Skuggan eau de parfum comes in 30ml at $349, and because every one is so different, the best way in is to smell them in person. Come and spend some time with the range in store, or order online if you already know your one. Our team in Takapuna is happy to talk you through them.
Where to buy Stora Skuggan in NZ
Wally is the exclusive New Zealand stockist of Stora Skuggan, the only place to find the full range in the country. Shop the full Stora Skuggan collection online, or visit us in store at 53 Hurstmere Road, Takapuna, Auckland. Free delivery on NZ orders over $80.
For more fragrance with a point of view, see The Virtue, the New Zealand made perfume and incense house we also stock.