fragrance notes: first cut
by st. clair scents
Fragrance Profile
Perfumer: St. Clair Scents
Nose: Diane St. Clair
Origin: Vermont
Season: Spring & Summer
Kelley’s Notes
This scent conjures golden fields of sun-warmed hay, sweet and fragrant beneath the early summer sky.
This is laundry billowing on the line beside a 1940s farmhouse, pale cotton dancing in the breeze. It’s the scent of fresh-cut hay—sweet, golden, and warm beneath the early summer sun. Rope swings over hidden lakes. Bare feet brushing tall grass. The soft cluck of chickens and the hush of sheep settling in for the night. This is a quiet farm in upstate New York, untouched by pings, posts, or timelines—just the hum of insects, the rustle of leaves, and the steady rhythm of a slower life.
When to Wear
Wear this scent as you read the newspaper in bed, morning light pooling across pale linen sheets, Ella Fitzgerald lilting from the record player. Wear it on sun-drenched afternoons when your skin warms beneath cotton eyelet and slender straps. Wear it when your heart aches tenderly for childhood summers—those endless, honeyed days that slipped into firefly-lit nights.
Fragrance Notes
Top: Bergamot, Yuzu, Rosemary, Basil, Tomato Leaf Absolute
Heart: Lavender Absolute, Rose De Mai, Rose Geranium, Immortelle Absolute
Base: Hay Absolute, Tobacco Absolute, Oakmoss, Vanilla Absolute
On my skin, First Cut begins bright, clean, and filled with the scent of hay just bundled in the field. It softens quickly to a golden sweetness that is both powdered and honeyed. This scent smells like sweet hay in the best possible way.
Pair It With
Pair it with a crisp glass of Sancerre, a white cotton sundress, and your vintage Polaroid camera slung over one shoulder—ready to catch the fleeting beauty of a world that still remembers how to be still.
Witch’s Work
A soft invocation for savoring the present and holding onto what is sweet, slow, and true.
What you’ll need:
A bowl of fresh summer fruit (peach, fig, or apricot)
A ribbon (cream, pale yellow, or soft rose)
A small jar of local honey
A sprig of dried chamomile or lavender
A slip of paper and pen
The ritual:
Set your items before you as a quiet altar — the fruit representing sweetness, the herb symbolizing peace and presence.
On the slip of paper, write down a moment you want to remember — something quiet and lovely: sun through curtains, laughter at breakfast, bare feet in the grass. Fold the paper into a small square, place the herb sprig atop it, and tie them together gently with the ribbon.
Take a spoonful of honey on your tongue, then slowly eat the fruit, savoring its texture and warmth. As you do, close your eyes and say:
“Let this day linger like sunlight on skin.
Let joy stay soft in the folds of my memory.
Let time be slow where beauty lives.”
Tuck the ribbon-bound charm into a drawer, a journal, or beneath your pillow — a tiny talisman of sweetness and stillness. Let the herb’s scent remind you to move gently through your golden days.
