Linen Tutu is a botanical niche fragrance collection launched in January of this year by Hastings-on-Hudson resident and trained aromatherapist Daniela Carrasco. The company guarantees 100% transparency within its products and discloses its ingredients, which are responsibly sourced.
Long-term sustainability is a key goal for Linen Tutu, and one way the brand honors that is by using whole and isolated natural ingredients responsibly derived from renewable sources. It also partners with packing suppliers who work with materials known to better the planet.
The debut collection of fragrances features ingredients distilled from botanicals, many of which have wellness-supporting properties. The scents are all plant-based, bio-renewable, and crafted by Carrasco.
Born in Lima, Peru and raised in Miami, Carrasco has had a lifelong inquisitiveness toward scents. It wasn’t until 2016, when her anxiety hit an all-time high while living and working in New York City, that she took a few days off to focus on herself. It may have been fate when she stumbled upon an aromatherapy course and proceeded to spend weeks engrossing herself in the study and scents of raw materials that proceeded to open a new chapter in her life.
The initial aromatherapy course in the East Village sparked a deep passion within Carrasco, and it continued for eight years as she became consumed in studying perfumery by taking classes and reading nearly every book written on the subject.
“My curiosity about fine fragrance formulation in particular grew. I was more drawn to the aesthetics of scent formulation and their ability to connect with humans in an emotional way, in contrast to clinical aromatherapy practices,” Carrasco shares.
Once she completed all the perfumery-related courses she could sign up for, it was time for the perfumer to put her skills to the test. She built a quaint studio for herself, where she spent most of her time formulating palettes with raw materials.
Carrasco took another step and enrolled in graduate school at Parsons School of Design. During her time at Parsons, students were encouraged to select their own area of research to study independently. To no one’s surprise, Carrasco explored olfaction and its connection to the other senses within the practice of multisensory design.
“In my research at Parsons, I learned that most people wear scent more for themselves than for other people. They turn to scents they love to feel good. That’s how I hope people wear Linen Tutu fragrances. They’re scents for you,” Carrasco shares.
The results of her studies are on full display within the current Linen Tutu collection, which is inspired by human relationships and perception of time. Each of the four fragrances are brought to life by different memories and times of day and marked by a number to specify time of day: Up @1, Hearsay @3, Lately @5 and Afterthought @7.
For Carrasco, fragrance inspiration strikes in many ways and can lead to either a streamlined creation path or a meticulous scent selection process. When she comes up with a concept, that leads to a brief or a story, followed by a palette full of ingredients like hibiscus musk, violet leaf, and clementine. One thing Carrasco learned early on in her career is that creating a scent takes a lot of trial and error. Once she has the concept of the scent, she has to bring the set design to a place that satisfies her as a perfumer.
“You have to see if the initial ingredient palette works,” she explains. “Do the ingredients harmonize? It could take dozens or hundreds of modifications to get the proportions right.”
She notes that while most of the time the process is meticulous, there are rare moments when her initial gut is nearly identical to the final formulation. In terms of the available collection, Hearsay @3 came to life fairly rapidly, while Afterthought @7 went through rounds of edits up until it launched.
“It kept drawing me in,” she admits. “It’s green. It opens sweet, but the brine comes in pretty quickly, which dries down to a slightly sweet, fresh spring water.”
In her hometown of Hastings, the Hudson River overlooks the New York City skyline and the Palisades. Not only did the river provide a visual source of inspiration, but the essence that the Hudson encompasses and represents struck a chord for Carrasco. Afterthought @7 was formulated during the pandemic, a time of reflection and challenges for many. Carrasco found solace in the Hudson and its calming presence, which to her feels like an aftermath of something.
“Through it all, the river remains, and it’s not one thing. It’s many things,” she observes. “It’s bright and dramatic. It’s sweet and briny. It’s ok to feel all those things at once.”
Another notable discovery that came out of Carrasco’s research at Parsons is that a lot of people aren’t comfortable with olfactory notes, or the scents that make up perfumes. To combat this finding, the company includes each perfume’s notion, texture, and tune in the description.
While many perfume lovers are head over heals for scents, others are drawn more to musical or visual artistic expressions. Carrasco acknowledges the different learning styles and translates the feelings and essence of the scents into an analogous expression. She poses the question: “If the scent were visual, song, or texture, what would it be?”
To tack on a visual component and collaborate with other artists, Carrasco worked with a local filmmaker and composer to translate Linen Tutu fragrances into a short film and musical score. The product is showcased here: Linen Tutu Natural Perfume | Our Story.
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From the emergence of her aromatherapy career to the debut Linen Tutu line, Carrasco has carved a unique path for herself. Between her background in plant therapeutics/aromatherapy, her design studies, and an array of instructors and mentors guiding her through the journey, she’s finally able to share her beautiful scents with the world.
“Scent, and the process of creating scent, has been so therapeutic for me. That’s what I hope to share with people,” she notes.
Learn more about the debut collection and scents here.
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