Lupus & Vega Persian Rose Extreme Mukhallat

A higher dose than the original.

More Hindi oud from Al Hashimi, at a higher dose than the original, and extra otto and extra absolute from the original version. The oud contrasts with the flowers.

Orris Padillia, fifteen percent irones.

Joe Vega began blending essential oils at seventeen, out of New Age bookstores and health food stores, and exhibited paintings in several shows before the work turned from the visual to the olfactory. Formal training followed in 2017, on top of a Bachelor of Arts in English spent on Western philosophy and linguistics. Lupus & Vega runs on that combination, and on a long draw toward Arabic and traditional profiles for their unapologetic boldness.

The house works in oils, attars and mukhallats sold by weight, alongside sprayed extraits, and it publishes its percentages: seventeen percent white lotus absolute, twenty-five percent deer musk tincture. The work leans dusky, slightly severe, elegant but not polished to death, and a little unsettling in a good way. Ouds do most of that. Every release is trialled for materials, proportions and intensity before it goes out.