Roan on Fire

Three sparks meet in one flame: the Year of the Fire Horse, the unapologetic glow of a pop star in full bloom, and the quiet courage of a heroine who becomes the spark of a revolution.

Maple sweetness drifts in first — soft, almost edible — before benzoin curls up like resin burned in a chapel. Cypress stands tall and evergreen, carrying a sense of steady resolve, while birch tar cuts through with smoke and tension. Cherry bark and hay trace the shape of the roan horse itself, and rum, osmanthus, hawthorn berry, pomelo blossom, and agarwood bring warmth tied to Lunar New Year.

It reads as bold without being loud, a little rebellious, a little sentimental, built for evenings that feel like a turning point — a dinner marking change, a night out with people who know you, a moment where standing in your own momentum feels worth dressing for.

• James Nguyen

d.grayi is the work of James Nguyen, known also as Miju, a perfumer who came to scent as an adversary rather than a calling. A career spent around hair color and its chemicals left James allergic. Fragrance meant headaches and a throat swelling shut, and anything scented was avoided outright. Cosmetic chemistry, taken up as a hobby, brought the first turn: cosmetic raw materials that smelled unpleasant, and natural ingredients found to soften them.

Then came a dream, in which someone deeply important who had passed away returned and described a fragrance. It was not a scent so much as a complete story, vivid and pictured, and James woke and wrote down every detail. The quest to recreate it became the studio. Isolated aroma molecules, tried later, provoked nothing; the allergy had been to composition, not to any one material. James now builds olfactive stories unrestricted.