The Witches of Maine

The first time someone says witches are real.

It is a coven of witches under the full moon near the cliffs of Ellsworth, built on a memory from childhood. The cherries come from Arnett and Murray Family Farms in California, farmed organically, with more grown in York, Maine, home of the York Witch; the blueberries are farmed organically in Maine. Many of the ingredients are hand sourced and extracted for their magical and energetic properties.

Pomare's Stolen Perfume is the work of its founder, raised on a farm in the Northern Maine woods, with a mother's family from Tahiti. Spring on the farm meant the smell of thawing earth and spring grasses; the long winters meant fantasies of what Tahitian warmth would smell like. Most things in a bottle captured none of it the way it had been pictured, and so the founder found natural fragrance and began making tinctures and mixing oils and resins.

Working as a wine director and sommelier reinforced a passion for terroir, and the house celebrates regional and seasonal differences in natural ingredients, believing in small production with as little intervention as possible. Formulas pivot with the season, so one vintage differs from the last. The founder studied with the alchemist Mandy Aftel, and the house was named International Sustainable Brand of 2020 for its work with upcycled redwood.