We humans have always been starstruck. No matter the sky-obscuring lights of our cities, or the irresistible glow of our devices, position a person beneath a dark sky on a clear night and their eyes will float upward, spellbound. From every region on Earth, we have set our sights on astral bodies, sensing the limitlessness that lies beyond our immediate sphere of reference.
Above Us, Steorra Eau de Parfum, is an ode to that unbounded realm. A meditation on chance and possibility in the form of an opulent, ambery fragrance.
Pondering possibility
With its intricate constellation of ingredients, Above Us, Steorra Eau de Parfum calls us to gaze at the stars—to fill the eyes with all that can be seen, and expand the mind into the endless potentials beyond.
To mark its launch, let us turn our attention from the firmament—for a moment—to the page, that other space where people have poured their astrally induced awe. From it, a micro-offering of macro notions; this list of celestial literature.
Orbital – Samantha Harvey
From the vantage point of the International Space Station, four astronauts and two cosmonauts contemplate desire, science, love, war, nature, climate change, duty, moon missions, life, death and everything they know and do not know about the familiar, strange, mesmerising planet they orbit. In the space of a novella, Samantha Harvey evokes an epic, tracing the thoughts of six extraordinary individuals in a stream of vignettes that leave the reader with an extraterrestrial perspective.
First Knowledges | Astronomy: Sky Country – Karlie Noon and Krystal De Napoli
"Over 250 Indigenous Nations make up the continent of Australia, and for more than 65,000 years, its First Peoples have developed and mastered sophisticated systems of life in concert with the land, sea and sky. The First Knowledges series is an essential cataloguing of Australian First Nations’ expertise within a collection of accessible volumes that serve as practical handbooks as much as educational resources. The fourth title in the series, ‘Astronomy: Sky Country’ gives a comprehensive overview of different nations’ connections with the stars, detailing ancient relationships between constellations and geographies that have informed and supported agricultural, wayfinding, seafaring, social and many more practices for millennia, into the present day."
On the Heavens — Aristotle
Aristotle’s 350BCE treatise on the cosmos, concerned primarily with the composition, function and motion of heavenly bodies. Among its pioneering meditations, the work speculates on the qualities and possibilities of aether—the theoretical fifth element that was believed to exist only beyond the confines of Earth. As entities thought to be composed of and animated by this mysterious and quite literally otherworldly matter, all extraterrestrial masses were, according to Aristotle, divine—even potentially ensouled—forms.
The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars — Dava Sobel
"So much of what humanity knows about the observable universe is owed in large part to the labour of unknown numbers of unsung individuals—often women, and even children, who assisted their noted male counterparts in mapping out our cosmological context. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, much of that mapping occurred with the use of glass plates—hence the title of Dava Sobel’s 2017 book about the women who were enlisted by directors at Harvard to help in the production of groundbreaking astrophotography. An important record of the world-changing work of meticulous scientists who may have otherwise been lost to the black hole of history. "
The Stuff of Stars — Marion Dane Bauer and Ekua Holmes
The art of paper marbling makes the universe in this majestic picture book that tells the story of the Big Bang. The bleed of ethereal visuals, brought into being by artist Ekua Holmes, draw the eye through vortexes of colour as Marion Dane Bauer’s poetic text lays out the history of existence from solitary speck to infinite cosmos. A universally enthralling work that defies restriction to any one age-range of life.
Dead Stars — Ada Limón
To cleanse the confounding-concept-laden palate: a looser thing: Dead Stars. A poem from Ada Limón about our bodies’ astral origins, and taking out the trash. Earthy, transcendent, eternal, immediate.
‘Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe.’
Maria Mitchell
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The Aesop Women's Library
one-minute read -
Introducing the fragrant fables
three-minute readA new chapterIntroducing the fragrant fables
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A guide to fragrance
nine-minute readLesson from the labA guide to fragrance
