Follow the smell

If the cure for the common cold were in plants, she would have already found it. Her skills are mythical and tell a story with just one whiff.

Haley Alexander Van Oosten, the one with not only the green thumb, but the green eye, or more precisely, the L’oeil du vert, identifying and extracting our very essences. (Relax, it’s not witchcraft we speak of.)

You might mistake your first meeting as a therapy session (or interrogation) because to make the perfect one-of-a-kind fragrance requires the spilling of the beans to the head alchemist--what makes you happiest, what makes you tick. Before you know it, you’ll understand why frankincense was such a coveted gift to baby Jesus.

Some call what Haley (yes, we’re on a first-name basis) has an obsession; her knack for all things green has led her to become an honorary ethnobotanist and bonafide fragrance designer in Los Angeles, with a special nose for individuality. Check her credentials, her diplomas in East Asian Studies confirm she’s legit and led her to explore the healing aspects of perfumery. This dedication treks her out to the mountains and jungles of India, the Middle East, South America, and Europe, in search for the purest and rarest herbs. She returns and distills the unique scents in her Malibu lab. And don’t get us started on the customized packaging--it’s a whole other story-- but let’s just say it’s artisanal woodwork looks like miniature architectural models for a modern cabin in the woods. The end result is something that will set you apart in a sea full of Chanel N°5.

Her craft is known in the L.A area as a new kind of art, “scent sculpture,” she calls them in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her concoctions have even increased business at the Four Seasons Hualalai. Hmm ... maybe her special potions could work on a lover, it is 100% organic after all.

Head out of the gutter! Moral of the story: We want whatever she has.

Contact our real estate agency BARNES Los Angeles

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