Lorrain McKiniry: Saint George is one of the prettiest places in all of Bermuda. These old buildings painted pinks and blues and greens, reflecting the colors of nature. The streets are steeped in mystery and so is the art perfumery.
Lorrain McKiniry: Hello.
Isabel Brackston: Hi there.
Lorrain McKiniry: I love this one, what’s it called?
Isabel Brackston: It’s South Water. South Western is a brand new fragrance we just launched last week. It has some lovely coconut milk that have guavas and sea salt. It’s lovely.
Lorrain McKiniry: Displays are so charming, the whole building is charming. How old is this building?
Isabel Brackston: It’s a 300 year old house, one of the oldest house in Saint George called beautiful may of Bermuda seeder, in Carlstone. Saint George is a world inherit the site form UNESCO and Stewart Hall one of the oldest house in Saint George’s.
Lorrain McKiniry: And so do you sell your perfumes here?
Isabel Brackston: Yes all our perfumes are sold here. We make them.
Lorrain McKiniry: You make them here?
Isabel Brackston: Yes. We create everything, we make them in our perfumery. Hey, if you want I can show you.
Lorrain McKiniry: You can show me how you make them?
Isabel Brackston: Absolutely. I like to come here because this is where I show people how we work. How our art becomes reality.
Lorrain McKiniry: What is this, what are these charts?
Isabel Brackston: These are what we called genialities. So I like to put this on so that people can see which family of scent they like more than other, and then we can better mind which one’s from my collection. Most of my fragrances are very floral because as a perfumer in Bermuda, my art reflects my environment.
Lorrain McKiniry: Has anyone ever asked you to create a custom scent for them?
Isabel Brackston: Absolutely we customize fragrances and they’re very complex. I mean each of our fragrance contain between 50 to 100 of different ingredient. A perfume is a symphony, it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. So we’re very patient with our customers, it takes very big commitment from them because they have come back to us and really explain to us the emotions that they want to have in their perfumes and they have to cooperate with us very much so that we can do that for them and give them perfume of their dream.
Lorrain McKiniry: So the perfumery is not actually in the house?
Isabel Brackston: No it’s right here. It’s an old little house which was built as a servant’s house to the main house.
Lorrain McKiniry: This garden is gorgeous.
Isabel Brackston: Thank you.
Lorrain McKiniry: Is this where you find you muses?
Isabel Brackston: Absolutely. My beautiful roses, oleander, passion flower, frenchupani, that’s a honey suckle.
Lorrain McKiniry: I love to see the perfumery
Isabel Brackston: Come in.
Lorrain McKiniry: Yes.
Isabel Brackston: All our essential wilds are made by specialized companies. We like to use the best available oils, however there’s no one to make Bermuda seeder oil for us, so we do it ourselves. So basically what I have here, what I’m going to do is to make a tincture out of the Bermuda seeder. So what I have in the bottle is Bermuda seeder, saw dust and wood chips and I’m infusing just a simple alcohol. It’s a special alcohol to make perfume with because it doesn’t smell anything. And then I’m going to let soak for about 48 hours.
Lorrain McKiniry: And what is the purpose of soaking the wood with alcohol?
Isabel Brackston: What happens is that the alcohol extracts the smell of seeder and then I’m going to filter tincture out of the bottle so there will be no wood chips left. And then I’m going to use that to make my cologne. I’m going to blend this tincture with some solvent as well bit of Rosemarie oil—lavender and then I’m going to let it sip and master rate for about three months.
Lorrain McKiniry: And what are these bottles over here?
Isabel Brackston: Yes the bottles are the perfumes and with the toilet at their final stage of master ration, so we let them sit like that and age for between three to 6 months so that all the ingredients harmonize themselves to each other. When they’re ready, we do final filtration and then we do all the buffing and packaging upstairs around my house.
So Kirby Brackston right now is filling the bottles
Lorrain McKiniry: Hi Kirby Brackston.
Kirby Brackston How are you.
Lorrain McKiniry: I’m good thank you. This handsome gentleman is her husband.
Isabel Brackston: Yes, so Kirby Brackston fills the bottle, right now we’re filling 32 degrees north. This is a great men’s fragrance. Then we took the pump from the bottle.
Lorrain McKiniry: This is also done by hand?
Isabel Brackston: Yes and then we go ahead and crimp the pump from the bottle.
Lorrain McKiniry: So what are the finishing touches that you do in the bottles?
Isabel Brackston: Well then we have to polish it and then tank them, put the cap on and this is it.
Lorrain McKiniry: And then each one gets a little tag I love this, that your husband’s name is in there.
Isabel Brackston: Absolutely, they all have their own color, ready to go just put it in the box and that’s it.
Lorrain McKiniry: So this is ready to go home now?
Isabel Brackston: Yeah.
Lorrain McKiniry: With the box?
Isabel Brackston: Yes.
Lorrain McKiniry: Isabel who comes to visit your shop?
Isabel Brackston: A lot of visitors, locals alike. Everybody passionate with the art of perfumery. People looking for something very unique, they come to see us, fall in love with our fragrance.
Lorrain McKiniry: I’ve fallen in love myself and I’m taking right home with me.
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