Visit the AROMA SUBLIME website for my handcrafted artisan essential oils, aromatics, skincare, perfume and more in partnership with the legendary Tony Bolton.
Every ingredient has a story...
I have been travelling the world studying, working, and volunteering since 2007. I personally source exotic and inspiring botanicals from around the world to create my exclusive, small-batch, natural healing products, aromas, skincare, meditation and sleep enhancers, and much more. My very best formulations typically arise from personal, often chance encounters, with unique and exciting ingredients during my travels around the world. I create a new product only when I am truly inspired to do so, and only when I have acquired the very best ingredients. It is my intention to honour the legacy of each of the herbs and medicines I utilize and create a truly effective product. My creations are real, powerful, and completely natural. I seek to create healing products that work, as well as a feast for the senses.
”Sacred Aromatics” for pleasure, healing, and sacrament…
I offer many thanks and deepest heartfelt gratitude to my guides, teachers, supporters, and contributors. I feel incredibly fortunate. Whether it’s sacred white copal and gold copal resins wild-harvested by the Mayan indigenous people of southern Mexico and Guatemala, or the jet-black obsidian-like wildcrafted Indian frankincense from the Kerala jungle, or my lucky acquisition of a 100-year-old Japanese sandalwood tree from a 600-year-old Zen temple garden in southern japan… there are so many more stories and lucky encounters.
More recently I am honoured to have partnered with the legendary Tony Bolton to bring you some of the finest artisanal hydro-distilled essential oils in the world, together, as Aroma Sublime. Tony Bolton and his wife Tha, originally from the United Kingdom and Vietnam respectively, are now a world-renown artisanal essential oil team specializing in Oud, Sandalwood, and Frangipani hydro-distilled 100% pure premium essential oils for perfume, medicinal, and aromatic use. In the Vietnamese countryside, right on the Cambodian border, Tony and Tha live right in the heart of premium wild Oud/agarwood country. Naturally occurring wild forest agarwood produces the very best Oud oil in the world. Tony’s many years of distillation experience and technical expertise, combine perfectly with wife Tha’s birthplace connection to the land and the community here. Its been such a privilege to work and study the art of distillation with Tha and Tony at their home and production facility deep in the Vietnamese countryside right on the Mekong river delta. You can visit AROMA SUBLIME for more information.
The beginning of the pandemic in 2020 found me stranded between countries. I was planning to extend my stay in Vietnam, but was in Thailand on a short business trip and to renew my visa for Vietnam and begin the process of staying there longer-term, when the world began to shut down. Vietnam closed its borders and my flight was cancelled. Just in time, I slid into Japan, only 2 days before their border also closed. Most graciously, I was hosted immediately by Beppu Zen Retreat in Japan, a meditation retreat center I have worked with in the past, and an extension of a 670+year-old historical Zen temple. With no guests at the retreat and no idea how long this global shutdown might last, the future was extremely unpredictable and unclear for all of us. Not long after my arrival, and inspired by my experiences in Vietnam and the abundance of natural aromatic materials around the retreat, we decided to begin distilling local essential oils. The results have been pure joy and a deep dive into the fine art of distillation. I view this time as a type of Zen practice. An alchemical process. On one hand; the loneliness, the seeming “cancellation of the future”, the sense of loss, and the profound sense of unpredictability looking forward. On the other hand; a beautiful place, a warm home, the heightened necessity of total focus on the present moment, and a deep daily immersive study of the magical process of refining the gifts of nature and the local environment into pure “gold”. These magnificent essential oils have also now become perfumes, medicines, skincare products, and food ingredients. We are immensely proud of them and hope you enjoy them.
- Pierre Black, May 2022