The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Higher Peace was born from two parallel inheritances, the Merry Pranksters and the retired schoolbus Furthur that rewired America's consciousness in the 1960s, and the philosophy of Bagism that John Lennon and Yoko Ono introduced in 1969. Bagism was a rejection: a statement that people should be judged by their ideas, not their appearance, their skin color, their gender, their sexuality, or their age. The fragrance translates that idea into smell. It refuses the usual categories. Aromatic, yes, but also green. Warm, but not sweet. A canyon at dawn, not a nightclub at midnight. The 2021 release arrived at a moment when the original Bagism message still needed saying, and the fragrance said it in a register that neither side of any argument could easily dismiss.
The composition builds on an unusual foundation: davana, an herb from India with a complex aromatic signature that sits between fruit and resin. Bergamot from Calabria provides the citrus lift, bright, clean, a contrast to davana's earthier nature. Cardamom adds a dry spice that keeps the opening grounded rather than soaring. At the heart, hay and coumarin create the smell of dry grass after cutting, nostalgic and specific, the kind of note that conjures a place rather than an emotion. The hemp accord is herbal and green without being aggressive. It's the scent of the plant, not the stereotype of it.
The evolution
The opening hits bright and green. Davana and bergamot arrive together, the bergamot cutting through the davana's herbal depth with a citrus sharpness that lasts about thirty minutes. Then the hand-off: hay rises, coumarin adds its warm sweetness, and the whole composition softens into something that smells like a field in late summer. The cardamom persists, quieter now, a dry spice threading through the green. Three hours in, the base takes over. Tobacco and vetiver arrive together, earthy, slightly smoky, a warmth that stays close to the skin. Benzoin adds a faint sweetness, a resinous note that prevents the drydown from going sharp. By hour five, what's left is intimate. Not a room-filler. A closeness. The kind of scent that someone notices when they're standing beside you, not across it.
Cultural impact
Higher Peace attracts wearers who read the journey card before the notes. Part of the appeal is the cultural register, the Merry Pranksters, Bagism, the Furthur bus, a countercultural inheritance that mainstream perfumery rarely references. It's the kind of fragrance that sparks a conversation about where it came from, which is exactly the point.
