The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Jono Bornstein returned to the northern wilderness that had shaped Folkwinds' debut, revisiting the landscape and its botanical potential. His field notes became the foundation for a co-extracted composition built around wild blackberries, conifer absolutes, and copal resin. Processing botanicals together rather than in isolation allowed compounds to interact during extraction and produce aromatic signatures that standard blending cannot achieve. The result is a portable landscape, dense, specific, and unmistakably rooted in place. Wild blackberries arrive bright and tart, carrying an immediacy that feels almost aggressive. Conifer absolutes bring depth and evergreen complexity, their resinous character anchoring the fruitiness without suppressing it.
Co-extraction is Folkwinds' signature technique: processing botanicals together rather than in isolation, allowing compounds to interact during extraction and produce compounds that wouldn't exist in a standard blend. Here, wild blackberries and conifer absolutes co-extract with copal and palo santo, creating a top note that smells simultaneously fruity, resinous, and forest-green in a way no single extract could achieve alone. The addition of Thai blue lotus, unusual in a conifer-forward composition, adds a quiet aquatic depth to the heart, bridging gardenia and oud without cloying.
The evolution
The opening is immediate and assertive: blackberries arrive first, tart and vivid, quickly joined by the green-bitter snap of Canadian hemlock and the bright juniper berry. Boronia brings a honeyed floral undertone that rounds the edges. The fir absolute deepens, its century-old resin character emerging with almost medicinal clarity. The heart arrives gradually: gardenia unfolds creamy and thick, water lily keeps it delicate, and the oud begins its slow build underneath. As the composition evolves, the fruity brightness softens and the conifer elements take fuller control. Pine needle absolute dominates the dry-down, with moss and white ambergris creating an animalic-mineral trail that clings to skin and fabric alike. The fragrance transforms into something less like perfume and more like the air after a rainstorm in conifer country, clean, green, alive. On clothing, it lingers for days.
Cultural impact
Jasper no Kodo II represents a distinct approach to botanical perfumery, one that prioritizes regional materials over imported exotic ingredients. Folkwinds crafts fragrances using local flora as a creative foundation, with Canadian fir, hemlock, and boronia as focal ingredients. Bornstein elevates these materials, taking ingredients that mainstream perfumery overlooks and making them protagonists in the composition. The wilderness-forward philosophy speaks to a desire among enthusiasts to connect scent to place, turning perfume into an exploration of botanical possibility.
