The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Natasha Washabaugh composed Strawberry Bite in 2026 as part of the House of Daybreak collection. The fragrance carries ripe strawberry folded into soft sugar, the kind of strawberry that surrenders to heat and butter until it stops being recognizable as fruit. It opens with a generous pour of jammy berry sweetness, layered against a backdrop of golden pastry and warm vanilla cream, and the sugar note runs through every stage of the wear, binding the composition together like caramelized edges on a tart. The vanilla here is soft and rounded rather than sharp or boozy, more like the vanilla that lives inside cake than the vanilla that sits on a dessert plate.
The strawberry in this composition reads as cooked rather than fresh, melted down into sugar and puff pastry until it becomes an atmosphere rather than a single recognizable ingredient. The puff pastry note brings a buttery, baked warmth that softens the fruit and gives it depth, while honey adds a sticky golden sweetness that catches the light through the other notes. The addition of Hedione, an airy, almost sunlit molecule, keeps everything from sinking into dessert territory. It lifts the composition, adds a radiant softness that makes the vanilla feel alive instead of heavy.
The evolution
The first ten minutes are all warmth. Ripe strawberry hits alongside soft sugar, and the impression is immediate: cake. The moment you pull a tray from the oven and the kitchen fills with that golden, slightly buttery sweetness. It is loud and undeniably present. Then something shifts. The puff pastry note deepens, the honey turns milky and thick, and the strawberry melts backward, no longer the star but a memory inside the vanilla. After about an hour the velvet woods and amber arrive, carrying the whole composition down into something quieter, warmer, skin-adjacent. The musk underneath keeps it intimate, a fragrance that lives close to the body and holds its shape rather than broadcasting across a room. The drydown settles into warm amber, a trace of honeyed vanilla, and the ghost of strawberry still humming underneath. It does not transform dramatically.
Cultural impact
Strawberry Bite reads as a gourmand composition that treats strawberry as an atmospheric element rather than a simple fruit note. Where many strawberry fragrances aim for bright, candied sweetness, this one leans into the cooked, baked, pastry-adjacent territory, with sugar and vanilla carrying the warmth and Hedione lifting the whole composition into something more radiant. It is a fragrance that rewards close attention, asking the wearer to lean in rather than step back.
The House
Keskiyon HoviKeskiyön Hovi, Finnish for Midnight Court, crafts small-batch perfumes where smoke lingers, florals carry bite, and milk feels quietly dangerous. Founded by artist and perfumer Natasha, the house treats scent as language rather than trend, building atmospheric fragrances in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Each composition is hand-blended, drawing on two decades of work with fragrance and form to create perfumes that read like memory made liquid.
The Creator
Natasha WashabaughKH compositions lean atmospheric and textural, with Washabaugh favoring layered accords that read like chapters in a novel. Her work tends toward the shadowy end of the spectrum: smoky resins, late-blooming florals, woods that feel warmed by embers rather than sun.
