Fragrance notes: waterlily, driftwood, sea salt

Sea Witch is inspired by the heartbreaking Hans Christian Andersen’s story The Little Mermaid. The sea witch is forthright and honest with the mermaid that her desire to become human probably won’t end well and that she will suffer. The mermaid, blinded by infatuation, made the choice to become a human which ultimately led to her demise. The sea witch wasn’t the villain, just a powerful being who gave the mermaid exactly what she wanted. Sea Witch is an ocean scent, full of aquatic scent notes such as waterlily, driftwood, and sea salt. It’s perfect for those dreaming of mermaids and underwater kingdoms. 

Learn more about my inspiration:

Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid is one of the most popular literary fairytales. Like most Disney adaptations, the tragic tale was turned into a happy story only vaguely based on the original. Andersen’s tale is not a quaint bedtime story but full of sorrow, suffering, and heartbreak.

A mermaid princess falls in love with a human prince she saves from a shipwreck. She makes a deal with a sea witch to turn into a human so she can seek out the land-dwelling prince. The sea witch demands payment in the form of the mermaid’s tongue in exchange for using her own blood to create the potion that will transform the mermaid’s tail into legs. The transformation into a human is painful and requires her to walk on legs that feel like she is walking on swords leaving her feet in a constant state of being a bloody mess.

She does make it onto land and finds the prince. Because she has no tongue, she can’t talk to him but she manages to enchant him with her graceful dancing. Unfortunately, she is firmly in the friend zone. He already fell in love with the woman who nursed him back to health after he almost drowned at sea. Unbeknownst to the prince, it was actually the mermaid who rescued him and brought him to land where he was found by his soon-to-be-wife.  

The mermaid’s sisters try to rescue her by making their own deal with the sea witch. They deliver a knife to the once-mermaid on the prince’s wedding day and instruct her to kill the prince and bathe in his blood in order to turn back into a mermaid so she can return to her home under the sea. Instead of killing the prince, she kills herself. Yes, that’s the original story. It is a tale of love and sacrifice but not in any way the romantic story most of us grew up with. Although quite a sad story, it is full of agency and empowerment for a young (mermaid) woman to make her own life choices.

Read the original Little Mermaid here.