Ellen Austin Conditioning Shampoo Puck | A High Strangeness Homage!

The Ellen Austin

Homage to Luna Rossa Carbon by Prada

Top: Bergamot, Citrus, Lavender, Geranium
Middle: Floral, Lavender, Marine, Spice
Bottom: Amber, Musk, Wood, Earth, Patchouli

Find The Ellen Austin Collection HERE!

On the evening of June 19th, 1881, under an unnaturally heavy fog that smothered the Atlantic within the bounds of the Bermuda Triangle, the Ellen Austin entered the still, weed-choked waters of the Sargasso Sea and encountered a fully rigged vessel drifting without purpose or command. She showed no obvious damage. Her sails remained set, her stores appeared undisturbed, and yet no answering voice came from her decks. There was no captain, no crew, and no clear sign of why anyone had abandoned her. 

The Ellen Austin’s captain reportedly watched the silent vessel for two days, wary of disease, piracy, or some carefully laid trap. At last, he sent a boarding party across. The men searched from bow to stern but found no living soul and no evidence of violence. According to later tellings, the ship’s nameplate and logbook were missing, leaving her identity as empty as her cabins.

Some later accounts claim they found, resting silently upon the deck, a small black cube, cold to the touch and without seam or marking, and though no one could say how it came to be there. 

A small crew from the Ellen Austin took possession and set a course for New York, sailing the nameless ship alongside their own.  An unease settled over both ships as they sailed in tandem through the muffled dark, until a sudden storm tore them apart, and when the skies cleared, the second ship remained, but its crew had vanished once more, as if taken by the same unseen force, and in the most chilling tellings, the cube itself was said to be gone as well, leaving behind only the Ellen Austin, whose own fate would soon be drawn into the same silent mystery, another name added to the ledger of vessels that entered those waters and were never seen again.

The fragrance: The Scent of Stone, Steel & Open Water

The fragrance inspiring The Ellen Austin is Prada Luna Rossa Carbon, a modern aromatic fougère released in 2017 and created by perfumer Daniela Andrier. Its name joins Luna Rossa, Prada’s sailing team, with carbon, an element associated with coal, graphite, and diamond.

The scent opens with bright bergamot and a sharp flash of pepper before moving into lavender, geranium, cool metallic accords, watery notes, coal, and damp earth. Ambroxan and patchouli anchor the base with a clean, mineral warmth. The result feels like traditional barbershop lavender dragged through sea mist, black soil, wet stone, and cold steel.  Fresh air carries the smell of minerals and earth. Clean lines slowly give way to a strange metallic shadow, like stepping onto the deck of an abandoned vessel and finding everything in place except the people.

Fun Fact: Before it became the Ellen Austin, the ship sailed under the name Meta. Coincidence?

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