A shelf of thirty eight bottles and a drawer of eleven thousand cards
Started by a grandfather who blended for weddings, run now by two of his grandchildren.
The drawer is the business
The shop began in 1994, and the part of it that mattered started by accident about two years later.
A customer came back wanting the same oil again and nobody could remember what had gone into it. My grandfather, who did not enjoy being embarrassed, started writing every blend on a card with a number, and made his sons do the same. Thirty years later there are eleven thousand four hundred of them, filed by number with an index by name.
That drawer is why people who moved abroad still order from us, why a bride can have the oil her mother wore at her own wedding, and why we can tell a customer honestly that the blend they loved in 2011 had three grammes more sandalwood than the one we made them last year, because both cards exist.
It also disciplines what we sell. A blend is only repeatable if every material in it is one we can buy again, so a beautiful bottle offered once by a trader passing through does not go on this shelf. We have turned down several genuinely lovely things on that basis and the drawer is the reason.
The cards are paper and they stay in this shop. There is no account on this website and nothing about your blend is visible online, to you or to anybody else. Bring the number or telephone and ask.
The people who blend
Ibrahim Maahil
Learned at this counter from his grandfather and keeps the drawer. The one who says no to the copies and to materials we cannot buy twice.
Fathimath Shaiba
Does most of the wedding and Eid runs, and writes the labels. Best person in the shop at talking somebody out of a blend that is too strong...
Hassan Ziyad
Fills by weight, packs the island boxes, and is the person who finds a lost card number from a name and a rough year.
Paying, collecting and reordering
How do I pay for an order placed on this site?
By bank transfer. The order gives you a reference, and the confirmation screen and email show the account and the amount.
We blend it once the transfer shows, which for a made to order oil is usually the same day. There is no card payment on this website.
Do you deliver?
Not in Malé. Orders are collected from the counter on Fareedhee Magu, partly because thirty seconds with you when you collect is where most of the useful advice happens.
For the islands we box the order and hand it to the cargo boat you name. The boat's freight is settled with the boat and never appears on our bill.
I have lost my card number. Can you still find my blend?
Usually, yes. The cards are filed by number with an index by name, so your name and a rough year is generally enough.
It takes a few minutes rather than an afternoon. Come in or telephone. It is not something this website can look up, because the drawer is paper and stays in the shop.
Can I return a blend I do not like?
A made to order oil cannot be resold to anybody else, so it cannot come back the way a sealed bottle can. That is exactly why we spend half an hour on blotters and skin before the scales come out.
What we will always do is put right a mistake that is ours. If a blend does not match its card, bring it back and we will make it again at no charge.
Open until nine, blending until half past eight
Fareedhee Magu, Malé. Come on a weekday morning if you want the counter to yourself.