The smell of rain is half a billion years old. Falling over and over again on this Earth, rain has cycled through countless clouds, skies, rivers, and living organisms — stretching the boundaries of time and place.
Story
From the studio of an interdisciplinary artist comes a timeless olfactory artwork. These carefully crafted scents connect people with the ancient, unfolding, collective story on this planet.
Artist Regan Rosburg weaves together science, psychology, history, and social engagement. With a passion for studying various ecosystems and biota, her work investigates not only the exquisite intelligence of ecology but also the causes and ramifications of over-consumption.
In 2018, she began researching the smell of rain (petrichor) to coincide with a large moss-covered art installation. Mixing different scent combinations in her studio, the process took over a year and a half. Once she arrived at the petrichor scent, she decided to create variations based on ecological regions, from pine forests to meadows to coastlines. What excited her the most was the immediate recognition of petrichor by others — a personal and universal nostalgia for the smell of rain.
Rosburg has now bottled the scent, creating small batches in her studio. To add another layer of connection to her visual art practice, she pairs each bottle with a limited edition print.
She considers Yesterday’s Rain to be her favorite artwork because of its ability to move through the world on people’s bodies. Like rain itself, this artwork stretches the boundaries of time and place.
Yesterday’s Rain
Eau de Toilette
In keeping with the perfumers tradition dating back to the 14th century, these Eau de Toilettes are made with essential oils, high-quality perfumer’s alcohol, and distilled water. All of these delicate fragrances contain the artist’s signature petrichor mixture as their base, and are made in small batches of less than 100 bottles. They are softer than traditional perfumes; these scents can either be layered or worn alone.
