The Virtue
I’m Brooke.
I take photos. I make music. I edit films. I design fragrance.
I’d describe myself as a wanderer with purpose.
I want to see it all. Feel it all. Taste it all. Hear it all. Smell it all. I crave sensation, pleasure, adventure, and total immersion in the light and dark; the chiaroscuro of this wondrous life.
The Virtue was born from a desire to create things for other wanderers, adventurers and pleasure-seekers.
And, it was an act of love to myself.
We often say we pour ourselves into our work. I did as a wedding photographer. Fully booked season after season, my job was to listen to my clients, anticipate their needs, interpret their vision and bring it to life in the hundreds of thousands of frames I’d capture.
This work brought countless special people into my life and was a source of near-endless joy.
But, the joy did end.
I woke up one day and had nothing left to give. My camera had been a conduit for other people’s wants and needs for so long, and I needed an outlet for myself.
"Our store is more than just a shop, it's a sensory experience, a catalyst to memory and imagination."
The Virtue became that outlet, and my way of pouring my obsession with imagery into a new art form. Fragrance and memory are inextricably linked. The fragrances I’ve created are photographs in a bottle – potent, impressionistic snapshots; vignettes of emotion that each tell a unique story.
And, they are the purest distillation of me. Self-expression as self-care.
And, they are my gift to others. All the like-minded souls whose wandering leads them here, ready to receive the joy, laughter, beauty, inspiration and connection infused in every bottle.
The Virtue has reminded me of the power of connection, and of reclaiming endings as beginnings.
That’s a process that should never be rushed. “Live deeper” is my mantra, and living deeply, I’ve found, means white-knuckling through the worst bits, and opening our hearts to all the beautiful, reckless, dark, luminous, agonising, transcendent chaos of the human experience.
Be human. Smell divine.
That’s The Virtue.
