“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” - Leonard Cohen December arrives in hushed tones - long nights, bare trees, skies scattered with stars. The year exhales, and in the quiet of these longest nights, something stirs...a faint glimmer at the edge of the horizon. The light begins its return. This month, we honor both the darkness that teaches us to rest and the light that reminds us to hope. We stand at the threshold between the two, holding both in

A Listening Guide by ApothoGothic When the Music Began to Breathe Everything in ApothoGothic begins with the music, with the emotional architecture hidden inside melodies and harmonies, and with the way certain progressions lift the ribs or loosen the spine. For Velvet Ember, we gathered songs the way we always do - by instinct, by pulse, and by that quiet tug behind the sternum that says this one belongs,  even when nothing else matches. And nothing matched. We placed choral

An Artist's Statement, by ApothoGothic When we first created the Velvet Ember playlist , the inspiration for the autumn reNEW subscription scent , we thought we were just curating a mood - songs for warmth, quiet evenings, and soft light. But somewhere along the way, we realized it wasn't behaving like a playlist at all. It was breathing . The songs rose and fell like lungs, expanding and releasing, opening into stillness. We didn't plan that - it revealed itself to us, one l

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” -Rumi November comes with a hush. The air sharpens, the trees stand bare, and the light softens into gold. This is not the month of blazing sun or rushing wind - it is the month of ember. In the quiet of late autumn, we learn to tend what is small but steady inside us. Even when the world feels cold and dark, there is something within you that does not falter. Something glowing quietly beneath the ashes. This month, we hono

“Magic is believing in yourself. If you can do that, you can make anything happen.” -Goethe October arrives draped in mist and moonlight....

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” -Carl Jung September arrives...

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” -Anaïs Nin We've decided to...

"Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction." -Rumi August arrives like a golden hush. The sun hangs heavy in the sky, the fields...

"What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we have." -Oprah Winfrey I was sixteen, surrounded by my...

"Being inclusive is having a human connection without placing judgments before it." -Sarah Greichen Diversity (noun) - 1. The state of...

“Don’t worry if you’re making waves just by being yourself. The moon does it all the time.” -Scott Stabile ApothoGothic turns two years...

"Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are." -Chinese Proverb Since 1992, April has been recognized as Stress...

"It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent." - Madeleine Albright Throughout...

"The heart hath its own memory, like the mind." -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow When our thoughts, intentions, and actions align... When we...

"Balance is not something you find - it's something you create." -Jana Kingsford We all look for balance . She's elusive, but we look...

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” -Lao Tzu It's time...

"Close both eyes to see with the other eye." -Rumi The busy days of summer have come to a close. No more lazy days in the pool, impromptu...

"Self-care is how you take your power back." -Lalah Delia With the kids back in school and us back to the normal daily grind, we thought...

“Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people.” -Roy T. Bennett, The Light in...

"In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety." -Abraham Maslow There are two types of...