Lingering Notes

December 11, 2025

In the hands of Kansas City’s scent makers, perfume becomes a portal—each whiff a whisper of nostalgia, beauty, and the art of being unforgettable.

Photos
Jill McKeever

ll of our senses matter, but smell is perhaps one of the most mysterious. It protects us—warning of gas before a spark, or food gone bad. But it also elevates us, instantly shifting mood, memory, and emotion. A single whiff can transport us through time, unlocking moments we thought were long forgotten.

The Memory Maker

Scent is fleeting, ephemeral, yet incredibly powerful. Perfumers call its layers ‘notes’—deliberate compositions that can define an era, a mood, even a life.

Coco Chanel’s legendary No. 5—still the world’s most iconic fragrance—is proof of that power. But even Chanel herself couldn’t fully explain the magic behind its creation. Perfume lives in a space between science and art, where formulas are guided as much by intuition as chemistry. It takes a master ‘nose’—an expert trained in the craft—to create something unforgettable.

Two such creators are Jill McKeever, founder of For Strange Women, and Emily Voth, the force behind Cade Black. Between them, they’ve built reputations on mystery, artistry, and a devotion to natural beauty.

Inspiration procured from natural elements saturates For Strange Women’s palette. Believing deeply in the essence of nature’s botanicals, this company assures that the perfumes match the client’s mood, with clean, raw product. If Winter Kitty isn’t your preference, perhaps Ghost Town or Salt Mine will be better suited.

When the showroom is open, you can experience the perfume firsthand. Each person’s choice comes from a deep reserve of nostalgia. The experiential process of making an elixir is trial and error.

Below: Scents come packaged in a variety of ways: solids, essential oils, tinctures, amulets, incense, and candles. Each individual wears a scent differently. This is why time spent analyzing seasons, mood, destinations, and botanicals from the earth is vital for a match.

Entranced by something intangible is exactly how Voth wants you to experience her signature scent. Culled from the bark of a coniferous tree, this is a scent steeped in mystery through the aromatics of botanicals.

There’s more than perfume at this atelier. Voth is re-purposing her storefront off Southwest Boulevard with a dedicated team who is transforming the space into a luxurious haunt. There’s product from soap to candles, incense to room spray.

Dark, sexy, and luscious are the essences behind Voth’s small-batch botanicals. Her creations are derived from her personal landscape. “This scent is a personal indulgence with invisible allure,” she says. The bottle, too, can be the object of desire and art—noted French designer Pierre Dinand brought his artistry to craft the product.

For McKeever, the image that launched her brand was as enigmatic as her perfumes: a woman draped across a Victorian sofa. What started as a personal experiment turned into a thriving perfumery. Seventeen years later, For Strange Women is run by a small, all-female team devoted to every step of the process, from blending to shipping.

Her customers, she says, are as discerning as her fragrances: “They’re well-versed in sophistication and find that resins and plant extracts are satisfying to the senses. Our physiology has evolved to understand the messages in these properties, and my customers respond to this emotional language.”

With names like Winter Kitty, Persian Love Cake, and Night Sky, perfumes aren’t just scents—they’re stories waiting to be worn.

Dark Seduction

Meanwhile, on Southwest Boulevard, Emily Voth has crafted a different kind of olfactory story. Known for her Zum creations with Indigo Wild, she’s now channeling her artistry into her own perfumery at House of Cade Black.

Working mostly alone—save for two part-time helpers she affectionately calls ‘gems’—Voth creates scents that are dark, velvety, and magnetic. Her Cade Black 10 scent was distilled from the bark of a Mediterranean tree.

“The sap smells like fire: smoky and hypnotic,” she says. The fragrance went on to win a prestigious award from the International Fragrance Board as best new luxury scent of 2024.

Voth’s palette is a heady mix of spices, woods, mosses, and resins. Thus, every blending is natural, pure and boasts a bold essence. Expanding beyond perfume, the Cade Black scent is also in soap, incense, and candles. Her newest release, Willin’, is a scent that she describes as “a natural resinous glow for all who indulge.”

A World Beyond the Noise

Together, McKeever and Voth remind us that scent isn’t just something we wear—it’s something we experience. Whether wild, sultry, or ethereal, their creations offer a way to step outside the noise of everyday life and immerse ourselves in the invisible, unforgettable language of fragrance.

Here’s to the power of scent.

For Strange Women
115 W. 18th St., Ste. 107
Kansas City, MO
forstrangewomen.com;
@forstrangewomen

House of Cade Black
2125 Washington
Kansas City, MO
houseofcadeblack.com;
@thehouseofcadeblack