The Scent of Central Oregon: How I Created Obsidian for The Westman Hotel

Photo by Benjamin Edwards

When Gil Burgess and his team invited me to create the signature scent for The Westman Hotel — Bend’s newest luxury boutique hotel, set inside the city’s historic downtown post office — I knew this wasn’t just a fragrance project. It was an invitation to bottle a place.

Bend Magazine recently featured The Westman in a beautiful story celebrating its opening and the meticulous care taken to honor the building’s history. I was honored to be included. They noted that “when visitors walk into the hotel, they’ll immediately smell the intoxicating scent of cedarwood atlas, sandalwood and oakmoss blended with an oregano tincture” — and they asked me to share what inspired it.

“I wanted to capture the scent of Central Oregon, but I also wanted to include the entire region through the lens of Minnie and the routes she took.”

— Kristine Ambrose, as quoted in (Bend Magazine, article written by Casey Hatfield-Chiotti) – TravelProper.com

Finding Inspiration on the Trails

My inspiration started, as it often does, with my feet on a trail. Green Lakes is my favorite hiking spot in Bend — a 9-to-10-mile loop where you’re truly immersed in the landscape. The sunlight, the dirt, the pine, the wildflowers. To me, it’s where all the fairies sprinkle their fairy dust on you.

But the scent needed to be more than just one trail or one moment. The Westman’s story is deeply tied to the history of the post office — and to Minnie, a beloved historical figure whose mail routes connected the entire region. I wanted the fragrance to carry that same sense of journey: Central Oregon, yes, but also the wider landscape she traveled.

My first meeting with the hotel’s operators felt like the beginning of something special. I play a lot of jazz in my workshop, and we immediately bonded over music. There’s something about jazz — its layers, its improvisation, the way notes reveal themselves slowly — that mirrors the way a well-crafted scent unfolds. That connection shaped everything about how I approached this project.

Meet Obsidian: The Ingredients Behind the Scent

The signature scent is called Obsidian. The name felt right — obsidian is a volcanic glass found throughout Central Oregon, formed by ancient lava flows. Like the stone, this scent is dark, rich, and deeply rooted in the land. Here’s what’s inside it:

Cedarwood Atlas

Rich, sweet, woody, and balsamic with a quiet masculinity. One of the things I love most about cedarwood atlas is that no trees are cut down to produce it — it’s sustainably harvested. It grounds the scent with a calming warmth that supports relaxation and creates that feeling of shelter in nature.

Sandalwood

This sandalwood is harvested from a family-owned farm in Hawaii, where the growers are committed to reforestation and organic cultivation. It brings mental clarity and an anti-anxiety, calming quality to the blend — rich and woody with a softness that opens the whole scent up.

Handmade Oregano Tincture

This is the ingredient I am most proud of, and the one that makes Obsidian truly, unmistakably Oregon. The tincture is made entirely by hand in my perfume lab in Bend, over a period of two years.

The oregano is grown in my own garden. After harvesting, the bunches are submerged in a pure cane organic spirit made in Ashland, Oregon — keeping the entire process local. Every few months, I pull out the old oregano and add fresh bunches. After two years, I filter the finished tincture. This is, quite literally, Oregon air, Oregon dirt, and Oregon spirits.

Beyond its connection to place, oregano tincture carries real wellness benefits: it supports lung health, has known anti-cancer compounds, and contributes to overall physical wellbeing.

Oak Moss

Extracted in France to exacting quality standards, this oak moss meets all IFRA safety requirements with a very low percentage of allergens. It brings a smoky, woody sweetness to the blend — the scent of a forest after rain. It promotes a sense of positive wellbeing and ties all the other notes together into something cohesive and alive.

Why This Scent Is Different

Most hotel scents are mass-manufactured. They use synthetic chemicals, they’re designed to be inoffensive, and they tend to overpower rather than invite. Guests can be overwhelmed and it can be an unpleasant experience.

Obsidian was built to do the opposite. It’s subtle. When you walk into The Westman, you may start to sense something very light as you’re checking in. It won’t announce itself. But it will make a mark. It will connect you — quietly, organically — to the place and the experience.

My process is also fundamentally different from what most scent providers offer. Everything is handcrafted. I custom-blended Obsidian based entirely on the owners’ & operators’ vision and desires, through a slow and methodical testing phase that I guide clients through personally — taking care not to overwhelm them or take up too much of their time.

And the relationship doesn’t end at delivery. I remain hands-on after the hotel opens — delivering diffusion products and scent mist as needed and keeping everything running smoothly. This is a partnership, not a transaction.

Scent as Memory

There is a reason scent is the most powerful of the senses for triggering memory. When a guest leaves The Westman and, months later, catches a hint of cedarwood or oregano in the world — something will stir in them. A feeling of warmth. A flash of Bend. The specific happiness of that trip.

That’s what a truly custom hotel scent can do. It isn’t decoration. It’s memory architecture.

Bringing a Custom Scent to Your Hotel

If you are a hotelier or hospitality operator in Oregon or Washington and you’ve ever thought about what your property smells like — I’d love to talk.

Hīkishémē is a Bend-based natural scent design company. I work exclusively with natural, responsibly sourced ingredients. I create one-of-a-kind scents rooted in the specific landscape, history, and identity of each property I work with. No two scents are the same — because no two places are.

The Westman Hotel is now welcoming guests in downtown Bend. Come experience Obsidian for yourself.