Sample Sets

I added the boxed, carded sample set option to the Gifts page of the website over the weekend, but I still need to add the gift box option for wrapping any sets you want of 2-3 items (perfume, body lotion, body cream). I’m in the midst of taking photos for the boxed gift set options and will try to finish that this week. If you need a gift box and/or card in the meantime just send me an email and we can work out what you’d like.

I apologize to those waiting for the Encens Tranquille reformulation; I’m very close and have been checking all my options before sending out any testers. It’s best if I try all my ideas first, and my list keeps growing as I work on it. As I sniff my latest favorite mod I always wonder if this or that might improve some aspect of it, so then I need to give it a quick try. I have a few more things to try today but need to finish the day’s orders first, which won’t happen before this evening.

I’m sniffing the new Francis Kurkdjian fragrance Lumière Noire pour Femme this morning as I pack orders, and I’m very much enjoying it. Rose lovers might want to check this out because the rose accord is beautiful, the patchouli is smooth, and the fragrance is done in a gorgeous classical style. It’s nothing like the raw patchouli and sweet plum with rose in L’Artisan’s Voleur de Roses, which can be fun to sniff sometimes but is extremely earthy and not for those timid about patchouli. Lumière Noire is a much more elegant approach to the rose/patch genre. You can read an enthusiastic review of this scent on Octavian’s blog. I also admire Divine’s classical approach to rose with patchouli in their scent called L’Inspiratrice, but it looks like Lumière Noire will easily take the number one spot on my list for rose/patch fragrances. (For a great dark rose with less prominent patchouli I love the sadly discontinued L’Arte di Gucci.)