I have several things to mention in this update for the last weekend in April.
First, I just weighed out a tiny batch of Forest Walk today and will send out testers. I made a few changes to try to eliminate the seaweed note that Mandy had experienced, and I removed one of the floral notes I’d had in it. I also reduced the dirt note, which really focuses the attention on the woods — western red cedar, oak absolute, New Caledonia sandalwood, black hemlock, and fir absolute. I want to try a few topnotes to see if anything fresh might improve it, but so far I haven’t found anything I like. The fir opens with a fresh green note that fades over the first 30 minutes, and that may be the best topnote by itself. I also added just a tiny bit of olibanum because everyone thinks it smells like pine in Incense Pure, so I thought it would help with the forest theme. I used my olibanum EO instead of my CO2 absolute because it is gentler and because I don’t want it smelling too similar to Incense Pure, which has the CO2.
I need to make some testers of the CdB take-off to send at the same time. I’ve had a lot of inquiries about when CdB will be back and I know I need to hurry up with that. 🙂
I’m also preparing for the Artisan Fragrance Salon in San Francisco to be held on July 8 from 11 am – 5 pm. The list of exhibitors includes Sonoma Scent Studio as well as Yosh, Parfums DelRae, Ayala Moriel Parfums, Artemisia Natural Perfume, Ineke, EnVoyage Perfumes, Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes, Velvet & Sweet Pea’s Purrfumery, Roxana Illuminated Perfume, 40notes Perfume, Sarah Horowitz Parfums, Persephenie, Cognoscenti, Divine Life Perfume, Smell Bent, Leila Castle Botanical Fragrance, Rebel & Mercury Pure Botanical Perfumes, Smells & Bells Organics, and L’Aromatica Perfume. If you live in the Bay Area you might want to save the date! It’ll be in a very nice art gallery with convenient parking. It’s a great chance to sniff a lot of artisan brands in one spot.
Also congratulations to Victoria of Bois de Jasmin for her Fifi award! Her beautifully written blog is very deserving of the honor. For those of you who haven’t seen her new blog layout, it’s really gorgeous and easy to navigate.
I also thought I’d point out a blog post that moved me this week: Dione wrote about perfume and body image on BoTO. Many women will connect with various aspects of this post, myself included. It’s an example of why I love being a part of this fragrance community full of such wonderful women. I’m so glad the internet has brought us together. 🙂 Happy weekend!
10 comments
Thank you for the wonderful compliment, Laurie. And good luck at the Artisan Fragrance Salon, it sounds like a grand time.
Dionne, your post was beautifully written and touching, and full of what my English teacher used to call “universal truths.” Thanks again for sharing. Thanks, too, for good wishes on the July event. I hope it’ll introduce some new people to indie perfumery!
How does one reach the extremely priviledged status of having the opportunity to test a scent in this manner?
Hi Cristina,
Most of my testers have been friends for a few years, and sometimes I send a tester along with someone’s order if the timing is right. I don’t send out all that many testers, maybe a dozen or so. I just try to ask enough people to know how the scent is working, but not so many as to run up large postage bills. I keep different people in mind for different types of scents too. Some people like a wide variety, but some are especially fond of rose or white florals or woods or chypre etc. I mainly need honest and timely feedback from people who have tried lots of fragrances. I have enough people on my list for forest right now, but if you want to email me your scent preferences I can keep you in mind for the next one!
I’m so green with envy! I love such glimpses into a perfumer’s creative work as I loved to read the letters on Nathan’s blog. My email is xxxxxxxx but I must say that while I’ve tried a lot of perfumes(and love yours) I don’t know how to be a perfume critic as I don’t have a very discerning nose. Nor do I have a scent preferences.
Thanks, Cristina! I wrote your email down and then took it out of your post in case you didn’t want to share it with everyone. I’ll send you an email this eve. 🙂
I wish I lived on the West Coast as I would have loved to attend this event. Best of luck,yet honestly,you won’t need it as your fragrances will easily sell themselves!
Thanks so much! I’m trying to decide whether to bring things to sell or whether to just make it informational with lots of testers to sniff. I’ll offer testers of all the scents for sure, and I’ll set up a pretty display. If local people want to place an order ahead and pick it up at the show to avoid shipping costs, I could do that too.
I would suggest that you do both, have testers but also full bottles to sell as I am sure they will be bought. Sometimes we all want our instant gratification 🙂
That’s true, when you find something you like it’s nice to go home with some. 🙂 I’m thinking maybe the 5 ml travel sprays would be good, but I haven’t decided yet. Thanks for input!