The Spice Melange

As Summer comes to a close the time of the flowers ends as the cycle of spice and wood enters the landscape. Here in the Northern hemisphere, although the Jasmine sambac and Plumeria are still blooming in the garden, signs of the seasonal shift are upon us. The oaks now have their acorns and the native plants are slowly awakening from their summer slumber.

Yesterday I made Aurora solid for several orders that had come in, today I am making Sierra Solid Gold, both of these are spice perfumes. Aurora is a floriental, with a rich heart of flowers shaded with subtle spice notes, similar to the scent of a carnation. Sierra Solid Gold has much more prominent spice notes with resins, vanilla, frankincense and myrrh, no flowers. To my nose, Sierra Solid Gold embodies what I associate as the smell of Christmas.

Observing what fragrances are trending in my sales is always fascinating, sometimes its due to a write up somewhere or a customer that has infected all her friends with a specific perfume. The latter took place about a month ago with Aumbre.

The popular fragrances over the last two weeks have been mostly those with prominent vanilla notes, especially Blanc followed by Page 47 with Lyra and Cimbalom on the tale end. Just before the Artisan Fragrance Salon in San Francisco I had made a large bottle of the synergy for Blanc, that synergy is almost gone. (gasp!) I believe Blanc may overtake GreenWitch in the overall best seller position.

Another interesting trend I've noticed is that people are asking for subtle fragrances. Some perceive Hedera helix, GreenWitch, Cimbalom and Vera as "too strong", interesting huh? This indicates that there are just as many people interested in botanical perfumes that are subtle as those looking for superb longevity.

My daughter Eve heads back to college this coming Sunday, which makes me very sad but also will open up more focus time on all these projects I've got in the cauldron. Ideally I'd like to take this week off, however that's not going to happen, spice production must not stop. Can you tell we watched Dune recently? Here's an interesting bit of historic movie trivia regarding the film adaptation of Dune and what it inspired, How the Failed Dune Movie You Never Saw Gave Birth to Prometheus.

Images: Anise postcard collage, Aurora solid perfume photo and Vanilla bean photo by Roxana, Dune movie poster image via 80's Movie Posters