Joyce Maynard
Good news! (For me anyway). We're moving house! We've found an adorable, pet-friendly cottage just around the corner from where we are now, and we're moving in early October. Why am I sharing this with you? Well, firstly because I'm excited and I'm telling everyone, but also because there may be an impact for you guys.
1. Depending on how busy the shop gets in the run-up to the moving date, I may have to extend my shipping times. I do my absolute best to get every order shipped out on or before its due date, but moving house (even just round the corner), is chaotic and stressful (especially with two snakes and a cat in the mix) and may affect how much I can do. I'm hopeful it won't impact things too much, but I'll keep you updated and note any relevant changes in the shop and wherever else I can.
2. I'm going to be destashing some perfume. It probably won't surprise anyone to know I have a HUGE perfume collection, and moving house seems like a good time to clear away a few things and make room for new things. I have a ton of solid perfumes from when I first started perfume-making and a few perfume oils that are either prototypes (the original incarnation of Fox Maiden, for example) or recently discontinued items.
If people are interested, I would love to send these on to new homes and will make a master list here of what's available to claim. I would ask you to cover postage costs, but won't charge anything else. All the solid perfumes are made with beeswax rather than soy wax, so they aren't vegan, and are in 10ml tins rather than tubes.
Let me know if you'd like to see what's on offer!
"“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, "This is what it is to be happy.”
Friday 19 September 2014
Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar
With the Halloween limited editions now available, I thought this might be a good time to bring you another installment of the infrequent series on some of the weirder and rarer oils in my collection. And since Vampire Hunter contains two of those oils, how about a double feature?
Let's start with styrax. Specifically, let's start with styrax resinoid, which is a product of the beautifully-named liquidamber orientalis tree. The sap of the tree is harvested through gradual stripping of the tree bark, after which it is placed in boiling water to soften it, and diluted with water to keep it soft and preserve the aroma. The finished product has a variety of medicinal uses, including for anxiety and bronchitis.
When it comes to perfumery, styrax resinoid has a beautiful oriental scent, subtly honeyed and slightly syrupy. It's main purpose in Vampire Hunter is as a fixative - an oil that increases the tenacity of the other materials and slows down the dispersion of the scent. So if you pay close attention, or your skin chemistry really loves this material, you will notice a faint "golden" note to the warm, woodsy mixture, but this is not an "in-your-face" material.
What might be considered a bit more "in-your-face" is nagarmotha, also known as cypriol, but personally I prefer the Hindi term for it. Nagarmotha is a plant that grows wild in certain regions of India and is prized for its uses in aromatherapy. Like styrax, it has plenty of medicinal uses, from treating fevers to pain reduction to digestive system disorders. It's also used an insect repellent, and it's rumoured to bring success in love affairs to boot.
That's all fascinating, but what I love nagarmotha for is it's dirty, musky, leathery notes. There's something wickedly masculine about this oil, and as soon as I knew I wanted a Vampire Hunter fragrance for Halloween, I knew I had to work nagarmotha into it. I've used a leather fragrance oil in some of my other scents, most notable in Duskblade, but that's very much a "new leather" scent. For Vampire Hunter I wanted the smell of a worn, battered, much-loved leather duster, one you've owned for years and really should throw away but can't stand to give up. Nagarmotha, with its warm and earthy nuances captures that feeling perfectly for me. And like styrax, it's a fixative, so it really helps hold the spice and nut notes together and keep them bold and strong.
These are two materials I can see being really valuable, especially as I develop more all-natural blends and work on my Secret Project (coming soon, probably!). I adore my millions of fragrance oils, but there's a real buzz to be had from creating something from purely natural ingredients, and the more diverse oils I can add to my collection, the more unique perfumes I can offer you. Enjoy!
With the Halloween limited editions now available, I thought this might be a good time to bring you another installment of the infrequent series on some of the weirder and rarer oils in my collection. And since Vampire Hunter contains two of those oils, how about a double feature?
Let's start with styrax. Specifically, let's start with styrax resinoid, which is a product of the beautifully-named liquidamber orientalis tree. The sap of the tree is harvested through gradual stripping of the tree bark, after which it is placed in boiling water to soften it, and diluted with water to keep it soft and preserve the aroma. The finished product has a variety of medicinal uses, including for anxiety and bronchitis.When it comes to perfumery, styrax resinoid has a beautiful oriental scent, subtly honeyed and slightly syrupy. It's main purpose in Vampire Hunter is as a fixative - an oil that increases the tenacity of the other materials and slows down the dispersion of the scent. So if you pay close attention, or your skin chemistry really loves this material, you will notice a faint "golden" note to the warm, woodsy mixture, but this is not an "in-your-face" material.
What might be considered a bit more "in-your-face" is nagarmotha, also known as cypriol, but personally I prefer the Hindi term for it. Nagarmotha is a plant that grows wild in certain regions of India and is prized for its uses in aromatherapy. Like styrax, it has plenty of medicinal uses, from treating fevers to pain reduction to digestive system disorders. It's also used an insect repellent, and it's rumoured to bring success in love affairs to boot.
That's all fascinating, but what I love nagarmotha for is it's dirty, musky, leathery notes. There's something wickedly masculine about this oil, and as soon as I knew I wanted a Vampire Hunter fragrance for Halloween, I knew I had to work nagarmotha into it. I've used a leather fragrance oil in some of my other scents, most notable in Duskblade, but that's very much a "new leather" scent. For Vampire Hunter I wanted the smell of a worn, battered, much-loved leather duster, one you've owned for years and really should throw away but can't stand to give up. Nagarmotha, with its warm and earthy nuances captures that feeling perfectly for me. And like styrax, it's a fixative, so it really helps hold the spice and nut notes together and keep them bold and strong.These are two materials I can see being really valuable, especially as I develop more all-natural blends and work on my Secret Project (coming soon, probably!). I adore my millions of fragrance oils, but there's a real buzz to be had from creating something from purely natural ingredients, and the more diverse oils I can add to my collection, the more unique perfumes I can offer you. Enjoy!
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