Christmas Shipping Cut-Offs

Sorry I couldn't think of a more poetic title...And sorry I'm talking about Christmas in early November! But if last year is anything to go by (and this year, for that matter!), things are going to get very busy between now and December, so I think I should pass out some pertinent information now.

Last Recommended Postage Dates

All my international orders are sent by International Standard Airmail. The current recommended last shipping dates for overseas orders are as follows:

• Friday 4 December - Africa, Middle East 
• Monday 7 December - Asia, Cyprus, Far East, Japan, Eastern Europe (ex. Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia 
• Tuesday 8 December - Caribbean, Central & South America 
• Thursday 10 December - Greece, Australia, New Zealand 
• Monday 14 December - Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Poland 
• Tuesday 15 December - Canada, Finland, Sweden, USA 
• Wednesday 16 December - Austria, Iceland, Ireland, Portugal, Spain 
• Thursday 17 - December France 
• Friday 18 December - Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland

These are just recommendations, and please keep in mind that I cannot guarantee delivery dates, only shipping dates.

All my UK orders are sent by Royal Mail First Class, and the current recommended last shipping date for UK orders is:

• Monday 21 December - 1st Class and Royal Mail Signed For® 

Please keep in mind that my production times prior to shipping are 5-7 days for oils and 1-2 weeks for solids. I work a full-time 9-5 job at a hospital and I have two books due to be published between now and the end of the year, because apparently I just can't handle having free time O_o All of which is a roundabout way of saying that I get very busy.

Now, last year I got completely overwhelmed with orders, and unfortunately some did go out a bit later than scheduled. I do my best, but I am just one woman (and my cat is no help at all). This year, in order to try to avoid late shipments and preserve my own sanity, I'm going to close the shop on Friday 11th December and re-open in January. This should help ensure that all international orders are sent out in plenty of time for their respective cut-off dates. It will also give me plenty of time to work on new scents for 2016 over the Christmas break.

I know this doesn't give people much time to think about shopping for presents, but I think it's the best way to keep my order queue under control and get everything posted in a timely fashion. If you need your order by a particular date, please contact me and we'll get it sorted.

Shy Saliana will remain open, as I will naturally have fewer orders coming in there, but my current processing time for Shy Saliana is 1-2 weeks, just in case you were thinking of shopping there.

Whether the shop is open or closed, I am always accessible! You can reach me via Etsy's convo system or on the Facebook page. So if you have questions or problems, or you just want to say hello, don't hesitate to get in touch! If I don't reply, it's because I'm asleep :)

"When witches go riding, and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers, ‘tis near Halloween."

*sweeps the cobwebs off the blog*

Yes, it has been a while. My excuse is that 2015 has been incredibly busy for me, not just with Common Brimstone, but with my day job (I got a promotion), my writing (five books published so far, one still on submission, so keep your fingers crossed for me!), and my ongoing quest to open Shy Saliana (it is going to happen, dammit!). Phew. I'm actually still a little incredulous to find it is now September.

But it definitely is, and that means October is just around the corner, and that means it's time to think about Halloween! If you've been with me for a while now, you know that for the past two years, I've released limited edition scents and donated the profits to the British Heart Foundation, in memory of my dad, who passed away in October 2012. And this year will be no different!

I had several ideas for possible themes this year, and if you take a look at my Halloween Pinterest board, you can probably get a feel for what future themes might be, but after reading some fantastic articles on the subject, I decided to go with Victorian Spiritualism for this year's set. Spiritualism developed and reached its peak growth in membership from the 1840s to the 1920s, and had many famous supporters such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Nobel laureate, Pierre Curie. It had some equally famous detractors, including Harry Houdini.

The basic principles of the Spiritualist movement were a belief in the afterlife and a belief in spirit communication, with spirit mediums being able to contact the dead. I have a huge weakness for all things paranormal, occult, and generally spooky, so I've always been fascinated by Spiritualism. Translating some of the themes and ideas into perfumes has been fun, but definitely tricky! Hopefully though, I've created five scents that conjure the mood just right...

So what are these scents, you ask? Well, I'm going to keep the actual notes a surprise for now, but here's a quick sneak preview...

Buried Alive - I admit I'm playing a bit fast and loose with the theme here, but being buried alive was a huge fear during this time period. Waiting mortuaries and safety coffins were all the rage in case of premature burial! This scent combines soft earth and funeral flowers.

Ectoplasm - A substance said to formed by mediums during their trances (and often faked with cheesecloth and potato starch, among other things), ectoplasm was said to enable spirits to interact with the world of the living. This scent starts out shockingly sharp and bright, then pales away to a softer, more delicate finish.

Medium - The medium is the intermediary between the living and the dead, able to listen to and relay messages from spirits, or that they can allow a spirit to control their body and speak through it directly or by using automatic writing or drawing. This scent is a shimmering, otherworldly blend, perfect for opening your senses to the spirit world.

Mesmerism - A theory developed by Franz Mesmer, mesmerism is also called animal magnetism, but today we probably associate it more closely with hypnotism. For our purposes...you are getting very sleepy with a resinous and soporific blend that's bound to enchant.

Seance - Of course! We have a medium, we have ectoplasm, so there must have been a seance. A smoky and compelling scent, I have to say that if I was going to pick a favourite from this set, Seance would be it.

So...How do they sound? Good, I hope! My plan is to have them listed this weekend (probably Sunday), and they will then be available until the end of October. Happy (early) Halloween!

Nepal Earthquake - Charity One Day Sale

I'm sure you've all heard about the two recent, devastating earthquakes that have hit Nepal. There are a lot of people who need a lot of help, and I want to do my part.

Firstly, if you are able to donate, there are several places to consider:

Oxfam
World Vision
Red Cross
WaterAid
UNICEF

There are more suggestions in this article too.

Secondly, I'm going to be running a one-day sale on Sunday 17th May, with all proceeds going to World Vision. I'll be offering 10% off all perfume oils (5ml and 10ml sizes). I wanted to do something like this in May anyway, as I'm probably going to take some time away in June and thought it would be a good way to say bon voyage to you all briefly, and if I can combine that with raising money for charity, well, that seems ideal.

So. Sunday 17th May. One day sale. 10% off all perfume oils, with all proceeds going to World Vision for their Nepal projects. Be there!

"...you don't smell the smoke, you only see the temptation of a perfume."

Laura Gentile, Seraphic Addiction

So we've talked a bit about Shy Saliana and my plans for that little side project. I thought now it might be fun to talk a bit about some of the new things I'm trying out as part of Shy Saliana's inception, and one of those things is chypres and accords! This is actually something I started working on last summer, and it's been a great learning curve. Since I'm already using my chypres in some of my (yet-to-be released) blends, it makes sense to start there.

So what's a chypre, you may be asking? Technically speaking, it's French for "Cyprus." As far as perfume-lovers are concerned, it's a category of scent (think "floral," "oriental," "fresh," etc...). It probably began life somewhere in the Middle Ages, with Cypriots and their "Cipria powder" - a scented face powder that gained popularity in the 17th Century when it was used for powdering wigs. And what makes a chypre a chypre as we know it? There are varying accounts as to how the classic chypre scent came together, but it's generally agreed that the basic accord is a blend of bergamot, oakmoss, and labdanum (or rock rose), all common products in and around the Mediterrean. Working together, these three notes create a distinctive, earthy perfume with just a hint of powdery, citrus freshness. These three main notes can also be enhanced with others to create different sub-categories of chypre.

In 1919, Guerlain introduced Mitsouko, which took the classic chypre notes and added delicate peach, jasmine and May rose to give a fruity, floral twist to the scent. Other floral chypres blended florals like lily of the valley and tuberose to smooth out the mustiness of the classic notes. Guerlain's 2009 scent, Idylle, is a good example of this, using Bulgarian rose, lily of the valley, lilac, freesia, and peony to create a "mist of flowers" over the earthy chypre background.

Add in notes of "green" florals like hyacinth, and you get a green chypre. Vetiver, patchouli, and pine create woody chypres. We also get aldehydic, leather, and animalistic chypres (although it terms of my own creations, I've stayed away from these categories).

So you can see there's a lot of variation, but the basic accord always comes back to bergamot, oakmoss, and labdanum. So when I decided I was going to have a crack at my own chypres, that's where I started.

Generally speaking, when I work with oakmoss and labdanum, I'm using absolutes that have already been diluted down in jojoba oil to make them easier to work with. But I figured if I was going to do this, I should really do this and invested in oakmoss and labdanum absolute. Alright. Let me tell you about oakmoss absolute. It's really thick, almost a solid.
And let me tell you about labdanum absolute. It's even thicker. You can quite safely hold bottles of this stuff upside down over your head, and not a drop will touch your precious locks, I assure you.

So obviously the first challenge I faced was getting my materials into a workable state. This was about the point where I questioned my dedication to the cause. But, several hours of experimentation with home-made bain-maries later, I had both absolutes in a slightly more liquid state. (Bergamot essential oil poses no such problems. Let's all take a moment to appreciate bergamot oil).

And then comes the next problem: these absolutes won't dissolve in carrier oils. So how are you supposed to keep them liquid and usable?

The answer: dipropylene glycol, a chemical compound with solvent properties that make it great for use in perfuming. So here's your basic formula for DIY chypres:

Bergamot essential oil
Oakmoss absolute
Labdanum absolute
Dipropylene glycol
A water-bath
A kitchen that you're prepared to have covered in oil
The patience of a saint

You can get more complex if you're also working with aroma chemicals, but I don't want to worry about methyl salicylate or ambrene 50 (I can barely spell them), so I stuck to as simple and natural a formula as I could find.

So that's a brief overview of what a chypre is and what my interpretation is...Next week I'll get into a bit more detail about the blends I've created and how I'm using them!

(Cross-posted to Shy Saliana)

Introducing Shy Saliana

What's Shy Saliana all about, you ask?

 Christian Meyn http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Simply put, this is really all about is curiosity. When I first started making solid perfumes in 2012, it was purely for myself, to see if I could and to see if I'd enjoy it. I could and I did, and I was quickly gripped by an obsession. Even so, I never imagined perfume-making would become such a huge part of my life. Yet it has. Maybe, just maybe, the most important part of my life (don't tell my cat). In 2013, it was important enough to me that I opened Common Brimstone. More than that, it was exciting enough to me to open a shop and offer my creations to the world. That was a big step. I'm not a natural self-promoter and the idea of saying, "hey, I think this thing I made is worth your money," is still a really alien idea to me.

How does that lead us here, you ask? Curiosity again. I'd answered some question for myself: Yes, I can make perfume; yes, I can do it well; and yes, other people like them. The next question was simple - what else can I do? How can I push this - and myself - further?

And the answer was simple too: try more. I'd shied away from perfumer's alcohol when I first started as a hobbyist, because it seemed so...professional. Something experts worked with. And something that, honestly, was a step away from the natural-as-possible ethos that is part of Common Brimstone. But it was also pretty damn tantalising. New possibilities appear on the horizon! New questions are raised. How different are the results? What materials can I use that I can't now? A prime example, green tea absolute is the consistency of old chewing gum and about as pleasant to work with. It's also insoluble in carrier oils like sweet almond oil, which means it's pretty much useless for my Common Brimstone projects.

But with perfumer's alcohol and di-propylene glycol?* Different story! Suddenly I've got a whole new range of materials to play with. And that is just an irresistible lure.

So this is my journey. I don't like to think of it as "the next level" in my perfuming endeavours, because frankly I think Common Brimstone is already a pretty huge accomplishment, and nothing is going to dwarf my pride in it. So this is more a journey to a parallel place. The goals are the same: beautiful, unique, handcrafted perfumes inspired by the things I'm passionate about. The methods are different, but I hope you'll enjoy it all just the same. So stick with me - I'll share plenty more about Shy Saliana and where it's going soon.

In the mean time, you can track my (rather slow) progress on social media - Twitter, Facebook, and on the blog, and you can visit the (currently empty) Shy Saliana shop.

*I'll explain later!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Well, to the shop, anyway. February 21st marks Common Brimstone's second birthday. Since it doesn't seem quite right to give myself presents, I'm going to give you guys some instead.

I'll keep this brief, since the As Yet Undiagnosed Arm Injury is playing me up today, so just imagine this blog is filled with witticisms and jokes, and let's get to the important part:

A GIVEAWAY!

To celebrate Common Brimstone's entry into the terrible twos, I'm giving away a fabulous prize to one lucky blog commenter. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and you'll be in the running for...

A 10ml bottle of Unbirthday Cake '15, my limited edition new perfume oil. 

This beautiful butterfly necklace from Laura's Jewellery.

And a 5ml bottle of your choice of any perfume from the shop - Raw Brimstone or the general Common Brimstone catalogue!

Two runners-up will also get a 5ml bottle of Unbirthday Cake '15!

That's it! Sound good? You've got until 5th March to leave your comment and be in with a chance of winning.

As always, I couldn't be doing this without all of you guys, so thank you, thank you, thank you!

“Perfume is like cocktails without the hangover, like chocolate without the calories, like an affair without tears, like a vacation from which you never have to come back”

cbenjasuwan, http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Marian Bendeth

First of all: Happy New Year! I hope you all had amazing Christmasses and New Years, and that 2015 is going to treat you well. I have loads of stuff planned for this year, including a Secret Project that I hope to let you in on soon, as well as (of course) as many new perfumes as I can possibly make!

Now, to business! I mentioned over the Christmas period on Facebook and Twitter that I was going to be changing the way I make my perfume oils in 2015. Don't worry – you're going to have the same amazing scents, but I've finally been able to do something I've wanted to do since...well, since opening Common Brimstone really, and that's change the type of carrier oil I use.

Allmy Common Brimstone regular perfumes will now be mixed in a blend of fractionated coconut oil and vitamin E oil. All Raw Brimstoneperfumes will be mixed in golden jojoba oil. I've already started transitioning from sweet almond oil to the new carriers, so going forward you can expect the same perfumes you know and love, but with a new and superior carrier!

Why the change? Well, first and foremost, fractionated coconut oil is feather-light so it absorbs readily into your skin, and the fractionated nature of this oil means it has an indefinite shelf-life, unlike some other vegetable oils. Combine that with the amber bottles my perfumes come in, and your perfume is going to be perfectly preserved for a very long time! In addition, it's silky, non-greasy, and highly nourishing for your skin. Add in a touch of vitamin E and my perfumes are now even kinder to your skin.

As for jojoba oil, it has an almost endless list of health and beautybenefits. It also closely resembles the oils of our own skin and is naturally protective, making it great for sensitive skin. My aim for the Raw Brimstone line has always been 100% natural and 100% awesome, and jojobo oil makes the perfect carrier oil to complement the essential oils, absolutes, and CO2s I use.

What does this mean for you? You will see a small price increase across the shop. I've ummed-and-ahhed about this for a long time. Part of the ethos I started Common Brimstone with was “affordable luxury.” I wanted to make perfumes for people like me – people who loved them, but couldn't afford to spend a small fortune on them. I believe I've kept to that ideal with this change, but of course I have to be realistic about my outgoings! And I do believe that I'm giving you a better product all round.

As a final word, I want to say that I wouldn't be able to make these changes – or work on my Secret Project – without all your enthusiasm, support, and love, and that means the world to me! I hope you'll stick with me through 2015 to see where Common Brimstone can go next.