Handmade Monday 2014

If you were with me last year, you may already know about Handmade Monday. If you're new to the blog, I can best describe it thusly: the handmade alternative to Black Friday, a day to buy handmade, artisan products and show your support for small businesses, artists, and crafters of all kinds. This year it falls on November 24th and I'll be running a sale that day, as I did last year.

Now, being very firmly British, I don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but I've had plenty of reasons to be thankful this year. Common Brimstone has grown in leaps and bounds and I've been able to financially support my little family (two snakes, one cat, one man) as well as keep indulging my love of perfume-making by investing in rare and unusual materials. I've been able to raise money for charitable causes close to my heart. And that wouldn't have happened with the support, reviews, tweets, and general word-of-mouth that you guys have given me. You've all also been incredibly patient and supportive whilst we dealt with some pretty tough family matters over the past few weeks. So I want to give back.

So for Handmade Monday 2014, I'm offering 15% off everything in the shop. That's perfume oils in both 5ml and 10ml, the Raw Brimstone line, all sample sets, and all solid perfumes. Whether you want to get cracking on Christmas shopping, you're looking to treat yourself (you deserve it!), or you're just a massive perfume junkie like me, Monday 24th is the time to indulge.

I have three new perfume oils I'll be adding to the shop on Sunday, too. They should have been part of my autumn collection, but...life happened, and I like to think it is always autumn somewhere in the world, so they still count. Look out for Spindrift, The Autumn Queen, and Penny Dreadful this weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!

"O river, I see drifting deep in your flux of silver those great goddesses of peace."

Lorelei - Sylvia Plath

Through dangers untold* and hardships unnumbered**, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City  blog to take back the child that you have stolen finally tell you about the new Raw Brimstone collection.

Can you believe I thought I'd be launching this back in August? I can't imagine what I was thinking. But perhaps November is a better month for this particular collection anyway, inspired as it is by the goddesses of death, darkness, and the underworld.

I'm a folklore and mythology buff, and I'm never happier than when working myth and legend into my creative projects. For this Raw Brimstone collection, I knew I wanted the focus to be goddesses, but that really was too broad a scope by itself. From the Greeks to the Celts, from Hinduism to Vodun...sometimes there's such a thing as too much choice. So why go for goddesses associated with death? Bit morbid, right?

Right, but also fascinating. Each goddess represented in the collection is not simply a goddess of death, but has numerous other associations and roles within their respective mythology. Kerbechet, for example, is a deification of embalming fluid in Egyptian mythology, and gave water to the spirits of the dead while they waited for their mummification. Marzanna, a Polish goddess, was tied to seasonal rites linked to death and rebirth, wherein an effigy of the goddess is drowned or burned to symbolise the end of winter. Maman Brigitte is a death loa who protects graveyards and drinks rum infused with hot peppers...Once I started researching, I was struck by how every culture's take on death and the underworld varied so wildly, and I knew I'd found my theme.

Serket

The challenge of the Raw Brimstone line is creating beautiful, unique perfumes using all-natural materials. It would have been great to make a Maman Brigitte perfume with rum fragrance oil, for example, but it would also have been cheating. One of the reasons this collection is coming so late in the year is that I've spent a lot of time this year sourcing some of the weird and wild essential oils featured in these perfumes. That itself has lead to some failed experiments...I had planned to include a perfume using green tea absolute in this line, but it turns out green tea absolute is the consistency of dried chewing gum and...well...I made a real mess of a perfectly good mug and several spoons before I decided that perfume wasn't going anywhere...

What I have ended up with is nine dark and delicious all-natural perfumes that are absolutely perfect for heading into the long, cold winter months. Whether your inner goddess is tempestuous Kali or ancient Ereshkigal, I've got something for you. 

Want a sneak preview?

Belet-Seri - A Babylonian goddess of the underworld known as The Scribe of the Earth and the Queen of the Desert. Her scent is a rich, Oriental-type with warm spices, luxurious flowers, and just a hint of desert heat.

Dea Tacita - A Roman goddess of death, Dea Tacita was known as the silent goddess. She was the personification of the terror of obscurity. Her scent is a calm, still blend of greenery and soft florals inspired by the Italian wilderness.

Ereshkigal - The Mesopotamian Great Lady Under Earth, ruler of the land of the dead. Her scent is earthy and deep, infused with sweet exotic fruits and flowers.

Kali - Surely a goddess who needs no introduction. She is the goddess of time and change, ferocious, destructive, and frenzied. Her scent is a hot, wild blend of spices and deep, dark incenses, with a hint of a blazing fire.

Kebechet - The Egyptian goddess of embalming, daughter of Anubis. Her scent combines the traditional ingredients of the embalming liquid, coupled with a touch of fragrant flowers.

Maman Brigitte - Wife of Baron Samedi, a loa who is today equated with Mary Magdalene and Saint Brighid. Her scent combines fiery peppers and spices with sharp fruit and elegant florals.

Marzanna - Polish goddess of death, winter, and nightmares, tied to the change of seasons. Her scent is that of a winter forest awaiting spring, woods and trees with a hint of cool rose.

Santa Muerte - A folk saint associated with not just death, but healing and protection, Santa Muerte is venerated in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Her scent comprises some of her favourite offerings - tobacco and fruits.

Serket - An Egyptian goddess of venomous stings, once a deification of the scorpion. She is a protector of the dead and patron of the Pharaohs. Her scent combines sticky-sweet honey with sharper resins and extravagant florals.

Sound good? Excited? Can't wait to try them? Don't worry! I will be taking a short break in the first week of November to stock-take and catch up on some custom requests, but after that, this line will be launched and available for sale. Keep an eye out on the week starting November 10th. In the mean time, I'm off to research the next line...

*Family stuff
** A sinus infection

Pefume Destash!

So as I mentioned recently, I'm moving house soon and as part of the cleaning up/packing up/moving out process, I'm looking for new homes for some of my early perfume creations.

The rules!

1. First come, first served - these are all one-of-a-kind perfumes, and when they're gone, they're gone.

2. I will ask you to pay postage costs, but otherwise there's no charge. Postage charges are as follows:

UK - £2.60
Europe - £3.80
USA/Canada/Rest of the world - £4.00

Additional £1 for each extra perfume.

Payments can be made via Paypal

3. All solid perfumes are made with beeswax unless otherwise stated.

4. The list of perfumes on offer is below. Just leave me a comment to let me know which you want and we'll take it from there!

Crossed-out perfumes have been claimed!

Perfume Oils

The Dark Wife - approx 3ml - sweet orange, pomegranate, hyacinth, black musk and a couple of other things I can't remember as I've lost the formula!

Kitsune - approx 4ml. The original version of Fox Maiden! Plum, mandarin, cedar wood, and spices.

Summer of '99 - approx 3.5ml - peach blossom, fresh cut grass, cypress, geranium.

Solid Perfumes

Mystery floral blend made with soy wax. Smells like rose and white musk, primarily, so probably an early version of The White Lady.

Vanilla/coffee/clementine - smells quite toffee-ish!

Dragon's blood/spice/ginger/vanilla made with soy wax - kind of a milder version of Mongolian Deathworm, more warm than spicy.

Mystery fruit blend made with soy wax. Probably peach and pear.

Oatmeal/honey/peach/almond - smells like flapjack!

Orange/rosewood/cedarwood - I love this combination! Warm, woodsy, and spicy.

Nutmeg/jasmine/fig - quite sweet and fruity.

Mystery chocolate blend with soy wax - could be an early version of Chocolate Chai.

Cranberry/dark chocolate. 'Nuff said.

Rose/rosewood/hazelnut - basically the now discontinued Haunted Heart.

Ginger/ylang ylang/black pepper - spicy floral.

Clove/lavender/marjoram - not dissimilar to Black Agnes.

Lavender/honey - very calming and soothing.

Clary sage/petitgrain/sweet orange - surprisingly woodsy.

Rose/clove - spicy floral

Chocolate/vanilla/red wine/honey - an early version of Midnight Wine.

Ginger/rose - more ginger than rose.

Chocolate/absinthe - umf. YUM.

Rose/vanilla/cinnamon - an early version of First Kiss.

Pumpkin/mulberry/cranberry/black currant - this is pure Autumn fruit. It's also a little "wetter" than the rest of the bunch, and is more like a lotion than a solid perfume.

Lime/lavender - so zingy and refreshing!

Sweet orange/ylang ylang/myrrh/vanilla - an early version of the now-discontinued King in Yellow.

Bergamot/marjoram/cypress - quite unisex and subtle.

Benzoin/lavender/palmarosa - this smells quite like sweets - very candy-like.

Black pepper/sweet orange - spiced fruit, good and warm.

Vanilla/grapefruit/lavender - lovely and uplifting.

Lime/vanilla - another really refreshing, uplifting scent.

Black pepper/black cherry/red cherry/pomegranate - a pure fruity explosion.

Bergamot/grapefruit/ylang ylang - a blend of pure essential oils meant to inspire happiness and peace of mind.

Grapefruit/vetiver/bergamot - nice and unisex, with a citrus twist.

Peppermint/sugar/sweet rum - very minty, but with a good sugary kick.

Ginger/nutmeg/sandalwood/lemon - very light and summery.

Vanilla/benzoin/clementine - another quite toffee-ish scent.

Palmarosa/black pepper/lemon - Despite the floral palmarosa, I'd say this is a more masculine than feminine combination.

Coconut/lime/pink sugar/watermelon - an early version of Strange Bright Fruit.

Lime/gardenia/benzoin - I actually think this smells like some kind of vodka cocktail.

Baby powder/blueberry/strawberry/watermelon - very fresh and girly.

Sugar/aniseed/absinthe - quite a strong absinthe scent, with just a touch of sweetness from the sugar.

Rose/strawberry/baby powder - a simplified version of Pin-Up.

Coconut/jasmine/lily of the valley - lots of coconut. Very fresh.

Vanilla/honey/mandarin - this one doesn't really smell of much in the tin, but on the skin it slowly blooms and is lovely and warm.

Black pepper/rosewood - supposedly this is an aphrodisiac combination...can't comment on that, but it does smell good!

Grapefruit/chocolate/sweet orange - chocolate and citrus fruit! Can't go wrong.

Mango/rainforest - if you liked The Lotus Eaters, this is similar, but without the floral note.

Plum/mandarin - another Fox Maiden-esque scent - really cheerful.

Mystery blend - some floral and fruit notes, but beyond that I have no idea!

Frankincense/almond/cinnamon/vanilla - also quite reminiscent of Mongolian Deathworm, but not quite as bold.

Sandalwood/jasmine/palmarosa - lovely and calming.

Amber/ylang ylang - a nice, powdery floral.

Lily/Chinese musk/white amber - an early version of Marici.

Patchouli/honey/sweet orange - I adore this combination - not too heavy on the patchouli.

Vanilla musk/pear - a lovely Spring scent, slightly "wet" (too much shea butter!).

"A good home must be made, not bought"

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.”

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!

"When other little girls wanted to be ballet dancers, I kind of wanted to be a vampire."

- Angelina Jolie

Summer is nearly over (although I have one more summery scent to offer you) and I don't know about your part of the world, but here in Cambridge the weather has turned distinctly autumnal. The skies are grey, the evenings are darker, and my cat is spending less time sleeping in the bushes and more time trying to sit on my lap (he's really far too big to sit there comfortably, but it never stops him trying). All this can only mean one thing:

Yes! Halloween is coming! Last year I created five limited edition fragrances inspired by B-Movies, and offered them for sale throughout October, with all the profits going to the British Heart Foundation. This was in memory of my dad, who passed away in October 2012.

This year I'm going a little bigger. I'm still going to offer limited edition scents, and I'm still going to donate the proceeds to the BHF. But this year I'm offering six new perfumes, and they'll be available from mid-September. This is to give people a better chance of snapping them up in time for Halloween itself, and hopefully to raise as much money as possible.

But what's the theme this year, you ask? Why, it can only be vampires.

They're the archetypal monster. Undead but so very vital. Blood-sucking, immortal, beautiful, alluring as sin, and as monstrous as any werewolf, zombie, goblin, or ghoul. They're just a little more glamorous. And they've fascinated us poor mortals since the days of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and long, long before that. Almost every culture in the world has some variant of the vampire myth and pop culture is still overflowing with them. As a writer, I hear every single year that the vampire bubble has burst, but still we see them going strong in books, on TV, in the cinema, and just about everywhere else. Vampires have staying power.

So where better to turn for inspiration? There are so many myths and legends around vampires, I could have made a dozen or more perfumes. And I probably will at some point...But for this year, I narrowed it down to six and picked a specific vampire-centric theme to play with.

Halloween 2014 is the year of the Vampire Hunter's Survival Kit. I'm not going to give away the exact notes of each scent yet, but just to tantalize your senses a tiny bit, here's a little sneak preview.

Vampire Hunter - world-weary and worn down, loaded with protective plants and a shot of Dutch courage.

Wooden Stake - no sensible vampire hunter leaves home without it. Strong woods and dark spices.

Holy Water - blessed by only the most devout of priests. Clean waters and gentle florals.

Vampire's Kiss - beguiling, bewitching, and utterly deadly.

Vampire's Bride - innocence tainted. A rotting wedding gown and a decaying bridal bouquet.

Nosferatu - as cold as the grave, but dangerously irresistible.

So stock up on garlic (or, if you'd rather be the vampire, sharpen your teeth), and get ready for some long, cold, dark nights...

"You've painted up your lips and rolled and curled your tinted hair...

Ruby are you contemplating going out somewhere?" - Ruby, Kenny Rodgers

So last night I posted this picture to the Common Brimstone Facebook page. Are you curious about that distinctive pinky liquid in that there pipette? Wondering what I've been doing to turn a perfume pink? Desperate to know what such a concoction might smell like?

Well, let me tell you about ruby gromwell essential oil.

This is by a long shot the most unusual oil in my collection. It actually comes from a plant called purple gromwell, which is commonly used in Chinese medicine and looks like this:

Not particularly red or purple, really. But the essential oil itself comes from the plant's dried roots, and that looks like this:

Yes, it really is that colour. I know because I managed to stain a bookcase with it whilst opening the bottle for the first time. It's very pretty.

Now the smell! The smell is something else. The thought that sprang to mind when I sniffed this for the first time was beetroot and balsamic vinegar. Okay. I know what you're thinking. Nobody wants to smell like beetroot and balsamic vinegar (probably. If you do, that's fine by me and I support your right to smell like a fancy salad with all my heart). So you may now be wondering what on earth I'd do with such an oil to convince you to try it out.

Two things:

1. I mixed it with pomegranate fragrance oil.

2. I used very little of it.

Some oils are not meant to be the star attraction. They're meant to be the supporting act. Quietly working away to enhance the show without stealing it. Ruby gromwell is that kind of oil. For August's full moon fragrance, Red Moon, I've taken the tiniest touch of ruby gromwell and combined it with pomegranate, calla lily, and white rose fragrance oils. The result is a knockout. Sultry. Simmering. Earthy. The ruby gromwell takes that light, sweet pomegranate and turns it into a hot explosion worthy of the deepest, darkest summer night. The lily and rose make for a silky lining wrapped around this frankly sexy heart of fruit and roots. There's something about the blend that makes me think of crushed berries, sticky sweet and a little messy. When I got my fiance to give it a sniff, he thought of plums. We're both agreed it's completely unique among my creations. And it's pink! (Don't worry, I've tested it extensively and it won't turn you pink).

I've made a habit of launching my full moon fragrances on the full moon of each month, and in August that means this Sunday, the 10th. Now, a while back I had planned to close the shop between 11th and 15th August because my brother's first child was due to be born. Well, like the soldier's granddaughter she is, she arrived early (congratulations, David and Laura!). And it seems a shame to launch a new perfume and then promptly close the shop, so I've decided to stay open and continue business as usual. Red Moon will launch on Sunday August 11th, and it'll be joined by some of the other perfumes I've road tested recently - Speakeasy, Bastet, and Lavender Praline. I'm always excited about sharing new creations with you all, but I'm especially excited about Red Moon. 

The transformation from beetroot to roll me around in this is rather magical, and one of the things I love most about natural perfumes - you just never know when you're going to stumble on something incredible. I'll admit this won't be a fragrance to everyone's tastes - it's quite strong and maybe too heavy for daytime wear - but I can promise you you'll have to go far to find anything else quite like it.