new at Her Two Scents – Her Two Scents

hello-january

I’ve had great fun planning some wonderful things for 2015. Here’s a peek at what’s new in January and the year to come:

35 new oils to profile and 2 new suppliers – for my birthday back in November, I asked for one thing: new oils! I couldn’t think of any “thing” I wanted more! 17 of of them are no more than 1ml samples because I really wanted to explore new scents before committing any serious money to new oils in future. Since their arrival I’ve been sleeping with a different one on my night stand every night. It’s a wonderful way to experience a new oil as it filters through the subconscious during sleep.

industry interviews – i finally took the plunge and just started with an idea I had about a year ago to interview perfume industry insiders from a perfumer’s perspective. So the goal is to get out there and chat with (visiting them would be even better) essential oil suppliers about extraction and distillation methods etc., chemistry experts to demystify some of the organic chemistry conundrums perfumers might encounter, indie/niche perfumers, and many more!

five new tinctures – and of course some cool new tincture material that I got from one of these new suppliers.

aromatic profiles – this is the heart of Her Two Scents and so, of course, nothing will change here, other than more new profiles. Which I I can never get enough of!

the scentscape – a scented landscape of words, an olfactive dictionary, a compilation of words, that I’m working on that will culminate in a book (due out late 2015 early 2016). Beginning January 2015 I’ll be introducing one new word or group of words strung together to describe an aromatic impression or profile that I will break down in my own terms, of course, of what that word signifies for me, what it reminds me of, or connects to in my brain. This will help you begin to create your own way of communicating your olfactive impressions with confidence.

New Year’s goals – for as long as I can remember I’ve been making lists of my goals for the new year . When my daughter had just moved out to start university and before meeting LV and moving to Italy I would sit in my tiny living room on New Year’s Eve or thereabouts with a cup of tea, Christmas tree lights twinkling, T.V. off, Mario Bocelli playing like a lullaby in the background and me safely tucked under a warm blanket… then with a tilt of the head and hand on the chin I would allow myself to dream. What I wanted from the year would flow from my heart to my head to my hand to the paper and thus would begin the manifestation of my ideal life. It was one of my most favourite times of the year.

It’s come to my attention over the years, that the trick to making lists of goals is to leave enough room for Life to surprise you, to make the list and some how let it go, to set markers and then set about the task of living. Trusting. That’s the trick.

With that said, my list of objectives for 2015:

P.S. I’ll be back on January 12th with my first post and the first industry interview featuring Saskia Wilson-Brown of the Art and Olfaction Awards and the Institute of Art and Olfaction, don’t miss it!

Have a wonderful start to your new year!

what-have-i-been-up-to

It’s been quiet in the studio for a while, and when it’s quiet I start thinking…a lot. Yes, I usually write about perfume making and aroma profiles but I realise I don’t share much about what’s going on with me. You’ve probably seen a few changes in the last month, so let me share with you what’s been happening in my corner of the world and give you an idea of what’s to come.

New digs – for some time now I’d been mulling over the pros and cons of moving the site from the basic WordPress site to a self-hosted platform, the .org environment. There are a lot of things you can’t do or use on your site if you’re using the WP.com platform so, I made the decision to sign up with InMotion hosting – so far so good – and take matters into my own hands (typical).

New site design – I thought the template I had purchased through WP.com was mine (it wasn’t cheap and it wasn’t free), that I could do with it what I wanted and be able to transfer it to, at the very least, another WP environment. Nein! So. New template (again!). New design. I had to find a new template. Fast! And that brought with it some more changes like the sidebar with a brief intro about me and the search bar, category and archives search that’s sort of hidden, well, you have to click on the little plus sign over to the right to make it visible. At some point I’m going to have to make it more clear that it’s there, but that’ll have to wait. For now, just a heads up that it’s there.

New pages – you may or may not have noticed that I’ve added two new pages to the menu, one where I’ve put all the sites that give me inspiration and motivation, the thing they all have in common is that none of them have anything to do with perfumery at all. The other is the Perfume DIY page and this is where I’ve posted links as a resource to industry blogs, forums and websites. Also, I’ve updated the page to include a list of links to perfume making suppliers from all over the world – from essential oils to bottles to scent strips. Hopefully this helps you in the beginnings of your exploration into the world of scent and perfume making!

Not getting email updates? – I hope you’re still getting your blog updates, because the move made that an issue as well, now I’ve got to ask new people to sign up in different ways. So if you’re not getting the posts regularly, please fill in your email only and I’ll add you to the list.

Preparing for the holidays – The Christmas season is by far my favourite of all and here at our house we go all out dressing up both the inside and the outside of the house, it’s a real team effort, but it’s a lot of work so forgive me in advance if I miss one here or there between now and mid-January.

Projects! – Of course there’s still studying for the course that takes up a great deal of time. Then there is the final perfume project which is a constant work in progress of building and stripping down and re-thinking the approach. It may finally be clear to me that my preferred approach may not be that of building by combining accords, but building my perfume one component at a time, thoughtfully, methodically, researching each chemical component and finding common threads. It’s the way I built my very first perfume 18 months ago and perhaps it’s my personal style. But I won’t know that until I give the accords approach a serious try. Also in the works is a collaboration of interviews that I’m planning for 2015 to be a regular part of the blog. Oh, and lest I forget, during the holidays, sometime in January I have to do some inventory. I’ve been dreading it and putting it off but it’s got to be done. Next year there will be more vials and bottles and materials to order and it’s vital to know how much of what I still have on hand so I’m not wasting precious dollars. Phew! That’s a lot! And as if that weren’t enough, hang on there’s more, a whole lot more but I gotta keep something back for a surprise!

Hope your week is beautiful!

Credit: image by Angelika Mirocha!

Tag: new at Her Two Scents

new in January

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