Bottle screen printing

The gold foil labels I’ve been using on the new bottles are pretty but very time-consuming to make, so I had the bottles screen printed with gold text. They look clean and elegant. A clear label with the scent name goes on the bottom of the bottle and doesn’t show unless you turn it over. I just had a small number of bottles done for the first run, but they look great so I will continue with this. Winter Woods is shown at left.

The text appears less bold in your hand than in the photo. I need to photograph the scents, starting with the four in the Boutique collection.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wanted to briefly pop in and wish everyone a very happy thanksgiving. My brother and his family are visiting and that’s always nice. Hope you can enjoy spending time with friends and family this long holiday weekend.

I’ll post a couple updates soon. Meantime, happy thanksgiving! (Can’t believe it’s that time of year again!)

Quick update

I’m waiting for more feedback on the testers I sent out, but so far reactions to the classic inspired scent are quite good. A few months ago I mentioned a new amber scent I was working on, and that seems ready for the first round of testing too. I’m trying to keep the progress going on those two formulas and Reves2. I should have time for a better update this weekend.

Thanks, Ines, for the follow-up review of Winter Woods after including it in the 2010 holiday gift guide!

Ines also reviews Boxeuses, and I’ll be curious to try that one myself. It sounds promising from the notes but is hard to tell until sniffing (I’ve read mixed reviews).

News Links

Here’s an interesting interview Nathan did with Franco Wright of Luckyscent and Indie Scents. Nathan has been doing a series on artisan perfumers, and this installment looks at the market from the niche retail side. I found it interesting that they’ve seen growth in gourmand and unisex scents but a decline in interest in big florals. Most of the excitement on blogs does seem to be generated by woodsy scents, though a few florals sneak in.

And in other news, upcoming Lutens releases are reported to be warm buttered toast (Jeux de Peau) and carnation (Vitriol d’Oeillet). I still haven’t tried the last few yet… Looking forward to trying Boxeuses.

Sunset a few days ago

Couldn’t resist snapping a couple quick pics as the sun went down behind the trees a few nights ago.  I didn’t have time to get to a decent vantage point but the color came out really true.  It was a gorgeous bright red sky.

A thanks!

Thank you to Ines for including Winter Woods on today’s holiday gift guide on the All I Am – A Redhead blog. Plenty of other good ideas there too, and on the other participating blogs.

Boutique Scents Update and Quick Sniff Report

I put the four Boutique scents back up in bottle sizes, but I’m holding off a bit longer on the Exclusives. I sent out a few testers for Reves2 and the untitled new scent. I’m hoping they are very close now. I’ll try to stick to the dream theme on Reves2 for a new name, and I’m trying to find a good theme picture for its webpage (hard!).

Just when I thought 2010 was going to be lacking in new releases that wowed me, a couple of samples arrived that are quite special. The new Van Clef and Arpels Midnight in Paris edp is delicious and is my favorite new release of 2010 so far, though I only try a small fraction of what comes out. Warm ambery notes, smooth leather, light smoky notes, fruity notes, and wonderful woodsy basenotes — gourmand but not over the top sweet. I need to wear it again but it’s great on my first try. People compare it to Black, but I didn’t get the weird rubber note that prevents me from loving Black (though I know that’s what makes some people love Black even more!). It brought Dior Homme more to mind, though this has a stronger leather note and is darker to me, not the same at all but sort of a similar theme in a unisex gourmand woodsy scent.

I also tried FK Absolue Pour le Soir and it is lovely. Compared to Lumiere Noire, the skanky aspect comes out more to me and the rose is less prominent so I still love LN more, but Absolue Pour le Soir is beautifully done. A sample of Prada Benjoin took me by surprise with its woodsy, resinous, gourmand goodness. Yum. Not too sweet as I had feared. Another gourmand woodsy winner.

Speaking of French names…

I posted a link to this wonderful French pronunciation resource many months ago, but now it has an easy-to-use index that makes it even better so I’ll post a reminder link about it. New entries are added almost daily and you can submit requests. They will have a game coming up soon with a prize for best entry to celebrate the 365th item to be added to the database.

We had a rainy weekend but are back to pretty fall days for this week. I’m testing Reves2 today to try a few adjustments that may improve oomph. Then I’ll get back to the other new one this afternoon. I’m taking a few days to catch up after the tooth saga last week. I need to filter some new batches and then would like to put bottles up for the Boutique scents. I’ll start with those first.