Happy New Year!

Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful 2011!

Thanks NST for including SSS Incense Pure in your best of 2010 list! I’m glad people view it as a good value. These days it’s easy to get sticker shock when perfume shopping!

And thanks again, Ines, for including SSS in your best of 2010 post too!

I’m running behind on my 2010 list this year but will get to it….

The year of 2010 was a rough one for me personally, so I’m welcoming 2011 warmly with the anticipation of things improving for me in a couple more months. I released only one scent in 2010, Incense Pure, but I worked on four others and expect to release most of those in 2011. Those new scents in progress include the classic inspired fragrance, the take-off on Lieu de Reves, a new amber, and the white floral. I made the switch to the new 34 ml bottles this year and arranged the screen printing for them; I’m really pleased with how they turned out. I also sourced the new 2 ml spray vials that are a nice addition to the sample options.

I’m looking forward to spending some time with family later today and hope you enjoy time with friends and family today too. Many thanks for your friendship and support, and for the opportunity to share in the wonderful community of fragrance lovers. Here’s to 2011!

Fireside Intense Update

For those of you who have been wanting Fireside Intense, I’m going to put it up on the site for a little while. This is the right time of year for it, so I thought it’d be nice to offer it for a few weeks. I can’t put all the Exclusives back up yet, but I may rotate and put a few of the winter scents up one at a time until I’m ready to put everything back up again. Hope this helps a little bit.

Sampling Traversee du Bosphore

I’ve been thinking about my list of favorite new scents that I’ve tried in 2010. I’m going to hold off on finishing the list because I have several samples en route that I want to try first. I did try one new release recently that I know will make my list and it took me by surprise: L’ Artisan’s Traversee du Bosphore. The list of notes sounded too sweet for me and I rarely like apple notes, but this gourmand concoction works for me. The heliotrope, pistachio, vanilla, and creamy notes are delicious and blend seamlessly with the rose, violet, iris, amber, and leather. The subtle sueded leather adds just the right touch to keep it from going too sweet. It dries down to a soft and easy-to-wear scent that’s comforting. The apple is there but doesn’t scream and I actually like it in this case. Definitely worth a try. These are the reviews that tempted me to sample it: Victoria at Bois de Jasmin and Robin at NST.

Happy Holidays!

Wishing everyone a very happy holiday. I posted this picture last year but thought it was cute and wanted to share it again this year (it’s a Christmas card we received last year from some relatives in Sweden). Hope you have a great time with family and have a chance to visit and reconnect after the holiday rush.

Thanks so much for your support and encouragement throughout the year. I very much appreciate all the good cheer in the fragrance community and am deeply thankful to be among such a wonderful group of people.

My brother and family will be up next week to spend some time with us and I’m looking forward to that. Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, God Yul! 🙂

Reviews on the Posse and on BoT0

A number of Sonoma Scent Studio fragrances are reviewed today on Perfume Posse. Thanks so much for the reviews March! I’m partial to Winter Woods too, and it wears like a woodsy musk for me too. And, yes, the jasmine in Jour Ensoleillé is indolic enough to scare some people, while others enjoy that dirty edge, lol. I’m fairly tolerant to indoles and enjoy scents like the so-called death by jasmine that is Serge Lutens A La Nuit, so it’s tough for me to overdose on jasmine. Jour Ensoleillé would be too much for those sensitive to indoles though, and that’s one reason I’m trying to minimize the indoles in the new white floral I have in progress.

Also, a series of reviews of SSS scents appeared recently on the blog Beauty on the Outside. Thanks Danielle! Glad you enjoyed your sample box! I see that you plan to sniff DelRae Panache soon, and that’s on my To Sniff list too!

Hope you’re having a great holiday season and aren’t too stressed during these final shopping days! We’ve been having daily rain, but I know that’s easier than the heavy snow many of you have.

Drawing Winners

We had a nice response so I picked four random numbers instead of just two; third place can pick one 5 ml spray and fourth place can pick any four samples. I assigned numbers based on your posting order and then used random.org to pick four numbers. Here are the winners with their lucky numbers:

37 tania — can choose two 5 ml purse sprays or a boxed set of five 2.5 ml mini sprays
3 LexfordRose — can choose two 5 ml purse sprays or a boxed set of five 2.5 ml mini sprays
30 PhilipFausti n — can choose one 5 ml spray
52 Lesley — can choose four 1 ml samples

and I’m going to also add Josh Maday for being first to post! Four 1 ml samples will go to you too if you’d like them. 🙂

Winners need to send me your scent choices and addresses and we’ll see if some of these can get to you by Christmas!

Congrats to the winners and thanks for playing! I really enjoyed reading your comments. Happy holidays!

Holiday Drawing

I want to host a little drawing to celebrate the holidays. To enter, leave a comment below (something like “I’m in!” will do), and we’ll pick two winners with random.org. Each winner can choose either a set of two purse sprays in any SSS scents or a gift box of five mini sprays in any scents. I’ll leave it open until Wed or Thurs (15th or 16th) and will post winners on Friday the 17th. Open to any country in our usual shipping policies. Includes both Boutique and Exclusive scents – your choice.

If you like, tell us if there’s anything interesting in your December garden or in your neighborhood. We’re a bit soggy here, but we have the last of the roses and the first of the paperwhites.

Good luck and happy holidays!

Update: Thanks all! Drawing is closed now. 12/16 eve

In the news

Fragrance blogs are reporting today that New York’s Museum of Arts and Design is creating a Center of Olfactory Art dedicated to the art of fragrance. Author and New York Times columnist Chandler Burr will curate the exhibitions and programs. You can read more at Now Smell This, Perfume Shrine, 1000 Fragrances, and Cafleurebon. Exciting to have fragrance recognized as an art form in this way!

And Winter Woods is in Part One of the 2010 holiday wish list on the blog Fragrance Belles-Lettres. Thanks for including Winter Woods in your holiday list, Felicia!

Something in the Air

Sonoma Scent Studio got a brief mention in the LA Times Magazine on Sunday in a very well-written article about fragrance for men. Previous installments of the column have been popular so it will be a monthly regular (on fragrance in general, not just for men).

Early December 2010 Update

Currently I am dealing with a very difficult personal/family issue that began back in June 2009 and is now requiring an enormous amount of my time. As a result of my efforts spent on the large amount of paperwork involved, my wrists flared up this past July and have not been able to heal as quickly as they should with the continuing demands for so much work unrelated to the business. For these reasons, I cannot put the rest of the cart up at this time. The situation will be resolved early next year, likely by the end of January, and then I’ll have time to devote to the business again.

I just wanted to let you know what’s going on because of the unfortunate timing during the holidays. If you need one of the SSS Exclusives for Christmas, send us an email and we’ll try to accommodate some special requests as we can fit them in. Also, decants of many Sonoma Scent Studio fragrances are available at The Posh Peasant and The Perfumed Court. In addition, the four Boutique scents are currently available on the Sonoma Scent Studio site and at indiescents.com.

I am continuing to develop the new scents with the goal of releasing them early next year, and I’m working toward my vision for the scent list. I’m also starting to use the just-completed screen printed 34 ml bottles and am really excited about them.

I am most thankful for all the kindness you’ve shown over the years. It means the world to me and I wish the very best back to you with all my heart. I am also thankful for the opportunity to do something that I love and for all the support I receive from my family.

My assistant and I will continue to post updates on the blog to keep in touch. I will try to do some fun things on the blog in the month of December to celebrate the holidays in a small way (a sample set give-away seems like one nice idea). Meanwhile, I wish you all a peaceful and joyous holiday season.