Computer Issues

My main laptop needs to spend 48 hours with the geek squad for repair, so I’ll be on an ancient back-up laptop for a few days. I’ll be limping along and not online quite as much as usual, but I should be able to still get the main business routine done. I may be a tad slower answering email but orders should still go out in usual time, and by midweek I hope to be back to normal. I have my eye on a new Dell laptop and am thinking it”s about time… Will see. I’d rather not spend the holiday weekend back and forth with the geek squad, but I’ve been impressed with how nice and helpful they have been and that makes it much easier.

update: Got my computer back earlier than expected, and so far so good…

Discount on 17 ml Bottles With No Box (Optional)

I’m temporarily low on our custom black perfume boxes, so I’ve added a no-box option to the menus for the 17 ml bottle size. All 34 ml will come with boxes, but you have the option to get the 17 ml at a $3.50 discount with no box. I will have more boxes coming, probably in about six weeks, and I’ll leave this option up at least that long. Some people like having the box and some don’t care, so this will be an easy way for me to conserve boxes until I am stocked up again. The $3.50 is about a 10% discount for most scents. More people purchase spray rather than splash so I didn’t bother to add another menu line for splash cap with no box, but if you’d like a splash cap you can request one in the comments box.

It’s my Dad’s 80th bday this weekend. Happy birthday Dad! 🙂

And happy holiday weekend!

Dogwood in Sonoma

Over the weekend my parents spotted some beautiful dogwoods in bloom at a nearby winery, so I stopped by to see them too. I’ve not seen dogwood trees in years because they are not often grown in gardens here. Dogwood prefers cooler summers and more winter chill than we have, but these at the winery had the typical lush showy leaves and gorgeous blooms, some white and some soft blush pink, that make them so special. I thought I’d share these photos that I took.

I’ve sent out a few testers of the new summer floral to get some initial feedback, and then I’ll tweak and send out more testers. I’d like to add a little more of a fresh note to counter sweetness but I’ll see what people think before I tinker too much more.

My graphic artist hopes to finish the box design by this weekend and I’m excited to move forward on that project. I will be doing two companion boxes that will be identical except for the imagery — one for the more floral scents and one for the woodsier scents. I plan to let people request one or the other if they have a preference, but each scent will have a standard default choice.
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This weekend my brother will be back up to visit, partly to celebrate my Dad’s birthday. My Mom, Dad, brother, and sister-in-law all have birthdays between May and July so it keeps things busy.

Checking in on a rainy spring day

I’m excited to start making testers tomorrow of two new summer scents, one floral and one not. The floral will be for the Boutique Collection and the non-floral will be for the Sonoma Exclusives in both perfume and lotion. I worked on both scents last summer but didn’t have time to finish them until now. I’d mentioned the non-floral scent to two or three people but haven’t mentioned it here and haven’t sent testers out to anyone. The floral is one approach out of three that I explored in many trials over the last year. It’s time to see how both these do on other people. I’ll describe them more when the scents are closer to release, but I just wanted to say that some fun things are coming!

Meantime, Ambre Noir is back on the site, as is the body silk. We’re having rain and it feels more like winter than spring right now. After I finish these two scents I will get back to the vintage inspired fragrance. Feels good to be making progress again. 🙂

Website Updates: Note Cards, Ambre Noir, Body Silk…

I’ve just.added a Note Cards page to the site with original photo note cards printed on heavy, glossy photo stock with matte interiors for your hand-written messages. When you send a Sonoma Scent Studio gift you can choose a free card and we’ll write your gift message to your recipient. Cards are also available for purchase singly or in packs of five. Each 5.5 inch by 4.25 inch card comes with a matching white envelope and is enclosed in a resealable plastic protective sleeve. I’ve made these before for friends and family and thought it was time to formalized them. I’m always hunting for botanical themed cards, so these will be fun for me to use. I hope they’ll occasionally come in handy for some of you too.

Ambre Noir should be back on the site this weekend. I’ve had requests and know people are waiting for it.

The body silk sold out but more will be available by Tuesday, if not by this weekend.

I’m testing a number of little variations on the summer floral blend. The bulk of the formula seems set and I’m down to the details. Making progress on the new boxes too.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms! My Mom is spending the day with her grandchildren. I’ve said before how my Mom didn’t wear fragrance when I was growing up, though my grandmother did. My Mom still influenced my appreciation of scents though — she encouraged us to enjoy the scent of flowers in her garden, bread baking, Christmas trees that we’d cut fresh at the tree farm, the wonderful air camping in the mountains, the woodsy smells when taking a walk in the redwoods in the park near our home, and so many other natural scents that were part of day to day experience. Scent was always an important part of my life even before I became interested in perfume, and I think that’s probably true for many people.

I made a tiny batch of the summer scent in a more concentrated form and am testing today to see if I need to tweak the formula before scaling up to make the first testers. I already have a name in mind but will wait a bit longer to post it.

Hope you’re having a great Mother’s Day weekend!

Scent locket necklace inspired by To Dream

I’m so honored to learn that Jill of Jewel Alchemy created a scent locket necklace inspired by To Dream. It’s beautiful with two gemstones I love, amethyst and iolite. Her work is very creative and original. Thanks Jill! I’m a gemstone lover so this is especially fun for me to see (I was a geology major in college and love rocks, lol).

Weekend update

I’m sorry for not posting this week, but at least it’s because I’ve been busy with many good things in progress. I’ll be able to share more about them here soon but for now I’ll briefly mention three of them.

I’m working on the summery scent and had a breakthrough this week (know I need to hurry up since summer is just about upon us). I need to increase the concentration, but I think I have staying power nailed down now, and the scent is close to where I want it. I’ve not sent any testers of this yet to anyone, so I’m anxious to start that as soon as I can. I don’t want to describe it more until I’m ready to send testers, but I’ll say more before long. I’m using quite a few new ingredients in it, which is fun.

I’m also working with a graphic artist on the new box design and am excited about that. I’m low on boxes so it’s time to do this. I need make the boxes a little bit taller to better accommodate the new bottles, and I need to update to the new logo style (same as on the new bottles and currently on the website). While we’re at it, we’re updating the botanical graphics and the new design is really nice so far.

I’m also trying to get ready for some open studio hours this summer. I’ll probably do most of it by appointment but will make a point of being available weekend afternoons when people are most likely to be in the neighborhood for wine tasting.

To Dream was recently reviewed on Muse In Wooden Shoes — thanks Carol!