10th Anniversary Blog Drawing Winners!

We drew the winners for the drawing today the old fashioned way instead of using random.org. My assistant, Krista, videotaped the draw on her iPhone and I will try to post it on my Laurie Erickson Facebook wall for those who want an instant replay. (My blog won’t allow me to upload a video, and so far FB isn’t working but I will keep trying.)

The first place winner is Lizzy! You can pick a 17 ml bottle of your choice. The second place winner is Fifi! You can pick two of the 5 ml pocket sprays. And the third place winner is Ron! You can pick 4 samples. I didn’t announce the 3rd place on the video, but I noticed in playing it back that Ron’s name was almost pulled along with Fifi’s name; although Fifi’s was the one I came up with, Ron’s was so close that he should get something too. 🙂

Thank you very much for all the wonderful comments and for helping me celebrate my 10th! Congrats to the winners! If you email me your addresses and scent choices I will get your prizes out.

European Commission Accepting Comments

The European Commission is accepting comments about restrictions and labeling of allergens in perfume. The following link takes you to a post that provides more information and gives the email and snail mail addresses for public comment. This is your chance to make your voice heard.

Mark Behnke wrote a very interesting blog post on his new blog the Colognoisseur about the inadequacy of the allergy testing used to make the EU rulings, and he explains why we need better allergy trials. He is a chemist with the background to speak knowledgeably on this topic. He writes, “The studies these bans and restrictions have been based on were performed one time at one concentration on 25 patients with no controls, positive or negative!” He suggests that proper studies be done with controls, multiple concentrations, more people, and multiple ethnicities to see if the 23 identified allergens are really a problem.

A post on Grain de Musc gives the timeline for what will happen and encourages people to contribute their opinions via the contact addresses given.

Happy 10th SSS Anniversary! Blog Drawing!

February is my anniversary month, and it has now been 10 years! It is hard to believe, but I first put the SSS website up in February 2004. When I started, I thought I’d see where the business went and had no expectations about how long it would last. It has been very rewarding to belong to the online fragrance community, to learn about growing an indie business, and to expand my perfumery experience. I have been blessed with the world’s best customers and have made some treasured friendships.

Given the current direction of perfumery regulations, I am extra grateful that I’ve had the last 10 years. For today, rather than looking forward, I want to look back and celebrate.

Let’s have a drawing for a 17 ml bottle of your choice. You can leave a comment to let me know you’re in, and you might tell us how many years you have been a fragophile. 🙂 I’ll leave the drawing open through the weekend. (Unfortunately, I’ll have to limit this to USA shipping addresses.)

Updated: Thank you so much for all your wonderful messages and kind words! It means so much to me! I’ll draw the winners on Monday — I think I’ll draw two because it is so hard to just draw one. 🙂

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentines Day! Victoria on Bois de Jasmin has a fun rose post today with an interesting rose harvest video in honor of Valentine’s Day. I thought it might be of interest to the rose lovers out there. Hoping you have a great V-day!

More news on ingredient restrictions

Here is an article today on the Reuters site about even tighter ingredient restrictions being discussed in the EU. It is quite depressing. This won’t have immediate impact on small indies in the USA (as long as they don’t want to sell in the EU), but I wonder where all this is going for the industry. Honestly, the long-term outlook for the industry is just not looking good to me. People are so afraid of lawsuits and skin reactions that zero risk is becoming the rule of the day, and the only way to accomplish zero risk is zero fragrance. I am amazed that we have so many new indies entering the market given the current trends in regulation and anti-fragrance sentiment. It does not seem like a good time to invest in a new venture in fragrance, yet we have a flood of new brands. It is not making sense to me.

Checking In…

Nothing new at the moment, but I thought I’d give a head’s up that I will host a drawing here on the blog soon to celebrate something. 🙂 I will post about it, probably early next week.

We had 9 inches of rain last weekend! It was a weird storm because the north bay area had lots of rain while the south bay did not get much at all. It is a start though, during this drought.

I liked this interview of IFF perfumer Pascal Gaurin. When asked how long it takes to create a scent, he said, “It has taken me as short a time as three months, and as long as seven years. Ninety-nine percent of what I try goes nowhere; I’m aiming for that 1 percent that is my best effort. The process can be frustrating, but achieving that 1 percent is the reward. You’re chasing that smile on someone’s face, the reaction when they smell the end result.”

Chasing the smile is so true.

UPS delays

I’m receiving many email notices from UPS about delays in package deliveries because of adverse weather conditions. You should receive UPS tracking updates at the email address you used when you placed your order, so you can follow the progress on your packages. (Small sample orders ship USPS and you’ll get those updates instead.) I hope you are doing ok out there with all this snow!

Job opening at Sephora in Long Island

Latoya Miller just posted an inquiry on another post on my blog (the one on
perfumery classes), and I thought I would re-post her inquiry here. She is a SkinCare/Fragrance Specialist at Sephora in Manhasset, Long Island, and she says they are looking to fill an open fragrance consultant position. She says feel free to call her at 516-365-9008 or contact her via email at latoyamiller24@hotmail.com if you are interested.

We certainly have many fragrance experts in our midst, so if this sounds interesting to one of you that is the info! 🙂

Another Update

I’m still testing various tweaks of the ylang/tuberose/jasmine and want to narrow this down to one or two mods. It’s always hard at this stage to choose the final adjustments to the formula, but I’m almost there.

Yesterday we had our first day of real rain for this winter. We really need it here in California. The nearby peaks even had a dusting of snow.

I wanted to say thank you to Ayala for her lovely review of Champagne de Bois and for including it in her list of 2014 mid-winter favorites. That means a lot to me because I love so many of her creations.

Quick sniffs: I tried my sample of Christopher Street and enjoyed it! I think you’d need to appreciate patchouli to like it because the patchouli note is evident all the way though. The leather note was also prominent for me, which I liked, and the scent never got too sweet. The lasting power was almost annoyingly long on me (I need to test scents so I want things to be gone by the next day, but it lingered into the second day even after washing). I enjoyed it a lot though, and most people would find the lasting power to be an advantage.