On Sunday I took a couple hours off work to make my annual pilgrimage to Russian River Roses to sniff the field of Kazanlak perfume roses and to choose a new rose bush to bring home. The owner told me that they imported the original Kazanlak bush from Bulgaria and she has propagated a whole field…
Had a great visit with family. Here is the newest member, my older niece’s new dog. They rescued him from a shelter and think he is a 6-year-old Australian shepherd mix. He’s a sweetie. The girls are cuties too, but I don’t want to post pics of them for their privacy. Worked with labdanum absolute…
Wanted to check in. I finished a little tweak on Gardenia Musk and got it back on the scent list. Also just finished a tester blend of Fireside Intense; it has cedar, sandal, birch tar, oak moss, musk, frankincense, myrrh, orris, jasmine, tabac, and leather. I’m evaluating it and will be sending it out to a few testers. …
Had my appointment yesterday and everything is going fine. Won’t be completely healed for a couple weeks, but all looks good and I’m getting back to some blending and website work. We’ll be switching to jars for the shea cream since it is just thick enough to make it a little hard to squeeze from…
Surgery went well and I’m feeling more energy today. I should be productive again in a few days (I see surgeon Thursday to assess healing, but he was very pleased how it went). Thanks so much for good wishes! The roses are just starting to bloom so I’ve been enjoying the first cut roses of the…
I’m having a surgical procedure Friday March 23 and will be away from email Friday and Saturday. I’ll post on the blog to check in soon as I can afterward. Thanks so much for all your good thoughts! This isn’t life-threatening surgery, just uncomfortable with a little needed downtime. Back soon…
Someone recently said he thought I had used grape alcohol in the past for edp, but I have always used specially denatured perfumer’s alcohol from Remet in southern California. This type of specially denatured professional perfumer’s alcohol is what is used in nearly all commercial perfumes. For the oils, I use a natural pure fractionated coconut…
My surgery is scheduled for March 23. I’m getting as much done before that as I can. Surgeon says I’ll have complications — not very comforting, lol. It will take a couple weeks to recover. I’ll post more updates, before and after. Progress is good on the woodsy scents I’m working on, and I still…
I thought I should give an update on the website plan. I have to have a minor surgical procedure soon and will wait until after that to put the cart up. I’ll find out the surgery date on Tuesday. It will take about a week to recover, and then I can get back to business. Meantime,…
Been raining pretty much for a straight week now and that little spring teaser feels like a dream rather than a memory. Even lots of snow on the mountains today! Wish I could get a photo. Had to take a few days off from the rose to work on a couple woodsy blends. I think…
The new rose scent is almost ready for testing. One ingredient is Bulgarian rose absolute from the variety of Rosa damascena called Kazanlak; the city of Kazanlak is located in the famous Rose Valley of Bulgaria where these fragrant deep pink roses are grown and harvested. A nursery near us, Russian River Roses, grows a…
The new site format is up but not all the scents are up yet and the cart is not accepting payments yet. You might need to save the new link under your favorites if you have it there because the home page has changed. Here’s a link: http://www.sonomascentstudio.com/index.shtml More updates soon…
It was 80 degrees here yesterday and 78 the day before. Beautiful! The daffodils are opening up. The weather will turn cold again soon, but we always have a spring teaser like this in February. Worked on the rose yesterday. Gave it some extra sparkle. Really love the first couple hours but want to improve the last…
I’m about halfway through the website re-format. Still working on the rose and sandalwood scents. Just finally took a few minutes to plant sweet pea seeds. We usually do it in fall but I’m hoping they’ll still be ok doing it now in spring. They need to be up in time to bloom before our hot…
Most of the garden looks soggy and bedraggled this time of year, but we still have a few flowers: winter iris, cyclamen, violas, and lots of lovely camellias. The stalks of dried grasses were nice too, but we just cut them down so spring growth can begin. In this climate zone of California it’s tough to convince…
Just a quick update. Working on the rose scent a bit more today, especially the balance in the rose accord between the deep rich notes and the brighter notes. Want this to be feminine but not overly powdery. Also working on a sandalwood. It’s woodsy but smoothed by some musk, balsam, and a touch of amber,…
Here’s a fun site with interesting info on natural perfumery ingredients and their chemical constituents. This link has been given a few times before on various boards, but if you’ve not caught it before you might enjoy a peek. http://bojensen.net/EssentialOilsEng/EssentialOils.htm
Had to install a new version of a shipping label program from USPS that required updated versions of MS .NET Framework and Windows Installer. Now my PrintShop 21 software won’t run because it wants the old version of NET Framework. I use two label programs for various things. Not sure if there’s a fix for…
Since last summer I’ve been phasing out the sweetest gourmand scents, and it’s time to do a more site-wide change. I want to concentrate on fewer scents and make them be my very favorites. I think when you work on scents every day you prefer working with your favorite notes, and I’m finding I want…
I like to test scents I’m working on first thing in the morning when my nose is fresh and I have yet to start any work for the day. My alarm wakes me up at 6 a.m. and I put on a dab of a new blend and head out to the kitchen to make…