Checking In, and Amber Incense Review on Colognoisseur

Amber Incense was reviewed today on Colognoisseur. I like the categorization as an “intimate incense” because it does stay closer to the body as an all-natural scent. All bottle sizes are now available on the site.

I have two new scent formulas in progress. I started one of them quite a few months ago and am just getting back to it now; it’s an all-natural version of Forest Walk. The other new scent is something that I just started recently and am excited about. I’ve been wanting to play with a beautiful new rose oil in my ingredient collection, and I have a yummy blend started with that rose, apricot, patchouli, jasmine, oak, benzoin, violet, heliotrope.

I just harvested the first zucchini yesterday in the garden. The plant has five more zucchini that will be ready in the next few days. The lettuce plants are extremely prolific right now (I’m sharing the harvest with my parents because I can’t keep up), and the tomatoes are looking great. I’m growing all the veggies in pots with some organic dirt that seems to be making a big difference this year. It’s a special potting blend with organic nutrients and micro-organisms, and it seems to help nurture very healthy, strong plants.

You may have read about the aromatic compound called geosmin that is partly responsible for the smell of moist dirt and the smell of the soil after rain. It is produced by bacteria in the soil and the odor is so strong that the human nose can detect concentrations as low as 5 parts per trillion, which this article says is equivalent to a teaspoon in 200 Olympic swimming pools. Our water supply has to be monitored for geosmin because water quality can be degraded by very small amounts. In very low concentrations outdoors though, the scent is quite pleasant if you like the smell of fresh soil. 🙂 Geosmin is available for use in perfume (dosed in incredibly small concentrations), and you have probably smelled it in some scents that conjure dirt notes (Demeter Dirt and L’Artisan Voleur de Roses come to mind).