Happy 10th SSS Anniversary! Blog Drawing!

ByLaurie

balloonsFebruary 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. 🙂

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137 Comments

  1. Please count me in Laurie! I have beena fragophile since I was a kid and my Grandma gave me Avon wild honeysuckle stick fragrance.

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  2. I think I was a fragophile for all my life. As a teenager I was even mixing some oils to make my own, unique fragrance (surprisingly unsuccessfully 😉 ) .
    Count me in, please.

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  3. Since the days of Lagerfeld, Armani, Paco Rabonne and Grey Flannel. Ha, changed a lot since then and I am not counting the years but I do wish many more decades to you Laurie.

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  5. A perfume junkie from an early age, but somewhat of a SSS “newbie,” only having found your shop 2 years ago. Your scents have earned me more compliments than any other perfume I’ve ever worn and I’m pretty certain I cannot be without Winter Woods or Tabac Aurea for the rest of my life. Seriously. Thanks for the chance at the draw, and even more so for sharing your talents with the rest of us. Also I look forward to an update on your experiments with Lily of the Valley.

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          1. Me too — can’t wait to finish! Did the first little scale-up batch yesterday and it seems very close; I think it just needs a few more drops of jasmine sambac. Then I’ll double the formula and batch again.

  6. I had been looking for the perfect scent for years. I would by one and think “this is it” only to be disappointed in a couple of days. Then I found Laurie’s work and fell in love with not one, but two of her creations. Please continue with your work of making us feel beautiful (even on or more especially on the bad days). Happy 10th anniversary!!!!

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  7. First of all, Congrats!
    It is too difficult to stay on this road for such a long time, especially, nowadays.
    I have been a fragrance lover since my teenage years, so…I think it’s been a while.
    I am from Brazil, where I just create a website to talk about perfumes, but if I win (AND I WILL), I have a USA address.
    Fingers crossed!

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  8. Congratulations on your 10th anniversary! You have lovely products and deserve success. I have loved fragrance all my life, I recall being a small child and loving to play with the sample perfume bottles in my mom’s Avon sales case. I was so happy to receive a bottle of Ambush (!) all my own as a young teen.

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  9. Happy anniversary, Laurie 🙂 I’ve learned a lot from your blog and have enjoyed your photos, too. Life long perfume lover (my first bottle was Arpege, a gift when I was about seven) but it was 2005 when I caught the online scent obsession that the Internet has made possible.

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  10. Happy Anniversary Laurie! Or should I say, happy anniversary to us! 🙂 I have to say I’ve loved perfume since I was a little girl. Grade school was when I asked for my first bottles… And I’m 55 now, so….. 😀

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  12. Happy anniversary!
    Perfume has been a lifelong love since my mom bought me Avon Sweet Honesty in those animal shaped bottles way back when.
    Thanks for the draw!

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  13. Wow, ten years! That is an achievement, especially in the fragrance business. Congratulations!

    I’m in for certain and have been a fragophile since I would huff my mother’s neck for a whiff of the Halston she always wore.

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  16. Thanks for the draw! I starting going down the perfume rabbit hole 8 years ago and it’s been a great journey. Thank you for being part of it and expanding my horizons.

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  17. Happy Anniversary and a huge congratulations on all of your success! You and your beautiful perfumes are a national treasure and I am so honored to be a friend. Years??? Let’s just say seven in dog years! 😉

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  18. I was doing an overhaul of my Full bottle spreadsheet just this weekend, and got to take a look back at all my old e-mails and purchases, put away in a Perfume file in Outlook. The end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 was spent sniffing everything at my local department store in a quest to find a signature scent for myself before stumbling into the online world, and that changed everything! After voraciously devouring the blogs and making notes, my first sample order was from Tauer in April 2010, and my second later that month was from you – still have the e-mail where I asked you for recommendations.

    Happy to report I own more SSS than anything else, 4 full bottles and two purse sprays (also kicking myself that I didn’t pick up a Vintage Rose before you had to reformulate it…. ah well, you can’t win them all) and there are still several more on the wishlist.

    Many congratulations on 10 years, Laurie! That is fantastic. 🙂

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  19. Congrats from The Netherlands. I can choose of hundreds of perfumes in the store in my little village, but they won’t have yours….. So, of course I’ll get it from your perfumery! In my opinion you’re perfume is really different. Lovely! Looking forward to another 10 years…..

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  20. Congratulations on your 10th anniversary–so happy for you!

    I can’t exactly remember when I really began to appreciate perfume but my children were already in high school. My allergies kept me away from scents for many years but eventually they took a hike and act up only occasionally.

    I still happily wear Femme Jolie, although my stash is dangerously low. What will I do when I run out?! I refuse to even think about it…Happy Anniversary!

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  21. Happy 10th Anniversary! I came of perfume age in the Opium era, but only dabbled here and there until stumbling upon Luca Turin’s book. Then I began to sniff in earnest, and here I am six months later, following perfume blogs and buying fragrance that will outlive me. So glad I have smelled some of yours, they made me very happy.

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  22. Ooh, exciting! I think I’ve been a perfumista for 5 or so years now, but I can’t be sure…I’ve loved your scents from the beginning. Nostalgie is my current favorite…

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  23. Happy Anniversary, Laurie! Thank you for ten years of making our world a more beautiful place to live, and hope we get to enjoy your creations for many more years to come! Although I’ve worn fragrance most of my adult life, I’ve been a SERIOUS perfume-lover for about 12 years.
    Please count me in on the drawing.

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  24. Happy anniversary! Sonoma Scent Studio is such an essential part of my fragrance wardrobe and I’m so grateful for the beautiful fragrances you’ve created, Laurie. I can’t imagine not having them in my collection and wish you many, many more years of happiness, success and creativity.

    I’ve been into fragrance since I was a little girl, but it didn’t really get to be a full blown addiction until my twenties when I had the means and methods to do more serious exploring. Being blind, it was just a totally natural fit for me since I use my other senses so much to navigate and make memories every day. It’s fun to think back to what I loved as a teen (Givenchy Fleur d’Interdit was a favorite and my first “fancy” perfume) and how much my tastes have changed in some ways but not so much in others. And I’m proudly passing on the torch to my own children who always have to stop and smell *everything* along the way, not just the flowers. 🙂

    Thank you for sharing your beautiful gift of fragrance creation with the world. It is one I appreciate very much and am very glad to share.

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    1. Thanks, Sarah! It’s hard to imagine the experience of being blind, but I can imagine how much more important the other senses would become. Glad you’ve made good scent memories!

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  25. Happy Anniversary!! Quite an achievement! I’ve been a perfume addict from the time I was 17 and smelled Germaine Monteil Bakir for the first time. I was hooked!

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  26. Happy Anniversary to you Laurie! What a good reason to celebrate. 🙂 My earliest memories are smell memories, and I can place childhood memories through the years by fragrant candles,flowers,perfumes friends and family wore and gifted me. I found internet perfume communities and your blog and samples just a couple of years ago.Love your incense and rose perfumes.
    We wish you many more happy and prosperous years! Thanks for the draw..

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  27. First,Congratulations!! I have been obsessed with all things fragrant since I was a little girl 🙂 I would be thrilled to win,thank you so very much for your generosity.I wish you all the best in the future <3

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  28. Happy Anniversary, Laurie! Please enter me in the drawing. Let’s see, I’ve been a fragrance lover forever, but I joined MUA in 2003, and my perfume world opened up once I was exposed to 1000’s of perfumes I’d never heard of.

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  29. Congratulations Laurie on ten years of SSS.

    I started buying fine fragrance during my teen years when about the only fragrances available in Iowa were Avon. Somehow I found Chanel 19 and Cristalle. Bought my first bottle of #5 on a French club trip to Paris. I must have been the best smelling teenager in Jones County.

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  30. Happy Anniversary! I’m so happy for your success and you deserve every bit of it! I was always interested in scents and fragrances since high school. i can still recall the smell of vintage Fahrenheit, so thick, rich, sweet, and heavy with petrol fumes. my goodness the memories. lol . But I offically gained my title of fragophile very recently, about 4 years ago, and it was been a wonderful journey; one that I intend to stay on. Scent profiles in perfumes have finally unveiled themselves to me that have gone unnoticed for years , decades even. it is such a joy to experience the world of scent through a heightened sense of smell. If I could win a bottle of your precious perfume, I would be forever grateful! Im in the wonderful US waiting for Spring to come around the riverbend for good.

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  31. Please count me in! Congrats on your success – I have been a fragrance lover for as long as I can remember. I adore so many of the scents in your line, and my current fave is Nostalgie. It’s so gorgeous!

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  32. Congratulations!
    I am a big fan of your art and I really love your perfumes. You know it – I have reviewed some of them on my blog sabbathofsenses.com and I had the pleasure to take an interview with you.

    I am a perfumeholic for about ten years now, and since 2008 i have a perfume blog where I reviewed about a thousand fragrances now.

    I am from Poland and sadly for now we have no possibility to buy your perfume. We were trying to bring Sonoma Scent Studio to Poland (for Lu’lua and than for Mood Scent Bar) but sadly we did not succeed. Yet. 🙂

    You have a lot of admirers in our country and people still keep asking if SSS will be available in Poland. I still hope, some day it will.

    I would like to enter the draw. I have a friend in the US who will kindly receive the package if I am lucky to win.

    Best regards
    Klaudia aka Sabbath

    Reply

    1. Thanks, Sabbath! Yes, I have many customers in Poland that I wish I could serve. I am still hopeful for the future, depending a bit on the EU regulations. 🙂

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  33. HAPPY TEN! Your generosity toward your readers is what makes you and your brand extra special. Not only are you a gifted nose, your diligence and hard work shows and commands tons of respect. I feel very lucky to have met you and see your behind the scenes life in your studio. Many times I picture you and your garden think about what a fulfilling yet bittersweet life you have had so far. My admiration for you is immense—a lovely women who found a niche to match. And what could be better than perfume? So much FUN! Count me in for the drawing!
    Almost spring and new scents from nature to arrive soon!
    Love, Nancy

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    1. Thanks, Nancy! I am so glad I met you too! Before you came I saw some FB pictures of you with your animals and thought that you’d be a sweet person, and that turned out to be true! Was great to get to meet you in person. 🙂

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  34. Hi Laurie- congratulations on ten years! And thank you for ten years of sharing your beautiful craft with us! I would love to be “in the draw” and I have always been into perfume, but I fell way down the rabbit hole in 2008. Thanks again and cheers to many more years of your lovely scents!

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  35. Ten years is a long time on the internet! Congratulations! I always love to hear what you are up to and your unique thoughts on all things perfume related. I have always enjoyed perfume but, didn’t become a true collector and aficionado until about 2 years ago. Thanks for such a wonderful draw!

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  36. While I’ve always been a sucker for a quality fragrance, about six or seven years ago I happened to be casting about for a new scent. A combination of a new friend and a stroke of good fortune enabled me to test SSS Voile de Violette. I was so taken with it and with the new-to-me world of niche perfumery that just a few days later, I found some fragrance-focused websites, some blogs, and my journey began in earnest.

    I am so happy to be able to thank you, Laurie, on this happy occasion, for your inspiration. I am sure you had no idea about the role you and Voile de Violette played in my life, but I am sure you must know that you’ve been the midwife in the birth of many perfumistas!

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  38. Happy Anniversary! Let’s hope the U.S. regulations will stay …saner.

    I liked perfumesfrom when I was four or five but I learned about niche and indie perfumes just about 4 years ago.

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  39. Congratulations Laurie! I’m happy for you. Happy birthday to Sonoma Scent Studio! You have achieved a great success over the years.
    I wish I could join the draw but I’m sure the lucky US folk will treasure the SSS prize.

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  42. Congratulations on that great anniversary, Ms. Erickson! I am not in the USA, so don’t count me in the draw, but I wanted to wish you all the aromatic best! I am down the perfume rabbit hole for an eternity…My mother had Vent Vert and Paloma Picasso when I was a kid, and when I turned 16 she gave me a tiny bottle of Chanel 19. I have always adored the smell of fresh bread, washed cement floor, spring flowers and even the wet chalk at school. I always connect people and situations with certain scents – both natural or perfumed. I hope I’ll have te chance to try some more of your fragrances – so far I know only Wood Violet and Tabac Aurea.

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  43. I love SSS! congrats to you for making perfumeland so much fun for many.your hard work along with a talent in chemistry,your love of nature and kindness to all have scented the planet with the most beautiful perfumes.thank you laurie!

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  44. At 60 I am a wearable fragrance newb, coming over from the world of garden fragrance. My daughter, a Chanel SA, got me started. I came in looking for something to replicate the otherworldly smell of old garden roses and quickly learned that there are a number of other scents, only some of which occur in the garden, that bring pleasure. I am enjoying the process of discovering SSS fragrances.

    Anyway, Congrats on your 10th anniversary, and here’s to 10 more years!

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    1. Thanks, James! That’s what sparked my interest too, trying to replicate roses and jasmine from the garden. I think many of us fall down the rabbit hole that way.

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  46. Happy anniversary! I came of age pre-IFRA, when so many perfumes smelled good and they didn’t all smell alike. I wore scent without thinking about it much. My perfume obsession just started about two years ago. SSS was one of the first niche lines I discovered, and still one of my top favorites. If you ever discontinue Winter Woods or Jour Ensoleille, I will be list. Thanks for the draw!

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  47. Congratulations and happy tenth anniversary! What a milestone! I’ve been a fan of “smelling good” since I was a wee girl but have really started exploring fragrance in just the last few years. I love everything I’ve tried from SSS and wish you continued success!

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  48. Laurie, in addition to being an incredibly talented perfumer, you are an incredibly sweet perfumer! So personal, kind and caring. Have loved seeing the photos of your beautiful home and gardens on your blog, and that porch … I always love seeing your dreamy expanse of porch and can quite picture you there, soaking up the inspiration for your beautiful fragrances (of which Jour Ensoleille is still my very favorite). Congrats on the past ten years and, despite the regulations that are making it difficult, best wishes for your continued success.

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  49. Congratulations to one of my very favorite perfumers! I have only been into perfume for a couple of years, but luckily I found the good stuff quickly. 🙂 I’m very much looking forward to enjoying the next decade of SSS scents!

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  50. Laurie, congratulations on your 10th anniversary! And thanks for the lovely, generous giveaway. I’ve used scent all my adult life, but became fascinated about five happy years ago. So far, Ambre Noir is my favorite of SSS’s but I look forward to trying them all! Best wishes for your future success!

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  51. Congratulations, Laurie! I love your work, and I’m also quite impressed by your warmth. I can sense how genuine you are whenever I read your posts or see you pop up in other blogs. I’ve loved fragrance my entire life, starting with the scents of nature. My first perfume was Tinkerbell, and at the age of twelve, I chose Caron’s Fleurs de Rocaille as my first “grown-up” fragrance.

    Thank-you for all you have done for our lovely community!

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  52. Hearty and hardy congrats -10 years of making the world a more fragrant place. I’ve been a fragrance freak since pre-teen years, always stealing a sniff of my mother’s varied collection and subsequently asking for a bottle of white shoulders for my 16th birthday- that was quite awhile ago. Thank goodness, grew out of that phase quickly. Anyway, love and respect your work. To your next ten years!!! Good health and happiness.

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  53. Please count me in. Though life circumstances keep me from fully indulging my fragrance passions, I’m grateful that I have a few SSS samples to brighten my day. Just a sniff or two can lift my spirit and attitude. Thanks for that!

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  54. Congrats and Happy Anniversary! Please count me in the drawing. I fell down the rabbit hole only about a year ago when I discovered the whole wide world of niche and indie fragrances… and it’s been fantastic!

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  55. Bon anniversaire! 🙂 Congratulations on your 10 year annversary. I have loved fragrance since I was a little girl, wearing Jean Naté splash and Avon compacts of solid perfume. So glad to have discovered your wonderful scents!

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  56. Many more good years to come!! 🙂 Been a fragrance fan all my life – thanks to a friend of my maternal grandmother when I was in kindercare!

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  58. Happy birthday!!! Always loved perfume but only recently became perfume nerd – just came across yours on a Perfume Posse board and would love to try soon. Congrats again!!

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  59. Happy Anniversary! Our lives are all the richer because you decided to take a chance! I’ve always had a bottle or two on hand since I was about 15 but have only gotten really serious about perfume in the last two years. Incense Pure, Winter Woods and Forest Walk are amoung my favorites to wear.

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  60. Happy Anniversary, and thank you for all of your lovely contributions to the perfume community! SSS was definitely a huge part of my head-over-heels falling in love with perfume, which started approximately two years ago. I honestly don’t know how I survived without perfume before then 🙂

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  61. My mother had one of those ’50s blonde mahogany dressing tables on which she kept her perfumes. I was fascinated by the bottle shapes and smells, and thus began a life long love affair with scents. Yours are beautiful. Happy Anniversary!

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  62. Hi Laurie,
    What a productive ten years you’ve had! Like many, my first perfume memories are associated with my mom… Joy and Chanel No. 5 were two of her favorites. My adult affair with fragrance had to overcome a significant obstacle – political correctness of Berkeley and environs that said a big “no” to fragrances! Fortunately, a friend rescued me about five years ago. Now I’m close to having a life-time supply (I’m a “mature” perfume-lover :^)). I LOVE your fragrances and fully intend to keep that section of my collection well-stocked for years to come.

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    1. Thanks, Suzanne! I think we can still be PC by using with discretion, and by keeping so many in rotation, you never get dead to one and don’t overspray that way. See, it makes sense, lol! 🙂

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      1. Sounds like a plan. And let’s add into the equation, nothing but fine quality fragrances like those from SSS! :^)

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  63. Congratulations, Laurie! May you and SSS enjoy many more.
    I’ve loved fragrances all my life, but as far as amassing a noteworthy collection goes, I would go back about 21 years with a splash bottle of Coco edp purchased on board a transpacific flt. I still have that bottle and treasure it’s remaining contents.

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  64. Congratulations! Thank you for the generous drawing. I have been a perfume lover all my life. It’s been exactly five years, however, since I discovered perfume blogs and decant shopping. My love has turned into a full blown hobby!

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  65. Congratulations! I have loved scents as long as I can remember. Your perfumes bring me such joy and comfort and several count among my very favorites. I wish you many more successful and fulfilling years. Thank you for your generous drawing.

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  66. Wow, congratulations on a decade! You contribute so much to the indie fragrance world, but just as much to the more widespread fragrance universe – your fragrances easily cross those borders! I’m really thankful you took a leap and decided to open up shop ten years ago, you’ve enriched so many lives with your creations.
    I’m also wondering, what regulations do small indie perfumeries in the USA have to deal with now? I know it’s not extensive like the EU (thank goodness), but I’d love to here more if you are ever in need of a blog post topic… 🙂
    Thank you for the draw!

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    1. Thanks so much, eswift! Yes, that sounds like a good blog post sometime. The rules for USA indies are not very strict, actually. Nothing like the EU. CA has tighter regulations for cosmetic companies that sell over a million dollars in products, but I am in no danger of being in that category, lol. Ingredients need to be listed using proper INCI terms in decreasing order of concentration, but all fragrance ingredients can be hidden in the generic phrase “fragrance” or “parfum” in order to maintain trade secrets. Ingredient lists end up being very short, often only containing three things: fragrance, SDA alcohol, and water. I think a system somewhere in between the two approaches (USA and EU) seems reasonable.

      Reply

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