Presentation Day ~ Sunday, November 25th 2018

Here I am, in my hat, reading my presentation because I couldn't remember it, and I was afraid that if I didn't read it (nearly verbatim) I'd go off-script and end up talking about crazy stuff unrelated to perfumery because I tend to rattle, if you hadn't noticed. Anyway, I wasn't nervous, which truly surprised me. For months before I had been nervous, so much that the idea to cancel crossed my mind a time or 30 until I signed the contract and had no other choice. Also quite strangely, I never got that disconnected feeling, that feeling of surrealism that tends to hit me when I feel out of my element. I guess that means I wasn't out of my element? If my mama was alive, she'd be so happy that I finally did something like this. Up to her last days, she was on my ass, telling me to get out, take off, use what I know to make a wider path. Sadly, I think she felt that if I did something important with my life, it would mean that hers wasn't wasted, because she always thought she had wasted it. Aside from her kids, she'd say, she'd done absolutely nothing in the world that made her life mean anything. Pretty sad assessment of one of the strongest, most resilient badass women I've ever known. 

A little about the presentation. I didn't want to get too deep into the subject of natural perfumery other than to pique the interest of the attendees. Let me remind you that this is a major aromatherapy gathering, this congress, and not all of them were there for perfumery-related information. Thankfully, nearly all were receptive. So the subject was hedonism, and I just laid out how natural perfumery is related to aromatherapy, but that it was different, and one way to think about it was like wearing two hats -- one for aromatherapy, the one for healing body, mind, and soul; the other, natural perfumery, was a skilled artistic use of natural raw materials with a focus on beauty and pleasure and joy. Thus the flippin' crazy hat. A purple top hat covered in lace and silk flowers and embellished with peacock feathers and other fluffy feathers. I finished off the presentation with that hat, and then when the show was over, I presented to hat to Ane Walsh, my dear friend of the last ten years, teacher of the Portuguese-language course at the Natural Perfume Academy, and wonderful perfumer and soapmaker in her own right. She and Cecile Barbosa and Marian DelVecchio translated the two perfumery books, then edited the heck out of it and made it into one book. It was a huge team effort and I am honored that my books were chosen to be translated and presented in such a beautiful way. I mean, truly honored. Everyone involved in the production of the book is very emotionally attached as it is such a gorgeous book, inside and out. 

Signing books. Man. I remember as a child wanting to be a writer and dreaming of traveling for book signings. This was both fun and a little overwhelming. Lots of signing, picture taking, and tons of hugs. Brazilians are huggers. It was really something, and I can't wait to go back.