Busy Bee

I apologize to my regular readers for leaving you hanging this way. Posting small talk isn't my usual modus operandi but [insert sigh here] I've been very busy. And for a brief moment -- well, actually a few weeks -- I had thought to ditch the blog altogether. Along with a few other things. Instead, I've decided to simply extract myself from toxic situations and live more in my own reality.

The Scented Djinn is almost here. A few more touches and the site will be up and running. I'm not nearly as nervous as I am excited. There is a 'parfum' page, an 'eau de toilette' page, an 'eau de cologne' page, an 'eau de fraiche' page, an 'about' page, which is really quite interesting since I gave the job of describing me and who I am to someone else; and the usual privacy policy and contact pages, and then a link to the Etsy site where the soaps and butters and bath fizzies will be listed. It's very simple and scaled down. So very unlike my real life.

The perfume offerings at The Scented Djinn thus far are Serj, which I call an eau de parfum but which is much closer to an extrait or parfum, whose key notes include fir balsam, orange juice, hyacinth and ruh khus. The other (and there will be more as the year progresses) is a perfume called Oshiba, a blend of hiba, labdanum and osmanthus. I'm terrible at describing scents I create, so I'll leave that up to you. I'm giving away samples of Serj and Oshiba to the first ten people who either comment on this blog or write me privately at ohtrueapothecary@yahoo.com -- I believe in complete anonymity, so I won't be screeching your name from the rooftops as the one of the lucky winners -- unless you want me to :D

The perfume room is still in progress. I've decided to leave the carpet in and not pull it up, as I'd previously decided. I think it would be too cold and too hollow without carpet. But the painting, shelving, trim and fans will still be going in -- then I can invite you in when you visit and we can play mad alchemist for the day. But first, a new washing machine is in order . . .

New discoveries in the past year: big, lusty ultrasonics, hydrometers (well, actually, alcoholmeters), EC thingamabobs, fantastic synergies, and Charles Sell.

And the primer is being published right this minute.