Business

Here's what I've got done in the past couple of weeks ~

Taking photos of product, creating labels for product, creating product itself, marketing, advertising, doing the best I can to get this re-launch in order, yet doubt still lingers. I worry about price points, are they too high? Or are they too low considering the long-term goals of this newly revised 'edition' of The Scented Djinn? I still have very little in the way of goods to sell as I've been making very, very small batches, in numbers that I can manage and still call 'fresh'. I've learned a few things over the years, like don't make too much of a single product because

you don't know how quickly it will sell, but do have the goods to recreate that product if it turns out to be a winner. I can't tell you how many times I've had to give stuff away or throw it away because it was past its expiry date or very close. Working with naturals is a tricky business. You're either in or you're not. You can't just dump stuff into a jar, slap a label on it and call it done. There's work involved. Research. Experimentation. A willingness to lose a little money in those endeavors. I have spent thousands of dollars over the years just to see if something I've thought up would work out in real life. I've pored over research papers, books, correspondences for hours on end trying to figure something about about, let's say, green tea extract. You really have to love the materials.

I've watched as people in my field have come and gone, and also watched some rise. I always like to see them rise because it gives me hope that I might rise as well, and it's possible that I have, a little anyway, and just don't know it yet. I've been in this business for over 20 years. I started with conviction when my youngest son was 9 months old. He celebrated his 22nd birthday last month. I've been in it this long and it still feels new to me. I'm still excited to receive a big box of organic cocoa butter, or a package filled with petitgrain sur fleur neroli, rose otto, and geranium oils. I still get a thrill when I open the bottles and boxes to begin evaluations. I love pulling out perfume bottle catalogs (Brosse!) and digging through the pages of a Uline

catalog for cool packaging ideas. Eco-friendly, of course. I love learning about new ideas, new ingredients, innovations. I also love the solitary and meditative life all of this affords me. And I equally love the people with whom I share this passion, perfumers who are artists and stewards of a vibrant planet, students who want to change the world one enfleurage at a time. 

Once this stage of production ends, a new one begins. The old formulation books will be pulled out, and the best of the best will be reformulated and made into oil, butter, and alcohol perfumes. And incense will be reborn. I know a few people who are waiting anxiously for more sultry sticks of The Ram. 

See you on the scented side.