Namaste Byron Bay

The Vanilla perfume has a name. 

"Namaste"....I greet the God/dess within you.
It's my personal gift to Byron Bay....a new perfume for my new home town. Embodying the spirit and the vibe of the place...
There's a wooden sign on the road leading into town painted with peace symbols and flowers that says :"Slow down, chill out and relax!" and it really sums up the place.
It's the New Age Hippie Mecca of Australia, a bit like San Fransico in the States in the 60's used to be.
It's full of colourful people, amazing beaches with clean sand and blue water, shops selling tie dyed clothes and really expensive designer hippie gear. (Because all of the hippies from the 60's are now grey haired and some of them very well to do.)
Anyway, it's also home to a plethora of workshops, meditation and yoga classes. And chanting OM and useing "Namaste" at the end of

each class is so normal that it's part of the local language.

My perfume Namaste is a scentual impression of Byron in all of it's neo hippie spiritual laid back glory. Vanilla and Sandalwood are the main notes, and here is why I chose them:
Vanilla is sweet and soothing and comforting and relaxing and sexy and well, just downright NICE! on every level you can think of. Everyone loves Vanilla. It's one of those true feel good, happy scents that envokes good childhood memories, innocence, playfulness and just makes you feel like the world is a better place.
The Vanilla in Namaste comes in the form of organically grown gourmand Vanilla beans in the actual

bottle. Amplified by a Vanilla accord made from a combination of incense resins, from tolu balsam over tonka, labdanum and a variety of vanilla absolutes and CO2 extracts to give a real sophistication and a sexier, elegant take on the innocence of Vanilla itself.
And it's held by a beautiful classic Sandalwood base. Sandalwood is one of the most spiritual scents in existance. Used for thousands of years in spiritual ceremonies for healing and blessing.
It is also used in Aruveda to treat depression and anxiety, and has similar applications in modern Aromatherapy. The twist is that it's an Australian

Sandalwood, not Indian. Indian Sandalwood has been harvested almost into extinction, which makes it a really bad environmental choice. And I also wanted to make sure that Namaste had a real Australian grounding to it, since, after all, it's from Byron, and Oz and all. Australia is a very down to earth place. And Byron Bay, for all of it's spiritual side, is still an Australian version. So I've used a really wonderful Australian Sandalwood that actually reflects this perfectly. It's an amazing deep, musky, dry and elegant smelling Sandalwood grown in Western Australia on an eco-conscious environmentally sustainable plantation.
And it's musky deep woody character enhances the elegant notes of the Vanilla and resin accord in the top and mid layers of the perfume.
I made up the first batch a few weeks ago. And sold the whole lot within 5 days. So I guess there must be something right there :) So I've made up a bath and body oil to go with it too....just for Xmas! If you'd like to try some for yourself, click here to go to the webshop!

Valentine's Day Opening Party

Opening Party February 14th
Shop9/ 18 Centennial Circuit
Byron Arts and Industry Estate
(from 2 pm)

Well, I'm officially opening the perfumery to the public on Valentine's day...and I'm all a panicking! The Northern Star came by the other day and took a stack of embarrassing photos of me holding perfume bottles...hopefully the bottles will come out ok, grin. Must find out what day the article is coming out!
Theres still boxes all over the place, the beautiful handmade display tables and shelves from Nimbin wont be here for a week or so (when the guy has organized his new ute) ...I need to rewrite and print out backdrops and stories for each perfume and and and...
The credit card machine wont be here till next week of course, so it will all have to be cash only on the day! Arrgghhh!!!!
What do I need for an opening party?

I mean, my original workshop furniture has finally arrived from down south, so the perfumes are all out on display...I'm frantically bottling in our new snazzy mini sample atomizers and stocking up on "Love Potion" and "Death by Chocolate"...
And I've got music via stereo, will lay on a supply of bubbly..and have friends and old customers coming to help me celebrate...
Now if only I knew some local musos....
I've also got a stack of beautiful new "Love Potion" Bath and Body oils in their gorgeous new bottles...with 3 different labels at this stage as I cant make up my mind which ones work best...maybe I should have a competition and let my customers choose?

Actually a competition sounds great... A "Which is the most romantic fragrance" competition...with a giveaway of a bottle of their favorite as a prize!
 But it is SOOOOO cool to finally have enough space to spread out and focus entirely on making perfume! To have a public space I can invite people in to share what I do, to see and smell what I work with so they can experience how different botanical perfumes are!
Even before the official opening date passers by have been wandering in and they've all been fascinated and delighted! Its such a lovely thing to hear "I don't really like perfumes...but yours are so different! Wow!"
Bringing Mother Nature's real scents back into peoples lives, grin! My new sock of Moroccan Rose Absolute arrived yesterday too....oh how beautiful it is! New stock of "Goddess" in progress...and it came with a few new goodies to try from my favorite distiller too! Amazing Oud CO2...and some awesome Vanilla....after the opening party I will definitely finally get to work on that Vanilla perfume everyone has been asking for for so long.....

Byron Bay Workshop..the adventure begins!

Well, I finally did it! A real public workshop! Found a beautiful small factory space in the Byron Arts and Industry Estate and am now in the process of fiddling with furniture, unpacking boxes and working out displays and workspaces. Its' so exciting to finally have space to really spread out my things again... dedicated workbenches that don't need to be cleared at the end of the day, lovely solid wooden shelves to put all my bottles and jars where I can see them instead of sorting through endless boxes trying to find what I need! Oh the bliss of coming to work and having a whole studio to play in!
It's a wonderful space, with enough room to have

a proper public shop display as well as a large workspace for filling and blending. And as an added bonus, a lovely mezzanine that I'm going to set up as a proper consulting room for custom design, where I can sit with clients and show them samples and discuss projects in elegant peace and quiet!
There's already been a few random walk in customers who came in to see what I was up to and sniff through the few perfume bottles I have on display so far in my half set up chaos....
I've printed a whole stack of rack cards to distribute all over the place, and I'm having a Grand Opening Party on Valentines Day afternoon here 9Shop 9/ 18 Centennial Circuit, Byron Bay Arts and Industry Estate NSW 2481 Australia) with belly dancing, music, champagne and of course lot's of specials....including the new and lovely mini perfume sprays I've found to give people

a cheap way of buying and trying my wares before they invest in a full sized bottle...
All up it's incredibly exciting! I'm so looking forward to being able to make small runs of special perfumes now...indulging in experimental runs of things I can only ever make say 10 bottles of because I can never get that particular ingredient again! Weird and wonderful things I can make and offer to the public without having to be able to keep them in stock as part of the regular range on the website...And now to get back to packaging "Love Potion" for next week!

Bush Perfuming

my workbench with bush views

Well, I've finally escaped suburbia and moved up to the North Coast of New South Wales where am currently living out in the bush with a friend...It's such a relief to be back in the bush where I used to live 20 years ago...It's part of my plan to grow the perfumery to a proper professional public place, where people can come in and sample perfumes, sit down and have relaxed custom design consultations and maybe even hold classes! So many of you have asked to come and visit and see the perfumery in person over the years, and while it was always lovely sharing my workplace and home with visitors, I have long dreamt of having a large workshop where I can really play, with space for everything, so that you don't have to pack the tools of one project away just to attend to packaging the orders for the week....

It's beautiful and relaxing here, and I have my workshop set up where I can sit and see out over the valley, soft breezes wafting through the window and light filtering through the trees to play on my collections of perfume bases and bottled goodies...But it's small.

Oh, the idea of finally having enough space! And Shelves, whole walls full of shelves! And 3 large workbenches, and a small shop out the front with my perfumes displayed on some of the beautiful cast iron displays I've used at shows over the years...

Fresh flowers, and beautiful large mason jars full of herbs and resins...

my new granite dropper holders

Basically being able to have all of my wonderful fascinating weird and fragrant collection out where I can look at them and share them with my customers!

And I'll be able to do short runs of interesting stuff too!

Perfumes that are too complex and special to mass produce, things like solid potpourri perfume for putting in small lockets, maybe soaps and candles too!

I've got my eye on a perfect little place in Byron Bay, and put an application in for it today!

It's a small workshop space in the arts and crafts part of the industrial estate, where I'd be surrounded by other small artisan businesses, and it comes with some business assistance and advice available from the council too, which is what I could certainly do with too!. The premises themselves are light and airy, with high ceilings, a sky light and even a mezanine where I can sit with clients on comfy chairs and talk about what they really want from their perfumes...and share a cup of coffee in between smelling bouts!I'm so excited I'm terrified they may turn down my application, it's just too too perfect! I ran into an old friend who is making films nowadays, and we've already chatted about her and her partner making a small youtube video...or even a series of them to go with and advertise the new shop...me chatting about perfumery and showing how the scents are made...sounds like awesome fun and great advertising too....

The Dream is slowly coming together......I'll keep you posted as it grows!