WINNERS OF THE LAST DRAWING, SCENTS OF A ROAD TRIP, GIVEAWAY CONTINUES

 First things first. The winners of the drawing are:

ANNE

MERMAID

MARY M

CRAFTILY

SNEK

To claim your prize, just send your complete, correct name and shipping address to olympicorchids at gmail dot com, or PM me on Facebook.  

We haven’t been on a road trip for at least a year and a half, so decided it was high time to go on one. Our destination was Bend Oregon, by way of Portland. We got out on the road kind of late in the day on Sunday  so driving through the countryside there was a strong coumarin smell from the hay fields, and maybe some  clover fields. I had noticed this before when driving on the same route, but was very conscious of it that afternoon. Once we were in Portland, walking around the neighborhood where we were staying, the scent of jasmine wafted in from a yard, and the rubbery-sweet smell of privet was everywhere. 

Monday morning we headed south and east on Highway 26, which goes via Mount Hood. It was warm to hot, so we had the windows open for the whole trip. Near the pass, I smelled damp, live mushrooms and saw lots of bear grass, which is a plant with tall white columns of tiny flowers. Growing along with the bear grass were wild rhododendrons, blooming with a profusion of pink flowers. As we made our way down the southeast side of Mt Hood, we encountered the smell of fir trees, with new asphalt in places where the road had just been repaired. At some point the firs and asphalt started to be mixed with smoke. I smelled the wildfire before I could see the smoke, which eventually formed a dense curtain across the road and turned the sky a light orange.  The wildfire smoke was no more than  a couple of miles from the road, which was closed shortly after we passed through and continued to be closed into the next day.  It was a relief to finally exit the worst of the smoke and smell the dry grass, sagebrush and stones of the high desert. 

 

Walking around downtown Bend we smelled a cloyingly sweet floral scent everywhere as we walked down the streets. It turned out that the city has lots of hanging baskets on the streetlights, and all of them are filled with some variety of mixed-color petunias with such a powerful scent that it diffuses over the whole block. It seems like the hot weather intensified every smell, including the pinot noir that we enjoyed in the outdoor café area of a small wine shop. 

There is another drawing for three boxes of miscellaneous samples, decants, mini bottles, etc. To enter, just leave a comment. 

[Photos are mine, from our trip]

THE SHAPES AND COLORS OF THE PANDEMIC

The pandemic disrupted a lot of things, including shipping, and the sources from which I get materials for perfume making. Because of delays, I’ve run out of things, and because of unavailabilty of items that I routinely use, I’ve had to improvise. 

The first improvisation occurred when our bottle printer moved to a new location, was shut down for some time, and we ran out of printed bottles for the 30 ml size of some popular fragrances. To keep up with orders, we started putting new labels over the name on existing bottles, and quickly realized that using generic bottles for the 30 ml size, as we had been doing for the 100 ml bottles, would save space that would otherwise be used to store boxes of bottles for less popular fragrances. By customizing all of the bottles, we wouldn’t have to guess about demand and potentially keep things sitting around that we didn't use. We have added the classic picture labels to the back of the 30 ml bottles, so now the appearance of the two sizes matches perfectly. Discontinuing the old flat, rectangular bottles also saves storage space, eliminates the need for more than two types of sprayers, and helps conserve space on our stock shelves. When I have time (good luck with that!), I will post new photos of all of the bottles in all sizes on the website. We are currently using up the old stock, but pretty soon everything will be standardized. 

 

The second surprise came when the clear vials we use for samples became unavailable. The supplier said that they were being used for Covid vaccine, but that doesn’t seem probable. I think it’s more likely that the clear glass was all being used to make a different size and shape of vials for vaccine. Whatever the real story, we could only get amber glass vials with black tops, so we are using those until the clear glass becomes available again. I like the clear glass because the juice inside is visible, but I may stick with the black tops. 

 

Several materials that I use in perfumes have also become unavailable, so as I use up the last of the supply on hand, I’m working on coming up with acceptable substitutes. This is considerably more frustrating than any changes in packaging, but in the end, everything should work out. 

 

During the pandemic, I’ve been wanting more than ever to downsize my chaotic stash of fragrance samples, decants, mini-bottles, and even some full size bottles. To help with that process, I’m offering another batch of surprise packages to five readers of this post. Each package will include a mix of things, probably some junk, but also some potentially valuable items. Of course, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure, so I don’t really know which is which in your eyes, so it will all be there to sift through. Just leave a comment saying that you would like to be included in the drawing, which will happen after we return to Seattle on the 26th. Unfortunately, at present I can only offer shipping within the US. 

[The gratuitous but seasonally-appropriate photos are mine, one of the peonies that got beaten down by the rain, and one of a small fraction of the amazing crop of strawberries from our garden]