LOOKING FORWARD TO A NEW YEAR

Throughout the continuous march of days and months, there are multiple opportunities to pause and think about how best to take care of old obligations and move forward in the most positive way. The New Years transition from 2016 to 2017 is one of those times.

I’m always a little behind on everything, so there are a lot of old obligations I need to deal with, and my goal is to take care of them all before incurring any new ones. Ha! I hope I even come close to doing this.

Here are a few perfume-related things I hope to do in the coming year:

- Upgrade and update my websites so that they look better, are more user-friendly and incorporate some special features.

- Finish several perfumes that I’m working on and release them.

- Post more regularly on this blog, Instagram, Facebook and other social media, and send out a newsletter once a month.

- Get my studio cleaned and organized. This is actually a big project given how cluttered it is.

If I accomplish all of these things, it will be a good year, at least locally. In the meantime, best wishes to everyone for a happy and successful year 2017!

[Last night we had a storm that dropped a lot of graupel, which is sort of a hybrid between sleet, snow, and hail. However, I did manage to get out on the icy streets and walk around the neighborhood today, enjoying the little bit of sun that was beaming in from low on the horizon. I thought these ski-area pics were a nice depiction of the winter atmosphere and the feeling of hope that the sun brings.]

HAPPY 2015!

First of all, a big thank-you to everyone who has read the blog over the past year despite my erratic schedule of postings. Thanks to everyone who has helped support my work as a perfumer. Best wishes to all for a healthy, happy, productive, and successful new year that brings you whatever you most desire.

One of my traditions here is doing a post that looks back on the past year and forward to the next. It’s trite, I know, but it always seems like a good idea anyway. For the sake of the readers, I’ll go light on my “other lives” and focus on the perfume-related track.

The past year saw the launch of two new floral scents, African Orchid, a tropical white-flower scent based on the fragrance of an angrecoid orchid, and Sakura, a light cherry-blossom soliflore. It was also the year of Peace-Love-Perfume, with the release of three commemorative scents for the Facebook group headed by Carlos Powell. Just under the wire in December came Woodcut, which I’d been working on for a long time, ever since the day when I passed by the construction site with the newly built fence. I agonized for a long time about what to call it, but when the right name finally came to mind, the rest was easy.

I traveled a lot, participating in the San Francisco Fragrance Salon, FRAGments in Los Angeles, several out-of-town orchid (plant) shows, and my first-ever holiday pop-up shop. I’m getting much better at organizing for these events, I keep more stock on the shelves now so I don’t (usually) run out, and I’m getting better at handling increased production. It’s been a good year all around, with Blackbird a finalist for the Art & Olfaction Awards, and Woodcut named one of Cafleurebon’s “Best of 2014”.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions because “resolution” sounds so rigid and final, as if it’s a rule to live by. Instead, I set goals, which may shift one way or another as I approach them. My goals for 2015 are to:

1. Improve my websites with up-to-date photos and descriptions, addition of some new products, and more frequent routine maintenance.

2. Never announce new products in my newsletter until they’re listed for sale on the website. More than once I’ve been guilty of writing about items before they are listed, so that people are disappointed when they go to the website looking for them and they're not there. This goal goes hand-in-hand with No. 1, and also involves better newsletter management.

3. Take a critical look at my line and figure out which fragrances to discontinue and which to keep. Because there is constant pressure to come up with new releases and I can only handle so many (I am not  BPAL or Montale and do not want to be!) I need to figure out which are the perennials and which are the annuals in my garden of scents. An upcoming post will deal with this question and solicit suggestions and nominations for permanent status and elimination.

4. Try to simplify, organize, and cut down on distractions. I still spend a lot of time looking for fragrance materials that are stored in a disorganized way, compulsively checking e-mail and Facebook, and other unproductive behaviors.

5. Try to post something here at least once a week. It’s not that hard, I just have to make the time and maybe enlist the help of more guest writers.

6. Do some marketing. I’m fully aware that this is my weakest point in running the perfume business. The goal for 2105 is to start sending samples to bloggers and other potentially interested parties, and add a few more wholesale accounts.

That’s enough to start with. If I make any progress toward these goals, 2015 will be a very good year!

[Janus, detective, and stage hook images adapted from Wikimedia.  Orchid photo is mine.]

GOALS, PLANS, RESOLUTIONS, AND WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN IN 2013

New Years resolutions are designed to be broken. Who wants resolutions or rigid rules anyway, when life is so unpredictable? I was thinking about this today while playing with our new cat. We had resolved not to have another cat, given the fact that any sort of pet is a huge responsibility, so we can’t be completely footloose and fancy-free, taking off for weeks of travel at a time. Of course, this is assuming that we could actually take off and travel for anything not work-related. Just when we were enjoying being pet-free, another cat entered our home and our life. More on the new cat soon, as he settles in.

So in the absence of resolutions, what would I like to do in the new year? First of all, I would like to make more time to post regularly here. I love writing for the blog because it makes me think about a variety of issues both related and unrelated to perfume. My goal is to post at least once a week, ideally at least 2-3 times a week and not go through those funks when I don’t post because it’s been too long since I posted.

Every so often I wonder if I should change my blogging style a little. I often read comments by readers of perfume reviews and blogs saying that they “only like to read positive things”, they “don’t like satire”, and they “don’t like politics”. Should I try to only say positive things, adhering to the old saying, “if you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything at all”? I think not, because if no one ever criticized anything, the status quo would remain forever, things would continually deteriorate in all areas of life because no one feels comfortable saying what they think, and wrongdoers would be allowed to get away with anything they choose.

I’ve spent most of my career in academia, where people seem to adhere to the opposite advice: “If you can’t say something critical, don’t say anything at all”, so this is the modus operandi most familiar to me. It’s not in my nature, nor has it been promoted through my nurture to be a cheerleader who indiscriminately spews verbal rainbows, unicorn fluff, candy hearts, hugs, and flowers all over the place. It’s not in my nature or nurture to try to say good things when I don’t feel good things. I’ve thought about the possibility of trying to be more warm, fuzzy, and positive, but dismissed it immediately. It’s not who I am. I hope that by not engaging in positive hyperbole whatever positive statements I make will be all the stronger and more credible.

I don’t usually write satire here, but I do occasionally engage in sarcasm, which may turn some people off. I sometimes write about politics and social issues at various levels because it’s part of what interests me. When I feel positive, I’ll say positive things, and when I feel negative, those who don’t like negativity, don’t have to read. That’s my resolution of the dilemma of whether to try to cater to the broadest possible audience by being more positive, bland, and strictly on-topic.

Another perfume-related goal for this year is to get better at networking and promotion. So far I’ve been fairly negligent about using Facebook, Twitter, and other social media to network with the perfume community and promote Olympic Orchids. I haven’t systematically sent out samples for bloggers to review. I’ve just sent samples as gifts to people I enjoy interacting with in person or online, or sold discovery sets to customers, with no expectations that they would be reviewed. It’s been pure luck that, in many cases, reviews did appear. I’m eternally grateful to all who have reviewed my creations, but I know I should do a better job of making sure that happens.

I think the goal of better networking and promotion is the big one for this year. I’ve gotten to the point where I have everything I need to create good fragrances, in reasonable quantities. Packaging could be more sophisticated and slick, but that might be a goal for next year, not this one.

Today’s goal is to get outside and enjoy the magnificent sunshine that we’re having and to kick back and enjoy the last few days before classes start again next week.

[Fireworks, cheerleaders, and smiley-face networking image adapted from Wikimedia]