Product Development and New Brand

I've got a new brand in the works. I want Ivre de Fleurs to be about fragrance, so I'll be creating a new brand for all the other things. And by "all the other things," I'm currently thinking of pretty much everything, but of course, one thing at a time. I'll be announcing the new brand once I have more ready for it. So far it has a name and not much else. Except for some ingredients for me to experiment with. Plant sterols, anyone?

I will keep lip balms, hair oils, and a few other things where fragrance is a key part of the product for Ivre de Fleurs. I'm doing some stability testing for a new lip balm formula to make sure it doesn't turn grainy over time. Grainy lip balm is safe to use, but having a nice smooth one to put on is much better. I am also testing a new hair oil blend with new packaging.

I'm testing perfume bottles out as well!

I also contacted a school about what classes I would need to meet their admission requirements. That was terrifying for me, since it was the first step towards going back to school. And I must say, community colleges are bargains- why don't we all just do 2 years at those before moving on the expensive schools? I think living is all about reminding myself of all the mistakes I made when I was younger. Like going to an overpriced school for four years. And yes, most schools are overpriced. I really wish my alumni association would send me checks, rather than begging me to write one.

Intoxication- Walking Under the Influence (of Jasmine)

I haven't enjoyed moving to Mountain View, but when I'm walking here and there, I can at least enjoy the abundance of flowers here. For a few moments, the fragrance takes me away from where I am. Long stretches of jasmine, large and fragrant roses, and the blossoming trees stop me in my tracks, and all is right and beautiful. I move on sadly, looking forward to the next moment when the scent of flowers fills the air.

I spent several years trying to figure out what to do with my life. I knew I wanted to start my own business at some point, but it took awhile to figure it out. When I started studying perfumery, I knew that I wanted to work with these captivating materials. I feel intoxicated after spending a day in a room full of essential oils, absolutes, and other aromatics. Sometimes it will make me giddy, excited, and just happier. Other times it's so intense and I need to step out for fresh air.

When I started Ivre de Fleurs, I knew I wanted to focus on natural fragrance. Knowing that not everyone likes or wears perfumes, I decided to include bath and body products, like lip balms, hair oils, etc. These would let me share the fragrances with a wider group of people, and allow me to work with different mediums as well.

As time went by and I developed the brand, my mind was pulled this way and that. The products I made and the direction of my brand have led me to a point where I look at what I have, and I'm not excited by it. I've barely blogged the past few months, and without Instagram, I would have barely done anything with social media. I'm not a real fan of social media - I'm more of a keep to myself kind of person - but I keep hearing how important it is for business.

I've spent the time experimenting and studying the past few months, and also figuring out where I want my brand to head. Along the way I pondered so many possibilities, each tempting, but they would take away from what I really want to do. And that is create beautiful and strange fragrances. I'm going to refocus my creative energies on scent creation. I'm going to make lip balms, hair oils, and a few other products, but for now at least, I won't be making soap.

Ivre de Fleurs translates to "drunk with flowers," but so far I've aimed for a more restrained, quiet brand. I hope to breathe life into it with the passion I feel for the materials, and the wild beauty I strive to capture.

"In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo."

-T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

In the Works and Preservatives (again)

It's been rather difficult thinking about products for fall and winter, when it feels summery or spring-like here in the Bay Area. I have a few items I will post soon for the fall, plus some wintery items. These were my favorite seasons when I lived in New England, with the changing leaves and then the snow. I don't miss the summers there though- hot and humid.

I will be introducing a few body sprays that use hydrosols in the next few weeks, and since these have water, I will be using preservatives. At first I wanted to to avoid preservatives, mostly because I wanted to say all of my products are preservative free. But that's silly. One is derived from radishes- Leucidal (Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate), and the other is potassium sorbate, a food grade preservative. I'm also using alcohol in some products, because I really don't want anything growing in them. 

I do microbial testing on the products, and so far everything looks good- nice and clear, with zero growths. Preservatives are better than any of the nasty things that can grow on those slides.

Cocoa Absolute

Cocoa absolute has a great scent- rich and chocolatey. You can use a little to modify a fragrance, making it a little dirty and a little sweet, without going full out gourmand. With The Lab #7 Cocoa, I didn't add just a little, I added a lot.

I spent a long time figuring out this fragrance. Starting with the base notes, I added patchouli and vetiver for their earthiness. And then let it sit. Added some labdanum to complete the base notes- I love labdanum and its ambery odor. I added some ylang ylang for the middle, and went uh oh- the chocolate brought out the banana notes in ylang ylang. I did not want to create a chocolate covered banana fragrance, though I'm sure there's a market for that.

I let it sit again. Then, to adjust the chocolate-banana middle, I added some clary sage and pimento berry (aka- allspice). I finished it up with spice up at the top, with a good blast of fresh ginger, and dash of woodsy petitgrain.

One problem with chocolate absolute- it does not work well in oils. I let this fragrance sit around for awhile so the chocolate scent could permeate it, and then filtered it before bottling. A lot of the thick brown absolute still made it's way into many of the bottles, and it would be best to shake them to disperse it before applying. I pulled aside the one with the most cocoa absolute hanging around, and it didn't stain or color my pale skin, so that shouldn't worry you. I wouldn't rub the fragrance into your clothes though, since it might stain those. Plus you shouldn't be covering your clothes in oil.

The Lab #7 Cocoa is available from Ivre de Fleurs and Etsy for $10 for a 4ml roller ball.

KPFA, Soap, and Dusk

Ivre de Fleurs will be selling at the KPFA Crafts Fair this year! I went to this show when I first moved out to the SF Bay Area, and I've been there a few times since, including last year. My husband and I bought so many presents there last year. I'm a bit sad it won't be 3 blocks from where I live this year, but crossing the bay is worth it.

I've just poured some soap- it smells great, and it has so many amazing things in it- blueberry, cranberry, and acai powders, but I have to admit, it's not looking so pretty now. I do intend to sell it, since if it all works out well it should be a nice bar of soap, but it won't be a looker. Which isn't so bad when you think about it- soap washes away to nothing, leaving no trace of its beauty or lack there of.

And it's not like it's the ugliest soap I've ever made.

On to dusk. I don't even really know how to describe how I made it- it just kind of guided itself, in a way that I don't normally make scents. Oftentimes I have an idea, and I just add a little here and there to complete the idea. With this one, I just kind of went with the flow, and the result is a fragrance that reminds me most of dusk- the darkest stage of twilight. There's a good dose of patchouli in the base notes, which probably gives it that feeling. There's a heavy dose of florals and some spice, but no overwhelming note. This scent is really more of a feeling than an idea, with things of beauty barely visible, awaiting the darkness to come.

The Lab #6 Dusk is available from Ivre de Fleurs and Etsy for $20.

The Lab # 5 Lavender

This started out as an idea for a lip balm flavor- lavender, anise, and vanilla. When I did my flavor tester (I made a zillion of those), I wasn't impressed. I took the scent blend and put it in some soap, which was rather lovely. It did make the soap turn dark due to the vanilla in it, so it wasn't the prettiest soap, but it did smell nice.

This scent is an expansion of that idea- vanilla at the base, lavender at the middle and top (lavender absolute and essential oil), and anise at the top. Vetiver, patchouli, and clary sage bring some earthiness to it, and black pepper spices up the top. I also added some yuzu absolute to brighten it up- that stuff is hard to find and rather pricy for a citrus note, so once this fragrance is sold out, there will be no more of it. Perhaps a slightly different version, but unless I can get my hands on some more yuzu absolute, I won't be able to make any more.

The Lab #5 Lavender is available at Ivre de Fleurs and Etsy for $15.

Davana

Davana is an odd scent. Kind of fruity, and to me, kind of boozy. It reminds me a bit of cough syrup sometimes. It is also a bit of a chameleon, and can smell differently on different people. Of course that's true of all (or at least many) fragrances, but when creating this scent, I couldn't stand it in the bottle, but liked it on my skin.

I wanted to emphasize the fruitiness of davana, so I added Roman chamomile. Frankincense and Peru balsam at the base added additional sweetness and some citrus. At this point, it seemed like it could be a sugarbomb of a fragrance, and while there is a market for that, I don't want that to be the end result.

Back to the middle notes, I added rose geranium and ylang ylang. This probably didn't help with the sweetness, but adds a small touch of floral. For the top notes I went with spice (black pepper and juniper berry) and some floral woods- petitgrain and rosewood. The scent definitely isn't a fruity floral- the floral aspect is pretty quiet.

Lab #4 Davana is available from Etsy and Ivre de Fleurs for $10.

Also new on Etsy are blended floral balms. There are currently three different blends- Trio Blend, which leans towards jasmine but with hints of rose and tuberose; White Flowers, a blend with jasmine, neroli, and tuberose; and Mimosa Neroli, a honeyed scent with an orange flower twist. These are $10 for each .15 ounce jar.

The Lab #2- Neroli Rose

Neroli Rose is another simple blend- middle notes of neroli and rose absolute, with sandalwood for some longevity. I skipped a top note for this fragrance. I understand their importance, but I wanted the focus to be on these two flowers. Sandalwood blends seamlessly into it, quietly sitting in the background.

I don't think I'll build off this fragrance in the future, though it's likely I'll create a blend at some point with all three oils. There are so many ways this scent can go that it's hardly a starting point. This would be a good scent to layer with your favorite perfumes, to add some floral notes.

This scent is only available through the Ivre de Fleurs website, with only three bottles available. Samples will be available soon on Etsy.

New Limited Edition Fragrances!

Fragrances #1-#5

The Lab fragrances are limited edition perfume that explore different ideas in scent. Each silver roller ball holds 4ml and costs between $10-20, depending on the essences used. Each perfume is naturally scented, including some with rare and expensive oils. All of them will be available through the Ivre de Fleurs website, and #4-#7 will be posted to Etsy soon. I will also add sample sizes for sale on Etsy.

I will be writing about each of the fragrances in separate posts, starting with #1 today.

The Lab #1- Wood
When I started making perfume, I loved all the florals- rose, jasmine, neroli. I still love them, but over time I have come to appreciate pretty much all of the scents out there. Except for clary sage, but I do like blending with that one. I just don't like it alone.

I love the various wood scents out there, in particular rosewood and sandalwood. Sadly, these face endangerment, but I hope with increased attention, there will be a way to protect these trees and obtain their beautiful oils. I know for rosewood that some distillers use the branches, and I've seen it distilled from the leaves as well.

 Virginian cedarwood is pretty far down my list of woods. It turns out it's not even from a cedar tree, but from a juniper tree (Juniperus virginiana). It has a scent like a pencil, which can still be nice and useful, but it's not my preferred cedar. For this fragrance, I decided to use Himalayan cedarwood, a real cedar (Cedrus deodora). It creates a nice bridge between the top note rosewood and the base note sandalwood.

In the future I might build off of this fragrance- I thought about adding agarwood, but that stuff is expensive, and I wanted to keep these relatively affordable.

In the Works and Such

I was really hoping to write more once I no longer had my day job, but I just haven't felt like writing as much as I should. I've had so much other stuff to do, and still more I can do, that I haven't made blogging a priority.

I've been working on some new perfumes, and quite a bit of soap. I'll be coming out with fall/Halloween soaps hopefully in the beginning of October. It can take so long for soap to cure, and since I've gone palm free and soy free, I'm finding it trickier to make a hard bar. I don't think the hydrogenated soy helped much anyway, but even with sodium lactate, I've found some batches hard to remove from the molds. I'll also be working on winter/Christmas soaps soon. As much as I love fall, I truly love winter. The scents, the colors- everything is perfect and beautiful. I really want to capture the freshness of newly fallen snow. It's too bad I'm not likely to see any this year, and haven't seen good snow in a long time. Last year I did see a few patches of old snow in Ohio, but that's not exciting.

I'll be writing more about the perfumes as I post them for sale. I've been having lots of fun with fragrance lately, and I'm even delving into home fragrance! Home fragrance is tricky though- essential oils don't seem to want to blast you in the face the way some people might want them to, so it's taking some time.

Learning About Lotions Part 4 - Other Ingredients

I've concentrated on preservatives and emulsifiers, since those two are key ingredients that are to find in a natural and effective form. After those two ingredients, it should be easy to find everything else as close to natural as you care for it to be.

Water- The simplest choice is distilled water (not purified or tap, since those might introduce things to your lotion you don't want). You can also try hydrosols and aloe vera juice, plus some other things I'm sure I'm not thinking about. Some hydrosols and aloe do include preservatives, so you might want to consider that when choosing your liquid.

I wonder if you could use wine or beer in a lotion, like you can with a soap. Though you might end up smelling like you've been at a bar all night and had too much to drink.

Oils- So many kinds, including the butters like cocoa, butter, and shea. I use strictly plant based oils, but there are animal oils (lanolin, emu, etc.) that are available. Looking at some suppliers, I'm surprised to see all the oils I never knew existed!

Humectants- Humectants draw in water or help to retain it, making the lotion a better moisturizer for your skin. Glycerin is a well known natural humectant, with the disadvantage that it can be kind of sticky. I've taken to using sodium lactate instead of glycerin, since I think it feels better, and it also can be added to soaps help them harden. Sodium lactate is derived from the fermentation of sugars, usually from corn or beet. Since I began looking into lotions, I've become interested in Honeyquat, a conditioning humectant derived from honey.

Antioxidants- Use these to extend your oils so they don't rancid too quickly. Rosemary oleoresin extract (ROE) and Vitamin E T-50 are both good choices- I often use one or both in my oil based products.

Additional Additives- There are a lot of additional things you can put in lotions- waxes, thickeners (like xanthan gum), and extracts, plus other ingredients depending on your goal. If you want to add a little color to your lotion, you can add a bit (not too much, since you don't want to color your skin!). Use essential oils for a natural scent or fragrance oils if you're fine with using those. For colors and fragrance oils, make sure you're only using things that are safe for the skin.

Learning About Lotions Part 3- Emulsifiers

Water + Oil + Sodium Hydroxide = Soap
Water + Oil + Emulsifier = Lotion
That's if all goes well, and there's obviously more to both of them than that. When I learned about lotions a few years ago, I heard about emulsifying wax (sometimes called E-Wax). It's a popular emulsifier for homemade lotions and it works well. Melting the wax and blending it in while still hot to your oils and waters creates your lotion.

A bit later I read about BTMS 50 (INCI: Behentrimonium Methosulfate (and) Cetearyl Alcohol), a conditioning emulsifier. It works well in conditioners, and when used it lotions it can give a powdery feel to the skin. This is a cationic emulsifier, so some preservatives might not work with it.

Some makers use beeswax and borax to create a natural emulsifier, but it doesn't create a stable emulsion. These will need to be shaken to mix the water and oils back together. I find separated lotions kind of gross, and usually toss any I have once they do separate. These lotions were using different emulsifiers and took a couple of years to separate. I'd be disappointed if I had one breaking down so soon.

In my recent experiments I am trying Olivem 1000 (INCI: Cetearyl Olivate (and) Sorbitan Olivate). An olive derived emulsifier sounded cool, plus it emulsifies by forming liquid crystals. But it does have some issues with stability. Adding a thickener like xanthan gum or a co-emulsifier helps stabilize it.

There are a lot of other emulsifiers out there, but these are the three I've tried. I haven't tried (or been tempted to try) the beeswax and borax method.

I'm not particularly interested in emulsifiers, but here are a few things you might want to look into if you are:
Use of silicones
Types of emulsion: Water in Oil, Oil in Water, Water in Silicone
Cold Emulsions
Self-emulsifiers (you don't need to add additional oils to some of these)
Type of product (lotion, conditioner, spray, etc.)
Cationic/non-ionic/anionic
Co-emulsifiers
Stabilizers

Learning About Lotions Part 2- Preservatives Continued

While there are several preservatives available now, the most important thing is that the preservative used works. When I made lotion the first few times, I just followed a basic recipe and didn't give much thought to inhospitable conditions for the preservative. Looking into them more now, there are various factors to consider. I've listed a few of them below.

1. Temperature
This one is an easy one to adjust for. Find out the temperature at which it's safe to add, and then during cool down, check the temperature and add the preservative when it's low enough. A few can withstand higher temperatures, so you might be able to add those to the water phase (possibly oil phase, though I don't recall seeing one that's added to the oil phase).

2. pH
This is one of my favorite considerations. You get to play with pH test strips or a fancy pH tester, though for now I'm sticking with the test strips. Preservatives seem to prefer acidic environments, though some will work at higher pH levels.

3. Reactions & Compatibilities
 You need to make sure your preservative won't react with another ingredient, leading to something like benzene in your lotion. You need to make sure it works with all ingredients, such as cationic/non-ionic/anionic surfactants and your emulsifier.

4. Light exposure
I've only seen this so far in reference to Tinosan, but if you use that preservative, you should make sure to avoid exposing the preservative to light, and you will need to test the final product if you use anything other than opaque bottles. Tinosan actually sounds fairly interesting since it contains silver citrate. I think that sounds pretty cool.

5. Benefits
Some of the natural preservatives offer benefits on top of preserving your product. For example, willow bark extract is a natural source of salicylic acid-like ingredients, so it can improve your skin.

6. Broad Spectrum
If the preservative used kills only one type of nasty (bacteria (gram positive and negative), yeast, fungus, or mold), you'll need to add another to kill the others.

7. Solubility
Usually you add preservatives to products that contain water, but you might add one to an oil-based scrub that will be exposed to water. In this case you need to find a preservative that is soluble in anhydrous solutions.

Learning about Lotions Part 1- Preservatives

I've started researching preservatives and other lotion ingredients, and soon I will start experimenting with making lotions again. I don't know if I'll sell lotions- it depends on how the experiments work out. I'll be writing about the various elements of lotions as I go. These are general thoughts, not in depth information on any one item. I find researching lotion making very exciting, and I want to share that knowledge with people who might not know what goes into making lotions. I think it's important to know what is going into the products you use, why they're there, and how they work.

I have made lotions and creams in the past, but I haven't made any to sell. If I were to sell any, I couldn't market my brand as preservative free, because there's no way I'm selling a lotion without something to keep it safe. Recently I've started to feel like calling Ivre de Fleurs a preservative brand is causing me to be a part of the scaremongering against preservatives, and I don't want that. I want to make products as naturally as I can, but I also don't want to be limited to using only ingredients that the average person can pronounce.

I'm starting with some natural preservatives in my experiments. It sounds like they don't work well for the most part, but maybe I can get them to work somehow. The ones I'm trying now are various fermentations and extracts, and some offer additional benefits beyond preserving. If they don't work, I'll start looking into other preservatives. A broad-spectrum preservative system is important to keep your water-based products free from bacteria, yeast, mold, and fungus out there. I've got a little kit to test for preservative efficacy, so I should be able to determine some things quickly, but then you have to make sure it works over time (no separating, no mold or fungus, no other nasty things). If I have a good recipe, I'd need to send it off for challenge testing, to make sure it's verified safe.

Parabens are one of the preservatives that you hear most often about, and usually not in a good way. Parabens are actually really good at preserving products, they are used at very small percentages, and I'm not convinced they'll lead me to a long and painful death. While a lot of people don't bother to check the labels of their beauty products, those that do often don't want parabens in them, so I'll be skipping them.

By the way, honeysuckle extract has a molecule that acts like a paraben. I've only read a little into it, and I'm not sure if it's effective as parabens are, but if you are avoiding parabens, you might want to add honeysuckle extract to your list of ingredients to avoid. Grapefruit seed extract might also have parabens in it- the parabens are being used to preserve the extract, and are then helping to preserve the final product. It seems like there's a lot of controversy on grapefruit seed extract, so I don't want to go there.

Formaldehyde donors are another type of preservative, but I haven't read too much into them yet. I have no plans to use them, but I'd still like to read up on them some more.

There are a few preservatives that can be listed as "parfum" or "fragrance" on a label. If a product claims to be preservative free but lists fragrance, they may or may not be using that fragrance to preserve the product. I've read of two- one that has a rosy scent, and another that's more vanilla/almond. I'm slightly confused as to why fragrance would be preferable to preservatives, but I guess it depends on why you're avoiding an ingredient.

Ideas (perhaps too many)

I've had a hard time falling asleep lately. No matter how tired I am, as I try to sleep my brain runs wild with ideas for things to make. I've had issues with insomnia in the past, though I think it's mostly that I'm a night owl living in an early bird world.

The problem is that I have too many product ideas- probably more than I can ever make. I'm inspired by all sorts of things. Some ideas start as making unique versions of products that already exist (such as hair oils). A lot of ideas start with a single ingredient though- I read about something, and then I have to see how it works. I had read broccoli seed oil is good for the hair, but I haven't seen many people selling it. So I bought some broccoli seed oil, and Broccoli Shine Hair Oil was created. This created some interesting design problems- namely, how to mask the scent of the broccoli seed oil. I used some of the same oils I add to my other hair oils, and then added some powerful essential oils. The end result is a product that helps your hair and does not smell like broccoli.

The Everywhere Oils are a result of my testing several oils for how they feel- I wanted to find ones that you can put on without feeling greasy. Camellia seed oil works great, and I started using it regularly on my face and hair. I wanted to keep the product simple, so I used only one essential oil for each variety- lavender, rose, and ylang ylang. 

I have several new products I need to add to my store. I also need to figure out which ideas in my head are worth pursuing. I am so easily intrigued by the various ingredients out there, and I need to stop myself from buying and trying all of them.

New product ideas and other thoughts

When selling items in person, I notice that what I think is normal in terms of products, other people either haven't heard of them, or think they're strange. Mostly in terms of the oils I sell. Hair oil? Wouldn't that make your hair greasy? Only if you glob it on. With hair oils, you only need a small amount. If you're using it as a hot oil treatment, then you would add a lot more. But as an alternative to a leave-in conditioner, just a small amount works.

Same thing with face oils. A small amount is all that's needed for the face, and if the right oils are used, you shouldn't feel oily. I spend a lot of time researching oils and experimenting with them to make sure they won't feel gross. You do need more for your body, but again, the right oils will absorb quickly and won't leave you greasy.

So now that I'm thinking of new products, and testing them out, I'm wondering what people really want to buy. Current ponderings include things like dry shampoo, facial cleansing grains, scrubs, and bath salts/teas. I am also considering lotion, if I can sell one that I'm comfortable with in terms of naturalness and safety. Also expanding my selection of soaps. But since I can't expand every which way, I need figure which items people really want or need. Any feedback would be welcome.

Also, I have secret products in development. Because even if I want to figure out the products people know about and want, I also want to create things they didn't know they needed until they saw it.

Art vs. Craft vs. Science vs. Gimmick

I was looking for spring/summer craft shows to apply to, and I looked at the pages for some art shows. These types of things go by all sorts of names, so I'll look at pretty much anything that sounds sort of promising. Of course these art shows are "fine art" shows, and fragrance is not an included category. I realize a lot of what I make wouldn't fall under the category of fine art, but I strongly feel that fragrance doesn't get the respect it deserves.

Most perfumes that people buy are more about marketing than scent. Sure, the scent counts, but most of the money goes into making the packaging pretty and paying for all the ads. I don't know if the people making these scents consider it an art, or if they're sitting in their labs looking at what's needed and figuring out the cheapest way to get there while still making a scent that people will wear. Those scents are mostly science- a degree in organic chemistry is actually very useful to anyone wanting to work in a big perfume house. There are some commercial perfumes, and definitely a lot of niche perfumes, that are art. To me it seems like what separates the fine art of fragrance is the passion that goes into, making the best you can with what you have, and creating a scent that has some meaning, even if that will never be clear to 99% of the population. You need mastery over the materials, just like you would with any other fine art.

I aim to be a perfume artist, and hope that if I'm not there yet, I will be soon. Working with scent can be a craft as well. When I assist at a perfume's class, the scents that people make are sometimes nice, but they don't rise to the level of art. That's not to be harsh, but a great perfume requires more time and thought than can be fit into an 8 hour class.

And a lot of what I do is craft- hair oils, lip balm, foot balm, lotions bars- those really aren't art. The scents are usually blended so that the product smells pleasant, usually with hopes of bringing hopes of some benefits to the product as well. So there's a bit of science in there too- nothing that would make me a scientist, but I do research which ingredients do what. Soap makers are working with science and craft. I don't know if those who make fancy swirls and designs consider their soaps works of art or not. I've seen some truly beautiful soaps (nothing I've made- I'm lucky if mine aren't plain ugly), but I'm not sure if there will be a gallery of beautiful soaps, or soap displays at museums. I guess in that sense perfume is getting a little more recognition, since there are occasionally exhibits dedicated to scent.

Beauty products are usually somewhere between craft and science. The ones you see at chain stores are probably mostly science, though don't necessarily fall for all the claims on their boxes. Just because something is made by people wearing white coats in a lab, it doesn't mean it will make your wrinkles disappear. Those who make beauty products on a smaller scale probably do use some science knowledge. You need to understand things like emulsion, preservative systems, and what each ingredient brings to the finished product. But these are handcrafted, not made on an industrial scale.

And then there are beauty products that are gimmicks. These are the most painful to me. I see single oils (like argan oil) being bottled up and sold at a large mark up. If you want 50ml of pure argan oil for less than $48, email me and I'll make you a bottle for less. While some of my products only use a few ingredients, I don't create single ingredients products and then sell them for a huge profit. Though I suppose if those companies are spending a lot of money on marketing, they might not be making such huge profits after all.

TL;DR- I want perfume to enter the world of fine art, and hope to be a fine perfume artist myself. Most of my products are craft, with a dash of science. And I will not sell you a gimmicky product like a single ingredient at a high mark up, unless you ask me to (at which point I'd reduce the markup).

Coming Soon

I've started working on a special project for Valentine's Day- or any day really. But I've had a particular idea in mind for a product involving roses, and releasing it in time for Valentine's Day seems as good as time as any. I'll have more info once everything is ready to go.

I am also working on a massage oil. I already sell Massage and Lotion Bars, but for those who prefer an oil that starts as a liquid and not a solid, the massage oils will work better. For those who have never used a massage bar, it's a mix of butters, oils, and wax that melts in your hands or rub directly onto your body, creating an oil that you can use either as a moisturizer or a massage oil. Our massage bars work great as an intensive moisturizer for dry winter skin. The massage oil will be a lighter weight oil and will come in a glass bottle, so you can just pump some out.

Women and Science

I love science. There is so much out there in science, and I really regret not pursuing it in college. I was rather good at chemistry, did well in biology, and had so much fun in bacteriology. I never did physics, mostly because I wasn't going to be able to get into "honors" class since I didn't take the "honors" Algebra II class. I'm not much of a math person, though I did well in the classes that I did take. My chemistry class in college was simpler than the chemistry class I took in high school, and while it was interesting, it was practically a joke.

I see stuff in the news about getting little girls interested in STEM subjects, with Goldie Blox and what not, but I think there needs to be more focus on keeping teenage girls interested in science, and let them know what studying science can lead to career-wise. I'm more interested in science (in particular the parts that relate to beauty products and scent), but technology, engineering, and math probably have interesting career paths that should be considered and promoted.

Science feels like it's come up a lot for me personally in the last few years. Being married to a software engineer (who reads physics textbooks for fun) certainly helps with that, but in other ways as well. At my most recent show, I was asked by a few people whether I had a science background. While most of the beauty products I make don't involve complex scientific knowledge, there is still science to them. I study the properties of different oils and butters- the types of fats in them can change how they work, so the oil you need depends on the type of product you're making.

Soap making is fun, because it involves a chemical reaction right before your eyes- lye (either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide in water) combines with oil to make soap! At least real soap, not the detergents you'll see sold at most stores. You need to use some math (not scary math, and there are calculators available online just for this purpose) to calculate how much lye you need to saponify your oils. Different oils have different requirements for lye, and typically you're using more than one type of oil to make your soap. This goes back to the above, where the composition of the oils bring different properties to your soap. Since you don't want any lye left over in your soap, you superfat your recipe, which means you need to calculate your lye so that not all of the oils are saponified. Superfatting  means you're left with some left over oils in your soap, which makes it good for you skin.

Lotions present a different set of science issues- like soap, you're combining oil and water, but you want different results.An emulsifier is needed to keep the water and oil from separating. You have water phases and oil phases, you keep track of their temperatures, and combine them into a magical creamy lotion. Then you need a preservative- this is where biology and bacteriology come in. Lotions are good breeding grounds for all sorts mold, bacteria, fungus, etc., so a preservative slows that growth down.

I've been getting my science fix that way for awhile, but now I'm spending more time studying chemistry in regards to perfumery. There's the components of the essential oils, plus I'm reading up on some of the aromachemicals out there.

Preservatives

Recently, I went to open a sample bottle of toner (from a fairly well known brand) when I noticed something dark on the side. I thought it might be a smudge on the outside, but it was in the bottle. It was a dark flake of something, probably mold. I definitely wasn't going to use that toner. This was a sealed bottle, stored in a dark, cool, dry spot. Looking at the ingredients, there were no obvious preservatives.

Preservatives come in different forms (parabens are one type that many have heard of and are trying to avoid) and protect aqueous products from growing mold, bacteria, and other nasty things. Products such as scrubs that don't contain water, but are likely to end up getting water in them, might also contain preservatives. Generally, only a small amount of the preservative is needed- you will usually see them at the bottom of the ingredients list.

I sidestep the preservative issue by not making products that use water. This way I can keep Ivre de Fleurs preservative free, while not worrying about if my product is safe. I add antioxidants, Vitamin E and Rosemary Oleoresin Extract, to many of my products to increase their shelf life. Oils might not turn moldy on their own, but they can go rancid, and the antioxidants keep the oils fresher for longer.
I know a lot of people don't care if their products have preservatives, but others don't want to use products with any preservatives in them. I try to minimize my use of products with preservatives, since I don't know what the long term ramifications of using them will be. I don't avoid them completely, though. If I'm using a lotion, I'm fine with the small amount of preservatives in it, since I don't want to deal with the more immediate issues of mold and bacteria.