Midsummer Muse/Violette Market, customs, Vintage Beekeeper, Smoking Plum
Midsummer Muse's/Violette Market's Lori was nice enough to take some custom orders from me via the Diablo Canyon General Store, and while her store's in flux, too!
Overall: I ordered three custom blends from Lori, and her customer service was superb. I was fairly specific on what notes I wanted/suggested, but also tried to give her an "impression" that I wanted as well as carte blanche to take things out or add in minor notes if they helped bring a blend together. One of the blends gave her no problems at all (not surprising, since I think that one had the most complementary set of notes in it), while the others were a bit more troublesome. Lori contacted me multiple times to elaborate on what I was looking for from those blends, so she could get them just right! I was incredibly pleased with my blends, and I really recommend Lori for anyone who likes her "style" and wants to commission a custom blend from her.
The names I give below are mine. The bottles themselves came in little burlap sacks (in keeping with the "general store" theme). The bottles have a simple cream-colored label with a faux-messy typed font on them and a red stamp with the date the blend was made (and, in my case, a little number on the bottom, since I asked for several at once), but otherwise no customized information about the blend. Pic here. Not the most aesthetically pleasing, but gets the job done.
Set
My request: Masculine, leaning towards dry, bright but with bite rather than warmth. Blood on the sands, and a temple to a god of war under the bright, unforgiving desert sun. Notes: myrrh/frankincense, dark musk, clove, amber (black if you've got it), desert dirt or some compatible wood (just enough to make it dry and ground it), dragon's blood (if available).
Result:On first sniff, this is musky dirt and frankincense. On me, it changes a lot as it wears. The dirt note is the first to go, leaving this with frankincense, some resin that's probably the dragon's blood, and overall a surprisingly perfumey blend. As it sits even more, it gets dryer, a kind of biting wood coming out. The drydown is mostly wood, and a bit of musky sweetness. This is just what I asked for! :) Not something I'd wear everyday, because it goes on strong on the sweet frankincense, but will be perfect for a room scent.
Thoth
My request: Clean and a bit sharp, and if you can get a light walking-by-the-river undertone to it, that'd be great. A scribe's house by the river, the scent of the Nile wandering through the windows, the soft wood of the writing desk, and a shrine to Thoth in the corner...the incense well away from the scrolls, of course. Notes: incense, light wood of some kind, aloe?, lemongrass?, ginger?.
Result: Lori asked if she could add in aquatics to this, and I said yes very hesitantly, not because it wouldn't fit with what I asked, but because aquatics and I SO don't get along. But I trusted her! And it worked out! This upfront smells like cucumber aquatic to me. I don't know if there's cucumber IN it, or if maybe that's the aloe or something else, but that's the impression it gives me. As it sits, i can smell the lemony scent waaaay down on the bottom, but mostly this stays a musky kind of aquatic/incense/cucumber that is really interesting and works really well on my skin. There's a bite to it that is a bit woody, too. An aquatic I can wear without smelling like a bathroom "Ocean Breeze" air freshener! I am totally impressed.
Anubis
My request: A stone chamber, redolent with incense, embalming herbs, perhaps an offering of food, and a solitary torch to light the deceased's way. Notes: stone, incense, and I gave her leave to use anything else that might soften it a bit (I suggested maybe vanilla, amber, or green/herbal scents).
Result: Stone! Incense! With a sort of musky green overtone that she said was moss! This smells JUST like a more incensey version of Silik Road Trading Company's Bezeklik soap. She added a touch of moss and aquatic in it, to give it a "wet stone" scent, and GUH. This is lovely. It seems to depend on my skin chemistry, because one time it was all stone, and another it was all incense. I don't know that I'd wear this OUT, because...yeah, smelling like a wet stone might turn kind of nasty in summer heat, but I love the smell of it, so I'll wear it just for me!
Vintage Beekeeper: honey absolute, golden resins, clove bud, cinnamon bark, creamed vanilla accord, and weathered wooden hive.
Musky wood and honey. I can barely smell the spices, and it gives it just a tiny, almost imperceptible bite to it. This smells a bit more perfumey than the "wow, just stuck my nose in the honey jar" honey, which I think is due to the amber. This isn't what I'd call overly sweet, though, due to the wood. It's almost masculine to my nose, really.
Smoking Plum: Smoky Lapsang Souchong black tea, sweet Mount Wuyi black plum, raw vanilla pods, and a hint of cedar and redwood, create a dreamy mid-afternoon mist of esoteric mysteries.
Surprisingly enough, this smells like COCONUT to me. It might be the combination of the vanilla and woods. This changes a lot when it's on me, starting musky and creamy and perfumey and ending sweet and light and gently foody. This is so well-blended that I can't tell one note from the other, really. It's not overly woody, not overly vanilla, and not really fruity, though you can smell all those components if you're looking for them. It's very soft and comforting. I LOVE this and probably will need to get a bottle of it sometime soon....
Probably when I go empty my pocketbook to get some of the Diablo Canyon LEs. ^_^;;
Overall: I ordered three custom blends from Lori, and her customer service was superb. I was fairly specific on what notes I wanted/suggested, but also tried to give her an "impression" that I wanted as well as carte blanche to take things out or add in minor notes if they helped bring a blend together. One of the blends gave her no problems at all (not surprising, since I think that one had the most complementary set of notes in it), while the others were a bit more troublesome. Lori contacted me multiple times to elaborate on what I was looking for from those blends, so she could get them just right! I was incredibly pleased with my blends, and I really recommend Lori for anyone who likes her "style" and wants to commission a custom blend from her.
The names I give below are mine. The bottles themselves came in little burlap sacks (in keeping with the "general store" theme). The bottles have a simple cream-colored label with a faux-messy typed font on them and a red stamp with the date the blend was made (and, in my case, a little number on the bottom, since I asked for several at once), but otherwise no customized information about the blend. Pic here. Not the most aesthetically pleasing, but gets the job done.
Set
My request: Masculine, leaning towards dry, bright but with bite rather than warmth. Blood on the sands, and a temple to a god of war under the bright, unforgiving desert sun. Notes: myrrh/frankincense, dark musk, clove, amber (black if you've got it), desert dirt or some compatible wood (just enough to make it dry and ground it), dragon's blood (if available).
Result:On first sniff, this is musky dirt and frankincense. On me, it changes a lot as it wears. The dirt note is the first to go, leaving this with frankincense, some resin that's probably the dragon's blood, and overall a surprisingly perfumey blend. As it sits even more, it gets dryer, a kind of biting wood coming out. The drydown is mostly wood, and a bit of musky sweetness. This is just what I asked for! :) Not something I'd wear everyday, because it goes on strong on the sweet frankincense, but will be perfect for a room scent.
Thoth
My request: Clean and a bit sharp, and if you can get a light walking-by-the-river undertone to it, that'd be great. A scribe's house by the river, the scent of the Nile wandering through the windows, the soft wood of the writing desk, and a shrine to Thoth in the corner...the incense well away from the scrolls, of course. Notes: incense, light wood of some kind, aloe?, lemongrass?, ginger?.
Result: Lori asked if she could add in aquatics to this, and I said yes very hesitantly, not because it wouldn't fit with what I asked, but because aquatics and I SO don't get along. But I trusted her! And it worked out! This upfront smells like cucumber aquatic to me. I don't know if there's cucumber IN it, or if maybe that's the aloe or something else, but that's the impression it gives me. As it sits, i can smell the lemony scent waaaay down on the bottom, but mostly this stays a musky kind of aquatic/incense/cucumber that is really interesting and works really well on my skin. There's a bite to it that is a bit woody, too. An aquatic I can wear without smelling like a bathroom "Ocean Breeze" air freshener! I am totally impressed.
Anubis
My request: A stone chamber, redolent with incense, embalming herbs, perhaps an offering of food, and a solitary torch to light the deceased's way. Notes: stone, incense, and I gave her leave to use anything else that might soften it a bit (I suggested maybe vanilla, amber, or green/herbal scents).
Result: Stone! Incense! With a sort of musky green overtone that she said was moss! This smells JUST like a more incensey version of Silik Road Trading Company's Bezeklik soap. She added a touch of moss and aquatic in it, to give it a "wet stone" scent, and GUH. This is lovely. It seems to depend on my skin chemistry, because one time it was all stone, and another it was all incense. I don't know that I'd wear this OUT, because...yeah, smelling like a wet stone might turn kind of nasty in summer heat, but I love the smell of it, so I'll wear it just for me!
Vintage Beekeeper: honey absolute, golden resins, clove bud, cinnamon bark, creamed vanilla accord, and weathered wooden hive.
Musky wood and honey. I can barely smell the spices, and it gives it just a tiny, almost imperceptible bite to it. This smells a bit more perfumey than the "wow, just stuck my nose in the honey jar" honey, which I think is due to the amber. This isn't what I'd call overly sweet, though, due to the wood. It's almost masculine to my nose, really.
Smoking Plum: Smoky Lapsang Souchong black tea, sweet Mount Wuyi black plum, raw vanilla pods, and a hint of cedar and redwood, create a dreamy mid-afternoon mist of esoteric mysteries.
Surprisingly enough, this smells like COCONUT to me. It might be the combination of the vanilla and woods. This changes a lot when it's on me, starting musky and creamy and perfumey and ending sweet and light and gently foody. This is so well-blended that I can't tell one note from the other, really. It's not overly woody, not overly vanilla, and not really fruity, though you can smell all those components if you're looking for them. It's very soft and comforting. I LOVE this and probably will need to get a bottle of it sometime soon....
Probably when I go empty my pocketbook to get some of the Diablo Canyon LEs. ^_^;;