as most of you already know, last week we relaunched our fabulous smell bent sprays. in addition to new boxes and bottles, we added a few scents to the lineup. when you have creative control, sometimes things get a little wacky. it’s one of the perks of owning your own business. i guess what i’m trying to say is don’t let the names of our new friends scare you.
since i started smell bent, my interest in other people’s scents has slowly waned. then, without warning, my perfume passion came back this spring. partly, it was justified as research for the fall collection i’m planning. another part of me was just getting my groove back. when my hobby became my business, it changed. i guess it was naïve to think it wouldn’t, but i almost completely stopped wearing fragrance. all my perfume energy went into smell bent. so it was a lovely surprise to see it return … with a vengeance.
chastity begins @ home was inspired by leather and galbanum scents of the late 80s and early 90s. i had a bottle of galbanum sitting in my ingredient library for a long time, but was too intimidated to ever use it. galbanum is incredibly potent - even a fraction of a drop can overwhelm a composition. i had also found it to smell of green peppers, which i don’t care for. but in sniffing it other perfumes, i found the confidence to try it. chastity is a dark, sexy leather scent with classical roots. it smells much like jil sander’s woman iii, which i adore and is no longer in production. i also used a bunch of glorious damask rose in there, after having a brief love affair with l’arte de gucci, another discontinued gem.
the spray tan incident started as a prototype for custom scent i was working on for a boutique here in la. i sourced some clementine co2 extract which smells exactly like fresh squeezed orange juice. co2 extracts are a modern way of extracting the oil from natural substances, but i had never seen it used on a citrus before. with a dose of sparkling aldehydes and some dark green notes, spray tan transformed from a sweet, vanilla orange confection to an effervescent summer cocktail. i fear that the name will discourage some, but you try rhyming something with the word orange!
the idea for frankensmellie appeared after a customer stopped by the studio one day. when i was cleaning up all the test strips, i sniffed a handful of them together. i thought, “what about mixing our smellies together?” if you’ve ever seen “the main event”, barbra streisand has a similar thought. the reality wasn’t great, but doing an ever-changing blend seemed interesting. as i refine my perfume-making skills, i notice myself becoming more self-conscious about my work. the spontaneity and joy can sometimes get sapped as i go round after round of “perfecting” a scent. frankensmellie is my way of letting go a little. perhaps using ingredients i’ve never worked with or doing a scent which i don’t think would work in the line. the first scent is mix of bright gardenia and dark, smoky woods.
hungry hungry hippies made it’s debut in our original collection, back in 2009. when i started making our spray scents, i mixed up a bottle, but the chocolate absolute made the perfume dark and stain-tastic. it’s bad enough to have a dark chocolate slathered on your wrist, it’s another to have to all over your shirt. i found a fantastic (clear) replacement this spring and slightly reformulated the scent. i think it’s going to be fabulous come fall, but i couldn’t wait that long and neither should you.
those are my thoughts on the new smellies and if you haven’t tried them, stop by and pick up our special sample pack. you get a price break and shipping's on us!
toodles,
the chairman
