The Sanctity of Food

I learned from my paternal grandmother that food is sacred. She never said so or constructed any sort of ritual around food. It was just in the way that she prepared it, presented it and in how everyone would come to the table, good manners on and shar…

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Juggling Deadlines

With so many things going on it’s hard to remember it all. I realized this morning that I would have to allow more time on the Studio Collection. I had intended on sending out our press on the 27th. I had also anticipated the delivery of one key mater…

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Maverick

I think that if I hear John McCain and his running mate refer to themselves as mavericks one more time I will have to rip my clothes off and go running through the streets.Gandhi was a Maverick, Jesus was a Maverick,Rumi and the Buddha were Mavericks, …

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Intuition

Already, the questions are being asked. “What do you mean by intuitive” And I have to say that it is a feeling. Not unlike painting; When I am standing before a canvas, knowing that something else is needed. It isn’t so much technical at that point, bu…

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Website Updates

I spent the morning updating our soivohle.com website. Including the Oil Perfumes page. There are now more perfumes listed, including some of the Limited Editions. These are blends that either contain rare, hard to get materials, or blends that were c…

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Signature Scents, Oil Perfumes

I spent some time today going over the formulas to my original signature scents. I had started at one point creating an oil version of some of these perfumes, including Sunset Rider, which is the Jasomyn Oil (formula is not exactly the same) and Sinti…

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Change Is Coming

You hear it from the politicians everyday. Change is coming. They have all adopted the mantra.In our household it doesn’t matter how we vote, because there are issues on either side of the aisle, which impact both Mr Z and myself. The Globalization Ac…

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SOIVOHLE’ Body

Back before I got the brainy idea to go public with my perfumes. I had a line of body Products. “Body Basics”Mostly for bath, with bath teas, salts etc…It was a nice line. All natural and until recently available in our boutique. But I wanted to upda…

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Purple Love Smoke

I received an email this morning about this scent. It will be out in a couple of weeks, along with Remarkably Incendiary. Both are Signature Natural Parfums.The Agarwood Limited Edition will follow and be available by the end of October. I am still wor…

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Week In Review, Time Off

I am going to shut this computer down in a few minutes and not turn it back on until Monday. Taking the weekend off.We have most of the move completed for the Boutique and today I will be setting my organ back up in it’s new location. For the time bein…

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Is It Real

I never gave it much thought until recently, but I guess at some level people are still somewhat sceptical of buying from Internet shops.I received an email a couple of days ago from a lady inquiring about custom perfume services. She thought the pri…

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Beacon Free

Here In the U.S. we do ourselves a disservice. Instead of identifying with who we are on a deeper level, we generally identify with what we do for a living. Our external life defines us.This past week I have had the opportunity to think about a lot of …

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Chicago Brief

Going to Chicago is always an event. Everything is usually smooth sailing, right up to the point where one crosses over from Indiana. For as long as I can remember they have been working on the road there, in that spot. With detours, delays, and any nu…

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SOIVOHLE’ Vignettes

Coming In OctoberSOIVOHLE’ VignettesThe most requested thing by far are custom perfumes. Many folks can not visit us in Ohio, or can’t afford the expense of a custom scent. So I have created a DIY set of accords that can be combined to make a custom pe…

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Return To Sanity

Today I went for the first time to the new Ikea store. I thought since I was adding a few items to my new consultation room, I might find them there. NOT.Not my thing, really. And the maze. If a person is not familiar with the layout, following the maz…

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Out Like A Light

Literally. Due to severe storm damage on Sunday, in the Cincinnati area we have been without services for the better part of the week.I am up at 3 am. as usual. Decided to check the lines and we have service. For now. It has not been holding up in all …

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Long Day

So far so good. It looks like a beautiful day is shaping up. It is sunny, not so hot (yet). and in a couple of hours I will be on the road. Why am I not running around trying to pull everything together. I did that already. I like to be prepared. So I…

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Breather

Well, I have my case packed for Chicago. Everything has been double checked, and I am ready to go.So this morning I had everything all sitting out, (packing) I had also been working in the lab until late last night, it was a mess, and Surprise!… Th…

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Politics and Perfume

I am not so political. At least I don’t feel political. I do however believe myself to be observant. And as someone pointed out to me after the Government Regs, Rant. There is a new TV commercial about, of all things corn syrup. I had read that corn sy…

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On A Lighter Note

This is our little Angel Bunny, Beacon. If you have been reading this blog you know that he is a special needs animal, who does not have the use of his back legs. He is now five weeks old.this is him in my lap as I work at the computer.I may not have t…

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Raw Materials, Government Regs, General Rant

In perfumery when we talk about raw materials, it isn’t raw as in pulling things out of the ground. But rather the processed versions of the materials such as essential oils, essential oil fractions absolutes, concretes and aroma chemicals to name a fe…

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Notes, Tags, Music, Paperwork

I have been sitting here at the puter, making product tags for all of our perfumes. Mostly because I need new ones. (little folded cards to place next to the perfumes). Each card has the name of the scent and the dominant notes. I am not a big fan of …

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Out and About

It’s always fun to switch gears. After weeks of working on the new Studio Collection, finishing up private work, and getting ready to embark on a few new projects, I will have about a six week window where I will be out and about promoting our new perf…

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The Meaning of LIfe

How many times do we ask ourselves, Why am I here. What is my purpose. I was hanging with my new bff, Beacon today (our little kitten who was born without the use of his back legs). He was sitting in my lap as I made a couple of corrections to the web…

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TGIF

I wish……..The idea of working five days and taking two off. Looking forward to the weekend. Anything is possible I suppose. We finally got some rain, It started just before sun up. A nice soft rain. Maybe not a weekend off, but the sound of gently …

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Etsy Shop Closed

The Etsy Shop is now officially closed and the oil perfumes are available on the soivohle.com website.The soivohle.com website has been completely re-done. The old one deleted and a new one uploaded. You may notice that the 5ml Petite perfumes are miss…

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EMF’S

Is it really the perfume that gives you the headache. Or is it a compromised immune system from over exposure to EMF’s (electromagnetic fields).Hair dryers, electric shavers, electric tooth brushes, cell phones, mp3 players, electric alarm clocks close…

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Perfume, Poem, Not……..

A mystery that has been lingering for awhile has finally been cleared up for me. Every so often I receive an email requesting the perfume that I made for the Perfume In A Poem Project. I direct the inquires to the Memory and Desire Blog, and the formul…

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Hat Collecton

Today I have been wearing my cooks hat, website designer hat, and kitty mommy hat. Miss Peggy Sue, as I have mentioned was a wild pregnant female cat who came to our house to eat. Once she had the babies I captured them all and brought them inside. Now…

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Etsy Follow Up

I have had several emails about the items on the esty site. As has been the case all along, people have been requesting that items from the etsy site and our soivohle.com site be combined in one order. Over the past couple of days I have not been re li…

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Sample Giveaway, Beacon of Light

Just dropping in for a few minutes. I put the sample giveaway packages in the mail today. Congratulations to the winners. To everyone else, better luck next time. It would also help if you included your address. A couple of the winners did forget and …

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Etsy Store Closing

I will be closing the Etsy Satellite shop in a week or so. And will be offering a permanent selection of natural oil perfumes on our soivohle.com site.They will be available in a 5ml size. With your choice of open top or roll on. They will be packaged…

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Perfume Giveaway

The Perfume giveaway is now closed. I will contact the winners in a day or so to let them know that their samples are on the way.It is crazy busy here right now. No time for posting. Will be back in a few days with a post on Musk (again) I receive a lo…

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SOIVOHLE Studio, Samples

I got so caught up in work yesterday I completely forgot to post this. Over the past few weeks we have been including with online orders. Samples of our new Studio Collection. Specifically the Atlas Cedar and Frankincense. Mainly because I had made up …

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Hey, Teacher, Leave Them Kids Alone

CNN: News Story over 200,000 children are spanked in schools every year.I must be living under a rock, I had no idea this was even allowed. Not long after Mr. Z and I were married we spent five years as foster parents to emotionally disturbed children…

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Food Matters

Charlie examining a bowl of fresh veggies and herbs from the gardenHere in this “Chicken Little” world we live in, there’s a lot of talk (lately) about sensitivity, immune disorders. Fragrance overload etc.. The truth of the matter is, by the time our …

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More Follow Up

I got a late start this morning, not getting up until after seven. I am usually up around four, four thirty; Work for a few hours, go back to bed for an hour around eight or nine, or if that is not an option take a power nap in the afternoon, if my sch…

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Follow Up

Bite the dust……Today one of the new materials that I spoke of came in the mail. I tried it and didn’t care for it. It has the same sticky feel that I disliked in our previous water sprays. So it is back to the drawing board on this one.I will cont…

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Anticipating Success

Or an inkling of closure. I am refreshed after taking some time to myself over the weekend. Hanging out on the sofa watching tv; Movies, the food channel, reading. The success will be in the test formulations of the water based scent that I spoke of ea…

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Remarkably Incendiary

This morning I batched the first of the new Champaca Tea scent. It is named as you might have already guessed Remarkably incendiary. The full name is Remarkably Incendiary, Echo The Crashing Chandelier.And if you are wondering what all that drama has t…

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We’ve Got People

On a lighter note. I wanted to post this yesterday but completely forgot. This is Miss Peggy Sue and her new babies. Around three months ago Peggy Sue, along with a male cat that I call Petunia (looks like an old boxer way past his prime). Started comi…

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Life, Work, Ethics and Gratitude

I have always made the effort in life to surround myself with kind, honest people, and to let the rest go.Sometimes I have held on longer than I should, hoping that things would turn around and people could step up and be better. We all go through this…

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Water

The use as water for the carrier in perfumes is rare. Aside from linen sprays and light moisturizing after bath sprays, not much exists. The only person that I am aware of using water in a serious and big way is Christopher Brosius of I Hate Perfume.Un…

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SOIVOHLE’ Studio

Yesterday I wrote a bit about the Studio Vanilla (Plantifolia). And today I just want to go over some of the things that are happening now. From the image you can see that I have begun to bottle some of the perfumes, and that the bottles themselves are…

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Studio Vanilla

Vanilla is possibly the most ubiquitous of all perfume notes. It can be used as a dominant or as a modifier, and just about every perfume maker has some version of a vanilla perfume.As I have discussed in past blog posts, Our new Studio Collection is b…

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New Bottles

I have been using the Petite bottle lately for spray testers of the new Studio perfumes, and am finding that on occasion I will get one that leaks, or else the sprayer doesn’t work.When I first decided to use these I tested about a dozen and they all w…

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Bits and Pieces

Yesterday the shipment of bottles arrived for the new Studio Collection. It was pouring rain, so Mr. Z covered up the palettes of bottles with a tarp, and then placed the individual boxes in the storage building this morning.I ordered both clear and f…

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Re-Load

The new web pages are up at soivohle.com, and most of the old ones have been deleted. So if you have them bookmarked or cached’ you need to reload the pages for the new menu.I will be fine tuning some of the fragrance pages today. The ones with the des…

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It’s August,,,,Wha…..ttt, No Way……

I can not believe how fast this summer is zooming by. Heck I just finished my spring cleaning yesterday.After days of washing slip covers for all of the chairs and sofas (still into the white shabby chic cover thingy).. Shampooing the bedroom carpet an…

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SOIVOHLE’ Road Work Ahead

Later today we will be doing some major maintenance on our website. Soivohle.comFinally after what seems like forever we are switching to a new shopping cart. Customers can choose to either checkout with a credit card, or use paypal. They are two sep…

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