It is an interesting & challenging balancing act to be an independent perfumer and an entrepreneur. One must wear many hats, and life becomes very full. This is why some time has passed since the last fragrances were launched from 1000 Flowers.. (Ode for Him and Love is Sweet, Dec 2012). However. the time has come to talk about a new collection that is soon to be released, called the Blue Collection.
This time, I have chosen to write (in scent) about my surroundings, and that is the Mediterranean region. I love this place, and it’s been four years that I have lived and worked here full time. Here, the intensity of the sunshine illuminates everything, the plants and flowers, the blue sky, and the blue sea. It gets inside the soul, and is like no other place I have ever been.
So the new collection of perfumes will talk about the plants and flowers that one finds in the region- like the heady scent of blooming orange trees, the pink pepper berries that one can pick, the smell of ripe fruit in summer at the beach, and wild carrot near the sea, the smell of pine and other conifers in the mountains behind Grasse, and roses and roses and roses…
There will be four fragrances, housed in cobalt blue glass. The bottles are refillable, and the labels are big, bright and colourful interpretations of Mediterranean tiles. I have developed connections with some amazing French suppliers, a couple of them artisan distillers, who grow, harvest, and extract essential oils and absolutes. And since the Mediterranean climate is so perfect for growing everything from jasmine to roses to clary sage, with many wild fragrant plants like labdanum and various herbs, the region is a veritable treasure trove of perfume ingredients.
So with all that at one’s fingertips, it is natural so to speak, to focus on these raw materials in the context of perfumery. That is not to say that the collection is ‘all natural’. It is not. I do work with a palette of man-made molecules, and as an artist, I really appreciate their importance in perfume creation. But I do not use polycyclic musks, (non biodegradable molecules that are used extensively in commercial fragrances), or phthalates. And I do adhere to IFRA safety standards. (You can read here about what IFRA is).
Also this way, you will have precious molecules from Mediterranean plants and flowers, bottled, and delivered to your door….
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