Mint!

There is a new podcast up on Possets, it's about using mint in fragrance. Take a listen! Much fun for the summer.

A Trip to Motel6 and a Surprise (or Two)

I recently spent the night in a Motel6 in Syracuse. For those of you who don't know, Motel6 is a low priced inn which is clean yet a bit spartan. I thought that it would be fun to give the soap there a serious review. You can see a photo of the little bar to the left. It was exceedingly small, almost a sliver. I am sure it didn't weigh an ounce. I unwrapped the little bar and took it into the shower with me so that I could smell it in it's fullest fragrance in the heat with steam. Here is what I found: it had a good shot of very nice lemon fragrance in it. There was none of the "wooly" parts to the scent, there was nothing of the zest in it. The smell was a pure and almost sweet lemon, but not sweet as in sugar. As you probably know, lemon is a topnote and goes away very quickly. What was left as the middle and bottom notes? Soap. The rest of the fragrance was just the waxy pure smell of soap.

I would have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by what I found at Motel6. It was obviously meant to appeal to men and women, not be so fragrant as to offend anyone, and not meant to linger on your skin but yet meant to convey a "clean" feel to the product.

We, like so many people, rented non smoking rooms. We noted that in this part of NY smoking in the rooms was legal but our room was not to be smoked in. What sort of thing was evident to the effect? This artifact. It was an ashtray which was turned upside down and it had a "no smoking" icon on the bottom. So, you have an ashtray, but the room is non smoking, but you know that because there is an ashtray in the room, but it has a no smoking sign on it. Perfectly Post Modern.


For your edification, here is an image of the no-smoking ashtray flipped over and ready to receive ashes from errant cigarettes (or contraband cigarettes). Or perhaps they were providing ashtrays for compliant visitors to take outside with them if they wished to enjoy a tobacco product out of doors in clement weather.

Finally, I had to tackle an issue which had been on my mind since art school. One of the stinging rebukes which could be leveled at an art student was that their work looked like it came out of a Motel6. Now I can confidently say that is a fallacious statement. As you can see there IS NO art in Motel6 of any kind. Oh, perhaps there is something of graphic art to be found in connection with an exhortation to purchase something, but art as pure art for art's sake? No, it does not exist, like the unicorn it is an entity of fable not of fact. As you can see, there is nothing but a lamp on the wall above the bed, and I can assure you that the rest of the walls were similarly nude as well. The lobby contained no images either. Art is not the strong suit of Motel6.

It was a comfortable evening. The bed was free of bedbugs, the sheets were clean, there were towels in the bathrooms and the room was clean. The TV worked, so did the air conditioning unit (with a variance of plus or minus 25-30 degrees F). So I would have to conclude that Motel6 gave us what they promised, and the soap is passable and good as a vehicle of fragrance (not great, not sublime but suitable).

The Independence Day Treats at Possets!

At last! The moment the world has been waiting for! Possets and Sweet Libertine Cosmetics have teamed up and are offering you the most unusual and attractive combination for Independence Day. Fireworks Perfume from Possets is filled with a sparkling musk with a deep secret past. Sweet Libertine's Oh Say Can You See Shadow collection is four ravishing shades in Red, White, Blue, and Gold pressed in a compact. Just gorgeous. See them today at Possets' site. They are limited and will disappear on July 14th (Bastille Day), so get them now while they are hot. Oh, and don't forget the new and delightful Hwah-Teh's Mouse Perfume in the Summer Section of Possets, too! Lime and three musks, really pretty.

The first summer scents collections are up at www.possets.com A dozen summery fragrances, two naturals, all refreshing.

Fireflies Are Back!

Yes, they are back. The fireflies were rising from their little grass hammocks last night to blink at each other and flit about looking for suitable mates. Just like people, yes? Well, every year at Possets I release Fireflies when I see the little lightening bugs in my backyard, and a great summer fragrance it is with citrus, vanilla, and a kiss of mint. So very refreshing. Catch one on the Possets' website here.

Fireworks!

Yesterday I created a fragrance which I had been thinking of for years. Fireworks! It's a BIG musk laden exciting blend that I am bringing out for Independence Day.

The most interesting part is that one of the main ingredients is a recreation of the original "nitro musk"*. When TNT was developed, the scientists who were working on it noticed that TNT went through a phase when it smelled really good. They thought this was just a curiosity but someone decided to let a perfumer try out the blend in a fragrance, and voila...it was an instant hit! A smash hit! People got a bang out of it. (By the way, it was a very poor explosive because it didn't want to explode, but it was a very good perfume because it smelled great).

The fragrance Fireworks! is a heavily musky one with extreme skin like overtones and a haze of very light lime for the first part. There is a smoky aspect to Fireworks! which somehow cozies up to white flower and suits beautifully. Finally the drydown goes right into a full showcase of the "nitro musk".

You might expect that Fireworks! would come on strong and shocking and then go through some extreme phases. That would be too obvious. Fireworks! is more like the part of a fireworks festival where you have marveled at the first rockets and then realize you are smelling that ever so faintly tantalizing scent of spent black powder, languid atmosphere, hidden night flowers and your lover's personal fragrance. Fireworks! is dry, multi-phased, persistent, subtle and has a familiar flip to it.

And, as a special treat, I am going to be partnering up with Sweet Libertine eyeshadows and bringing you a package deal. You will get a generous array of Sweet Libertine eyeshadows and a bottle of Fireworks! for a reasonable (oh, so reasonable) price. What a way to celebrate Independence Day! That deal will be available at Sweet Libertine and Possets, so don't miss out!

So, stay tuned and keep your eye peeled and your antennae at the ready. This Independence Day is going to be spectacular!

*It is not "nitro musk" itself but is a plant based recreation of the original and done very well, too.

P.S. That image was indeed used for Winter Solstice long ago, but I decided to use it again for Fireworks! as it is actually a painting by Turner of fireworks in London. One of the first abstracts, it created quite a stir in an age where art was only rock-ribbed realism. The joke is, it IS very realistic.

Men, Men, Men (as the song goes...)

There is a Men's section now in Possets! No kidding, I finally got around to doing that. 'Bout time, huh? Go there and see for yourself.