This post was a long time in the making. Seriously, I stopped and restarted this thing at least seven times.
Lately, I've been feeling a bit lost...sort of off balance. I've been trying to find my footing for quite some time. It seems that Wylde Ivy took off without me and I'm just constantly running to keep up. It is time for me to finally make some decisions.
Ok, I don't want to scare anyone. Don't worry, Wylde Ivy isn't going anywhere! I love Wylde Ivy. I love my job. I love all of you. I love all of my little scent creations. I just feel like it is time to regroup a little. There has been this little nagging thing inside of me that has been growing bigger and louder lately and I think it is pushing me to shake things up a little bit.
I tend to loose my focus easily, especially when I am busy. I sit and look at the business and wonder how it all happened. My line got too big too fast (even though I did cut it drastically after I returned from my maternity leave). Somehow things are getting a little out of my control again.
First order of business is to downsize my scent offering a bit more. I feel overwhelmed, honestly. Keeping track of everything that needs to be instock, all those bottle staring down at me from the shelves...it is intimidating. I hate cutting scents. I am way to over analytical when it comes to decision making for starters. I also have this huge fear of cutting someone's beloved scent. It is time though. It is necessary.
I am very proud to use small businesses for most of my supplies. I'm happy to support fellow sole proprietorship businesses, family owned operations, and just love the ideals of small business workings. This had one very clear disadvantage however. Over the last few years I have lost quite a few of my suppliers when they closed or cut products from their offerings. In my scent library right now, I have at least a dozen scents (probably more) that have numbered days as I can no longer get a scent note that I used in the blend. This has stressed me out more then you can imagine. I pined over it, worried about it. Then one day I realized how much I love creating.
When I worked on Indigo Moon for the first ever customer commissioned scent, I was so happy. I live for creating scents. I love the creativity, the challenge, the whole process really. There are quite a few scents in my currant catalog that have been with me from the very start. I think it is time to let some of the old Wylde Ivy go so that I can be free to move on. Change is good. I have to keep telling myself that. I have always had both a love and a fear of change.
I want Wylde Ivy to be fresh and new. I love creating collections like my Water Collection from this past spring or my Monsters in Love collection from last Halloween. The It's my Party perfumes were particularly fun to create.
If I am removing a scent that you simply can't live without (don't worry, I've been there myself many times) don't panic just yet. When I cut a scent, I still keep the formula. I have many, many scents from Wylde Ivy past. I just lock them away in their own room so I don't have to feel them looking at me. If the components of the blend are available to me (sadly more and more are not), I can make it for you. All you have to do is ask.
So, I am adding more scents to the cut list. Other scents will be added to a seasonal rotation list. I have a few scents that I know I want to bring back next spring and I have indicated them. There are others that I'm thinking about but I don't want to commit just yet. I want to keep my options open. These scent will be available on my website as usual until through October 31st. After that date, they will be removed and will only be available by special request as long as my supply lasts.
African Vanilla Bean
Azure
Bamboo Leaves
Banana Cake
Blackberry Cotton Candy
Black Raspberry Crush
Black Tea Jasmine
Creamy Coconut (seasonal)
Crush
Crystal Amber
Dragonfly Blue
Dreaming of Violets
Floating Lily
Forgotten Rose
Island Beauty (seasonal)
Juicy
Lemon-tine
Love Puff
Love for Fluff
Muse
Pale Vanilla
Petals
PomAcai
Queen Bee
She Sells Sea Shells (seasonal)
Sweet Cairo
Sweet Cream
Sweet Earth
Sweet Haze
Sweetgrass
Tahitian Vanilla Cream
Teak
Wood Nymph
Also, the Body Mist will also be going away (on the 31st as well) for the winter so I can bring back the Solid Scrub Bars....yay!
So now I can breathe a little easier and get back to doing what I love to do...create!
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Monday, October 04, 2010
Fall & Winter 2010 Scents Sneak Peek
Ok, I've been working on these names and descriptions for days (not straight through of coarse, the little girls are keeping me quite busy these days!). I finally have something slightly cohesive so I'm giving you a sneak peek here. All of the scent notes are final, I may still change some wording for the descriptions as I keep editing here. I'm just excited to share! My darn allergies got so severe that they actually put me a few weeks behind schedule with this release. So, without further ado...
The Pale Moon
Dark and sweet and alluring all in one. A cool, sweet, misty scent that part gourmand and part sensuality.
Notes of bourbon vanilla, shimmering musk, a faint essence of jasmine, vanilla orchid, English lavender, and soft blonde woods.
Pumpkin Masquerade
The pumpkins here are a little black at heart. Sweet October pumpkins with a dark twist of dry earth, black pepper, spiced vanilla, and warm musk.
Notes of pumpkin, vanilla, black pepper, clove, nutmeg, cedar, patchouli, and jasmine.
Ginger & Brulee
A captivating scent of spiced gingerbread, warm caramelized sugar, rich custard, and rare Indian sandalwood. So unique and addictive you just have to keep going back for more.
Raven’s Keep
Spicy and dark, a companion to the ever popular Raven scent.
Notes of smoldering black pepper, dry woods, smoked vanilla pods, dried jasmine and black currant, hints of crushed pomegranate and ancient myrrh and Tonka bean
Autumn’s Promise
A dry, earthy fragrance that has a unique uplift of bergamot and citrus, like the warm amber days of September. This fragrance starts off dry and sharp calming down to a rich, warm vanilla wood scent with just a touch of brown sugar and amber.
Notes of dry leaves, wood smoked breeze, amber, vanilla, musk, sandalwood, lemon leaf, bergamot, white florals.
Gingered Vanille
For those cold nights, warm and comforting spiced milk with ginger, caramelized sugar, bourbon vanilla, tiare petals, dry cedar wood.
Woodland Cider
Fresh pressed apples, cider spices, aged oak, dry amber, rustic wildflower honey, and whips of late autumn blooms.
The Monsters in Love Collection will be returning as well, with two new lovesick badies to add to the mix.
She Deviled
She had a very good job once. She was a shoulder angel. You know those tiny voices that whisper to you when you are stuck between choosing right and wrong? There is always a good voice cheering you on telling you what you need to hear and there is always the sinister little bad voice planting those dark little seeds telling you want you want to hear. Don’t laugh, it is a real job…and a highly respectable position at that. She was a good shoulder angel and she loved it. She was great at it. She prided herself on having over an 85% success rate in all of her centuries of employment. She’d whispered to literally 1000s of men and women, even children. She was given some of the most difficult cases. She was always professional always polite and never, ever did she let herself get attached to her clients. Never, until that last one.
She fell hard for him. To this day she doesn’t know quite what it was. Perhaps his deep slightly raspy voice, or the way he smelled after a shower, or the way her ran his fingers through his hair when he was in deep thought. She found herself completely defenseless with him and completely obsessed. She could not leave him even after she had been given her reassignments and ultimately her unceremonious discharge from duties.
She stayed with him, desperately trying to win his love. If only she could make him see her. Her obsession turned into resentment. She began to see that she’d never had him the way that she wanted him. Now, she works pro bono whispering into the ears of women giving them the tiny little pushes they need to get themselves noticed. So if you ever feel just slightly devilish, it just may be you own personal she devil on your shoulder.
She Deviled is fiery and rich. This is the color of red, invoking visions of red leather boots, smoldering black lined eyes, and a confidant smirk.
Notes of cinnamon leaf, dried black currants, wood smoke, dying embers, aged vanilla, blackened cedar, and amber resin
A Little Lighter the Usual
She was happy once, very happy. Newly married to the love of her life, happiness and a world of possibilities lay ahead of them. They say that you never know what you have until it is gone but this was never the case with her and her love. They cherished each other, lived for each other. The lay in the dark just talking for hours about nothing and everything.
They had given their entire selves to each other…but life has a funny way of rushing on without when you are so absorbed in love. So it seemed that they lost their happiness quickly as well. They now passed each other, two ships in the night, seeming to never speak a word. In his eyes where she once found warmth and passion now only lay emptiness and regret. Even the air around them seemed heavier. At times it was hard for her to catch her breath. It was as if she was moving against an invisible tide, like being caught in a waking dream. She’d see him sitting quietly in deep contemplation and she would so desperately want to speak to him, to say anything, but the words just never seemed to come. She’d want to reach for him but something always made her keep her distance. He never even looked at her anymore. His eyes would drift in her direction at times, but it was as if he just didn’t see her.
She so desperately needed to know what came between them, how things changed so drastically. She struggled to remember anything, any tiny detail but it was just so hard to think. The only images her mind could conjure were of the driving rain on the windshield that black night, a blur of light and sound, and finally the image of her bare feet dripping water onto cold cement of the porch as she sat alone on the creaking swing waiting for him to open the door. Perhaps it was only her who had changed. She did feel strange these days, not quite herself…almost a little lighter then usual. If she could just somehow find her way back to him she knew they could be happy again.
A haunting and sheer fragrance, both beautiful and a little sad.
Soft notes of white musk, vanilla orchid, raw vanilla beans, tonka bean, bergamot, vanilla infused sugar, lily of the valley, and wet blackberries
Also look for a few of the winter scents from last year to be re-released. Thank you all for your patience while I drug this out for far too long! Stay tuned for information on the collections release. I'm hoping to have everything up on my site by Wednesday (possibly tomorrow if I turn into Super Woman), then into my Etsy shop a few days later.
The Pale Moon
Dark and sweet and alluring all in one. A cool, sweet, misty scent that part gourmand and part sensuality.
Notes of bourbon vanilla, shimmering musk, a faint essence of jasmine, vanilla orchid, English lavender, and soft blonde woods.
Pumpkin Masquerade
The pumpkins here are a little black at heart. Sweet October pumpkins with a dark twist of dry earth, black pepper, spiced vanilla, and warm musk.
Notes of pumpkin, vanilla, black pepper, clove, nutmeg, cedar, patchouli, and jasmine.
Ginger & Brulee
A captivating scent of spiced gingerbread, warm caramelized sugar, rich custard, and rare Indian sandalwood. So unique and addictive you just have to keep going back for more.
Raven’s Keep
Spicy and dark, a companion to the ever popular Raven scent.
Notes of smoldering black pepper, dry woods, smoked vanilla pods, dried jasmine and black currant, hints of crushed pomegranate and ancient myrrh and Tonka bean
Autumn’s Promise
A dry, earthy fragrance that has a unique uplift of bergamot and citrus, like the warm amber days of September. This fragrance starts off dry and sharp calming down to a rich, warm vanilla wood scent with just a touch of brown sugar and amber.
Notes of dry leaves, wood smoked breeze, amber, vanilla, musk, sandalwood, lemon leaf, bergamot, white florals.
Gingered Vanille
For those cold nights, warm and comforting spiced milk with ginger, caramelized sugar, bourbon vanilla, tiare petals, dry cedar wood.
Woodland Cider
Fresh pressed apples, cider spices, aged oak, dry amber, rustic wildflower honey, and whips of late autumn blooms.
The Monsters in Love Collection will be returning as well, with two new lovesick badies to add to the mix.
She Deviled
She had a very good job once. She was a shoulder angel. You know those tiny voices that whisper to you when you are stuck between choosing right and wrong? There is always a good voice cheering you on telling you what you need to hear and there is always the sinister little bad voice planting those dark little seeds telling you want you want to hear. Don’t laugh, it is a real job…and a highly respectable position at that. She was a good shoulder angel and she loved it. She was great at it. She prided herself on having over an 85% success rate in all of her centuries of employment. She’d whispered to literally 1000s of men and women, even children. She was given some of the most difficult cases. She was always professional always polite and never, ever did she let herself get attached to her clients. Never, until that last one.
She fell hard for him. To this day she doesn’t know quite what it was. Perhaps his deep slightly raspy voice, or the way he smelled after a shower, or the way her ran his fingers through his hair when he was in deep thought. She found herself completely defenseless with him and completely obsessed. She could not leave him even after she had been given her reassignments and ultimately her unceremonious discharge from duties.
She stayed with him, desperately trying to win his love. If only she could make him see her. Her obsession turned into resentment. She began to see that she’d never had him the way that she wanted him. Now, she works pro bono whispering into the ears of women giving them the tiny little pushes they need to get themselves noticed. So if you ever feel just slightly devilish, it just may be you own personal she devil on your shoulder.
She Deviled is fiery and rich. This is the color of red, invoking visions of red leather boots, smoldering black lined eyes, and a confidant smirk.
Notes of cinnamon leaf, dried black currants, wood smoke, dying embers, aged vanilla, blackened cedar, and amber resin
A Little Lighter the Usual
She was happy once, very happy. Newly married to the love of her life, happiness and a world of possibilities lay ahead of them. They say that you never know what you have until it is gone but this was never the case with her and her love. They cherished each other, lived for each other. The lay in the dark just talking for hours about nothing and everything.
They had given their entire selves to each other…but life has a funny way of rushing on without when you are so absorbed in love. So it seemed that they lost their happiness quickly as well. They now passed each other, two ships in the night, seeming to never speak a word. In his eyes where she once found warmth and passion now only lay emptiness and regret. Even the air around them seemed heavier. At times it was hard for her to catch her breath. It was as if she was moving against an invisible tide, like being caught in a waking dream. She’d see him sitting quietly in deep contemplation and she would so desperately want to speak to him, to say anything, but the words just never seemed to come. She’d want to reach for him but something always made her keep her distance. He never even looked at her anymore. His eyes would drift in her direction at times, but it was as if he just didn’t see her.
She so desperately needed to know what came between them, how things changed so drastically. She struggled to remember anything, any tiny detail but it was just so hard to think. The only images her mind could conjure were of the driving rain on the windshield that black night, a blur of light and sound, and finally the image of her bare feet dripping water onto cold cement of the porch as she sat alone on the creaking swing waiting for him to open the door. Perhaps it was only her who had changed. She did feel strange these days, not quite herself…almost a little lighter then usual. If she could just somehow find her way back to him she knew they could be happy again.
A haunting and sheer fragrance, both beautiful and a little sad.
Soft notes of white musk, vanilla orchid, raw vanilla beans, tonka bean, bergamot, vanilla infused sugar, lily of the valley, and wet blackberries
Also look for a few of the winter scents from last year to be re-released. Thank you all for your patience while I drug this out for far too long! Stay tuned for information on the collections release. I'm hoping to have everything up on my site by Wednesday (possibly tomorrow if I turn into Super Woman), then into my Etsy shop a few days later.