shy cardinal, originally uploaded by betty wiley.

Today was my first time at the perfumer's organ in a long time. Last time was sometime in October (not counting any blending for replenishing batches). There is simply no room for creativity during market season, it's too busy.
This morning I was finally able to get back to a project I started this fall - the private label perfume for chocolaterie CocoaNymph. I had two directions in mind when I initially drafted my olfactory ideas: one is inspired by the colours of the logo and general whimsical image of the chocolate nymph. The other is inspired by the SeaNymph chocolate bar. Although Rachel was instantly taken with the latter, I decided to go back to the sketch formula and refine the concept I had. Inspired by the berry-like colours (grape-purple, to be exact) of CocoaNymph's logo, I always had in mind this very bold, fruity-chocolate perfume. Something that will be reminiscent of raspberry bonbons (favourites of mine!) or perhaps chocolate-dipped strawberries and a glass of red wine.

What was initially a rather crude rendition of the concept, with cocoa, davana and rose geranium, had to be refined now into something more voluptuous, less herbaceous and more whimsical and urbane. I added some botanical musks to make the base more sophisticated, and fine-tuned the proportions of the davana and geranium, plus added some floral notes that I think will do the trick (and I also think are quite original). I'm really curious to see where this goes after it matures a bit. I have a feeling I stopped adding things at the exact right moment before ruining a good idea... So I'm going to wait patiently for a week and see what happens and how it smells on my skin than.

In the meantime - I have 2 more custom scents to work on (the private label perfume for Gentille Alouette as well as another private client). Not to mention many perfumes that need to be replenished so that I'm fully stocked for the New Year and Valentine's Day (yes, I know it's madness to think of a 2011 hallmark holiday when it's still December 2010, but it really is just 6 weeks away!).