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Monkey Monday: Odorous Pets

Last Friday I've learned that pets' "body odour" can vary tremendously. I found it so shocking that I just had to share it here. When a friend stopped by the studio with her two tiny and well-behaved chiwawas. They were the exact same size, one male and one female, and probably were enjoying the same diet of raw dog food. But they did not smell like what I always thought of as "dog smell". One smelled intensely of fish - not like it was eating fish, but almost like it WAS a fish. I was so shocked by this discovery that I just had to wait till Monday to bring it up for our silly Monkey Monday post and see what it will bring up here. The other dog did not smell fishy at all, but still was not what I thought of as a dog smell either.

I often get emails from customers telling me that their favourite smell is their cat's paws. Not being a cat woman myself, perhaps I just don't "get" it - and that's why I think it will be interesting to open a discussion here and hear from you:

1) What your pet smells like (if you have any)?

2) Do you find certain animal smells more pleasant than others?

3) Did you ever notice a difference between two animals of the same species - as if they have body odour just like we do?

Leave a comment and enter to win a miniature of Cassis by Aftelier.

Monkey Monday: Smelly Detectives

Real-life investigators as well as fictional detectives often times use their sense of smell to solve murder mysteries. Police officers need very little skill to detect alcohol on a drunk driver's breath, and collect scent evidence from a crime scene which is as important as fingerprints - since each individual has a unique body odour - "By definition, scent is the 'bacterial, cellular, and vaporous debris enshrouding the individual' known collectively as 'raft', this debris consists primarily of dead or dying skin cells, which the body sheds at a rate of approximately 40,000 each minute. Air currents project the raft upward and away from the body, much like a plume. The debris becomes deposited in the environment in a conically shaped pattern known as the scent trail"...

Sherlock Holmes used his sense of smell on more than one occasion, being able to identify the 75 perfumes of his time (he surely will have harder time now!) and detect other odours in the crime scene, which helped him solve several murder mysteries. When losing his eyesight temporarily, Monk manages to solve the case in the episode “Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse”; and when there is a garbage strike, he can't concentrate on the case. Agata Christie "killed" more than one of her "victims" with cyanide, leaving a trail of bitter almonds and marzipan as a clue to the cause of death. And in Denise Hamilton's several Noir novels, there is a significance to the sense of smell; but particularly in her latest "Damage Control", where the central character is a perfumista and in which a perfume serves as a key clue.

"...anyone "with a nose for" crime should be able to sniff out culprits from their tweed, India ink, talcum powder, Italian leather shoes, and countless other scented paraphernalia. Not to mention the odors, radiant and nameless, which we decipher without even knowing it. The brain is a good stagehand. It gets on with its work while we're busy acting out our scenes. Though most people will swear they couldn't possibly do such a thing, studies show that both children and adults, just by smelling, are able to determine whether a piece of clothing was worn by a male or a female." (Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Sense).

Even in our mundane lives, we act as detectives using our noses to find out if our date is a smoker or not; if our kids have dipped into the chocolate chip cookie jar or bothered to brush their teeth; and amuse ourselves by guessing which soap or shampoo our friends use. Our sense of smell is keener and far more important to our ongoing gathering of information than most of us would ever care to admit...

What about you? Have you ever used your sense of smell to solve "crimes" around your house or to clue in on something that your friends, coworkers or family members have been plotting behind your back?

Share your stories by leaving a comments below, and enter to win a mini of Film Noir.

Aphrodisiac Winner (Monkey Monday Giveaway)

Congrats to Michael, winner of our first Monkey Monday giveaway.
You're the lucky winner of:
1) Gabriel's Aunt 2oz Chocolate Bar Candle
2) Film Noir mini
3) Valentine's Greeting Card from Nikki & I that has 2 aphrodisiac recipes!
4) A pinch of my secret love potion: the Ras El Hanout spice that I've hand-blended myself, including many rare ingredients, in just the exact right proportions...

Please contact me via email with your mailing address so I can ship your prize next week :-)
Happy weekend, everyone! See you again on Monday with another great giveaway.

Monkey Monday - New Weekly Giveaway Feature

Trudy's Favorite Monkey by Dyanna
Trudy's Favorite Monkey, a photo by Dyanna on Flickr.
While many workplaces have fun things going on every Friday (or what they think of as fun, like "Casual Friday" where you can wear jeans instead of slacks) - I have a feeling that it's really on Monday when most of you could use a little cheer-me-up!

My vision for Monkey Mondays is that it will be a little silly, humorous, scent-related post, with anecdotes that you could share. We can all use a good laugh from time to time ;-)
And - to make it even funner, I'll also host a giveaway here every Monday, starting today!

Since Valentine's is just a day away, I'd like to hear from you what your favourite aphrodisiacs are, and why. You can be as silly or as forthcoming as you'd like in sharing your aphrodisiac anecdotes. We all like to think of aphrodisiacs as this irresistible substance that will make us irresistible to the opposite (or same) sex, leaving trails of love-victims along our wake.

We've been discussing aphrodisiacs pretty much non-stop here in the past three weeks or so in the "Aprhrodisiac of the Day" series, as well as previous years' tea parties and other blog features and newsletters on the topic. And although they admittedly work on a much more safe and subtle level, it would be nice to hear stories from you about how a fragrant aphrodisiac either improved your love life - or made someone else's life completely miserable in the presence of your irresistible aphrod-packed potion.

The winner will receive:
1) Gabriel's Aunt 2oz Chocolate Bar Candle
2) Film Noir mini
3) Valentine's Greeting Card from Nikki & I that has 2 aphrodisiac recipes!
4) A pinch of my secret love potion: the Ras El Hanout spice that I've hand-blended myself, including many rare ingredients, in just the exact right proportions...

P.s. For all I care, you can make up the story...

Zangvil Tea Scale Up + Contest

Scale Up of Zangvil Tea



Yesterday I've decided on the final formula for my Zangvil perfumed tea blend, and did the first trial scale-up. And of course, now comes the less fun aspect of the process - which is pricing the tea and doing all the necessary calculations, not to mention label design. Each tin, as it turnes out, contains 2 full-length vanilla beans, and the white tea itself is on the pricier side - so the tea is not going to be cheap to produce, that's for sure... However, the good news is, that this tea can be resteeped up to 6 times with a very beautiful, fragrant results all the way till the 6th steeping. Very unusual for such a delicate tea, but it has a lot to do with the other ingredients there too.

The new line of teas (as some of you may have already gathered from the pages of this blog, I'm re-doing all of my tea collection, and they will all re-launch in larger, 50gr tins, as they become ready). New labels are necessary as well, because not only will the list of ingredients will change, but also the size and shape of the tins. And while I'm at it - I'm thinking that little splashes of colours would be nice, similarly to what my amazing graphic designers have done for the scented chocolate bars.

Scale Up of Zangvil Tea
I'm thoroughly enjoying the process of creating the new perfumed teas, so it will take a while before the other teas (Roses et Chocolat, Immortelle l'Amour) will be ready. Charisma formula is ready (it all began as a house blend I made for studio guests), so it's just a matter of sourcing the materials myself.

It is such an interesting medium to create in, and testing it is very different from testing perfumes - it requires brewing many pots of tea in the right temperature, analyzing the aroma and flavour, and seeing how many steepings can be achieved with each blend. So it's giving me many excuses for throwing little spontaneous tea parties for family and friends and get their opinions and observe their response to the tea, which is lots of fun on its own.

Also, each material having a different colour, shape and texture that is visible even more than with the essences I work with for my perfumes. The visual and tactile aspect is a lot more obvious than with liquid essences. The fuzziness of the silver hairs on the white tea leaves and buds. Yellow jasmine flowers. Crystallized ginger looking like chunky gemstones. Long and plump vanilla beans, which I slice by hand, a process that inevitably squeezes out the black seeds from within, leaving their fragrant specs on my fingers and having a rich woody aroma. And the surprise ingredient - are you ready yet? Hmm... I think I will leave this as a secret and will run a contest instead for the person who guesses it! It adds a very luxurious and special effect in the perfume and is totally unexpected - a little nutty and very sweet and soft... Look at the picture and let's see who might be able to guess! The person who does, will receive the 1st tin of Zangvil Tea when it launches November 20th.

White Tea Tasting
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