So visit us and the other participating blogs this month for very special blog events in the first ever Autism Blogala:

1. Giveaways
2. Contests and Riddles - win lots of cool prizes!
   
3. Silent Auctions
4. Charity Sales of selected fragrances from Ayala Moriel Parfums (profits proceeds to ACT-BC)
5. Comment & Fundraise (leave a comment and the blogger will donate a pre-set amount to the charity)

As far as perfume blogging is going – this month is going to be extremely exciting. Here is an overview of what is planned for this month scent-wise:

1. Behind The Scents of one of Ayala Moriel’s most haunthing perfumes
2. Chypre Articles and Perfume Reviews
3. Leather Article and Perfume Reviews
4. The Story Behind a Leather Bespoke Perfume
5. Perfume Adventrues with Little Duckling (= my daughter)
6. And of course – very Halloween appropriate – the use of licorice and anise notes in perfumes + reviews of licorice scented perfumes!

Autism Blogala Participating Blogs:

Perfume Critic

Monkey Posh

Autism Awareness Ribbon, originally uploaded by Kaedibyrd.

“October is Autism Awareness Month”. This is what the poster on the hospital’s wall said. I stared at it puzzled and fatigued, 6 years ago, wondering how come this month was also chosen by my daughter to leave the womb and start breathing the polluted air of a blue planet in the solar system.

I was shocked no more when the hospital developmental team had given me the worst prognosis and labeling they could possibly come up with for her condition, and presented it in their doom-day style. Luckily, I had a whole year to prepare for what they are going to say. There is only one hospital for children serving the over 4 million British Columbian population. Therefore, waiting lists for diagnosing children with developmental delays are extremely long, which gives worried parents enough time to get therapy and informal diagnosis from more people-oriented community professionals. In fact, the worser the diagnosis – the better for her. She will get more help. And so she did.

This month I will be celebrating my only daughter’s 10th birthday. I will also be celebrating my ten years of motherhood, and ten years of living with autism 24/7. My daughter is perhaps the single most influential person in my life, and my most beautiful inspiration for anything from mundane tasks of folding socks and preparing lunch boxes, to more poetic activities such as perfumery, photography and writing.

To honour my daughter and muse, I have decided to dedicate all my writing to SmellyBlog this month to all the things that my daughter loves, and also have a few Autism related blog entries. Therefore, this month will be dedicated to pumpkins, strawberries, ice cream, birthday cakes and lots of other Halloween candies and anything else my daughter obsesses about. There may be also a few little short stories or articles about autism with great references and resources, to increase awareness – as this is, after all, Autism Awareness Month.

There will also be an Autism Blogala – lots of blog events, in this blog and any other blogs that will be joining us, to raise funds for Autism community, education and research organizations around the world. More about this in the next post.

Apples & Honey, originally uploaded by Ivo Jacome.

While pomegranates are evocative and sensual to eat, their scent is not the most fascinating part about them. The scent that I have tried that included pomegranate neither authentic nor interesting – and for the most part brought a berry-like interpretation of the fruit (Quel Amour!, Samsara Shine, Euphoria, Pomegranate Noir). Therefore, in salute to the Jewish holiday season, I have decided to dedicate a few entries to Apple in Honey – a symbolic food that signifies wishes for a sweet and whole year (as round as the apples dipped in the honey). You should try that too – it’s delicious!

First let’s talk a bit about the roles of honey and apples notes in perfumes. Apple and honey notes are usually used separately in perfumes, and add completely different qualities to a scent. An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but when it comes to perfume, there are no real apples used – it’s always synthetic molecules that resembles the idea of an apple, rather than a true fresh apple. Some natural perfumers may use tinctured apples or apple essence, but these smell like dry apples and from my experience are very unnoticeable in the presence of the far more concentrated essential oils and absolutes. The closest you can get to apple with naturals, so far, is Roman Chamomile essential oil, which has an intense, sweet, golden-delicious like apple notes. Apple simulations in most perfumes add a crisp, tart, slightly sweet top note that gives an olfactory impression of just biting into an apple (and perhaps getting some of the juice going up your nose by mistake!). You will mostly find apples in floral composition from the fruity category (i.e.: Spring Flower, Baby Doll), and occasionally from the marine category (Light Blue). Since I have already reviewed my favourite apple scented perfume, Spring Flower, I will dedicate a full review this week to another (surprise) apple scent of my choice, so stay tuned!

Honey, on the other hand, is very similar to the actual tangible real-life product we know as either honey, honey comb or beeswax. Just imagine these notes condensed into the richest, most sticky and syrupy concoction, so concentrated that some animalic civet-like notes are swirling at the bottom and threatening to take over with their indolic affection. Honey is used for both its qualities: gourmand and animalic. Therefore it is most often found in oriental perfumes. As in my grandmother's honeycake, honey absolute goes particularly well with cloves. Therefore, it is not uncommon to find honey in heavily spicy compositions (Black Cashmere, Asja, Epice Sauvage) , as well as rich, thick, sweet gourmands (Finjan, Angel, Black Licorice, Miel de Bois) and ambery orientals (Fumerie Turque). Occasionally, honey will even find its way into more subdued florals (White Linen, Zohar).

Another beautiful thing about honey is that it smells and tastes differently depending on which flowers the bees were collecting their pollen and nectar. Therefore there are also variations in honey absolute: there is rich honey absolute (as from the honey collected from wild flowers and thorny bushes), and there is light citrus honey (as the one used in l’Instant de Guerlain and many scents in the Serge Lutens line).

So dip your crisp, freshly harvested in honey, and tell me of your favourite honey and/or apple scented perfumes!