NEWS
Stock
After a hiccup(actually it was more like acid reflux) with the NAB( my bank) and all its 'issues' I have finally been able to access my accounts and do some much needed Christmas/New Year stock purchasing.
Most excellent gifts and lovely bits and pieces are on the way.
I have managed to get hold of beautiful bath brushes and mitts in black! Yes you read that right. Not the usual white and wood natural look but in black bamboo. Very elegant and totally stylish.
I have bath ducks of the glamour and christmas variety on their way.
Bath soaks and luxury oils in crystal decanters and goats milk soaps. We have put out a very small range of room mists due to popular demand and I have finally sourced a local manufacturer of quality candles.
Just in is the Vanilla and Orange Travel tin candle - we used this for the fabulous Camilla parade at the Olsen Art Series Hotel.
The new Fleurage Christmas Scent is Spiced Orange and Ylang Ylang and comes in an oil, room mist, bath soak and eventually a very different type of pot pourri.
I hope many will make the effort to come by and do some gift shopping for those they love- or just to treat themselves.
Name change
Many will notice that we are calling this location the Fleurage Perfume Atelier.
It is such a struggle to maintain a point of difference and keep ourselves away from the polluted commercial perfume offerings. These enormous companies, media and purveyors of rubbish, are using up all the vocabulary in ways that reduce the integrity of word meanings. Fleurage will continue to forge its own very individual path and attempt to keep a safe distance between us and the rest. It would seem anyone can be mistaken for both a perfumery and perfumer these days and so we are working towards identifying ourselves as something different.
One woman actually had the audacity to include me in a group of so-called perfumers like Renee the other day. Just for the record, Renee is NOT a perfumer any more than Beyonce. I was speechless for the rest of the day and horrified at the depth of ignorance of the general public.
So keep watching because I may not even be calling myself a perfumer for much longer. I suspect with all the new restrictions and regulations it might give me more freedom in my creations to not be a perfumer. Stay tuned.
Perfume Workshops and courses.
Another casualty of the move has been my inability to get the information packs out for the perfumers course on time. Ooops sorry.
Not much I can do about that except ask for patience and know that if people are really serious and dedicated they will wait.
The new dates for the standard workshops for 2011 will be updated by next week. Look on the website for more details.
Christmas trading hours
For those that do not know I am actually working in the new perfumery 7 days a week up until Christmas. Thats 42 days straight. I dont want a medal but I will be asking for patience and understanding if I am a bit forgetful and frazzled. My present list includes a legion of minions to help me get through next year if anyone is interested.
The Atelier is open
Mon- Thurs 10am until 5pm,
Fridays, 10am until 6/7pm,
Saturdays 10am until 4/5pm,
and Sundays 12 until 4pm.
I am also available to make private appointments outside of hours for those who need some relaxed fuss free gift shopping time.
We are closed December 25th, 26th and 27th. Open 28th 29th 30th and a short day 31st. We will be closed January 1st, 2nd 3rd.
When we resume trading in 2011 we will be open Tuesday through to Saturday. Sundays will be workshop days and Mondays are for stock production.
Bitchy industry comments
I have to talk about the new Myer perfume installation. Its official title as reported in the Age newspaper is The Gallerie de Parfum. I will note here too that Rachel Wells was remiss in not chatting with a 'real niche perfumer' in regards to this.
So I went in to have a look after the HUGE publicity drive it got.
Underwhelming, laughable and temporary are the words that best describe what I saw.
It took two walk throughs and two requests of floor staff to find it! Neither of them even knew what I was talking about.
The space devoted to it looks like a walkthrough space the size of my central perfume display table. The brands were very dull indeed- Caron being the exception but the display was tiny and not worthy of one of the greatest perfume houses ever created.
The two 'boys' on duty were obviously chosen for their looks because they were useless otherwise and I suspect their main focus is to guard the stock. There was no information about the brands. No coffee beans or obvious means of testing and unfortunately my partner picked up a leaking tester bottle of the revolting mens confection -Bang. His request for a wipe to get rid of the stench was met with annoyance from the boy on duty and he left my partner standing there while he panicked about wether it was more important to let the other floor walkers know or get a tissue out of the locked cabinet. His dilemma was obviously that this involved leaving his guard post.
Myer Myer Myer!
Oh dear I dont know why you bothered and by the looks of it I would say it will be written off as a loss and packed up after either Christmas or Valentines day.
I am thinking of sending them a letter of offer to train their team in how it should be done. Maybe in the new year.
Other news is the distressing revelation that LVMH now have shares in Hermes and are hunting more. This will be the demise of the last bastion of true luxury. I am sad for the word that is left behind without independent houses of integrity, vision and belief such as Hermes has been until now, and hope I am able to one day take up the baton.
My final comment for today is this.
If the new rockstars are niche perfumers then I expect a bit more respect and free attention from the media from now on. I wont hold my breath.
Cheers
The Baroness
