Look at that face and those little fingers. What could be cuter than Ms. Hepburn and a monkey? Not much, except maybe a baby rhino. I am really happy it’s Monday, I have a ton of work to do but so ready for the week. Sunday was dedicated to more apothecary experiments, working with soap and testing stabilization of fragrances. Patience is not my strong suit, so the waiting for curing, stabilization, etc. nearly kills me. I am trying to figure out what scents to launch first, which is like asking me to choose my favorite puppy, I am having a hard time with that decision. I am doing something very complex that has to feel very simple, I am trying to re-create the scent of nature identical fragrances, but it really is a Herculean task. There aren’t essential oils for a lot of florals, like gardenia, you can’t get an essential oil from an actual gardenia so if you are buying a fragrance that reads it is gardenia essential oil it’s a lie. What you can do though is try to combine essential oils to re-create that scent. It’s extraordinarily difficult.  I like to think that my tuberose is spot on, cue the angels singing but I realize now that most people won’t want to smell exactly like a tuberose, it is a little heady. The tuberose would probably be best suited for a room fragrance so that leaves me going back to the drawing board. What other one’s do I think I have perfected (in my not so humble opinion)? Well, my cucumber smells just like a fresh, watery cucumber when the oil is in the bottle, on the skin not so much, in soap, uhm not so much. I have some candles with the cucumber curing and I am hoping that it doesn’t change, but one never knows. My California clementine blossom, hello, I could smell this all day. Flowers from most citrus tree’s have an almost jasmine and gardenia combined note, they don’t really smell citrusy I really love this one.  I only have a couple people that emailed me about being testers, so if you are interested send me an email.  I am going to start sending out samples to my testers soon!