We’ve been working like elves these days at the Studio getting ready for the holidays… planning and now producing our creations. This Autumn has been chock full of great new releases and we’ve even planned just one more before we bid adieu to 2010. Our annual Holiday fragrance will launch on the site November 26 (aka Black Friday). It’s a little early for its namesake: December, but I don’t think that anyone will mind.
December evokes for me many of the best ‘smells’ of the season: pomanders, gingerbread, the long walk in the woods to find the perfect Christmas tree, and traditional incense (I call it gnostic incense) made of frankincense and myrrh. You might think that having so many elements in one fragrance would be chaotic but they really do work together and weave a story as magical as this time of year. (*AD: December will be available in the Essense Studio Collection at the site.)
While we’ve been in full Holiday mode, we’ve also been getting our special gift ideas ready. The new perfume solids (in some of our best-selling scents: Cimabue, Piment et Chocolat, Cafe Noir, Tubereuse and Winter White) have already been a smash hit since we introduced then at our anniversary party at the beginning of the month and now we have another awesome holiday gift idea: the HOLIDAY collection box. Maybe you didn’t know about our holiday series but we’ve released a special holiday perfume every year since 2000! This new collection is the best of the best, so 6 EdP mini flasks in one box of Winter White, Hanukah Cannelle, Twelfth Night, Lumiére, Nourouz and our newest, December. I love the collection boxes so much! I find they make the perfect gift simply because you are giving more than one scent… there’s always something inside to please anyone. (Plus, the mini bottles are so cute! And perfect for travel. I actually carried around the bottle for YEARS in my handbag before I started using them, just because I loved it so much and wanted to find a use for it. Now look at me go with these little beauties!) Oh yes, and we’ll also have sampler vial sets of the full Holiday collection which includes: Festive, Twelfth Night, Cathedral, Winter White, Marzipan, Ma Folie de Noel, Lumiére, Silver Fir, Hanukah Cannelle and Nourouz.
While I’m on this subject, I should tell you all the news as we get close to Thanksgiving. So here goes:
* We’re having a Holiday party / Open House at the ESSENSE STUDIO on December 11 from noon to 7:30 pm. I hope that everyone who will be in or around Boulder on December 11 will come and get festive with us!
* Our annual Thank You / Holiday Sale will start on Friday, November 26 (Black Friday, aka the day after Thanksgiving)! It’s our way of saying thank you to our devoted clients and lovers of fragrance for making this year a great one and continuing to support fragrant art form. So we’re offering 20% off at the Studio and online, using member code “holiday10” at check out. (The Holiday sale will run from November 26 – December 13). So, start making your lists!
In case you’re not sure what to get your loved ones for the Holidays, DSH has been so fortunate to be included in some wonderful blogs gift guides : alliamaredhead, scenthive and indieperfumes… These are some fabulous blogs that you should check out regularly, anyway, if you don’t already. I love them!
So, it’s off to the Studio today for more stocking up and mixing more batches of perfumes. We’ll be filling little bottles and making Holiday Collection boxes today.
Wishing you a deliciously fragrant weekend~
ps: I’m inspired! I’d like to do a drawing for 3 Holiday sampler vial sets to get in the mood! Please leave a comment to enter… drawing open until the end of November 21. Good luck everyone!
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Dawn this is SO generous of you to do. I would love to be considered for the draw =)
Blessings of Peace, Joy, Happiness, and Love to you,
Amanda
Hi, Amanda! 🙂 It’s really my pleasure! Good luck in the draw and blessings to you as well!
you sound like yo are having fun with your stuff–which is more than most of us can say. please put me into consideration for the Holiday sampler vial set–sounds fantastic!!!!!
Hi, Alexei~ Yes, I am having a great time this Holiday Season so far! Thank you so much for stopping by the blog and good luck in the draw!
December sounds great, not to mention the sampler set. I’ve had some of those scents on my wish list for some time (the list’s pretty lengthy by now!). I’ve been wearing Cathedral a lot lately; that smoky incense scent hits just the right note this time of year.
Hi, Anita~ Oh, yes we were bottling December today and the entire work room at the studio smells wonderfully of balsamic pine trees, incense and spice. YUMMY! I’m so happy to know that Cathedral has been getting you in the mood for winter… I know that I need all the help I can get in that department when the weather turns colder… Good luck in the draw and have a lovely weekend!
It all sounds deliiscious – I feel “unscented” as in “under-dressed”when I read your blog. Too bad I can’t get across country for Dec 11- but put me in the raffle for sampler!
Hello, Linda~ 🙂 I am happy to put you in the drawn – who knows you may get a full holiday wardrobe! Good luck!
Thanks to your post I start looking forward to the holiday season! I’d love to win a sample set, please enter me in the draw!
Hello, Olfactoria~ How wonderful to get in the Holiday mood! It feel so right now…I started feeling the Holidays in July, which feel strange to say the least. Good luck in the draw and have a great weekend!
Dawn!
I cannot wait to try December! It sounds right up my alley! I already have a bottle of Twelfth Night which I dearly love, and December sounds as if it is a close relative.
On Black Friday (or thereabouts) I plan to order a sample. I will be up in New Hampshire visiting in-laws at that time, so I must find a clever way to remember…
XOXO,
Margaret
Hi, Margaret!! How are you? It’s great to see you here at the blog – thank you for stopping by! Yes, December has some familial ties to Twelfth Night but is less mossy, more incense and more spice / balsam. I’m loving it right now! I hope you have a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving in NH – oh, how delightful to be in New England for Thanksgiving! I’ll look forward to hearing from you and good luck in the draw!! oxoxo, D
The holiday collection sounds lovely – I’ll have to think of someone to give one to, and probably one for me! Please do enter me in the draw – I can never try too many DSH perfumes.
Hi, Judith~ Thank you so much… for your sweet compliments and for your thinking of DSH for your Holiday gifts. It feels amazing to know something we made will be under someone’s tree! Good luck in the draw & Happy Thanksgiving!
The Holiday collection box and new perfume solids sound fantastic, Dawn!
Hi, Holly~ Thank you!! The box is really lovely and the solids… I love them so much that we’re already planning the Spring releases! 🙂 Good luck in the draw!
Sounds wonderful, like you do really know how to do a holiday.
I’d love to throw my hat in the right for the giveaway.
Hi, Lucy! 🙂 I DO love the Holidays… my favorite time of year. I’d love to enter you in the draw and good luck! I think you’ll have a blast playing with these Holiday scents! oxo, D
Oooh, so much to get excited about in one post! Perfume solids (how did I miss hearing about that? I love perfume solids), mini bottle Christmas collection plus a Christmas sampler set, and a lovely sale to top it all off.
Ooooh, the possibilities….
😀 You really make me smile, Dionne! You will LOVE the solids ( I LOVE the solids!) Piment et Chocolat is especially good… the EdP can be a little intensely sweet for me sometimes, but the way PetC works with the natural beeswax in the solid is PERFECT… so delicious and rich. It’s incredible… all of them are actually. Good luck in the draw and have a terrific Thanksgiving!
I am new to perfumery and reading everything I can get my hands on and would love to win a holiday sampler. So neat to read all of these blogs with sooooooo much info and creativity.
Welcome to a wonderfully fragrant world, Mary! Thank you for stopping by my blog… I hope that it has been fun for you. 🙂 Good luck in the draw and please do stop by anytime.
Holiday spirit is in the air! 🙂 🙂
🙂 Yes, it is!! good luck in the draw!
The scents all sound so lovely – and your holiday enthusiasm is deliciously contagious! I am looking forward to sampling some festive fragrances.
Thank you, Lorna! I DO love the Holidays… 🙂 Good luck in the draw & have a fabulous Sunday!
Wow. I recognize some of these scents– amazing ..
I think I need to email you to talk about the sale before the sale hits..
but what a great giveaway..
the mata hari sounds so intoxicating
HI, STEVIE!!! 🙂 I know… we need connect! I will be at my studio all next week (except Thanksgiving, of course). Call me: 720-563-0344. – Monday might be a bit tricky… but every other day is good. I think you will LOVE Mata Hari – we need to talk about that as well as the Holiday sale and Cuir et Champignon. I’m looking forward to it! Have a great Thanksgiving and best of luck in the draw! oxo, D
I enjoy reading your blog and love the DSH fragrances I have tried. Wish I could come to your studio for the holiday party (I’m in Boston) but maybe some day…Please enter me in the draw–thanks!
Can’t wait to try the new release: December! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Hello, Elizabeth~ Thank you so much for checking out the blog and your sweet compliments! Maybe one of these days I can arrange a trunk show in Boston; I used to know a number of shop-keepers there. Who knows what the future may bring… 🙂 In the meantime, good luck in the draw and you, too: Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
I would love so much to be a lucky one ! Have just started to dive into the depths of natural perfumes – coming from vintage perfumes – and detesting the “new” stuff which fills the shelves…
kind regards, Martina
You are entered in the draw, Martina and I wish you good luck! 🙂 I completely understand your feeling for Vintage perfume! I am a huge Vintage perfume lover and amateur historian ( I am actually working on a small perfume museum at the moment! ) and I agree that much of the new release leave a lot to be desired. I wish you luck as well in your exploration of natural perfumes; many of which are historically inspired. I suspect that you will very much enjoy your search.
Oh goody, goody! Holiday gift collections! I love it when Dawn puts together these sets…all the best of the best in the cutest little bottles.
The solid perfumes are really wonderful. My daughter has already “borrowed” the Winter White…permanently.
These little collections make fantastic teachers gifts when you want something really, really special. Split them up & put the individual cutie in a satin bag with sparkly confetti (Michaels sells ’em). Super Special gift!
Hi, Christine! 🙂 Oh what a great idea for the mini’s on the box! Love it! (You’re so good!) And I love that your daughter has “borrowed” your winter white solid! (sounds like I was as a teen.. ;)) Have a great Monday!
I wish I could be there. Alas, I am so far.. but I wish you Peace and Happiness, Christmas Season is around the corner, and we are already planning the decoration.
Thanks so much for these blogs addresses that I have added to my reader, there is always so much to learn. Indie perfumes are the ones that interest me the most these times.
Bless,
VL
Thank you, Vintage Lady! I am wishing you the same: a Holiday filled with Joy! 🙂 I am glad that you have added some of the blogs from the OUTLAW project… they’re all very good and I love them!
I think I might have missed the draw, alas, but some day, some day I’ll be able to get my greedy mittens on these glorious creations! Some day..
In any event, I wish you the very best of luck, and I’m glad that in an age where so many erstwhile perfumes have gone by the reformulation wayside, there’s still hope – and beauty in perfumery, too!
Hello, Tarleisio~
Your comment is so cute.. it made me smile! Thank you so very much for your kind words and for your best wishes!! I really do hope that with the Outlaw project it can be the first ripple of a wave of rebellion again the IFRA / EU restrictions. I live in optimism for the return pf true perfumery even among the larger companies. All my best, Dawn ps: check back for the next drawing… I’m sure there will be at least anther before the end of the year. 🙂
Hi Dawn, love your stuff! Can’t wait to smell the new holiday fragrance.
🙂 Thank you, Cindy! I think you will really love “December”. It’ll be out at the end of the week! Have a great Thanksgiving~ oxo, D