Well, when it rains it pours…again. Two posts in two days?? WOW! Am I on a roll? I wish. It’ll probably take another week or two before I get a chance to do another blog post. But I am here now and I’m here to celebrate: It’s my anniversary. My Blogging Anniversary. 🙂 It was exactly one year ago today that I started my little blog project and while I had every intention to dedicate more time to writing, I think I have found a happy medium in terms of expressing what I am doing and while I’m at it, gaining more practice writing.
Before I started the blog I had been in contact with a number of other bloggers and artists with blogs and was given such encouragement… I can’t tell you how much it still means to me. (Thank you for so much inspiration and good thoughts. I am eternally grateful). Looking back, it’s been an incredible year filled with projects and more projects and so much artistic growth. It’s been my pleasure to share it with you and I look forward to what comes next.
As a big thank you to all of my subscribers, regular and sometimes readers and dear friends, I want to do a draw for a big prize: ** a Bespoke perfume creation. This prize was mentioned on a thread of a facebook perfumista group not too long ago and I am happy to oblige. So, to enter, please leave a comment about what your dream perfume would be. I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts. The draw is open for a week, so it will end on June 20 at 11:59 pm. Good Luck everyone! And while you’re here, maybe you’d like to subscribe as well. Those growing numbers sure do make me smile.
What a prize! My dream perfume would be all natural, dry, and would include some leather notes, some powder notes (preferably vanilla with tonka), some aglaia and/or light floral notes, and a top that would contrast in an interesting way.
Thank you, Felicia! Good luck in the draw! 🙂 I love conceiving of your perfect fragrance design.
Happy Blogiversary, Dawn! I’ve really enjoyed reading. Now, this prize… I can hardly believe it. You realize this is a dream come true for a LOT of people, right? You’re a massive sweetheart.
I have many ideas for bespoke perfumes, but I’ll settle on this one for now, since it’s where I’m at in my creative headspace: Iris, violet, milk, powdered sugar, ozonic note, bitter almond, anise, civet. The goal is a dreamy gourmand with a musky quality.
Hi, Carrie Meredith~ no, YOU are so sweet to and thank you for so much support in just coming by and reading my little musings. 🙂 Your idea is like a wonderful sheer violet – periwinkle blue gauzey silk fabric with a subtle silvery grey tone blowing softly in a window. Lovely. ❤ Good luck in the draw!!
You know I’ve been fantasizing about something like this for a while now. I change my mind about many of the notes, but one thing is for sure: must have leather.
🙂 Hi, Gaia~ Hmmmm: leather. DELICIOUS. Good Luck in the draw and thank you for being one of my inspirations. oxo
Congratulations on your blogging anniversary, Dawn! It has been both a pleasure and an education to follow your perfumed thoughts.
Oh my! Where shall I start? You already make several fragrances that seem tailor-made for me, but let’s give it a try. 🙂
My favorite perfume of all time is Jean Patou Vacances, a lyrical evocation of Spring with notes of cut grass, lilac, hyacinth, mimosa and pure magic. It is of course discontinued now. Nothing will ever smell exactly like it I am sure, but it was such a thing of beauty that I still can’t believe it’s gone. I would love a fragrance that captures that feeling, even if it is not exactly the same – something about combination of the fresh, juicy greens and the piercingly beautiful spring flowers was so perfectly imagined, and brought to life so vividly, that I can close my eyes and be there on that idealized Spring day. If anyone can re-create its essence, you can!
Hi, Flora!! 🙂 Oh, the Vacances de Patou sounds so glorious! Sadly, I have only smelled the new version and I don’t think it holds up to your Vintage version. What beauty…
Well, good luck in the draw and thank you for so much love and support; I cherish all that you do for beautiful writing and the love of perfumery. oxo
A couple of weeks ago I washed my hair with banana shampoo and chose Molinard’s classic Habanita as my scent for the day. I kept marvelling how well banana and Habanita got along and got an idea for a fragrance that would combine the classic tobacco, vetiver & leather notes with banana, coffee (and possibly also bittersweet chocolate). There are so many “tropical” scents that are some kind of piña colada perfumes with coconut and pineapple, but I haven’t run into a single scent that would combine the smell of cigars and coffee with banana… So that would be my current dream perfume.
Hi, Susanna~ 🙂 I love this idea.. it *IS* very dream like. Putting together unusual notes and assembling them so that they make a unique tapestry that is beautiful and coherent as well. LOVE it. Maybe we’ll get to work on it together… who knows. Good Luck in the draw! big hugs~
Happy Anniversary! It has been a pleasure reading your blog 🙂
Hmm, my dream perfume would totally involve nicotiana (it is not used enough!) I want something resembling dry earth, the smell of a dry heat, and sex – haha. I always add that last part in for good measure.
🙂 Hi Heather! Yeah! That last part is the part that keeps people coming back to perfume again and again… (well, that or perhaps they want to smell like they have NEVER had sex, like soooooo clean). I think this can be done…fun. Thank you for being such a wonderful reader and commenter, as well. You really help make this project fun and exciting! oxo
happy anniversary!!!!! xx
I am not entering for the perfume, but to thank you for all your support and generosity
Michelyn
Thank you so much, M! You are another of my inspirations for this blog project and so I thank and honor you with this anniversary, too! 🙂 oxo
Congratulations on your anniversary! I, for one, am so happy to have become more familiar with your wonderful work this year. And what an amazing prize!!! Thank you for offering it to us.
I would love a scent that smells like the sweet alyssum that wafts up on a warm day when I walk to the beach. So it would be a warm floral salty kind of thing. Most beach scents have the salt, sea air, marine thing, but to me beach is also heat. We have a lot of beach grass, too, so a nice dry grass note. Since I don’t lay out, I don’t really need a suntan lotion scent – there are a lot of those. But that alyssum in the sandy ground, heaven.
Thank you, Tama! Booth for your well wishes and your kind compliments! I, too, am so happy that you found my work this year (even if Aquamarine’s “clean” was not for you…lol 🙂 )
Isn’t this fun? I am stoked to work with the luck winner on their dream scent and I just love your evocative concept. And yes, Sweet Alyssum is a great name, too! Good luck! oxo
Dawn–
Happy bloggaversary! What an unbelievable gift to us, and after all the amazing perfume you’ve made for us to try.
As for my dream perfume – what a difficult question! Maybe something with scents I love, like lemon drops, roses, mint, leather, and sweat?
Or I could try to figure out, once and for all, what it is that occasionally reminds me of my beloved and deceased grandmother, who must have smelled like some combination of crepe myrtle, hot tin roof, vanilla ice cream, Texas pine, gardenia, and Winston’s cigarettes?
I think I would have to think a long time about it.
Hope you have another great year ahead!
Hi, Diana! Thank you so much for your well wishes! 🙂 Hmmm…both concepts are compelling. I jut love hearing everyone’s thoughts on this. Isn’t it wonderful to dream??? I think both could be gorgeous perfumes. Good luck!
Hi Dawn! I enjoy your blog so much and I can’t believe it’s been a year! Congratulations and happy anniversary.
Your offer of a bespoke fragrance to a lucky winner is so generous and exciting! I’ve been trying to imagine what my dream fragrance would be. I have favorite notes [in no particular order]: iris, rose, fig, tonka, patchouli, sandalwood, oakmoss & incense – a combination of which would either be my holy grail or a hot mess! 🙂
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and current projects with us. I look forward to more good reading. Cheers!
Hello, RD! I have been very blessed by your frequent visits to the blog from the beginning and I’d like to thank you. Your interaction here has really spurred me on! 🙂
I have to say that your note list sounds very doable; no hot mess for that concept. Good Luck and thanks again! oxo
Happy blog birthday!
Oh, a year passes by so quickly.
Honestly, I have no idea what my pefrect perfume would smell like but I would probably know it when I smelled it. 🙂
My guess is it would be an oriental, something rich and ambery and if tuberose would appear, I’d be in heaven (these are all my favorite notes).
Hi, Ines! 🙂 I know, right? A year FLIES by…. I can hardly believe it’s been a year for the blog myself. Thank you, as well, for being another frequent flier here at DSH Notebook; your blog and your comments have meant so much to me. Good Luck in the draw! oxo
Hello,
What a wonderful gift a bespoke perfume would be. I have for years wanted a perfume that would evoke my home, Alaska, but a fairytale version. Its notes include alder and cottonwood sap, a spicy winsome bramble of wild sitka rose with fleshy petal and a little winey decay at the end, and a forest floor of berries and crushed leaves. It needs a hint of smoked moose hide or just the rumor of a fire. From there I imagine limpid rains and then I think of the freshness of the first snow. This aromatic idea is like the year, ever-flowing from one element and season to another. I want it to never dry down into a cosmetic or stale smell but to always evoke something alive. Thank you for giving us the chance to talk about our dream perfumes!
Caitlin Shortell
Hello, Caitlin~ Oh, your home in Alaska sounds idyllic ! SOOOOO lovely. I think it would be somewhat challenging yet such fun to conjure this magical world. Thank you for sharing your dream and I wish you good luck in the draw! 🙂
Congratulations, Dawn! I really enjoy a peek into your creative process, thank you!
As for the prize, wow, I am floored, what a great opportunity!
I would love a spicy, ambery gourmand oriental, cardamom, cinnamon, pepper, milky notes, licorice, tonka, labdanum and musk, something along those lines.
Oh, I wish myself luck! 😉
Hi, Olfactoria!! 🙂 You have been such a welcome voice here.. I am so thrilled to be able to share ideas and projects with you! Thank you for all of your wonderful comments! Good luck in the draw… I love thinking about such a delicious Oriental! YUM! oxo
Congratulations on the anniversary Dawn….
I have to agree with Heather on the sex bit…I love Maurice Roucels Helmut Lang cologne…It is so vanillery and musky which is evocative of sex. (well actually it was created per Helmut Langs instructions of “his boyfriends secretions on clean linen”). But I want to add the Love which to me would be a touch of citrus,a splash of rose and a dash of warm womanly powdery Amber..
Hi, Cassandra! 🙂 Thank you so much! Oh yes! Helmut Lang Cologne is lovely and boy, there’s so much you can do with love and sex notes in a perfume. Good luck in the draw and thank you for stopping by~
Oh Dawn how exciting ! A bespoke perfume from you would be a dream come true and more !!
Happy Anniversary and many many more…
My dream perfume would be a chypre , based on patchouli oakmoss and a touch of tobacco , Sweetened with some sexy tuberose and brightened with tangerine…
Hi, Carol! 🙂 Thank you for stopping by and for your very kind wishes! And thank you for being such a wonderful supporter and inspiration for my blog…
Oh, what a sex bomb your chypre idea is! ME-YOW! (I bet you are finding some real gem in the PLAP project, too!) 😉 Good luck in the draw and lots of love~ oxo
What an absolutely thoughtful and generous gift! A very happy anniversary to you…..I’ve smelt so many from your range, but my favorite, so far, is Cimabue. It means coziness, happiness, and serenity to me. Very effective during hectic times 🙂
I have no idea what my dream fragrance would be….something with rice steam for sure, possibly jasmine rice steam….touch of amber and sandalwood in the base….more thinking required!
Hi, Lovethescents! Thank you for your wonderful compliments and well wishes… it means so much! Oooh… rice steam… that ‘s fun and yes, amber and sandalwood; it’s a good start. 🙂 Good luck in the draw and I am so happy that you love my Cimabue perfume. ❤
Happy Anniversary Dawn!
Hmmm…my dream perfume: A dark, mossy rose with plenty of sandalwood, a tiny touch of dry amber and some tobacco. My light flip side perfume would be an iris with sandalwood, heliotrope and hay. Either of these would be fantastic for me. What a draw this is -I’m going to be dreaming about it until the end.
Many hugs,
Candice
Hi, Candice! It’s great to see you here and thank you for sharing your dream perfume(s). Both sound delicious!!! Wishing you Good Luck in the draw! Big hugs to you as well! 🙂
Oh gosh, my dream perfume… I have so many different ideas and loves in the fragrance world. One thing I can say is that my dream perfume would almost have to have some sandalwood. 🙂
Hi, Breathesgelatin! ( I love that name!!! 🙂 ) Thank you for stopping by and entering the draw! Good Luck!
Happy Anniversary to your blog!! It’s such a pleasure reading this blog and I’m really glad you decided to create it.
Making decisions is not a strong suit of mine. Creating a bespoke perfume would put my decision making process in hyper-overload! However, at the risk of being pelted by perfumistas everywhere and losing my card carrying membership, I love how Prell smells. I have no idea what’s in it but whatever it is, my grandson also loves it and has taken to using it as a body wash!! Argh! I think a perfume that smelled similar would be perfect for me.
Good luck for your second year of blogging. I’ll be looking forward to it.
Hello, Marilynn! Thank you so very much for being a regular reader and for sharing your thoughts with me. 🙂 You know, you are not the only perfumista who has expressed a secret love for Prell to me. I’m going to have to get me some of that and give it a sniff. (It’s probably been, uh, 30 years? since I’ve smelled Prell…I think it might be time to have a reunion.) Good Luck in the draw and fragrant hugs to you~ oxo
Happy Blog Birthday, Dawn! Love reading these comments (and YES about not wanting to smell like they’ve ever had sex, ha!). I couldn’t resist entering, but I always have trouble saying what my dream perfume would be–too many dreams come true in my closet… Let’s see, I too, would like some soft leather to start with, and some flower–orange blossom or jasmine or another white flower of some kind. And I would like both some swoony lift and a soft landing…
Hi, Alyssa! Thank you so much! I love reading everyone’s dream perfumes as well!…there’s so serious creativity there, huh? And your dream perfume idea is a fun one as well. YUM! 🙂 Good luck in the draw and thank you for stopping by.
Dawn Miss Pink here……..so happy for you my beautiful shining star…..keep on glowing and shining you are THE essence and you emanate brilliantly.
Love ever
Pinkie xxxxxxxxxxx
PINKIE!!!! 🙂 Thank you so much, lovey!! You are too sweet! I can’t wait for my next trip to NYC and we’ll have to find some time together. Love seeing you here and just love YOU!
oxoxoxo, D
If the divine Jitterbug perfume met a little leather and smoke — as if those crazy jitterbuggers ended up at a dance with some sweaty, unsavory gang members, and they all danced until the wee hours — I’d be in heaven. 🙂
Hi, Rockinruby! Ooh! super fun idea – kind of like West Side Story meets Stompin’ at the Savoy. Love it! Thank you so much for stopping by and entering the draw; Good Luck! oxo
Happy Blogoversary, dear Dawn!
I love all the art you create — perfumes, of course, and your paintings, and your jewelry, and your way with words which is very special.
Thank you for hosting such a wonderful draw! I think I am still too green behind the ears to really know what is the dream perfume I want to associate with myself, but right now I am thinking of a light windy lemony aldehydes, light light yellow, flowing, thinking about texture, they would be effervescent if they were a drink. A tender bouquet of lilac, lily of the valley, a big magnolia and a whiff of white rose comes through the light veil of aldehydes and stays tender, fragrant, and showing off different flowers in the bouquet in different moments. When the bouquet is done (ideally, in a long time), it dries down to a skin scent still lightly fragrant of flowers, as if the wearer slept on the petals and woke up in the morning with the smell lingering on their skin.
Hello, Warum~ Thank you so very much for your wonderful compliments and sharing your beautiful vision. I just love “woke up in the morning with the smell [of petals] lingering on their skin”. Absolutely lovely. I wish you good luck in the draw and fragrant hugs~
Happy Anniversary Dawn! What a wonderful draw. My fav notes are patch, amber, vanilla, and incense.
🙂 Hi, Carlos!! Thank you! i haven’t forgotten about samples for you either… of course I am running about 10 days behind my own sense of time. what else is new.:-P
Good luck in the draw; thank you so much for checking out the blog and sharing your faves! oxo
Happy anniversary dear Dawn! I looove reading your blog and testing your perfumes! Perfect combination! 🙂
My perfume… hm… texture: creamy, milky, full of base notes.
Orris butter ❤ as leading note. Everything else I would leave to you 🙂
Hi, Bellatrix! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts ; today and since the beginning! It has been a real pleasure sharing this journey with you!
Love your creamy, orris deliciousness dream! Good Luck!! 🙂
Happy One year blogging anniversary, thanks for sharing your thoughts and all your exciting projects with us. My dream fragrance would be bright and clean with a kick of spice and will go from daytime to nighttime. I love carnations, coconut, and sweet milk and lilacs.
Thanks for your generosity have a beautiful week.
Maria Tejeda
Hi, Maria! 🙂 Thank you for sharing with me all of your thoughts and now your dream fragrance and making the blog such a special experience. I have loved having you be a part of it!! Good luck in the draw!! oxo
Holy crap, what an amazing draw! But oh, what would I choose? The perfect leather-tobacco scent with a boozy opening and amber drydown? Or a super-green rose with a dirty chypre-ish base? Or a balls-to-the-wall tuberose with coconut and jasmine? DECISIONS.
Hello, Elisa! 🙂 Ooooh, how fun! Love all three concepts! Good Luck!
Happy anniversary, Dawn! How quickly that year seems to have flown by… A bespoke perfume from you–we are all wild with excitement! I’m fascinated to read in the comments about memories that play a role in our scent choices.
I’m not sure what would be in my dream perfume but here are some of my favorite “smell memories”: a blackberry patch; wildflowers in a hot summer field in late August; cool stones in a creek bed; the “Oriental Bazaar” where my sister and I, as children, would longingly study the exotic wood carvings and India print fabrics; the bakery in our small town where Mother bought our birthday cakes (you know the one–BIG frosting roses!); my cat’s fur after she has come in from a snowy ramble through the neighborhood.
Hi, Elizabeth! I know, right? a year? already?? amazing. 🙂 Thank you for being a part of it! Oh, each of your memories evoke a complete perfume… how could you choose? Well, good luck in the draw and I hope you’ll be on the journey with me coming into the next year(s)! oxo
Dawn,
Happy, happy, happy anniversary!
My dream fragrance would contain osmanthus, one of my favorite ingredients/notes. However it would be in a unique presentation, possibly something woody and if possible, slightly floral. Maybe with marigolds. Hmmm.
Kate
Hi, Kate! 🙂 Yay! I’m glad you stopped by to enter and thank you so much for your well wishes! Your perfume is very intriguing… hmm: osmanthus and marigolds. Fun! Good luck in the draw~
Congratulations with your blogoversary, Dawn! (If that’s not a word, it is now!) I can’t tell you what a privilege it’s been to be able to peek over your shoulder at your creative processes as they evolve, and I’ve learned so much along the way! I’m looking forward to all the wonders to come! 🙂
My dream perfume…hmmm…would be a heady, smoky, incense-laden, orange blossom chypre with orris, oakmoss, patchouli and a suggestion of labdanum. Something to put a lot of va-va in my voom, something…unforgettable!
I sit here swooning just to think of it! 😉
Fragrant hugs and here’s to more discoveries, more thrills and more adventures ahead!
Hello, Sheila! Thank you so much! 🙂 I have loved sharing with you here and thank you for so many wonderful comments! I hope that you’ll continue to check out my little project…
Your dream perfume sounds delicious; I wonder if you have tried Lautrec? There are many notes that mirror your dream perfume. Maybe we’ll have to explore that… hmmm. Yes, yes, here’s to more adventures! Mwah! oxo (and good luck in the draw!)
Aloha, Dawn, and congratulations on your milestone! I am fairly new to you and your fragrances (though I tried and really enjoyed your Viridian last year), and I’m looking forward to to continuing my exploration of the samples I ordered recently from you.
A bespoke fragrance is a precious gift! There are many fragrances I can imagine for me, but for some time I’ve dreamed of one that would evoke a hiking trail in my home state of Hawai’i. There would be the glorious smell of mud, damp green leaves and ferns, the spicy-sweet smell of yellow ginger blossoms, and perhaps a touch of ocean air in the background. Sigh….
Hello, Heidi~ Thank you for stopping by and entering the draw! I hope that you will find some other new loves amongst the samples, but who knows? Maybe there will be a new fragrance in your future; who knows? I love entering your glorious, dewy world! Thank you for sharing it with us! Good luck and fragrant hugs~
Congratulations on your anniversary, Dawn. If I think of a fragrance that would be made especially for me I can only describe it as loving the smell one encounters walking into a forest in the early morning. Dew is still on the grass, and the earth smells fresh and clean after a short summer rain. There are lillies of the valley, violets, and all manner of spring flowers. If I could capture that smell, the smell of all of these things combined, it would be my perfect fragrance.
Hi, Charlotte 🙂 I’m so happy that you stopped by and entered the draw! What a treat! Your vision is lovely and a bit of a challenge but you know, I like that. Thank you for your well wishes and sharing your perfect scent concept. Good luck!
What an incredible giveaway! I absolutely love your blog and always enjoy your posts. Happy anniversary!
I am currently obsessed with powdery, floral and girly scents but haven’t found the one that mixes the three to my liking. Something in this vein would be perfect. 🙂
Hi, Lisa! Thank you for your compliments! I really love getting to do the blog so it’s truly wonderful to hear such positive feedback. I think we’d be able to achieve your perfect perfume, should you win the draw… sounds like fun! Good luck! oxo
Congratulations on your anniversary! I’ve just discovered your site & ordered a few samples – love Anarchy, Celadon, hope to try more.
But . . . as for suggestions for scents, would love a complicated carnation, more than just the simple clove. And I’ve never found a perfume w/ magnolia in the forefront, with that lemon note that the real flower has (they’re in bloom now in Carolina, so I have the opportunity to check every evening while walking), that keeps it from being cloying. It has a dark aspect to it as well, so at night when the smells really come out, it is wonderful, complicated, interesting.
Hi, Libazeth! Oh, how I wish I were able beam myself right to where you are in Carolina to smell those magnolias!!! They sound like heaven on earth. 🙂 Thank you for stopping by my blog and entering the draw; and also for loving Celadon and Anarchy, too. I hope that you will find more to love as you explore. (Did you get a sample of Oeillets Rouges, per chance? It’s a red carnation based on the dianthus growing in my own garden. If you haven’t tried it, I recommend it). Good luck!
What an amazing contest! I simply cannot resist entering. I would love a rich carnation scent that is sweeter than Malmaison, has more depth than the Commes de Garcons, and is not as “perfumey” as vintage Bellodgia (so it is more of a daytime scent). I cannot really say what notes would create this effect (that’s your area of expertise, of course). Bu where I live, it almost never gets hot (or very cold) and the spiciness of carnation is very uplifting on cool, foggy mornings, which happen very frequently, even in the summer.
And congratulations on your anniversary.
Hello, Nina! Hmmm… your descriptions of a cool by spicy carnation are intriguing.. i like the idea of a foggy morning cool, carnation. wonderful! 🙂 Thank you for sharing and for stopping by to enter the draw; Good luck!
Hi Dawn, Thank you so much for offering this! I’d love something very herbal. Gourmets are always so dessert-y, and it feels like there so many more areas to explore: cilantro-tomato leaf-with something mildly floral to soften it? Still thinking…
Hi, Devorah! 🙂 It’s my pleasure to offer the draw and to celebrate the blog; thank you for stopping by to enter! I LOVE the idea of cilanto – tomato leaf – etc … YUMMY! Well, good luck!!
Happy Anniversary! It’s been a privilege for me to discover your writings along with your perfumes this year. 🙂 Thank you for this, and also for this wonderful draw – what dreams you’re provoking! My idea for a bespoke perfume came from a conversation I had with a friend w/ whom I share a love of both fragrance & fiction, particularly that of Edith Wharton. We visualized a perfume for Ellen Olenska, the tragic heroine of The Age of Innocence. It would be named Brûlée (for a woman who has “been through the fire”) and would incorporate notes of immortelle, chamomile, honey, hina, magnolia, sweet orange, and myrrh…. 🙂 Thank you again, and hope to keep exploring all that you create!
Thank you, Meg! It’s so meaningful to me to be able to share my work and to have it be so well received… THANK YOU for your kind words! I love the idea of creating a perfume inspired by Countess Olenska from “The Age of Innocence”. I absolutely love that book and the Scorcese film! What a fascinating way to conceive of the scent; I love it! Good luck in the draw and fragrant hugs to you~ oxo
What an amazing gift some lucky reader will be receiving! Thanks so much for the very generous offer.
My dream perfume would be something deep with many many layers that unfold. I love scents like Labdanum, Oakmoss, Vetiver, and Fir Absolute. Maybe something floral to keep it from being overwhelmingly heavy, like Jasmine, Boronia, or Tuberose. There are very few scents that scare me, I am not sure if that makes it easier or harder to create a bespoke fragrance for.
It would be fun to hear more about the process if you have time to share it on the blog!
Thanks!
Michael
Hi, Michael~ Thank you for stopping by and entering the draw. It’s my pleasure to host it. 🙂 Your dream perfume sounds wonderfully multi-layered and filled with glorious naturals. Oh, yum!
And yes, I will have to make some entries on the blog about the process of working on a bespoke fragrance; perhaps with the luck winner. I like it. Thank you for the suggestion!
oh dawn, what a dream-price 🙂
congratulations on your one-year anniversary blogging!!!
(i did not even know that you *had* a blog until a kind soul made me aware of it today.
thank you, m. 🙂
as for a dream-scent, i would want what i have always wanted (and still do):
the smell of the san gabriel mountains (here in california) of a summer afternoon:
dry pine-needles baking in the sun
preferably jeffrey pine (so that there can also be a whiff of their vanillic bark)
dead incense cedar trunks rotting (it’s a divine scent)
white sage
dirt
maybe a hint of california rose ….
(frankincense? patch? cedar? fir sap? sage? labdanum? a dab of vanilla? mitti attar?
a bit of rose?
along those lines…)
xox
harper
p.s. i hope all is well with you!!
it’s been a long while…
HARPER!!! Wowee! 🙂 it has been such a long time… how WONDERFUL to hear from you! Thank you, M for sharing with Harper! 😀
I love your dream perfume! I have been working with a ‘local’ (Utah, so sort of) micro distiller who specializes in conifers so I now have some great new oils to work with on this kind of score… and he distills wild sagebrush from the mountains here. Perhaps your dream can become a reality! 😉 Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your beautiful vision and getting back in touch. YAY! All is well here and I hope that life is great with you as well. Don’t be a stranger! BIG FRAGRANT HUGS to you~ oxo and good luck in the draw!
hey my dear —
yes i know, it’s been forever!!
i *have* tried to email you last year (just to touch base)
but somehow it must have gotten lost in the ether…
anyway, yes, i am well.
very, actually 🙂
and i am very happy to hear that you are too!
(funny, i was thinking of that interview we did about, what, 10 years ago or so?
can you even *believe* how much time has passed?
yikes…)
xox
hh
Oh, harper… where did that email go? I never got it. 😦
I am thrilled to know that you are very well and happy. I am so happy that we have reconnected!! 🙂
Oh yes, still one of my favorite interviews… I think it was 2003. That seems like a short lifetime ago. Luckily we’re only getting younger 😉
Much love and blessings to you~ oxo
Happy 1 Year Anniversary to you. Now to win this would be anybodies dream, especially with you creating this fragrance. My dream perfume would be something close to Verte Madame only in a more Intense Version or if you could create something really close to the Gobin Daude Sous le Buis or Seve Exquise. Glad to know you and your beautiful fragrances.
Hi, Claudia~ 🙂 Thank you! Hmmm… have you tried Celadon? That has been compared to Seve Exquise and has many notes in common… but you have a green dream! Delish!
I wish you good luck in the draw and thank you for so much support and love. Big fragrant hugs~ oxo
OK, so I want Felicia to win because I know she REALLY wants a bespoke perfume…. I mean…who wouldn’t? But SOME people have motivations to beauty BIGGER then themselves alone..as i truly believe Felicia does. Felicia is Bi-Scentual, non-biased and accepting (loving!) of perfume creations mixed media natural/synthetic AND the wholly natural. Besides… I think I would like Felicia’s Dream perfume… an I’m alright with that! Caio! Monica
Hi, Monica~ Oh, how sweet are you to enter for Felicia!! You big heart you. 🙂 Consider her entered and good luck! Thank you for stopping by and for spreading the love, baby! oxo
Hey, thanks Monica! I’ll send you a decant if I win.
Hi, Felicia! 🙂 Monica was so brilliant to enter you! Maybe the winner will allow us to make a little bit more and do another draw for a small bottle of the winner’s design? hmmm… we’ll just have to see. Big fragrant hugs to you and good luck in the draw. oxo
Happy Anniversary!
I subscribe and read your blog through the RSS feed but I didn’t know that you can track that type of subscriptions… Can you?
I’m entering the draw (and a very generous one, I should say) only because it’s such a low probablity of winning it 🙂 Not that I don’t want to win but I wouldn’t know even where to begin in thinking about the dream perfume. Even a chance of having a chance 😉 to figure out the perfect combination for me makes me anxious.
I wish you many-many more years of successful creativity in everything you do.
Hi, Undina! 🙂 Thank you!
No, I don’t believe that I can track RSS feed numbers but I can see how many subscriptions through wordpress. Thank you so much for subscribing! I am so happy to know that you have been enjoying the blog!
I wish you good luck in the draw and that should you win, you will NOT feel anxiety…it will be fun.
What a wonderful prize! I just discovered your blog, so I will enjoy reading through the posts. As for my idea for a bespoke fragrance, I think that it would have to be woody with a gourmand base. I’m not sure that I’ve ever considered what my own perfume would smell like! It’s harder than I thought.
Happy anniversary!
Hello, Kathy~ Thank you for finding my blog… I hope that you WILL enjoy reading the posts (past ad present). I wish you good luck in the draw… I like that it made you think about a perfume that you have never conceived of before.:)
Congratulations and here’s to another happy blogging year. Cheers!
(no need to enter me in the draw)
Hi, Andy! 🙂 Thank you, my dear, for your wonderful well wishes and even more for so much inspiration, love and support! You have always been one of my *blogging icons* and it brings a huge smile to my face to see you here. Big fragrant hugs to you! oxo
Hi Dawn!
Happy 1 year Blogging! I have enjoyed reading about your creations and projects and imagined the smells from the fabulous descriptions….- all so fun and creative!
My nose is very sensitive to scents and when I love it, I love it – and you have some fun combinations. Imagining a perfume – I like the Frangipani flower, and I always seem to to be keen on things that have sandalwood as well – so a tropical floral scent, but with some earthy parts, and some sandalwood…not quite sure how that would come out 😉
Monica D.
Hi, Monica~ 🙂
Thank you very much for your well wishes and for being an ongoing reader of the blog! I think that your dream perfume of a tropical (frangipani) flower with sandalwood and some other earthy elements is quite doable and would be very beautiful; Good luck in the draw!
Happy Anniversary, Dawn, and many more!
My dream scent would probably include osmanthus, fresh ginger root, nutmeg, amber, black tea (a heady Yunnan or Ceylon would be lovely–trace of smoke optional), olibanum, and with a trace of leather to cut the sweetness.
Hello, Anita~ Thank you so much! 🙂 Your dream perfume sounds lovely and exotic; really evocative of the Spice Route. Delicious! Good luck in the draw~
Wow! I love many disparate notes, and trying to blend them all into one perfume would be, hmmmm…..trying, to say the least! But I will try to whittle down the list to some things that might actually blend: suede, amber, powder, chypre, heliotrope, mimosa, sandalwood! It’s a start, at least!
Hi, Patty! 🙂 I like your note list and I bet that more disparate notes would work if well designed… you never know. Good luck in the draw & thank you for stopping by the blog~
Congratulations on a year of blogging, Dawn! I’m not entering the draw but just wanted to send my good wishes. What a great prize for someone to win!
Hi, Laurie!! 🙂 Thank you so very much for stopping by the blog and your wonderful well wishes (ooh: alliteration! fun). I am also eternally grateful for your encouragement and excellent thoughts on blogging when I was first contemplating this project. You are another who has helped make this little blog project possible. Fragrant hugs and ❤ oxo
Happy, happy anniversary, dear friend !
What a whirlwind year….
If I were to wish upon a bespoke , it would feel like this :
A meetingplace betwen the sacred and the profane-
Open, warm, generous, with its feet in the earthly animalic muck, and its heads in celestial spaces.
Is there such a place ?
Kennst du das Land ?
Many kisses and loving wishes to all.
Chaya, my heart! Thank you! And thank you for stopping by my wee blog… Oh, I think that we could find this mysterious land… yes. What a glorious journey it would be! 🙂
Much love and endless blessings to you! Good luck in the draw!! oxo ❤ ❤ ❤
Congratulations-
and Thank you for offering such a wonderful gift. I would love to smell a carnation + vetiver fragrance w/ a little bit of resin (elemi). Always looking into carnation fragrances that is absent of cloves and cinnamon.
Hi, Jamjam!
🙂 Thank you and thanks for coming by to enter and share! I like your idea of a carnation and vetiver scent with subtle resinous elemi elements. I’m not sure you can do carnation without any clove, however, since eugenol is the dominant aromatic marker (which is what makes clove clovey and also carnation clovey)…but a soft, diminished clove and more cool green carnation (like the commercial carnations you get at a florist), with the earthy vetiver and slightly cool, smoky, resinous elemi: sounds good. It could also go a little extra woody in there perhaps… I wish you good luck in the draw!
Happy first anniversary, my petite sweet! My land – what a year you’ve had. All praise has been well earned.
A bespoke scent? It’s Friday so I think it’s be some reedy green things – cattails? – and river water hitting the falls.
You’re from these parts so you know what I mean.
Monday I may have something different in mind. It’s how I roll these days.
Much love with a gianormous hug.
Hi, Mary Beth~ 🙂 Thank you so very much, for such glorious well wishes. What a sweetheart you are! I know what you mean about wanting different things on different days… Well, good luck in the draw and if you win, we’ll see how you feel then 😉 Big fragrant hugs, my dear!
What a generous prize, Dawn! I love your ready-made work, too, but that would be true luxury to me. Congrats on your anniversary, and thanks for all of the lovely scents that you create that make us all so happy! 🙂
Hello, Elizabeth~ Thank you! 🙂 I am very happy to know that you have been enjoying my work; that makes it so worthwhile. Good luck in the draw and thank you for reading the blog~
Happy anniversary and looking forward for the next, after another gorgeous year, full of achievements
Thank you so very much, Irina! 🙂 I hope it will be fun of exciting project and aromatic growth! Good luck in the draw~
Huge congratulations and thanks, Dawn!
I already have one dream fulfilled, thanks to Parfums des Beaux Arts: the pretty antique-style bottle of Mata Hari, which I bought unsniffed based on Gaia’s review! I do still have a couple of dream ideas, though. First, I like the idea of Guerlain’s Vetiver pour Elle, a floral vetiver, but it has way too much white musk. I wear Guerlain’s regular Vetiver instead, but long for a slightly softer version with the floral aspect amped up. I’m sure there’s an ideal day scent waiting to be created on that theme.
Second, I love the Legendary Fragrances recreation of Iris Gris, which is plush and beautiful, but I’d also love a lighter, drier take on that iris-peach theme. For example, TDC Osmanthus is a dry, crisp but soft apricot. Seems like that kind of note could be combined with iris and a touch of something flinty (a dry vetiver?) for an ethereal and haunting scent. I’m thinking of something less tailored than the original Iris Gris (judging from the Osmotheque version), which demands to be worn with a couture suit, I feel. ~~nozknoz
Hello, Nozknoz! 🙂
Thank you very much for your well wishes and such kind words for Mata Hari. 🙂 It is one of my favorites as well and I am thrilled to know that you love it, too!
I also love some of the classics you mention, Iris Gris and Guerlain Veriver (original) and your idea of combining elements of Iris Gris, TDC Osmanthus with some vetiver sounds delightful. (Yes, ethereal and haunting is a good way to describe it). Good Luck in the draw and thank you for sharing your vision!
Thank you for giving us all this opportunity. It is so generous of you. I feel a bit bad that my first comment on your blog is to enter this draw, but for such an amazing prize, how can I resist?! 🙂 As far as the question, in this heat, I have been really “inspired” (ha ha) by the smells of ice cream. I think a fragrance that played on the smell of lemon custard ice cream would be interesting and wonderful for summer. Or, I can never go wrong with something that features leather, anise, cinnamon, tonka. Most of all it will just be such fun to see what you create. Will you and the winner be doing posts about the resulting fragrance? I hope so!
🙂 Hi! Don’t worry about having your first comment be to enter the draw… I’m just happy that you did (comment) and wish you luck!
Both ideas sound lovely — a fun lemon custard summer spritz and the spiced leather…yummy to both! Thank you very much for sharing your ideas~
ps: Yes, I think that I will be posting the progress of the winner’s bespoke design and if they consent, we’ll do a draw for a bottle of the winner’s dream scent. 🙂 Yeah!
Congratulations on your first year of blogging! A bespoke perfume? How fabulous. In my naive imagination, it would have my favorite note, saffron (I love Cimabue), as well as cardamom, milk, cereals, ginger lily, and vetiver. It would teeter on the edge of edibility, not truly sweet, slightly evocative of an exotic dessert, but balanced by non-gourmand spiciness and dryness. Wow, I’m getting heady just imagining how it would smell; there’s absolutely nothing like the scent of something beautiful on the air…
Hi, Lisa D~ 🙂 Thank you very much! Thank you for stopping by and entering.Hmmm… I think that you dream perfume could be quite sophisticated with that kind of note list, even if it does push to the edge of ‘edibility’. I like to walk the line sometimes. DELISH! 🙂 Good luck in the draw~
What a fantastic idea for a giveaway! I find that I have little idea what I would like. There are mornings when I need something that sits at the back of the classroom and growls, dark and dangerous. Presumably lots of dark notes like oud and oakmoss, but some sweet amber as well?
Of course, other mornings call for a broadway star, singing at the top of his voice, something so masculine that it makes the other guys wilt and turns the heads of the girls…
Now if there were something that combined both effects…
Hello, Fernando~ WOW! I love your imaginative scents… very evocative as to how the ideas truly come alive. I do think that there is a place where these two personalities meet; I like thinking about it.
Good luck in the draw and thank you for coming by~
Congratulations — didn’t realize you had a blog, I’ll read on.
I’ve been in search of a hot weather scent, something a bit lighter than my favorites (Ormonde Woman and Champaca). Greens and woods, warm rocks, damp earth.
Hi, Laurene! 🙂 What a treat! It’s great to see you here; I’m glad you found my little blog.
Mmmm…. I love your dream perfume… so deliciously wet- green, cool woods. Yum. I wish you good luck in the draw and send fragrant hugs to you~
Hello Dawn, Thank you for running such a fun prize draw. I sat by you at Sniffapalooza breakfast last month, and you were just as charming as I had imagined! I own so many of your perfumes or samples of them, it’s hard to think of something you haven’t already done. I love lavender. My dream perfume would start with a really rich, natural lavender. I would love the feel of lying in a lavender field in Provence, with hay like smells, honey bees buzzing, and sweet flower scents drifting in from adjoining fields. Then a very resinous drydown. Almost a lavender chypre, if there is such a thing. Cheers!
Hello, Cynthia~ Oh, you are too sweet! 🙂 Thank you so much! I really enjoyed sharing breakfast (and smells!) with you at Sniffa!
Thank you also for sharing your dream lavender… you know I have a new lavender absolute that is quite unusual; smells sweet, resinous and somewhat fruity. This could be quite delightful in a honeyed / hay chypre lavender. Delicious! Good luck in the draw~ oxo
Happy Anniversary!
What an amazing and generous drawing. Though I grow ever more in awe of so many talented perfumers such as yourself, I am such a neophyte that I don’t think I have enough sense of my dream perfume. Perhaps it could take the concept of the beauty of a peony – starting from earthy roots to the fullness of the bush with its tight green buds slowly evolving to the opulence of its blooming flowers that fill the air with such a gorgeous scent.
Hello, Nicolibba~ 🙂 It seems to me from your utterly poetic description of your dream perfume that you are not such a neophyte! BEAUTIFUL! Good luck in the draw.. who knows, maybe your dream will come true.
(And, thank you very much for stopping by and your very kind words. I wish you much continued joy in exploring the aromatic world!)
Happy blogiversary, Dawn! (This is from my “perfume” address.) Keep up your brave forays into online expression! I love reading about what you’re working on – your passion for the projects always makes for interesting reading.
This is an exciting, generous draw, but I am simultaneously dying to win it and aware that I have no great, brilliant idea for a bespoke perfume. 🙂 I know some of your scents that I like and wear often – I adore Bois du Chocolat and Cafe Noir, for instance, and you might think that a woody floral would be the way to go, but right now I’m really digging on Waterlily. I don’t want a bespoke perfume as much as I want the $$ to buy more of the perfumes you’ve already done!
It’s a fun exercise, though. I think of lily as “my” note and I have several lilies I feel very attached to – DK Gold and Diorissimo at the top of the list. I’m also a huge vanilla ho and couldn’t possibly list all the vanillas I have, up to and including Tihota, “the big vanilla”. But vanilla has been done so many ways – I’m not sure I need MORE of it. But then, what might you do with it? Often your notes are just that, notes in much bigger, more complex, nonlinear compositions. I suspect you’d do a drier, more surprising vanilla – or tonka instead, which can be lovely. I’d love to know what you’d do with, say, lily and sandalwood. Lily and vanilla and sandalwood? (I do love a chewy, gourmand floral, but I find sandalwood so be so open and airy in the right combinations, so uplifting.) Lily and vanilla and labdanum, another note I love? (A little more challenging than rose and sandalwood?) Or something completely bizarre and probably unlivable, like tuberose and cinnamon. :-)! Or something unexpected – lilac is so ladylike, maybe it needs some leather and pepper to put some spank in it. 🙂
But the truth is I don’t pretend I could ever come up with the combinations you already do. Keep on rocking! I’m a fan!
WOW!, Judith! Thank you! 😀 You totally made my day with your comment! BIG SMILE!
Lily is such a versatile note… I think there’s a TON we could do with it. I like the lilac/pepper/leather part and the chewy, gourmand floral part as well.
This could be lots of fun; Good luck in the draw~
ps: I’ll do my best to keep the projects comin’. 😉
My dream fragrance would be a spicy spring floral
Cynthia.Richardson@azbar.org
Hi, Cynthia~
Good luck in the draw and thank you for stopping by! 🙂
I am relatively new to to niche perfumes and yours is in the top three. The others so you have a sense of my taste are Serge Lutens and Tauer. I have eclectic tastes thus a wide variety of scents I wear. I am also experimental and curious by natures, for example all they terrible hype about Secretions Magnifique demanded It try it. I did not find it as portrayed but it went much better with a male friends chemistry than mine so now he owns it. My dream perfume will have leather for sure, I am besotted with leathery and musky scents as well. I also am quite partial to ambers and opoponax. It would also have a great sillage and long lasting power. Soometimes I want it to hug my skin and sometimes I want projection. The old style perfumes that made big statements and stayed behind after you left a room combined with your talent for creation of wonderfully modern feelng. Top notes would be ones that blend with what the scent is evolving. I think in order to create a true dream perfume for someone you need to know about them a little and not just the notes they like. I apologize if any of this was TMI.
In any event I am enjoying exploring your world of scents and have not as yet picked a “favorite”. I have the same issue with my other favorite houses. Is what I dream of possible? If anyone could do it, I think you could.
Hi, Leslie~
Wow; that’s some great company to be in! 🙂 Thank you! I bet your having a blast in the land of niche perfumes… so much to choose from and some real wonders of composition.
Thank you for sharing your dream perfume idea with us ; love the idea of a leather chypre with amber, opopanax, musk and aldehydes (to give that punchy topnote); something vintage meets modern. Love it! Good Luck in the draw~
Happy Blogging Anniversary!
A bespoke fragrance sounds so special. I think my dream fragrance would be something floral but masculine. It seems like there is such a bias against florals in mainstream men’s fragrance, but I love them.
Thank you and congratulations,
Jason
Hi, Jason~ 🙂 Thank you!
You know, I agree.. there are of course floral notes in masculine designs but not usually as a dominant signature. I have made a few florals for men over the years (dirtyROSE & Muguet Cologne come to mind) but I would like to do more in the future. Thank you for your comment and sharing; Good luck in the draw~
Congratulations on your e-anniversary. May you have many more.
My dream perfume is a discontinued favorite. Le Parfum de Charles Blair. I received a bottle in my misspent youth. It made me feel like a lady; sophisticated and elegant. What were the notes? I only recall the musk and sandalwood dry down. It was a guy-magnet scent.
Thanks for the draw!
Hi! Thank you so much for your well wishes~ 🙂
You know, I know quite a few long lost / obscure perfumes but I am not familiar with “Le Parfum de Charles Blair”. I will have to do some research.
Thank you for sharing and good luck in the draw~
Congratulations! I would love a fragrance that captures a grey day wandering an old used book store – old leather and book vellum, a hint of the pipe smoked by the proprietor on his breaks, the smell of hot bricks, and a trace of musky perfume lingering on the sleeve of an otherwise clean wool sweater. The ultimate in comfort scents, and to me almost unintentionally sexy.
Hi, Erica~
Thank you! 🙂 Mmmmm….. old leather books and pipe smoke… so atmospheric. And the other textural elements create such a vivid picture. Lovely. Good luck in the draw~
Happy Blog Birthday from a long time reader/ lurker. It is incredibly generous of you, given how much time goes into bespoke creations, and the complexity of translating the olfactory desire of another person.
I have loved the scent of Karo Karunde since I spelled it n Africa. I have a tiny, tiny bottle of the essential oil, and it continues to give off a sweet, leathery scent. Not a vibrant or a candied sweetness. It’s one of the floral which could potentially be used almost as a bose, and very few perfumes have used it. EL Pleasures has it, apparently, but it is not very recognizable to me. Il profumo has a soliflore, but it is both fleeting and too sweet. I would love something which would bring the dark lushness of this flower forward, something to open the top of the scent a bit. However, as a resource it is incredibly limited and very expensive. But it is pretty amazing. Aside from that, I would like a hay/salt/beachroses scent, perhaps with a touch of leather or asphalt to ground it.
Hello, Meg~
Thank you! 🙂 I am happy that you are a reader / lurker! I like that.
Oh, Karo Karounde ; yes, I know if it but as you say, the oil is quite difficult to get. I would love to smell the actual flower one day. You know, it was quite a popular nuance note for ’80’s perfumes; especially fruity/ animalic / chypres.
Either idea (or both together somehow) would be very interesting to work on. Thank you for sharing your ideas for your dream perfume and entering. 🙂 Good luck in the draw~
oh, dear. Smelled, not spelled (but ironic error points), and base not bose. Can’t even blame autocorrect.
🙂
I didn’t know you had a blog! I will have to go back and read the previous posts. So many people have given such great suggestions. Tarleisio and Charlotte particularly. My heart’s desire would be a more floral more feminine Gobin-Daude Nuit au Desert or l’Air du Desert Marocain. The same dryness but with some added flowers. Maybe jasmine? I love your Gelsomino. Or orange blossom? I’m not sure how that would work but I guess that’s why I’m not a perfumer.
Hello, london~
I am so happy that you found my little blog! 🙂 What fun! I hope that you will have a long read and that it will be interesting to you…
I agree! Soooo many great concepts… It will be a treat for me as well as the winner, I am sure, to work on a great idea. Like yours, too. 🙂 Andy’s l’Air is lovey and alas, I have not smelled Gobin-Daude’s Nuit au Desert but I can imagine that it, too, is wonderful. A feminine / “floralized” desert air scent… hmm. I think orange blossom off the top of my head. Moroccan neroli / orange flower. yes. Love it. 🙂 Good Luck in the draw~
Happy Blogging Anniversary! I am new to the perfume blogs and very new to niche fragrances. I would love to have a perfume made for me…it would be an experience of a lifetime.
Thanks for the draw.
Thank you, Maureen~ 🙂
Welcome to a whole new world. It’s a world filled with delights and ways to have your imagination / mind stretched and your senses sharpened. You’ve fallen down the rabbit hole now… 🙂 It will be great fun and filled with lovely people. Good Luck in the draw and thank you for stopping by my blog.
[…] here’s a giveaway you don’t want to miss: for the first anniversary of her blog, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz is celebrating by offering a bespoke perfume for one lucky […]
congratulations to carrie meredith. we are also celebrating the NYC gay marriage bill so don”t miss the opportunity , straight gay bi to make a scent for your beloved
Thanks M! 🙂 super exciting news in NYC!! ❤
[…] on a Cat, who won the one-year blog anniversary drawing Dawn held last year. Carrie’s description of her idea for the perfume was ” … iris, violet, milk, powdered sugar, ozonic note, bitter almond, anise, civet. […]