The Smelly Truth about Perfumes

Did you know that there are over 500 ingredients in many commercially produced perfumes and that legally theyt do not have to list any of those ingredients? No wonder people with asthma have problems with fragrances. How could they possibly be able to distinguish which ingredient is bothering them? It must be really hard to make perfume if so many ingredients are needed, right? Nope. Not really. It just takes a lot of time.

Through my research I found that it only takes 3 ingredients to make perfume; alcohol, distilled water, and fragrance. The hard part is being patient enough to add the fragrance in drop by drop slow enough so that it is completely mixed with the alcohol and the water. That takes freaking FOREVER! And it makes your hand really really tired. Then after that the perfume needs to be left to mature for at least 3 weeks.

This is not time that big perfume companies are willing to take so they would rather use synthetic materials and poison us with chemicals. And really, for what? There are very few perfumes that I like and they all seem to smell the same. When I read that the base note is patchouli, I want to smell the patchouli, but I rarely do. Patchouli is an expensive oil so usually the patchouli used is synthetic or very little is added.

Another reason big perfume companies use synthetic ingredients is that they can control the color and make it clear and clean looking. Many essential oils have their own distint color and that would tint the perfume. Oakmoss is a dark green, goopy, thick oil. It turns the perfume a murky greenish color that doesn't look exactly crisp and clear. It smells wonderfully and is a beautiful base for many fragrance mixtures, but it doesn't "present" well.

I know that this may be hard to believe, but I am very PARTICULAR about my fragrances and scents. So with a little experimentation, a lot of time, and a extra pinch of patience, I have created my own artisan perfumes. I love them all! I have them lined up on a shelf and I just spray a different one on every day!

Last week, I just made a new perfume with Sandlewood, Moroccon Rose, and a touch of lemon. It is NICE! It isn't even matured yet and I wear it all the time. When I taught my spin class Saturday, I wasn't lying when I told them I smelled like roses! They, on the other hand, smelled like corn nuts. That is what happens when you have 60 people sweating in an enclosed room for an hour. It begins to smell like a teenage boy's room!

So on February 2nd, I will have two new perfumes ready; Sandlewood Rose and Jenn's Tree. I am working on Lemonwood for men. That will smell awesome too and even though I am not a guy, I may just have to wear it so I can have the illusion that some really hot man is around me all the time!

The genius of skinny mirrors

I recently turned 40. Now, being a woman, this has me a bit freaked out. It is not that I look older than I did 2 weeks ago, but now...I am 40! 40! I can see a little difference in my skin. I don't get checked out like I used to. And stress is harder on my body than it used to be. But overall, I am holding up quite well. So, on my 40th, I went shopping. If you have children, a career, and no time to yourself, you may be able to relate to this one. I went shopping all day. And I don't mean to Target to browse some of the sales racks while I am picking up diapers and toilet paper. I mean, I drove to a mall and went to several stores and tried everything on that I thought was cute. And by the end of it, I was exhausted! Shopping takes a lot of work. All that walking around carrying your coat and hat, looking at things, taking off clothes, looking at yourself in a full length mirror with no clothes (yikes!) and trying things on. Wow! Did I really do this on a regular basis in my 20's? Holy cow!

Which brings me to the mirrors. I have decided that you can pretty much tell the quality of the store by its mirrors and I have ranked the stores from best to worst in the mirror department.

#1 - Anthropology - These mirrors are awesome. The changing rooms were spacious and softly lit. They are what I call skinny mirrors. In fact, I stood there in my underwear taking a look at myself and thinking...."mmmmm...not too bad missy!" It was the one store where I looked better without clothes on then with the clothes on. I don't know why exactly. I love their clothes, but I didn't buy any. Why buy them if you look so good without the clothes?

#2 - Lucy - These mirrors were average. The dressing rooms weren't too cramped but I hate going into a dressing room without a door. Curtains bug me. Give me a nice door. I don't want to have to continually pull a curtain shut. There is always that one side that just won't close. I think these mirrors were fairly accurate. I didn't want to stand there in only my underwear admiring myself, but I didn't want to vomit either. And the pants make my butt look a so great! I just want to walk into every room backwards when I wear their pants. Since, my side job is as a fitness instructor, I did buy some much needed clothes. I knew I would pretty much look the same in my mirror as I did their's so I didn't feel like I was being lied to.

#3 - H&M - These mirrors were not the best. I think I looked a little plumper than I actually am. Pair that with the fact that most of the shoppers there were about 20 years younger than me and you don't exactly have a mirror for the best self image. I loved some of the little outfits, but knew I was just a little too old to pull it off. My 40th birthday party was that night so I was looking for a little snazzy outfit to wear. The clothes are awesomely priced but the clothes are not always cut very well, or at least, not for a curvy, bootyliscious girl as myself. After a long while there, I was able to find a few things that I can add to the staples of my wardrobe. If the prices werent' so good, I wouldn't have bothered searching for the right fit for me.

#4 - Lululemon - OMG! Could their mirrors be any worse! Holy cow! The changing rooms were tiny. They have this huge open space in between all the dressing rooms but you could barely turn around in the actual dressing room. And the mirrors! Don't get me started! I swore they added a few rolls that I didn't have before. Also according to the sizes, I wear a size 8. I am quite tall, and the last time I wear a size 8, I looked like I was on crack. So I already felt like they were trying to pull a fast one on me. These pants are supposed to make my butt look bootyliscious, but the mirrors were so horrible and the dressing rooms so small that I could actually only look at one cheek at a time and could not see the bootie area as a whole. I gave up and left, but not before I tried on one of their running jackets. And I did not take that jacket back to the dressing room. I tried it on right there on the floor and it looked fabulous, which lead me deduce that their mirrors are a conspiracy to make us work out even more. I didn't buy the jacket because I knew it was on sale on the web page. I am a savvy shopper people!

#5 - Gap - ?? I don't know. By the time I got there I was too tired to take my clothes off again and my bff called me and invited me to dinner and her husband made me a cake. Now, I don't know about you, but I would rather have dinner and cake

So I was trying to find a sharp and witty way to tie this into Blackett Body Basics. I couldn't really come up with anything that didn't sound contrived. I am changing the look of the packaging a bit. As much as people love my product, we as humans, go for looks too. So, I am creating my packaging to look as good as my product actually is. I am slowly changing the silver tins, which we all love but EVERYONE is using, to beautiful black jars with twist top lids. The plastic jars will be easier for me to reuse and recycle as well make it easier to actually access the product. So I will have the skinny mirrors of packaging with the product to match. See how I slid that one in there? Damn I am good!