I recently announced that I'm retiring my legacy scents on July 1st, the 5 year anniversary of the Fumery. What does that mean?
In short, I'm doing a full catalog reset. It's been five years since my first blends took their first tentative steps into the world. In fact, most of my current perfume blends started life as incense blends, which which are necessarily simple, balanced, and restrictive in how many notes I can use. Combustion doesn't allow for as much nuance as oils as a medium.
As the years have gone, and I've released more complex blends only for perfume, I've had amazing feedback. It's time to fully separate the perfume and the incense sides of the house so that I can make each one as elevated and intentional as it can be.
The best way to do this is a full catalog reset.
What will happen to my favorite blend(s)?
You can find plans for specific scents here.
Despite their simplicity (sometimes maybe because of it!), many of my perfume blends have become very popular perfumes. I'm definitely not looking to throw out all of the success I've built; more accurately, I just want to improve upon what can be improved, and retire scents that are redundant or lagging in popularity. I plan to take what works about my most popular scents, and see if I can't make them wear better when approached as perfume.
A lot of these things are improvements I've always wanted to make and now have my chance: I always thought the heliotrope in Odalisque was too powdery. Black Mass would benefit from a higher grade frankincense. Black Goat could be a world class fragrance with a little more help - trust me, as good as it is, it can be even better.
Most of the perfumes that are reformulated will receive new names that I feel fit my brand better these days. But don't worry, you'll still be able to find your favorites. "Formerly Witch Wife", or "For fans of Rook" will be part of our new descriptions.
Currently, anything from my Scent Library is on the list.
Is incense affected too?
My incenses will be pared down to the ones I think are the strongest and most individual blends, but will mostly keep their same formulas. I might experiment with upgrading some of the materials, but the profiles should remain almost exactly the same. Incense is a less forgiving application, and these blends are what really sets my perfumery apart. These are likely to stay, and more, additional shop help should allow me to keep the scents I carry in stock constantly.
Are they going away forever?
My ethos has always been giving people access to what they want. I am humbled by the support and validation I've been given over the last five years. That enough people care about my blends to worry about what happens to them is, itself, humbling.
But the fact is, I just don't feel like most of my perfume catalog reflects what I can do anymore. The Fumery is growing and maturing, I'm maturing as a perfumer, and it's time for my catalog to reflect those changes.
That said, I'm a sucker for nostalgia, and I love making customers happy, so you can pretty well rest assured that I'll respond to demand with small batch runs from time to time. It just won't be my main focus. I know the frustration of finding the signature scent, only to have it discontinued. I don't want that for anyone.
Will I be able to stock up beforehand?
Certainly! Everything I make is currently in stock, and I will be keeping stock up until July. I am running a Spring Sale now where I am featuring a scent on sale every week, and will do a closeout sale on my remaining stock before the catalog update.
How long will my stockpile last?
I use extremely stable ingredients. Kept in the cool and dark, you could expect my fragrances to remain stable for decades.