Change is inevitable, whether in life or in business. And change is now in the works here at 1000 Flowers.
In 2010, we launched the first fragrance, Reglisse Noire, in NYC, at the Sniffapalooza Spring Fling. I had spent a great deal of time planning and designing the packaging for our first fragrance, wanting it to represent the ecological values that are important to 1000 Flowers. After much brainstorming, the choice was set on a custom-made box made of Canadian red cedar wood. They arrived as bare wood, and I hand painted them with paint made from titanium dioxide powder and acrylic medium (to get the whitest white possible), and the artwork was applied via a water-slide decal resembling the thinnest layer of paint, a process that was incredibly difficult to do successfully. For the spray component, I decided to use a threaded bulb atomizer rather than the typical crimped spray, since this also represented an eco choice, being that the bottle could be recycled or reused once the fragrance was gone. Since that time, more than a 1000 of these hand-made-with-love boxes have been sent out.
Here are a few images of the design process that led to the final packaging.
Since that time, of course, 1000 Flowers and I moved to France in 2011. As it was not practical to import the cedar boxes from Canada, I sourced a furniture maker in Morocco to make the same boxes, but this time from a much denser, still very fragrant, thuya cedar wood.
Now, in 2014, with Reglisse Noire still as the bestselling fragrance in the collection, I am reviewing the practicality of this packaging, and have decided that it will be discontinued. The boxes are very expensive, heavy, and very labour intensive to produce, and the bulb atomizers do not last forever, and are not as appealing for some of our male audience.
(Please note that Reglisse Noire is not being discontinued…only the 50ml format in the cedar box. The 15ml splash for all the fragrances will remain available in the boutique online. Also, a very limited number of boxes will be available at Indie Scents Canada, and Habits Clothing in Nelson, BC) *All cedar boxes are now out of stock.
As for what comes next? We are gathering a team of designers and creating a new concept, new flacons, and new packaging for the fragrance collection. Plans for relaunch will be later this year.
In the meantime, I would like to send a heart-felt thank-you to all those of you who have supported this fragranced journey since 2010, and I hope those Reglisse Noire cedar boxes last a lifetime. (and beyond) xoxo
The second, is a 15ml flacon of the Rose Otto diluted to 10% in fractionated coconut oil. (an odorless, colourless and extremely stable oil.)
The origin of the Damask Rose, as its name implies, is Syria and the region of the city of Damascus. (although the parent cultivated varieties of the Damask rose are thought to originate on the Persian Gulf, in the region now known as Iran). It is believed that in the 16th century Ottoman crusaders originally brought the Damask rose to the area of the town of Kazanlik in Bulgaria, where the region’s climate was and is, ideal for the production of roses. Kazan is the Turkish word for ‘still’, and Kazanlik literally means ‘the place of stills’.
Last evening, I was walking home along a quiet street, when my nose told me that the tall, graceful trees towering above were black locust acacia trees- in full bloom! These same trees grow in a small grove in one of the city parks in Nelson, and every year when I lived in that neighbourhood, walking beneath these trees in early summer, I would be surprised to find myself suddenly immersed in the most beautiful pink bubblegum, tropical ylang ylang floral perfume. Last night was the same. The scent that these shy white clusters of blooms high above my head release into the early evening is intense. Although familiar, I found these coastal blooms to be more in the direction of the cologne 4711 that my mother used to wear- rich with sweet neroli. So as I walked along this street, realizing then that the sidewalk was also strewn with the blossoms, breathing in the scent of my mother touched with pink bubblegum, I was reminded, as I have been so many times before- that the most amazing perfumes in existence, are like this- emanated so perfectly, intoxicatingly, from Nature. And usually when we least expect it…
A Perfumed Pilgrimage 