First, I want to give a shoutout to clevergirl on Etsy. Her super-awesomeness went out of her way to send me these 2 ml vials, and I am plotting now for something interesting to do with them/fill them with:

Today is the last day of Nablopomo, and hopefully I’m sliding in to home with all 30 required entries. I’ve enjoyed getting this blog off the ground, although there are a few things I’ve learned:

1. The breadth of the blog topic makes it nearly impossible for me to blog ahead of schedule like I do in Fat Chic. Although there were a couple of entries I tossed off due to illness, those immediately bankrupted my “toss off” subjects. Most of the time I write from notes I’ve taken at other times, with one screen open to my public library databases and another to relevant Internet resources.¹
2. The cold/severe hiving outbreak I had this week was a setback in my physical, business AND blogging life – and while I wasn’t stressed out over blogging, I did have to consider it as a possible priority to set aside.
3. Blogging may not have journalistic standards, but it’s still very important for me to be careful and correct in what I say; even careless comments tossed off in jest will be visited upon and confronted. And I should know that – I have a degree in journalism! (That I don’t use… but that’s another issue).

And I’m just thinkin’… given that this is something where you have to show results daily, rather than every couple of days, it might do better in a different month from Nanowrimo. There’s another 30 day month lying around year, somewhere? Right? Like June, maybe?

But beyond Nanowrimo ramblings, today was one of my monthly play dates with my buddy Joel. And we did what we usually do on play dates: since Joel actually enjoys driving, after our typical lunch at a Nepalese chai house, we went to whatever whimsical place struck my fancy that day. Today, it wasn’t whimsy so much as business needs, guiding me, so I showed Joel my favorite Arabic and Indian grocery stores, located in Central.

If you ever come to Minneapolis, once you’ve got your Walker Art tourist thing out of the way, and you’ve done that annoying Mary Tyler Moore thing with your hat on Nicollet Mall, go check out the ethnic grocery stores in north Minneapolis and in Saint Paul. Hmong, Arabic, South Asian – it’s a festival of everyday exotics. The spices these shops can obtain are fresher, stronger, and lower cost than what you get in a bix box American grocery store. There are more oil choices, and I can stock up on sunflower and almond oils that also happen to be organic for a third of the price I can get it from some of my suppliers (sometimes I can get a further discount, depending on how brave I am about attempting languages not my own).

And the real treat for me is hidden at the back of the store, with the soaps and henna boxes. Sometimes, if I’m very lucky, I can find such treasures as oud, or offering waters scented with pomegranites, or some of the richest olive oil you can possibly taste on this side of the Atlantic. Today was not an oud day, but I did score some Egyptian kohl liner², and several small flavor treats I’d been waiting to try.

I also found a few scents to test. Out of curiosity, I picked up some sandalwood oil from the Indian grocery store. One whiff told me that whatever it was, it sure wasn’t real sandalwood, and smelled very powdery on me. I’m not really sure what it was – it’s still unidentified – but whatever it is, it’s not sandalwood It also led Joel on a bit of a research binge, since he wondered if it was actually some other part of the plant other than the bark. It did, despite everything, pass the burn test – it doesn’t leave a rubber trail upon burning – and while that’s no guarantee it’s natural, that puts it in the “plausible” column. But I’m not about to use it in any of my sandalwood fragrances. And while I did unfortunately have to set aside an amber as clearly synthetic, I did find a surprising floral among the ones that I purchased.

I also decided to try out a few of those flavoring agents I see from time to time. While I wasn’t hopeful for a natural effect – the ingredients did read “essential oils…fragrant chemicals…” after all, I thought perhaps the fragrant chemicals weren’t synthesized. So I tried the burn test.

Now I’m going to be vary wary of ANYTHING that says “artificial flavoring” because whatever’s in them would give me marshmallow nightmares. Yipes!

Still, I have quite a few goodies and base oils to play with now, from coconut oil to fresh cardamom. It’s going to be a winter for whipping up. Now let’s see about getting me that heat gun…

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1. Anyone who thinks that library research is obsolete also thinks Google is a fullproof research tool. Check out some libraries and really research a topic sometime – it’s a whole wide world of information technology you could only dream of from your desktop. Unless, of course, you’re a lucky schmuck with university access, like me. [↩]
2. which earned me a dirty look from the checkout girl, since in our city only certain types of women line their eyes [↩]

While Etsy did indeed report an increase in traffic over Cyber Monday, there’s still a lot of factors to consider: first, last year around this time, the site kept breaking. Second, that 30% increase was about 13,000 items selling. And if you look at that increase, that means around 25% of Etsy sellers had active sales over the Cyber days. That means that 75% of Etsy sellers – the vast majority – saw no sales at all.

And believe me, it was a noisy day for listing.

While I do know of one fellow bath and body seller who did quite well (she’s very well established), it was a modest day for many online mavens. Again, now we’re in the hard slide through January, so what really happens with the holidays won’t be seen well until January 31.

Magickal Realism itself is in the process of getting our back catalog up and available – much should be available for purchase this weekend, including less-frequently offered items like our incinerates, new sampler packs, and Sex and Politics along with other new scents to be premiered throughout the winter.

So hang in there – we’ve got a lot coming for you!

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I suspect a lot of people click “vegan” on the bath and body category or plug it into search engines seeking soap, perfumes, and so on, thinking “yeah…vegans have something to do with vegetarian. That MUST be natural!” Between that and the sublimely ridiculous celebrity endorsements of veganism by celebrities often later caught wearing fur in public, the label has a whole lot of confusion around it.

¹

This train of thinking that vegan is automatically natural is wrong. And saying something that uses ANYTHING that comes from an animal is vegan is ALSO wrong.

Veganism is a whole lifestyle – not just a diet – where the person abstains from the use of any and all animal products. There are no exceptions. From beeswax to milk to common glycerins, if it originates from an animal, it is absolutely not acceptable to use if you are vegan. I once had a coworker who went vegan for a girlfriend; he had to get rid of his leather shoes and went on about it so much I caught myself fantasizing about tortuous things I could do to him with his vinyl belt.

So it’s natural to get a bit steamed by people slapping “vegan” onto something that’s clearly not. I’ve recently seen items for sale in bath and body venues that have goat’s milk, emu oil, beeswax, and musk². These are NOT vegan. Oh, not even close. And while some vegans make an “exception” for honey and beeswax, those are person-to-person choices and not really in accord with the long-term vegan view.

Then there’s the assumption that “vegan” automatically means “natural.” There are a lot of vegan sellers who use fragrance oils – those synthetics spoken of very early in this blog. And that’s all fine and well, except that the vegan sellers have no way of knowing themselves how those fragrance oils are produced. The FDA trade secret exceptions allows companies to tell their customers nothing about the ingredients specifically in a fragrance oil. And all those synthetically manufactured materials? They still have to come from somewhere. Or specifically, something. Just as absolutely everything you see and touch in this world is chemical, absolutely all synthetic chemicals still had to start off as a component of something natural. Maybe it was a leaf extract mixed with something you can only get when you melt down a rock with acid. Maybe it was a component of horse urine molecularly fused to a piece of pinecone and melted down. If fragrance oils are involved, you can’t know for sure it’s vegan, you can only have faith in the good intentions of the body product creator, who him or herself can’t possibly know the origins of the synthetic scent.

Vegan does NOT mean natural. It’s pretty much just a tag for Thumper Is Safe, as Far as We Know.

And if it has emu oil in it, no, it’s NOT vegan.

I am not vegan because I still use beeswax and honey frequently in my scents. While I do use these materials only from organic farmers, it excludes me from a wholesale vegan label. And really, I don’t see testing on rabbits as particularly efficient. I used to chase the blasted rodents when I was growing up in Indiana, and those buggers are hard to catch. Much to time consuming, when I can simply walk up to people on the street and scare them silly by waving bottles in their faces.

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1. image by Duolop on flickr [↩]
2. which, while it might have been synthetic, then would conflict with the “natural” label [↩]

Odorographia: A Natural History of Raw Materials and Drugs Used in the … By John Charles Sawer

I offer this mainly as an intriguing curiosity. Sandalwood is a subject of much discussion because of its endangered status, and because natural perfumers can’t use santalol (the synthetic), so have to reach for other substitutes like amyris.

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I’m having a heart and extending free shipping at Magickal Realism for one day, since several people weren’t quite able to get their orders in on Monday. The offer ends at midnight, CST!

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Although I’m not into the whole Cyber Monday shtick, I thought I’d get experimental and offer a little bit of a discount – all orders are free shipping until Midnight tonight CST, an for those who would like a little variety, I’m also offering a 3 for 3 sale – 3 samplers, $3.

I especially want to plug my sinus aromatherapy today. I got hit with a miserable cold two nights ago, to the tune of mouth-open breathing discomfort, and I’ve been using my own bottle as much as I can. Believe me, it helps – just a dab on either side of my nose. Fortunately, I like herbal menthol smells, but in any case, I’m fond of being able to breathe.¹

As always, I’m using gloves and a mask when I pack my orders. Your goods will arrive safe and disease free.

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1. this does not constitute medical advice [↩]

I’m hearing a lot about Cyber Monday. It’s all the hype among retailers, large and microscopic. And I’m seeing a lot of my fellow Etsy-ers in particular, leaning forward, drooling.
Here’s what I’m going to say to you, in the spirit of helping you set realistic expectations that involve marketing yourselves gradually:
Cyber Monday is a myth.
I repeat, Cyber Monday is a myth.
This is especially true on Etsy.

This isn’t to knock Etsy – Etsy is, and always will be, what you make it. That’s the entire point. But the way I’m seeing it hyped in forums and encouraged by admin is doing a disservice to the sellers, and quite possibly to Etsy shoppers who WILL shop online tomorrow. They’re also quite likely inspiring the ire of Adbusters and other anti-commercial outlets that would otherwise, quite possibly, be allies because of the connection between handmade goods and reduced consumption. Make no mistake; I am a capitalist, I’m a capitalist who believes in setting a cap – which is part of why I’m not going to close my shop for Cyber Monday but I’m not going to do anything different from the way I usually work and sell that day, either. There is no malice whatsoever in Etsy’s decision, and no malice in my comments on why I think this is a poor choice from a business perspective (except, of course, any gain garnered from increased listing fees, which will most certainly happen tomorrow).

((image by Soon. on flickr))

Why is this a disservice, you ask? It’s pretty simple:
Etsy has a high signal to noise ratio. Right now the buyers really do outnumber the sellers, but it’s still by a slim margin. This is in part because Etsy has chosen to rely on word of mouth and focus on the technological aspects of the site, a common occurence when the tech guys are making the main business decisions. Since their money is made off the sellers, that’s who Etsy tries to reach. And it looks like a good idea to whip the sellers into a listing froth: lots of listings will make for a reasonably profitable day for Etsy.

But then there’s the downside: with so many listings coming so fast in all categories, regular shoppers/buyers are going to be overwhelmed by everything coming at them. The general “Etsy first, individual seller next” approach isn’t going to work because the day has been so hyped. A lot of stuff sellers have been saving just for Monday are going to be missed, as the listed goods pile higher and higher. Sections that buyers do you use, like promotions, are going to move at an overwhelming rate. Using the marketing methods as Etsy promotes them to their sellers isn’t going to work.

More significantly, actual purchases tend to increase in January, when people start using the money they were gifted over the previous holidays.

I’ve been advised to be less generous with how much marketing information/how-to I share, so I’m going to leave some small suggestions here, for you to take or leave:

I’m not knocking Etsy, and I don’t think that the thinking is entirely “yay, slew of hyperactive listings!” I think they’re enthusiastic, and the site is still very new – so new that no one knows what the patterns really are; I simply know my experience with increased sales in January was reflective of sellers who were on Etsy the year before I was.

As always, you can’t just post items and expect them to come to you. You’ve always got to shoot up a few flares.

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windfarm2_smaller

Originally uploaded by magickalrealism

My boyfriend and I passed a windfarm in Northern Iowa on our way to and from Thanksgiving obligations. They look quite different to me in the way back under full sunlight – on the way there, we were tailing a storm, and I thought that the generators looked like anorexic crows windmilling their wings.

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As mentioned on other blogs, I’m a fan of Clean House and I’ve signed on to the decluttering movement (though you’d never know it given the small tornado that has hit my motel room). I also just this week have marked a complete reorganization of my home office/studio – not too shabby for a roughly 10 x 15 foot space that I share with my boyfriend. So I’ve been quite eager to jump into conversations about getting more organized with other artists, because darn straight I want to brag! It took me months to get everything where I want it, and even tantalized by that “one last thing” (in my case, candlemaking) I feel like I’ve accomplished something truly significant in my life.

At the same time, traveling as I do among artists, I hear a lot of defenses of the clutter. “It’s creative.” “I know where everything is!” “I’m an artist, it should be that way.” “Organization is just another form of creative suppression.”

To all of this I say: What utter crap. If you just don’t want to do the cleanup work, own it. Denial is going the way of the land line. And I can assure you, being better organized is better for you all around. Here are my 10 reasons why:

1. You will get your projects done faster.
Most wasted/inefficient time is time spent looking for things. If you’re organized, you spend much less time locating the tools you need to work.

2. You lower production costs.
You finish your creation faster, you waste less because it’s easier to work in your space, and you have the exact right tools to work with.

3. A well organized space encourages creativity.
The practical burdens of “where’s my brush” or “where’s my dropper” are removed, leaving you free to focus wholly on your creative process. The cleanup also takes place within this,giving you the proper and healthy mental exit.

4. You look really good to customers.
Fast turnarounds, a photographable space, and a space where people besides you are comfortable should you do consults and commissions – these open up avenues for promotion and word of mouth.

5. Taxes
When you’re organized as you go, you’re less likely to be taken surprise when the tax body wants that 33-40% of your profit in exchange for such services as working stoplights.

6. Good organization makes it easier to recover from other bad decisions.
Let’s say that craft show you did at the truck stop went poorly. If you’re well organized, when you get a call from that gallery owner the next day, it’s much easier to jump on the opportunity and leave the bad experience behind – in part because you don’t need to dig anything out, it’s all right there.

7. Your friends and family will like you better.
Sure, the ones that really love you accept you as you are, chronically late, artistically self-absorbed, or perpetually lost. However, you might get more out of those relationships if you are together enough to set up that alarm for that lunch date – and you will also wind up appearing reliable, and thus impressing future clients you may run into in the course of your social life.

8. You just might find decluttering improves your aesthetic.
There’s no guarantees, of course, but sometimes forcing yourself to root through and discard belongings also forces you to root through and discard conceits – the honesty makes for a better artist.

9. You’ll plan your business and creative life better.
While some say that the first step to organizing is to get rid of the excess, the real first step is to envision the life you want to have that is immediately within your reach. Basically, it all starts with, “OK, I haven’t won the lottery. What can I do to live better now?”

10. Freeing up space makes room for new opportunities.
Just ask anyone who practices Feng Shui.¹

These aren’t the only reasons to get organized and stay that way, but they are good ones.

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1. validity of Feng Shui neither endorsed nor denied. It’s worked for me thus far, but it’s not like I’ve paid super expensive interior decorators [↩]

Bear with me over the next two entries, kind readers. I’ve had a long strange night in the motel I’m at, and while the details are not relevant to this blog, they alas affect the writing because between the sleep deficit (I got two hours of sleep last night) and the turkey’s triptophane, I’m running on the edge of a hypnogogic state. Given my preference for a rational and focused writing style, I apologize to all readers and to my future more conscious self if this should veer into the territory of melting clocks.

Between the traditionally obligated overindulgence today, I read what I could of Luca Turin’s book the Secret of Scent.While certainly a charming writer (assuming it is not, as rumored, ghost written), there are bits here and there in the information that my medieval mind can parse that are outdated/inaccurate, particularly regarding Aveda’s perfumery: I’m not sure when it happened, but I can tell from looking at any Juut store selection that natural/organic material perfume design has gone by the wayside in favor of profit and convenience (not necessarily bad business decisions, but questionable in face of Aveda’s aggressive green marketing).

Much of the book is sadly over my head. It is a somewhat wandering treatise on Turin’s theories about the mechanics of smell and the chemistry behind it. Try though I might, even without my current sleep deficit, I think I would struggle to feign interest in endless diagrams of molecules. Still, with each passage is something that does strike my interest, whether it’s the way in which Turin defines smells, or his insider comments about the perfume industry.

¹

At a time when I am more awake, there is much more food for thought hidden between these pages, particularly for me, as a self-taught perfumer whose chemistry teacher, in an attempt to put it kindly to my parents, assured them that chem lab was just “not my cup of tea,” and then later wondered at how my lab partner and I always succeeded in our experiments despite our basic inability to follow directions. Turin himself says restricting perfumery to the chemists cuts out the artists that perfumery needs to progress creatively – but we don’t exactly see eye to eye about the use of synthetics in perfumery.

Turin’s impact on perfumery has led directly to perfumery becoming an olfactory art movement. It’s important to read the science behind it, even if it’s only – very laterally – science to Turin himself.

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1. image by John Rohan on flickr [↩]