Come walk with me
I think of myself as guiding my perfume creations into being; a rough thought to start, then tinkering with ingredients to give the idea form, and finally the perfume is out into the world where it takes on a life of its own - possibly in the direction I thought or quite possibly off on its own somewhere completely different with you.
Come walk with me then on my six year journey along the chocolate path, a little of this, a little of that - over here & over there - twists & turns and here I am now together with you and four chocolate themed perfumes. Who knew? Certainly not me.
Back in 2016 I had idea for a Mexican hot chocolate perfume - you know the one with dark chocolate, vanilla, a pinch of cloves, nutmeg, maybe allspice and a dash chile pepper and a stick of cinnamon to finish it off - but try as I might I could never get the formula to work even though I had the most amazing chocolate perfume oil as a base to start from.
So project abandoned (it happens) except then that summer as I was traveling around the country visiting perfume shops I happened to share the pure unadulterated chocolate oil base with a client and after smelling the extract she basically melted right in front of me there in the store in bliss complete. At that moment my Chocolate Man Cologne was born with one ingredient, just the pure chocolate base essence. I tamped it down a bit to a low concentration to make it wearable and out into the world it went to the delight of chocolate perfume fans.
Since then Chocolate Man cologne has been a superstar and my dedicated chocolate perfume customers had a simple request again and again - more please. Who am I to refuse and with that a new more intense Chocolate+ Eau de Toilette at a very high concentration was introduced last year because when you want chocolate there is no limit.
This fine November day of 2022 brings a twist along the chocolate path, a new blended Chocolate+ Rose Eau de Toilette which is simply glorious. Pure chocolate oil with a stunning rose de mai note, just the two ingredients. I went back and forth for many months deciding between a "chocolate scent with rose notes" or a "rose scent with chocolate notes" (there is a big difference) and in the end the final formula was "a rose scent with a dab of chocolate" just because it felt right.
Next year in 2023 brings a fourth chocolate perfume in Chocolate+ Milk, a scent much more nuanced and complex with notes of milk, clove, jasmine, rose, sandalwood, musk, cedar wood, vanilla and benzoin added to the chocolate base and it is indeed amazing. The Chocolate+ Milk formula is already done and complete and is simply awaiting for the door to open out into the world. While waiting, my Club 100 customers can order the Chocolate+ Milk trial size now.
Maybe one day I'll come back full circle and re-start the Mexican hot chocolate perfume idea, but at this moment I have no idea as I am just walking along the chocolate path.