Summer Scents

Summer is well and truly upon us, I don't believe a single drop of rain fell on centre court during Wimbledon fortnight!  The flowers are out in abundance and the Plush Folly bees are foraging like crazy. 

To capture the essence of summer and the beautiful summer scents we had the pleasure of sampling some beautiful summery perfumes recently and were very happy with what we tried.

Cathy's favourite - Flower (Kenzo La Cologne) "Anything with rose in always gets the thumbs up and this is a sweet rose with fresh top notes of bergamot and bitter orange.  I'm certain I can detect  violet in there too'.  A lively, good mood aroma"

Bryony's favourite - Lola (Marc Jacobs) "The funky bottle with the 'Ascot Hat' style lid made me want this perfume as soon as I saw it!.  Bouquet blends of rose, peony, fuchsia and geranium topped with grapefruit, pear and peppercorn and rounded off beautifully with tonker, creamy vanilla and musk.  This is gorgeous"

Rose's favourite - Happy In Bloom (Clinique) "This is wonderful.  It is clean, fresh, crisp and light.  With a hint of lily of the valley, freesia and mimosa it ought to be heady and soporific but the fruity plum lifts it and makes it very refreshing"

Sally's favourite - Very Irresistible Summer Vibrations (Givenchy) "This is packaged in a beautiful pink bottle which does it for me!  The aroma is a bonus and a delightful blend of rose petals, frangipani, sweet currants, mandarin and sea breezes.  I think I'm on holiday already!"

Mandy's favourite - Look (Vera Wang) "This perfume unfolds as you wear it.  It starts with a fresh juicy fruit layer of green apple, lychee and mandarin then turns to a bouquet of jasmine, lily and freesia.  The perfume then rounds off with a wonderful trail of vanilla, patchouli and musk.  I find the whole experience fascinating and love wearing it"

Jen's favourite - NYC (SJP) "I knew I'd like this perfume after reading that SJP had set her designer the task of creating something fun and whimsy.  The bottle itself is funky and a must have.  Sweet, fruity, floral and bold, this perfume offers the lot! I was happily confused with the aroma of strawberries, mimosa, rum, mandarin, musk, vanilla and gardenia.  Quite, quite mad!

All the individual aroma compnents mentioned here are just a small set of what we make available during our Making Perfume: Everything Makes Scents one day workshop.  Why not come and make your own wonderful perfumes and surprise yourself with a handmade signature scent of gardenia, lily, mandarin, bergamot, peppercorn, tonka and vanilla? 

Cosmetic College Intensive Programme

We are delighted to announce the date of our Cosmetics College Intensive Programme. 

During the week of 7th - 11th February 2011 we will be running a one week course which covers different aspects of product manufacture.

From bath fizz, melts and masks to scrubs and salves, creams and lotions, body sprays and scented candles (and more!).  We include sections from the Essential Oil Profiling and Herbal Treatments & Remedies courses and include Cosmetic Legislation.  For a full course breakdown, please see the course description. 

You will make masses of different products (estimated value £150) to take home with you as well as receiving a CD stuffed with additional information, courseware and recipes.  The course will gain you CPD points, help you create formulations and set you off on the path to selling your products should you wish to start a cosmetics business. 

All this for only £450!  There's even a discount if you come with a friend.  If you are interested, do book soon as places are limited.

Goodbye and Hello

You may have noticed from our perfume testing fest that we have some new names on our staff list.

Every time I say goodbye, I cry a little ........

Sadly we say goodbye and good luck to Bryony as she goes off to University.  Bryony first came to Plush Folly as part of her Year 10 work experience.  We were so impressed and loved her that we couldn't let her go!  She immediately joined us as our Saturday girl and filled in during half terms and holidays.  Four years later she works on Fridays and Saturdays and still helps out during the holiday period.  We are going to miss her and wish her well as she leaves us to go off to Uni.

We also say goodbye to Cathy in September.  In her spare time Cathy sells beautiful handmade bags and needs to devote more time to designing, making, selling and generally developing her bag business.  We hate to see her go but we're all very happy that she'll have time to make more bags as we love them!

Hello hello - I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello!

A big open armed welcome to both Jen and Mandy.  Jen is a fellow beekeeper and comes armed with experience and a passion for essential oils, herbs, all things honey, propolis and beeswax.  Jen's background is in the restoration of royal palace furnishings and has a knowledge of specialist surfactants, soaps and historical cleaning methods,

Mandy is taking on some of the ever-growing administrative tasks and will be responsible for updating our Facebook and Twitter accounts, invoicing, ordering, record keeping, accounts and generally making us all more efficient and orderly.  Mandy trained as chef and has an interest in health especially nutritional health benefits.

Finally we're delighted to welcome Phe as a training consultant who will be delivering the Herbal Treatments & Remedies workshop.  Phe is a qualified herbalist and has run training courses for Neal's Yard and currently consults at a London University.  The first of our Herbal Treatments & Remedies courses runs on Friday 30th July and we still have a couple of spaces if you're interested.

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