A few weeks ago, while trolling the indie perfuming sites, I came across Dame Perfumery in Scottsdale, AZ, a father & son perfumery led by a nose with a penchant for postcards.
“Perfume for me is all about a connection between two people, and while yes here we are on the internet sharing words there is no human touch to the experience.” — Jeffrey Dame
It works like this: You send him a postcard from your hometown listing the perfume sample you’d like to try from his perfumery, and he’ll put your postcard up when he opens his perfume concept store.
I adore postcards, but there aren’t that many from my hometown. Most have wine country motifs, few are worth sending to a stranger. But I found a nice one from Type A Letterpress in McMinnville, which showed McMinnville to be the center of a small universe. Ca-ching!
So above is the postcard I sent to Mr. Dame, with its message below. It might not stand out on the wall, but for lovers of letterpress it begs to be touched.
Just a week and a half later, this came in the mail:
- Large vial of Black Flower Mexican Vanilla
- Small tester of Desert Rose
- Small tester of Dark Horse Cologne
- Small tester of Herb Man
- Small tester of Verbena, Freesia and Musk
What a wonderful way to get your product out in the world and make a connection with a scent lover! And clever, too. For while I chose probably the most gloriously bombastic scent in his list to try — hey, I like to play with fire sometimes — he might have known me better than I knew myself, for it was the Desert Rose I really connected with.
His Desert Rose is a blend of Turkish rose otto and Damascenia Rose with touches of peach, Sicilian lemon, Egyptian jasmine, geranium, carnation, heliotrope, sandalwood, musk, amber and vanilla. Its the perfect scent to carry a Pacific Northwest rose season just a little bit farther.
Thank you, Mr. Dame! Let us know when your store launches. I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of your postcard wall!
Thank you Emily, for such a nice and kindly write up. I’m thrilled you are enjoying your perfumes. Desert Rose eau de parfum is lovely indeed. J.
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I love the way you are connecting with customers and sending love around the country via scent. I’m excited to follow the story of your store launch!
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What a great idea to link customers’ hometowns and scents. Wonder if Mr. Dame gets inspiration from the image you choose to send him?
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Not so sure you can smell anything from a map… But if we were talking Oregon scents I’d say go with something grassy, or ponderosa pine, lavender, rose, or peony, if you could imitate peony somehow. Cool question!
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love all your posts lately, it’s like getting a little treat in my email. Will definitely be sending a postcard. One thing I’ve noticed is more and more I’m seeing “Scent Free Zone” etc, mostly in dr’s offices, but other places including my workplace as well. While I definitely don’t want to trigger someone’s illness I want to be free to smell good too!
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Thanks, Lauren! I’m on a roll. You know, I’ve seen those, too, and I wonder if the response is to commercial scents vs. natural perfumes. I find that when I wear the natural perfumes I feel perfumed and can smell myself but don’t stink up the place, ie. I’m wearing it for me, not for them. Then again, I also wouldn’t dream of wearing any scent to go on a plane!
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i can’t help but feel a bit like pluto if mCminnville is the center of the universe based on the postcard you selected to send the neat ‘dad n son’ perfumier…if Eugene were a perfume, it would smell like…hippies aka patouli w/its sister moon, cannabis cloud.
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I think there are some perfumers down in Eugene. Yep… Here, I found them! http://www.uncommonscentsmeridian.com/
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