Chanel has just announced that Brad will be their latest new face  – no shocker that a male A-lister has been chosen to front a fragrance campaign you may think, but this is Chanel No.5!  It is probably the world’s best known perfume and at its original launch, Coco Chanel described it as ‘a woman’s perfume, with the scent of a woman.’  Marilyn Monroe boosted its sales after provocatively answering an impertinent reporter that the only thing she wore to bed was indeed Chanel No.5

We know that ladies love their perfume and fragranced toiletries, but todays modern man has been catching up in leaps and bounds. Just take note of the groaning supermarket shelves the next time you nip in to do the weekly shop…you’ll find many a man loitering with intent, eyeing up the plethora of products on offer.

So, have Chanel read the marketplace correctly? Are we ready to have a male selling us a female scent….to be honest, i’m not sure i’m with them on this….maybe the bandwaggon heading toward a Jolie/Pitt wedding might have tipped the balance for them. Its a bold, if somewhat strange path to tread, and it will be interesting to see what happens.

Chanel No.5 is a plush elegant juice including extremely feminine accords of jasmine, rose and ylang, and has stood the test of time since it was first introduced in 1921, but with well over 1000 fragrances being launched every single year, maybe this is needed to lifts its head above its rivals.

Whatever happens, we’ll soon find out, as its been reported that Brad and his family have already encamped in Richmond as shooting the ad campaign begins this week. Part of the 7 figure deal has, apparently, been 4 tickets to see the Stone Roses in Heaton Park, much to Helens delight as she has tickets for the same day!….Just make sure you are wearing Chanel No.5 Helen and you’ll soon be in the VIP area

I’d be delighted to hear any thoughts you may have on this…….

It’s always good to be British, but 2012 seems to be the year for us Brits to show off our fine country as eyes from all over the world will be upon us as we celebrate our Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and of course the hosting of the Olympic Games.

And just so that no-one feels left out here are a few versions from around our green and pleasant land of how to say Great Britain…

If you dwell in Wales you may know it better as Prydain Fawr, for Gaelic speakers it would be An Bhretain Mhor (there are spelling variations dependant on whether you are Irish or Scottish Gaelic )…even Cornwall has its own Cornish term, Breten Veur.

It is the time to celebrate our creative talents, our traditional industries and of course our eccentricities.

Parades and pageants will abound as Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 60th year on the throne. A 3 day event involving dancers, musicians, equestrian and military displays will take place at Windsor Castle in May, but the thing I am most looking forward to is the Thames river pageant. This event takes place on Sunday 3rd June and will be one the largest flotillas ever assembled on the River Thames. Over 1000 vessels of all shapes and sizes will be beautifully dressed with streamers, flags and the like, recalling both its royal heritage and its heyday as a busy working, bustling river.

On the Monday there will be a live concert followed by the lighting of thousands of beacons around the world to commemorate her reign over the UK and to celebrate her role as head of the commonwealth. I do hope that some of our lesser well known traditions get an airing as well this year on the global stage. You cant beat a bit of welly wanging, or a good old hanky waving morris dancer prancing around on the cobbles.

We could always televise the world championship black pudding throwing contest, where the age old Lancashire / Yorkshire rivalry is played out by trying to knock Yorkshire puddings off a 20ft ledge with a Lancashire black pudding in the local town of Ramsbottom!  And if none of that appeals, then how about trying your hand at the dangerous sport of cheese rolling, a sedate game of lawn croquet or that peculiarly British phenomenon of a titilating streak across a cricket/rugby/football pitch!

Anyway, back to matters in hand. To celebrate with the nation we have created a very British collection of fragrances all based on Her Majestys (alleged) favourite flowers and fruits. They contain notes of lily, tulip and rose, with fruity notes such as watermelon, pomegranate and marmalade.

Tigers Eye

Classic Pearl

Pink Diamond

Emerald Jade

Sapphire Skies

Ruby Rose

If you would like any further information about these or any other of our fragrances, then please just give either myself or Helen a ring at the office, or just drop me an email at julie@carvansons.co.uk

Here at Carvansons we are always at the forefront of any new fragrance trends in the UK or indeed in our overseas markets. This has always proved to  be an area in which we are very strong.

There are a couple of major trends that we are predicting for 2012. One of these is a return to nature – old english hedgerow fragrances such as clover, wood sorrel, columbine, mallow, cowslips etc. The other is a nod toward the heavens. We are entering the Age of Aquarius and there has been a definite upsurge in all things cosmic – although that may have something to do with Brian Cox and his enthusiasm for the quantum universe.  The end of the Mayan calendar in December 2012 has also caused a bit of a stir, inspiring films, songs and all sorts of mass hysteria.

There has even been a rose that has been flown off to a space based plant research centre to check the effects of zero gravity on essential oils and volatile plant compounds produced by living flowers. The end result turned out to be of much greater interest than first thought. Researchers had expected a slight shift in the scent of the rose but discovered that the rose had in fact produced an entirely different scent that was definitely not like anything previously smelled on Earth. This discovery of the SpaceRose has opened up a whole new dimension for the extraction of flavours and fragrances and further uses are hotly anticipated.

With all this in mind we have created a collection under the the heading ASTROSCENTUAL. Our inspiration for this collection has been taken from the clouds of cosmic dust that scatter the skies at night refracting light and matter, forever shifting shape and sparkling its way through the cosmos. There is an element of the unknown within these meteoric formations that appeals to our inquisitive nature.

If you wish to request a collection tin for your products for this trend or indeed any other direction, then please get in touch with either myself or Helen at our offices in Bury.

Quick flight to Surabaya, only 40 mins but I gain an hour on UK time, so am now only 6 hours behind. So thats a whole day knocked off the jetlag recovery time when I get home – apparently it takes a full day for every hour of time difference to get your body clock back to normal.

Then its find a taxi, check it has seatbelts, get in, pay the fare and then as we set off we realise too late that the seatbelts are for show only and don’t actually work! So its a free white knuckle ride to the hotel, zipping from lane to lane, squeezing into impossibly tiny gaps with frequent braking participating in a couple of very close incidents along the way!

We arrive at the hotel at 9pm, so its a quick bite to eat in the hotel cafe and up to my room for 10pm. Oh good, free wifi – oh no – no signal at all!!!! Cant even get a strong enough mobile signal to ring home and check all is well….the joys of travelling.

Anyway its just a 1 night thing….I’m awake at 5.40am so I might as well get up as we are checking out at half 7…I feel like a proper business traveller!  No re-packing required….I only opened the suitcase lid!!

The mud flow is still going strong some 5 years after I last came to this area. It stems from an underground volcano that erupted in May 2006, and at its peak it was spewing mud out at a rate of 180,000 m³ of mud per day! The mud has a rotten egg aroma caused by the release of hydrogen sulphide, and as it continues to flow it is creating an unstable surrounding area as it begins to collapse in on itself. Geologists have predicted that Lusi as it is known in Indonesia, will probably flow for 25-30 years yet.

It has blocked one of the 2 main routes linking Surabaya and Malang (tonights destination), so the longer route will take almost 2 hours instead of an hour as it used to do (and in fact the journey was nearer 3 hours in the end!). The government keep building the retaining wall higher and higher to contain the liquid mudflow and the locals are very worried that the higher the wall, the weaker it gets and that at some point  the dam will burst free and swallow up more of the surrounding areas – villages and road links.

Our meetings in Surabaya included meeting up with an old friend and customer Mr Ah Lung….a lovely man and his wife who always lend us their driver and car when we are in town..he had recently visited the UK for the first time last month and so we spent an hour at lunch going through his photographs….many of them in my nearest city of Manchester, that I haven’t even visited myself!

Throughout Indonesia, there are many differing preferences for fragrances in general. Jasmine is always a safe bet, but some areas prefer it to be heavy and some prefer it to be a background note instead. Sweet candy like fragrances always go down well here  and light florals such as rose too. Grapefruit and sharp lime notes are deemed too sour, and cherry is too medicinal. Fresh, clean citrusy aromas tend to be found in most products.

As we make our way back to Jakarta for my last night in Indonesia, I am looking forward to a hot bath and a mojito before the long flight back to the UK. I hope you enjoyed my adventures here as much as I did

Bali next……

 I have been here once before in 2007, and i felt that it was a very spiritual place – I couldn’t really put my finger on why….. I hope that my second visit leaves the same impression.

Its night time when I arrive, and one thing I hadn’t noticed before was the shape of the moon. When we have part moons in the UK , we get a crescent shape, but the moon here is lit from the underside making it look like a large Cheshire cat smile in the sky.

As you can imagine its very warm here even at 9pm but guess what, they even have hoodies here in Bali! They are all hanging around the airport asking if you need any help with your bags. I arrive at my hotel and am given a beautiful free garland of flowers and a glass of fruit nectar! The flowers smell divine  – a combination of fragrant Jasmine blossoms and small red rose buds, and the aroma hangs around for 3 days (much longer than the delicious drink!)

The following day I am collected from my hotel by our local agent for Bali, Mr Benny and our Indonesian agent Andy for today’s visits. I notice that a lot of the trees and the roadside statues have checked cloths around them. I ask the reason for this and am told that they denote cosmic duality – the concept of good versus evil. The Balinese see the world in terms of opposites, night and day, good and bad, mountain and sea. One cannot exist without the other. The cloth is known as Poleng and is the perfect representation of this view – the squares are of equal size, perfect black and perfect white. Grey squares contain both black and white strands to show that you cannot have one without the other.

Most of the statues are also shaded by ornate parasols which are seen as symbols of protection for obvious reasons.

There seems to be an awful lot of activity around the temples and this is because there are many public cremations to be held today. In Denpasar alone there are a total of 40 bodies waiting to be cremated. It is a day of great ceremony –  all the villagers help to build the funeral pyres, even the children help to thread the flower garlands that will decorate the cemeteries  and the bodies. Cremations are an important and elaborate event in Bali, but because of the monetary cost, most people can’t afford to have their departed cremated straight away. Families therefore, often wait months for the public cremation so that the villagers can pool resources and have a ceremonious send off. I think the fact that everyone is involved whether you have anyone to cremate or not brings the village together as a whole and also de-mystifies the process of death….here it is always a celebration of life rather than a sad occasion. I like the idea of death being so much a normal part of life.

Our main business here in Bali is fragrance for Incense. The whole island has a fragrant aroma, with incense being burned on every street corner, in every home and every temple. It is burnt as an offering to the Gods. No-one knows exactly where the Gods might be at any given time, but the Balinese believe that smoke from the incense will find its way to the Gods, assuring that the relevant prayers and offerings will be delivered.

As I leave Bali on my way up to Jakarta, I spy a wooden lizard in one of the craft stalls at the airport. The lizard now adorns my lounge wall and is known to everyone as Mr Benny!

Next stop Surabaya and Jakarta…..

The Space Shuttle Atlantis landed back at Cape Canaveral on Thursday at 5.57am, heralding the end of NASA’s 30 year shuttle programme.

It has been NASA’s longest running space flight programme and in the words of Commander Christopher Ferguson ‘After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle has earned its place in history. And it’s come to a final stop.”

Only 12 people have walked on the Moon – all of them American, and so it is only through these handful of astronauts that we can glean any real information as to the atmospheric conditions up there.  Apollo 17 astronaut, Gene Cernan gives us an insight to the mysterious smell of moondust. You might be wondering how he could smell the moons surface as they were fully covered in their lunar spacesuits, but the trouble with moondust is that it suffers from a terrible case of static cling (bit like my hair actually!). This I am informed is due to the solar winds constantly bombarding it with electrons. Therefore, after every moonwalk, although the astronauts did their best to remove the dust, it was trampled back inside the lander on their boots and also on their helmets and gloves.

Once the helmets and gloves were taken off, the astronauts could feel, taste and smell the moon. It apparently feels soft like snow but has an abrasive quality, and the smell is akin to burnt gunpowder. All the astronauts are in agreement with the smell, and are all very specific that it is like burnt gunpowder not the unfired variety. Curiously, back on Earth, moondust has no smell whatsoever. There are a few theories as to why this might be as follows…

The moon is akin to a 4 billion year old desert, incredibly dry. Once the moondust came into contact with the moist air inside the lunar module it began to give off odour in a similar way to the the smell that we get here as the first big splats of rain hit the pavement after a hot dry spell.

Another theory is that the the smell comes from the evaporation of gases caused by the solar winds once in contact with moist air.

There is yet another theory that oxygen when combined with the chemicals in the moondust could create oxidation which, although too slow for smoke or flames, could produce a burnt aroma.

So, if any of these theories apply then the samples brought back for study would already have been ‘pacified’, and any smelly chemical reactions therefore, would have ended long ago.

Nasa plans to send people back to the moon in 2018, and hopefully we will be able to discover more about the smell of the moon. In the meantime, whilst researching moon information I came across this recipe for your own home made moon oil….have fun

MAGIC MOON OIL

13 drops of sandalwood oil

9 drops of vanilla extract

3 drops of jasmine oil

1 drop of rose oil

Mix oils together prior to the next full moon and then place on a windowsill in a clear container overnight in the light of the moon. This captures the energy of the moon. Use to anoint yourself or in an oil burner when you feel that you need a burst of moon energy…and of course dont forget to let me know how you get on with all your newfound energy!

It seems that the world has been gripped by royal wedding fever. I’m not sure whether it is more to do with the fact that the majority of us have been granted an impromptu extra bank holiday though, but hey ho, I’ll take it with a gracious smile and I’ll definitely be watching at least some of the wedding on Friday.

Most of the available wedding information is being guessed at, as the whole event is shrouded in secrecy. Usually we at least know the name of the dress designer by now, but even that has been kept a closely guarded secret, with a rumour that in fact, 3 designers have been commissioned to create wedding dresses in case of any spillages  to the press!

The royal wedding bouquet will however continue one tradition, which dictates that a royal bouquet should contain a sprig of Myrtle from the bush grown from the original Myrtle in Queen Victoria’s wedding bouquet. The Myrtle symbolises a long and happy marriage.

 All royal bouquets contain fragranced blooms designed to evoke lasting memories of the occasion.

Kate (or Catherine as we will now have to get used to referring to her) will not be following the tradition of throwing her bouquet back into the crowd of waiting ladies, ready to find out who will be getting married next, but will send her bouquet back to Westminster Abbey to be placed on the black marble resting place of the unknown soldier as  royal brides have done in previous years.

There has also been a lot of speculation with regards to the fragrance that Kate will wear on her special day. The big money must be on Houbigant, founded in Paris in 1775, and who have a long historical royal link. (it is rumoured that Marie Antoinette was recognised and captured because the Houbigant perfume she wore was recognised as a royal fragrance – no-one else could afford to use it).

Diana, Princess of Wales wore Houbigant Quelque Fleurs on her wedding day, and it may be the choice for Kate, as Prince William has made it clear that he would like to think his mother will be there with them in spirit. It is a floral classic created with a plethora of jasmine, rose, tuberose, carnation and ylang, gently warmed by precious sandalwood, powdery orris and musks, all combining to give a fresh, warm powdery effect.

And finally, here are some facts and figures about the upcoming nuptuals…

At 29 Kate will become the oldest royal bride to walk down the aisle – most royal brides are in their teens when they marry.

If William becomes King, then Kate will be the 6th Queen Catherine of England – until then, she will be known as HRH Princess William of Wales, unless they are given a Dukedom……

Westminster Abbey is over 700 years old and holds 2,200 people. It has been the site of Coronations since William I’s in 1066. Many royal weddings have taken place here, including our current Queen Elizabeth II’s to Prince Philip in 1947.

After the formal ceremony a lucky 600 chosen guests will attend a wedding breakfast at Buckingham Palace including Champagne, canapes and speciality hors d’oeuvres. Desserts will include petit fours, mini eclairs and assorted mousse. A multi-tiered wedding cake will take centre stage, and will most likely be adorned with sugar flowers and perhaps William’s coat of arms.

As well as over 40 foreign royals, including the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, the emperor of Japan, and the kings of Malaysia, Tonga and Thailand, Prince William has invited some guests who have affected him personally in one way or another, including members of the homeless community and soldiers injured in Afghanistan and Iraq.

My last little nugget of information comes from one of our local Bolton businesses, Greenhalghs Craft Bakery, who after hearing that the happy couple were touring the North West, decided to create sugar crafted models of Wills and Kate in order for them to embark on a mini tour of the local Greenhalghs shops, ending up back in Bolton’s Deansgate store in time for the wedding on Friday.

So, whatever you have planned on Friday, whether you want to watch the wedding or just chill in the garden, I hope you all have a lovely long Bank Holiday weekend.

Based in Bury, Carvansons supply

fragrance and compounds for you to try.

A little scent of rose for a candle you see,

or maybe a violet would fill you with glee.

How about pine for your new bathroom cleaner,

or a sharp cut grass to make it greener.

A new detergent powder could smell really nice

with a baby powder fragrance and a little hint of spice.

The latest fragrance trends you’ll find with us

and we’ll happily send them without a fuss.

So why not have a think and give us a call,

no job for us is too large or too small!

January saw me jetting off to the Far East – Malaysia and the Philippines to be precise, to meet up with our agents from Unifragrance and also Proessences. Each year in January we hold a seminar in Manila, that allows us to present the latest fragrance trends in the market. The four main trends at the minute are as follows:-

A LOOK TO THE PAST

Economic stress sees us automatically look to the past with nostalgia. We look to history to provide us with a glimpse of the future. During difficult times consumers seek comfort in familiarity, tending to gravitate towards classic florals. Over the next few months, be on the lookout for new perfumes dominated by floral notes such as rose and violet. These scents remind us of simpler times, and that memory can be of great comfort when you are surrounded by stress.

A BRIGHTER FUTURE

New fragrance launches coming down the pipeline are going to be bold, vibrant exciting with an element of fantasy. As we begin to move out of sobering economic times, consumers will seek escape and colour and this will translate as a collection of unusual technicolour ingredients. We will become more adventurous, with sophisticated rich woody notes as the heart and soul of new fragrances. These notes have depth and character and have traditionally only previously been seen in men’s fragrances.

BE YOUR OWN NOSE

Once an area only reserved for those in the know, personalised, custom fragrances are gaining popularity thanks to newer, more accessible ways to get it. The $10,000 bespoke blend still exists but customized perfume is now happily at a realistic price point. Consumers want to express their individuality, and there are now many affordable ways to achieve this. Fragrance houses such as Dolce & Gabbana and Ralph Lauren launched fragrance collections that could be worn alone or layered to achieve a personalized scent. Custom fragrance bars are appearing in shopping centres where a consultant can guide you through the notes and accords, and you walk away with a truly original signature scent. Designing your own personal fragrance is well worth the time and experimentation.

TELL A TALE….

Perfume companies have realised that it takes more than a whiff of a scent to get people hooked. Right now, story telling is especially relevant. People want to know how a fragrance has been created and the work that has been put into it, as well as being able to tap into the emotional connection of the designer. It is a quest for authenticity, and when you know why the perfumer chose those particular notes and accords and his inspiration, the whole experience becomes more genuine.

Once you know the current trends it is much easier to select a new fragrance direction for your product. Although at the moment the trends apply to designer type perfumes, this is always just the pre-cursor for soaps, candles, detergent powders, air fresheners and a myriad of all types of household products.

We currently have a selection of fragrances that cover all aspects of the trends mentioned above so please feel free to email or ring our office where one of our helpful staff will guide you through the best fragrances for your particular product – all designed to help you become  the market leader in your field.