Summer, the beach, Miami, and Perfumes...

There is much to relate of the passing months, and I want to begin by thanking you all for your support for the projects that were brought out in 2021, such as the last perfume release, Gong, and its accompanying music project. That was followed by a limited edition perfume, Attaupe, which was similarly successful and I appreciate the thought and attention that you all delivered in terms of feedback, thoughts, and impressions. I've been very excited to present yearly limited edition fragrances as a means of exploring ingredient profiles that I might not usually be able to use for larger releases.

As you might expect, things are brewing once again at January Scent Project, some of which I can describe for you now, and some which are in the works and so are not quite fully developed. There will be a number of projects released before the end of the year, first of which will be a new fragrance for the line, the 10th so far. This has been in progress for a number of months, and details will emerge as the profile has taken shape more firmly. Also I'm glad to announce that my project with Dave Kern of American Perfumer will be released this coming October. More information will be released as I move forward, but I will leave you with the following photo to puzzle on in the meantime.

Mysterious vegetation

Dave and I found a subject of equal interest and fascination as the focus of our idea (after a few different starts in other directions) and are so keen on this specific direction that once there, we knew this was the right place to be. I'm excited for you to join us in this limited release through American Perfumer later this year.

Miami retains an amazing “old world” feel to it, akin to what I think Cuba may have seemed like in the 50s

I was fortunate to attend the World Perfumery Congress (WPC) earlier this summer in Miami, Florida. This was somewhat double duty as both a representative for Fragrantica to do reporting and writing for the site, and as a judge for this year's Art and Olfaction Awards. I was very glad to be able to present this year's G W Septimus Piesse Award to Mandy Aftel - a new award for overall contribution to the field of scent. She was not able to attend but prepared a video message for us to enjoy. The awards were exciting, full of surprises, and a lot of joy to see colleagues and friends that I haven't met in person in a long while. Another great moment was spending an afternoon in the Miami Botanical Garden, which was very near the conference center. Although the heat and humidity was off the charts, there's something miraculous to see palms, banana trees, ylang-ylang and frangipani growing in nature and partaking in their sensuous smells.

Fascinating silvery round palm leaf seen in the Miami Botanical Gardens, South Beach.

I will also be releasing a follow up music project to the Gong album, a reimagining of a few of the songs, in roughly a month - more info will be forthcoming as this evolves. Adding in other media to the work I've been doing in perfume has been a particularly great joy in creative pursuits, as it expands the ways in which fragrance can be seen, felt, appreciated, and understood, without prescribing any particular way that it "should" be experienced.

Near a sand bluff / dune at East Beach / Quonochontaug Neck, Westerly RI.

So much more will be forthcoming in the next few months - and this year I've decided to take a bit of a break from the hectic pace of multiple jobs and actually enjoy going to the beach once in a while, which has been an incredibly good idea. Just having time to listen to the waves, sit in the sun, swim, and read while under an umbrella is a lot like a 19th century spa cure. I had the very, very strange experience of making some visits to a particularly rough surf beach near the point where Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island meets the corner with Long Island Sound in the Atlantic. It's difficult for me to describe exactly how rough the waves can get at this spot - the highest and most violent waves I've seen in my life. Not quite knowing what I was getting into, I was blissfully walking in the sand and sea only to be pulled dramatically into the ocean... and then repeatedly tossed back on shore by another wave, then pulled under again. It was all laughable for about the first SIX times it happened, then it wasn't so fun (especially after I'd literally swallowed a mouthful of sand and salt water.) Finally, after I'd been tossed about like driftwood more than a dozen times, a lifeguard came to help me up and out of this vicious cycle and reminded me that the waves were particularly bad that day. Moments like these, though they can be scary, are also instructive about the brut force of nature and its eerie beauty / awesome power. I feel like there's a lot of import in what happened but I'm strangely glad for that experience. My connection to the ocean is a strong one, and I love being there, but also feel like I've come to know that it can be an angry body of water too, and that's totally normal - and something we should have respect for.

Fast moving current in Westerly, RI.

But I've been reminded how wonderful summer is, what a small and fascinating pleasure it is to be on the sand with a book between your hands while the sun radiates over you. I hope that you too are taking some time to let the sun warm your skin and give you that sense of intense comfort that only comes from that natural blanket of light.