where to for faunfare from here

Something quite fantastic and unexpected has happened with Faunfare in the last month; I broke even. I made back in sales everything I have spent on bottles, business cards, envelopes and postage, and essences since my very first supplies order, including those most precious that have not even made their way into my blends yet. I don’t know how it happened, but I’m immensely grateful to the amazing customers who believed in me, my perfumes, and my vision, and satiated their curiosities with a try. The feedback that I have received has also been phenomenal and more complimentary and generous than I believe I deserve.

As thankful as I am for my journey so far, I think it’s necessary for me to take a small break from selling and spend some time alone with my oils, reminding myself why I got into perfumery in the first place. To inspire myself, I ordered a copy of Mandy Aftel’s Essence & Alchemy before I left for Amsterdam, and have been devouring it since I got back. Her book is a poetic concoction of psychology, literature, and history, which weaves a tale about how natural perfumery has evolved through the ages, suitable for both aspiring perfumers and perfume-lovers. Trish of Scent Hive also had the good fortune of meeting and interviewing Mandy Aftel at her studio and presented a brilliant blog post about her experience.

Frankly, I find it mind-blowing to think what I could aspire to with my perfumery. There is still so much more I have to learn about the world of essences and I’ve never been hungrier for the knowledge.

Two nights ago, I received an email from a well-meaning browser who nevertheless startled me with her logic. She said she doesn’t like the use of cheap, synthetic fragrance oils in perfumes and wondered if I use any of it in my blends, “because the prices are so low?” Although the word “natural” features in my shop title and product descriptions, including further details of why I choose essential oils instead of synthetic ones, I can really relate to this woman’s query because a quick search of “natural perfume” on Etsy yielded for me pages and pages of products that were neither natural… nor perfumes at many times. I found numerous stores that described their perfumes as “natural” or “botanical”, but their ingredients clearly indicated the sole use of fragrance oils. I wonder if it’s that they’ve simply picked up the trend on Etsy of calling them “natural perfume oils” without realising what it means? Indeed, I have found a lot of new people who love the fact I use natural ingredients, but if I ask, they often can’t really tell me why they think natural oils are better. I have met very, very few people who can tell the difference. More personally, her point about my low prices inferring low quality hit the nail on the head of something else you know has been on my mind—pricing.

I posted a couple of weeks ago about my philosophy on pricing and how I passionately believe in selling my perfumes at below retail price. A wonderful myth that circulates Etsy is of a seller who makes high-end designer underpants. She made modest sales until one day she decided to counterintuitively increase her prices, fitting them better into the more affluent target market whose tastes and needs she caters to and her panties flew off the shelves. I wish this was indeed the case for everyone but I soberly reminded myself that perhaps for the vast majority of us mere mortal sellers, people might just simply not want our stuff and increasing the prices will only make them not want them more. This woman’s question however, brought this panty myth back into focus and made me wonder if there were more people who were turned off my store because my prices spoke louder than my words. I just wish there was a way for me to balance my love for purveying affordable perfumes without doing my work a disservice.

This finally brings me to the title of my blog entry. Where to from here?

I’m going to a take a short sabbatical, perhaps a month or two, to read and study more about perfumery theory and technique. From my own pocket, I will fund an augmented collection of rare and precious essential oils and gradually move away from some of the more affordable oils in my initial orders. I want to reconceptualise my entire brand and line, further developing my perfumes inspired by the Ancient Greek pantheon, which has been far better received than I could dream. I want to improve each and every one of my scents, replacing the lower grade oils (e.g. vanilla infusions, ylang ylang first) with the highest ones (e.g. Madagascan vanilla absolute, ylang ylang complete), and create new products such as perfume solids in lockets and pillboxes. I also want to indulge other passions of mine, writing and photography, and produce some essays and articles about why I choose to make natural perfumes instead of full or semi-synthetic blends, and spend weeks photographing my products to get them just the way I want them.

However, I know that if I progress down this path, my perfumes will no longer be viable to be sold at $6-7 a bottle. I’d imagine my ingredients alone will exceed this price, even in 5ml bottles. As such, I’m not sure there will be a place for me on Etsy, and I may have to consider other avenues, if selling is a priority. I have lots to think about in the next few months!