I’ve had a soft spot for Lepidoptera for a long time now. I can date most of it back the reading A Girl of the Limberlost as an impressionable adolescent, but the wee birds themselves are the only explanation for my continued fascination. Butterflies are gorgeous creatures - delicate feats of aeronautics and sturdy gossamer wings. Few things are anywhere near as inspiring.
So when I designed a fragrance, composed of equal parts sweetness and indol, bitterness and vegetation, I reached for my Field Guide to settle on a namesake.
The Pipevine Swallowtail is one of those big North American birds you see in summer. Not as classic as the Monarch, but just as elegant. The caterpillars like to nosh on (surprise) Pipevines so they make for a nasty poisonous mouthful for unsuspecting predators. Adults bear big orange eyespots on their wings as “don’t eat me” advertisement. My interpretation consists of: “Aromatic basil and bitter tomato leaf in an ephemeral haze of neroli and tangerine.”
This is a really simple creme-coloured soap, no additives, just swirled with Brambleberry’s Amethyst Purple Mica. You generally see mica’s in mineral makeup compounds, used to tint transparent melt’n pour soaps, or in lip glosses; applications that provide a lot of light play and shimmer so you can really see the colours. I use them a lot to dust the creamy surface of my soap slabs, but will swirl them throughout an opaque soap as well. The end result isn’t quite as striking, but provides a burnt marbling of colour through the log that I really enjoy.
In this instance, I also polished the top of the soap using a pair of cheap powder brushes from the drugstore and more Brambleberry Mica’s. Another touch of Amethyst Purple blended into Cornflower Blue blended into Lustre Black to capture the shimmering blue-black of the Swallowtail’s wing. I debated how truly I wanted to mimic the colour scheme (honestly, if I’d planned better, I’d have shadowed the entire soap with an Australian Black Clay and ivory swirls), and ultimately decide to use the Copper Sparkle in place of the orange eyespots. We don’t keep an orange mica in house, so I improvised a bit.
The final bars don’t capture the entire colour scheme, despite my strategic polish job, so I wanted to share the uncut slab. This is probably my new favourite scent - the tomato leaf is intriguing, and plays with neroli in ways I didn’t really expect. And the basil? Very quiet for such a pungent herb.
Not too shabby, right? 
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In a previous entry I mentioned that we were working on a small, mostly-soap Black Label release because I’ve got my production team up to their elbows with our “facial stuff.” So, the soaps are curing, should be available shortly, and I thought I’d share a preview of these bad boys.
For now, Sidewalk & Killer Treez:
Sidewalk is a rare experiement in ozone and earth. “Hot concrete drenched in sunshowers. Summer melons, limeades and fresh-cut grass.” “Fresh” is a slightly pedestrian concept for Villainess. I mean, it’s just not what we do. So I really enjoyed the reinvention process, and the chance to infuse “fresh” with warmth and sweetness and a wealth of summer smells from my childhood.
Killer Treez, on the other hand… “The bleeding sap of a thousand fallen conifers covered in maple syrup. “ This one sprang from a hypothetical soap we discussed on the forums. Instead of using maple syrup like we speculated, I loaded this with pine tar - a supersticky, astringent, old-skool cure all. Supposed to be fab for psoriasis and various skin conditions. Anyways, it smells like you slaughtered an x-mas tree in a cedar closet and then polished off a short stack covered in maple syrup. Needless to say, I’m pleased.
One (or two) more soaps to preview - gotta clean up pics and gather my thoughts. 
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Okay, okay, I know you guys are anxious for our winter update, so let me reassure you - we’re workin’ on it. 
We do have a few more details to finalise to make sure everything goes smoothly, but I don’t see why we should debut any later than Monday (11/10) afternoon. And will assuredly be opting out of a weekend in order to get this lovelies live.
As proof? I offer you a sneak peek:
Worth the wait, or what?
Finally, it’s come to my attention that a good handful of you are awaiting this update as the debut of our facial collection. I was a bit boggled about this anticipation because I personally am still slathering on an antiquated Mary Kay moisturiser each morning. While it’s no secret that we’re developing epidermal delights for your precious faces, these items are nowhere near release ready or I’d have been shouting it from the rooftops. So, take advantage of this window, head over to our forum, and start wishlisting. We want to hear your every complaint, desire and pipedream for facial care.
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In an effort to determine whether our scent descriptions were either a.) redundant and hackneyed or b.) rich with purple prose, I pasted our Select-A-Scent page into a Wordle.
I am fairly pleased with the results. Clearly we specialise in gourmand scents with “sweet” and “rich” so prominently displayed.
I am disappointed in the sheer LARGENESS of “vanilla.” It’s a fabulous blender, a classic, but well… it’s done. Played out. Traditional. It’s a big reason why we’ve started heavily playing on resins - they soften, ground and sweeten a blend simultaneously, and usually add a depth that vanilla lacks.
And obviously, we need much more leather.
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So:
A memory of raw coconut infused with heavy white blossoms - tuberose, orchid, and awapuhi - and tonka bean, ginger crushed underfoot, damp moss and your vanilla perfume. Store it in a mahogony box, lit with spices.
Wordy enough to be pretentious, or so wordy it’s boring? Any chance we’ve hit an evocative happy medium? Appealing, y/n?
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Every single summer, Smooch! (that’s the plural, btw) melt. And every single summer, I completely fail to post a pre-emptive melt warning, and end up fielding a handful of (perfectly reasonable) “OMG, it melted what do I do?!” e-mails each week. 
Finally, much after the fact, I’ve devloped The Expanded User Guide to Smooch!, exploring (at length) the why, wherefore, and what-then of melting, texture, volume, and numerous other details. For a company that prides itself on fuss-free product function, it’s actually a little embarrassing. 
Perhaps it’s not too late? After all, things will melting in the Southern Hemispehre for the next 6 months unless I’m mistaken!
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As promised…
You can see that the berry frosting layer stayed just as creamy white as I’d hoped, but I couldn’t resist dusting it with a swirl of mocha and mauve shimmer. As the soap cures, the resin and cake layers will become more distinct. And OMG the fragrance! 
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Today, I made a brand new “special event” soap that I hope to have ready to go by the end of the month. It was a big production - I made 3 huge batches, and split each one into 3 layers. So we’ve got a striated soap that should look just like layer cake.
First layer - amber, sweet myrrh, a splash of frankincense, peppercorns, and ginger, and a touch of tonka bean. This is one of the best things I have EVER smelled, but then I am a sucker for resins and spice. This isn’t my typical black-pepper-trick either. I adore pepper, so I’m usually tempted to throw it in and spice up everything, but generally it lends a biting sort of greenness. This is a very warm, woody pepper that just lends heat to the resins. It’s seamless, and not a bit jarring.
Second layer - vanilla spice cake. It smells like baking, for real. Verra light on the spice - a touch of ginger, cinnamon & nutmeg - just enough to draw on the undercurrent of warmth in the resinous layer.
Third layer - pink frosting, and berries. It’s a positive riot of raspberries and blackberries mostly, you get that sweet/tart impression. Very juicy. And again, just a touch of vanilla/baked goods, to help flow w/ the cake layer.
By working with layers (and not marbling like we sometimes do), I tried to create a visual distinction between the discolouration of the fragrances. The resinous layer will almost certainly be a dark cocoa by morning (they’re sitting in the molds at present), and the cake will be lucky if it’s caramel, and ‘though I reinforced our berries with titanium dioxide (I wanted a white frosting effect) there’s just enough vanilla that it might end up a very pale tan. I may shimmer a bit o’ pink on that frosting layer, just to get the effect I was after. And then, for kicks, I threw in a good handful of pink soap marbles, so the whole affair will be polka dotted. Should be stunning.
Sneak peak tomorrow after we cut the soap. And, feel free to take a stab at guessing what “special event” could possibly be slated for early September! This is an event that I myself managed to forget - so don’t over think it.
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I’m sure that by now most of you are aware of the pending discussion of the FDA Globalization act of 2008, that would involve (at the very least) hefty annual registration fees for small cosmetic manufacturers.
Kim from Serpentine Hair, and Lela from Bella Luccè have both addressed the ramifications of this legislation very eloquently. I am (per my usual MO) much delayed in covering, discussing, and catching up with this action. I was insanely busy last week. We worked with 4 different new retailers who will be opening shops in the fall and stocking Villainess - I say “worked with” but that involved a staggering amount of product, strategic packing, sales repping, and shipping coordination. We made tons of product, and sketched out plans for Sept-Dec’s release schedule. We shipped orders in two different installments to ensure our TAT continued in its virtual nonexistence. And we began talks with PR Agents in re: to really enabling the masses via nationwide exposure. None of that even begins to take into consideration the time I scheduled in to visit the veterinarian, the acupuncturist or the lunch w/ girlfriend I didn’t get to do.
Which, is sort of my point. We are a small company. We don’t actually have a PR budget - in fact, most of my headaches are the result of pulling off Really Big projects with Very Little funding. That takes some serious finaggling. We’re working to enrich our local economy and provide jobs in a small, rural southern town. We’re working with start-ups, family businesses in other communities - people who are willing to take the financial risks surrounding small business in the midst of an economic recession.
I admit, I have a great deal of contempt for red tape, for registration and for governmental supervision. I roll my eyes at the idea of forms, of paperwork, and the small, tedious acts of compliance that registration would require. Even so, I can see a potential need for a rulebook to ensure the consumer safety. I would argue that the existing FDA Good Manufacturing Practices and voluntary compliance are a sufficient measure.
But the proposed registration fees are considerable - we’re talking several thousand - with no consideration of a company’s gross sales or production volume. This would be… cost prohibitive. Startups will be impacted the most - imagine scraping up capital (on a single parent budget, or in addition to your fulltime job) to cover not only supplies, but thousands of dollars worth of registration fees. Existing companies will feel this expenditure as well. Small business growth is inherently frustrating - until your profit margin exceeds your goals (considerably) you will continue to work on a shoe-string budget because every cent of your profit goes towards funding new projects. I cannot imagine the impact a couple thousand dollars would have on a product development budget.
So today, Anne-Marie Faiola, Jamila White, Kayla Fioravanti, Lela Barker and Donna Maria Coles Johnson (brilliant women whose organisations I admire) are lobbying in DC against this act. I know you guys care, so please Do the reading, and sign the petition. Considering the glacial speed of proposed legislation, I can’t imagine that it’s ever “too late” to voice your objections.
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Vil·lain·ess \ 'vi-lən-nəs \ n : a woman who is a villainVil·lain·ess \ 'vi-lən-nəs \ n
1 : an uncanny, articulate woman
2 : a deliberate antagonist or tease
3 : an intelligent woman in a tabloid or gossip
4 : the fall-girl in a particularly difficult situationVillainess. Redefining "bad."
