Debuting today are:
-Bluegrass, Newly-mown lawns, sweet chamomile, and crisp, green tea leaf.

-Bonfire, Dense woodsmoke, sugared with molasses, and sweetened with tobacco.

-Mint Medley, Crisp, summer-sweet wild mints - equal parts peppermint, cornmint and spearmint.

-Suede, Smooth, blue leather - new car seats, your favourite stilettos, and that worn-in jacket.

That brings our collection of single notes up to 26, giving us a new number of possible combinations of 23,751. We're excited to debut single notes that are little more distinctly Villainess - leather, smoke and greenery? Are practically staples 'round these parts. We hope you enjoy the fabulous new combinations these offer.

Personally? I'm taking home a Suede/Vanilla Bean/Incense/Unearthed mini-jar, and cannot wait to grab a shower!

One caveat - Bonfire is not currently available due to some back-ordered components. But with three out of the four ready to ship, we hated to make you wait. Bonfire should be available by next week, so keep an eye out for a 'blog update with a proper picture of the new guys!

• Canada, Ontario - Heartbreaker
  Get a facial, a mani/pedi, a skillful wax, and pick up your favourite selection of Villainess items on the way out of this chic Toronto salon. Visit them at 889 Dundas St. W.

• Netherlands, Nijmegen - Alice & Jo's havesentials offer a great lineup of awesome brands and now? A little Villainess to top things off!
  

• Wisconsin - Bella Ancora
  
  Kenosha locals, get your Villainess fix here! Find home accents and gifts at 5621 6th Ave.

• Colorado - La Henna Boheme
  
  Located in the Manitou Springs shopping district, find a great selection of Villainess essentials and eclectic gifts for your bohemian lifestyle.

• California - Le Pink Apothecary
  
  Located in the Silver Lake neighbourhood of L.A., find Villainess and a positive wealth of fabulous luxury brands at 3820 W. Sunset Blvd.

• Oregon - Urban Waxx
  
  "The best wax you'll ever have. Seriously." You just don't want to mess with a mediocre wax job - and this Portland salon has this niche-market cornered by specialising in this high-priority service. Vist them at 1036 NW 18th Ave for a comfortable, professional atmosphere and a great selection Villainess best sellers.

(We tend to do cumulative blog entries to showcase new resellers - for an up-to-the-minute listing, keep an eye on our Official Retailers page.)

Returning this year, is The Truffle Trade A neglected box o' chocolates - cherry cordials, coconut creams, almond clusters, raspberry parfaits - covered in dust, tossed aside for bigger game. Last year's debut scent was an unmitigated success - we loved it, you loved it. There was much love. It returns this year in Smooch!, Soap, Whipped! and Extrait formats.

Torchsong also returns for an encore. 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. And available once more in Smooch!, Soap, Whipped! and Extrait.

Raspberry Swirl is a perennial favourite with its Sweet red raspberry creamed with soft vanilla. We started this one in... 2005? Wow. It too returns in Smooch!, Soap, Whipped! and Extrait.

The cult favourite Miss Edith with Lemony black tea with milk, English Lavender and Roses beneath a thick layer of dust returns in a limited run of Soap and Extrait.

Lipstick Lost is an older scent that has only appeared as Soap once in 2005. It is Total adolescence. Effervescent cherry, smart-aleck sassafras and a creamy dollop of vanilla. and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to give it a facelift! Lipstick Lost appears in Soap, a delicious cherry-laden Smooch!, and our classic Whipped! body lotion.

This month's Staff Pick is Truffle Trade Smack!. It is "A single scoop of Chocolate Mousse layered over a gooey Coconut Milk center, a Raspberry Plum filling, and a touch of Cherries Jubilee." and it's exquisite. Other readily layer-able recommendations?
Raspberry Swirl Smack - 2 Layers Raspberry Plum and 2 Vanilla Bean
Truffle Trade Noir - Chocolate Mousse, Unearthed, Coconut Milk & Raspberry Plum.
Torchsong Smack - 1 Lei Flowers, 1 Red Woods, 1 Vanilla Bean, 1 Coconut Milk

In further Smack! news, we are switching the lineup a bit. Both our Lei Flower and Summer Melon single notes will be retired (and thus, unavailable) by February 14th. We staged an informal survey via blog and the overwhelming response has been pro Bonfire and Bluegrass, so those will be available "soon" (i.e. ETA yet to be determined).

And for those who missed our winter clearance sale (just before New Year's), we've discounted the last few units of our winter Black Label items by that same 20%.

Thanks for writing in guys!

Brooke

On our list of considerations are:

• Apple Orchard - Red Delicious and Granny Smiths.


• Bluegrass - Chamomile, sweet hay, and grass stains.


• Bonfire - Sweet brown sugar and big gusts of smoke.


• Matcha - Perfect green tea.


• Mint Medley - Peppermint, Spearmint and Cornmint essential Oils.

So drop us a line or weigh in on the forum and let us know what you think!

First, since your dessert structures might be crumbling to pieces, we think it's the perfect time to indulge in a little Gingerbread Whorehouse! Our best-selling/smelling collaboration with Possets Perfume returns, and it is still aweseome.

Second, I am experimenting with a fabulous frosty fir concoction that we've dubbed Freezerburn. It is "Siberian fir and stately pines dusted with powder-soft layers of sweet snow." It's not ideal if you're hoping to escape the snow and cold, but if you've only got a light dusting of frost on your shrubberies? Might be nice to set the winter mood!

Third, button yer seatbelts! Mercury officially enters its retrograde period tomorrow. Mars, of course, entered it's retrograde a week ago - you may have already noticed a nice, slow, sense of inertia setting in. Objects at rest, et al. Thus, our Perfume Oil returns.

Finally, we're ready to start fresh with 2010, so our entire Black Label collection (featuring selections from our Fall & Winter releases) is at 20% off. Auto-deducted from the cart, no codes, no hoops. The aforementioned Freezerburn and Retrograde items are the only non-discounted items, and they will checkout at the normal full-size product prices.

And now, I indulge in a little more mid-winter torpor.

Sonja at The Coveted has done a wonderful series of articles where Villainess products were featured. An Oil for an Oil, non only covers Villainess Slick, but serves as a wonderful rundown of oil cleansing and how/why it works. It's a great starter article with some equally great product recs. She also takes us Around the World in a Bottle, with a guide to the Elixirs of Love, and covers a very necessary handful of Beauty Solutions.

And Liza at Evil Monito writes beautiful lyric reiviews that are just as indulgent as the luxuries she covers. I enjoyed Trauma Perfume, Trauma Soap, and Smooch by Villainess.

With the single exception of Chocolate Covered Cherries. This is a 3rd generation tradition that predates my birth. Every year that I can remember, my grandma has sent a box of these delicious candies. I suspect this is a tradition I've benefited from peripherally - when I was small, my mom very generously shared her precious gift. When I was older, and received my very own box? That was probably the single most special present I received that year.

So now it's December, and I wanted to share own of my very own winter memories with you. We've created a Cherry Cordial Smack! for our monthly staff-pick. One perfect scoop of Cherries Jubilee, nestled in a gooey Vanilla Bean cream and encased in two decadent scoops of Chocolate Mousse.

It's a simple, but perfectly balanced blend, and we've been hard-pressed not to taste-test this one.

A handful of other contender's for December's Smack o' the Month?

Gloop - 2 Scoops Marshmallow, 2 Scoops Chocolate Mousse

Just Desserts Lite - 2 Scoops Fresh Squeezed Citrus, 2 Scoops Vanilla Bean

Just Desserts (with a kick) - 1 Scoop Fresh Squeezed Citrus, 1 Scoop Spice Trade, 2 Scoops Vanilla Bean

Mudslide - 1 Scoop Vanilla Bean, 1 Scoop Unearthed, 2 Scoops Espresso

Just Desserts Smooch will be returning to inventory on 12/07/09, but that will be the last of our restocking efforts. Items removed from our Black Label category will not be returning to our inventory this year - due to the late date, and the extended prep time for soaps (because they require weeks of curing time).

Please keep in mind that we always have something new waiting in the wings , and that our wonderful resellers should be able to help you out with most items.

USPS Priority and Priority International Packages
APOs - December 8th, Midnight CST

Asia, Australia, Mexico - December 8th, Midnight CST

Europe & Canada - December 11th, Midnight CST

United States - December 18th, Midnight CST

Some international users may select USPS First Class shipping options - we do not recommend this if your gift is time-sensitive as they often get delayed and have no real tracking capacity should a delay occur. If you want to risk it, the following dates apply:

USPS First Class International Packages
Asia, Australia, Mexico - December 4th, Midnight CST

Europe & Canada - December 8th, Midnight CST

That factor concerns repackaged samples. Longtime Villainess fans will know that we offer sample-sizes of our general catalog Soap, Smooch, Whipped! and Mud! products. We do not offer samples of our Extrait (yet) and we never offer samples of Black Label products (find more on "why" below). TFM has distributed repackaged samples of our Black Label soaps - when asked not to, they completely failed to respond with any assurances that they would comply. My uneasiness increased to shock and dismay when reading TFM's Update page confirmed that they were also repackaging Arcana Soaps and Limited Edition perfume oils. I, like most Arcana fans, (Julia's soap competes for shower space with my own) know that they do not provide those samples. This, and the continued radio silence, combine to make this situation intolerable. I cannot work with someone who can treat my colleagues' work with such disregard.

We wish TFM the very best, but have to caution that any Black Label products, Extrait, or un-labelled samples are not authorized by Villainess.

Finally, I'd like to elaborate on the reasoning behind what we do and don't offer in sample format, and why repackaging is so dangerous. We don't offer samples of Black Label products due to availability. A sample size is a promise of sorts - that once you've tried and liked a sample, you can come back and get a Full Size item. If you're talking about our Black Labe items (where we're working with limited stock) it's a risky proposition to make good on that promise. It would make LE runs longer than we really want, overlapping with the next Black Label Event. Some general catalog items (our Extrait for example) are unavailable in sample format because we haven't had an opportunity to design packaging and stock the samples. Distributing those samples with someone else's packaging and labels does us no favours (in regards to enriching our distinct branding, or the care we invest in every product's development), and makes follow-up purchasing difficult. Finally, repackaging many body products poses a quality risk - official Villainess samples are processed with the same care for sanitation, preservation, and contamination as our full-size products. We can make no guarantees for samples re-packaged outside of our facility.

I'll be disabling comments on this entry because this is not a topic that should be open for debate. But I hope that our official statement will put to rest much of the concern and speculation these events have piqued.

Discontent and slumber. Rosemary and sage stuffing, canned cranberries, three kinds of pie, and burnt fall foliage. I had SUCH fun designing this (slightly bizarro) fragrance. Some of you may be burnt out from smelling food All Day Long and Ingrate might not be for you. Of course, others may be gluttons for punishment, stuffing aficionados, or cranberry addicts. Those special souls will love the slightly-sweetened herbiness of Ingrate, and we are happy to share it with you.

The Fine Print
Ingrate is not currently for sale, and is only available as a free gift with orders subtotaling $25 (that's after any Mastermind Points, and before shipping). One per customer (i.e. multiple orders will not receive multiple bars), one per order (e.g. $50 orders will not receive 2 bars). You must add the item to your cart, but adding multiple items will result in a $100 charge per bar - limit it to one bar. The offer is scheduled to end Monday night at midnight US Central time, but we may extend it if we have additional stock.

Mall Santa is The pervasive scent of cinnamon buns and cream cheese frosting, underscored with cheap whiskey, tobacco stains, toffee candies and delicious filthy lucre. - it's seasonal, it's a little grinchy (and Villainess-approved), and it's the single most edible blend I've smelled in months. The Smooch! is a stunner, even by our standards. A layer of our molasses-drenched brown sugar scrub, topped with a fluffy layer of confectioner's sugar scrub. This is cream-cheese frosting, made bath-worthy. The Soap features creamy white curves against a cinnamon-flecked backdrop, and the Whipped! is underscored with a nice wearable layer of myrhh. Call it a "new classic" - we're sure Mall Santa will be with us for years to come.

Returning favourites include... Gloop - Fluffed marshmallow fudge. It wouldn't be winter without our delectable marshmallowy concoction. Available once more in Soap, Smooch!, and Whipped! format and a limited-label-run Gloop Perfume Oil (a 2008 vintage loaded with aged cocoa absolute).

Frostbite - Jasmine and lily of the valley frozen with fir and green apple. An incisive bite of citrus, and a chilling wooden core. Still one of the prettiest soaps we make! Available once more in Soap and Smooch! formats, and due to popular request, a beautiful creamy Whipped! lotion.

Just Desserts - Blood oranges dripping over a warm, resinous vanilla, wrapped in a dry peel of orange zest. The best part of a creamsicle, all grown up. Available once more in Soap, Smooch!, and Whipped! format.

And finally, our Winter Edition Scintillating Smooch! features our year-round vanilla mint accented with crushed all-natural candy-canes. It's festive and predictably scintillating!

Due to unprecedented demand we do have limited stock on some items - we will be restocking them through December though, so don't worry if you're favourite item is temporarily out of stock. And if you don't want to wait on an order from V-HQ, give our fine retailers a try.

And just in time for gifting we've restocked our full selection of Cuppa teas and cocoas! Better yet? We're pleased to introduce the Official Villainess Mug for your beverage-related convenience. It's a big 15 oz mug, heavy black ceramic, and decked with our signature in matte silver. We'll stock these year-round with an upgraded serving of our exclusive Cuppa! teas and cocoas. For now, they'll arrived gift-wrapped with our frosty winter ribbon:

Our monthly Staff Pick Smack! is an appropriately cozy ode to Daylight Saving's Time. Cold November mornings - too early, too cold and not nearly enough caffeine. Falling leaves and Red Woods, Espresso with a warm shot of Spice Trade, and a creamy touch of Vanilla Bean.

In policy related Big News, we're both pleased and saddened to limit our fabulous Free Shipping offer to North American destinations. We established our international free shipping policy because we believe Villainess loot should be a global privilege and we wanted to make it as easy as possible to access that privilege. That plan worked so beautifully that we're establishing wonderful relationships with indie retailers outside of the US (many of whom have established their own comparable free-shipping policies). Since you can get Villainess a little closer to home, we're dialing the freebies back to North America (and temporarily) Australia. We're thrilled to have expanded our reach so very far, 'though we're feeling a little nostalgic for the early days. Thank you for growing with us!

'think that's it, guys! Enjoy!

This fall we're returning with the very best of our seasonal favourites, and releasing two new much-requested layers... First, the pumpkin goodies. Smashing Soap, Smooch!, Tarts!, and Whipped! products, in our classic "Creamy sweet pumpkin pie with a full complement of spices - cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves."

An encore of Killer Treez Soap ("The bleeding sap of a thousand fallen conifers covered in maple syrup."), and a short run of Moral Decay Soap ("Honey sweet, smoky lapsang souchong tea, brewed too strong and liberally debauched with aniseed, ginger, cinnamon, bergamot and gentian."). Strychnine, on the other hand, we have a love/hate relationship with. We love the scent, but dread making the soap (it's a nightmare guys, seriously). So this year, we've captured the best part of "Ripe peaches and green apples spiked with a menacing hint of cinnamon and ginger, sweetened with tobacco and underscored with burning oak and earth." and deliver it in our perfected, 100% soy-wax Burn! votives.

We've had repeat-requests for a coffee scrub so we're taking advantage of this newly-chilly season to expand our Mudslide collection with a really fabulous cocoa-butter and Rhassoul clay Smooch!, our year-round Whipped! formula, and a return of the exfoliating, clay-laden Soap. Remember our "Positively filthy mix of day-old coffee grounds and vetyver, blackened hazelnut, sweet graham, and rich cream."? It's still incredible.

We've also created two appropriately creepy Staff Picks from our Smack! collection this month. Exhumation is: "Layers of visceral Raspberry Plum goo, Chocolate Mousse treats, tooth-rotting Candy Floss and the grave's own Unearthed filth." and Exsanguination is: "Crimson pools of Cherries Jubilee, Raspberry Plum and Berry Patch and drips of dragon's blood-rich Incense.". Both are fabulous introductions to the line if you're stumped for ideas, and will be available pre-made through October.

In further Big News, we are slowly making progress with our facial care line! This month, we're releasing our Shanghaied Facial Smooch! and Silk & Cyanide Facial Smooch!. Just like our body products, the facial Smooch! line features exfoliant material in a self-emulsifying oil base. Unlike the body products, the exfoliants are much finer to prevent capillary abrasions and the oil base is much lighter to avoid comedones. Predictably, Shanghaied uses finely-milled rice powder to cleanse gently, and microscopic bamboo extract to polish. Nestled in a nourishing base of rice bran oil (an anecdotal anti-ager) and green tea extract (antioxidant rich), Shanghaied Smooch! is lightly spiked with stimulating citrus essential oils, and a smattering of ylang ylang for sensitive to normal skin. Silk & Cyanide Smooch! is slightly rougher, and features colloidal-oats to cleanse and soft-but-chunky fine-milled almond meal in a deep cleansing base of castor, sunflower and soothing sweet almond oils. Aimed at normal to oily skin, Silk is dosed with healing myrrh, oil-regulating patchouli, anti-inflammatory vetiver and fragrant bitter almond (minus the prussic acid, sadly) essential oils (and a splash of honey for sheer decadence).

These are fabulous, we are super excited to release them, and hope you all enjoy them. Those of you with sensitve to mature skin, don't feel left out - we're just put putting the final touches on our Bathory Smooch!.

'think that's it, guys! Enjoy!

First, Exhumation, fresh from the grave and absolutely delicious. "Layers of visceral Raspberry Plum goo, Chocolate Mousse treats, tooth-rotting Candy Floss and the grave's own Unearthed filth."

And then, Exsanguination, positively drenched with gore. "Crimson pools of Cherries Jubilee, Raspberry Plum and Berry Patch and drips of dragon's blood-rich Incense."

In other news, we do have fabulous plans for a suitable fall update - all your favourites and a few variations - but have been a bit sidelined by packaging delays. Not to worry - we shouldn't be any later than the ninth!

First up is The Faery's Muse - in addition to two of my favourite soapmakers (that'd be Arcana and Haunt, btw), they also carry a lovely selection of home decor and accessories.

And then, for our Canadian friends, we're exited to work with Clever Mink's Gifts. Candles and teas, plushies and purses - you're bound to discover the perfect gift at their New Westminster, BC shop.

Finally, Floridians are welcome to enjoy a massage and a little Villainess pick-me-up as well. The Pritikin Wellness Center employs a nourishing lifestyle to instill vitality. But those who need a smaller dose of vitality are welcome to visit the Aventura, FL dayspa and it's attendant giftshop.

We're working on remodelling our woefully out-dated Official Resellers listing, but in the meantime, why don't you all welcome them to the family!