MOVING FORWARD
The two of us here at OLO Fragrance have spent the last 24 hours reflecting on what is important to us and how to move forward in a positive way to support our community and stand up for marginalized people and the environment. We are educating ourselves to seek out organizations to donate our time and money in order to lift up those in need.
Today we have made a donation to the ACLU. For almost 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
We are also donating 25% of online sales from customers using discount code: MOVINGFORWARD
From Thursday 11/10 through Saturday 11/12 you can use the discount code to receive 25% off your online purchase and we will donate that amount to the ACLU.
OLO European Travel Log 2016
One of the best parts about running OLO has got to be seeking out stores to represent our brand. Or visiting the stores that already do. We went to Belgium, France and Iceland back in January to visit some of our European stockists. You can find OLO at Tom Greyhound in Paris, Aftur in Reykjavik and Clouds in my Coffee in Gent.
Here are some of our favorite pictures from all three countries.
Romy and Maxim Northover + OLO Fragrance Alliance
This isn't about a collaboration, this is about an alliance. Three people doing what they do best just for the experience.
There are those moments in life when you see a person's art and you not only admire the work but you like the person without even knowing them. That's how I felt when I came across Romy Northover. I first saw Romy's ceramics online. Even before I was able to experience her ceramics in person I was immediately struck by how her work was both raw and refined. Each piece has it's own story and personality. She is such a talented artist. We picked up her line for the shop and I've been in love ever since.Through Instagram, I became familiar with Maxim Northover. He's a stop-motion animator and illustrator and Romy's brother! I started following him on Instagram and became familiar with his drawings and films through his posts. His puppets are my faves. The Northover's are such genuine and gifted people. I'm lucky to have the opportunity to share my perfume with them and have them reciprocate in such an extraordinary way.
Our focus for these works, GOLD. Au. Atomic number 79.
Golden Vein is a scent I released for a limited run in 2011. Golden Vein smells like the warm sun baking a field of flowers onto the skin. I reworked it recently and thought of Romy because of her 22 Karat Climax Cups. They make my heart fill with warmth just looking at them. She made a vessel to compliment Golden Vein and it's perfect. Maxim's video captures the transformation the piece makes with the application of gold, how nature makes magic combining the elements.
OLO - GOLD VEIN from Maxim Northover on Vimeo.
Thanks to Romy Northover for the vessel, Maxim Northover for the video, and sound design by Owen Wallace Lasch.
OLO Fragrance Store AKA Milk Milk Lemonade
Remember that time I was walking down the street and rented a storefront without a plan? What was I even doing? I was so nervous to open a store but I just couldn't pass on the opportunity. It was a stressful endeavor but I'm glad Jonathan and I decided to expand this business together. It's been a little over a year and things are finally settling down. The store feels like home and it's great to actually meet the people that wear OLO.
Building out a store is crazy! We are grateful to Matthew Philip Williams for his design collaboration skills and building super powers. He was able to bring to life both our clean esthetic and sense of humor. It's the perfect space for us to spend the day. Anna Korte, of AKVintage, also created the beautiful string painting that occupies the wall behind the jewelry case. It fills the room with softness. This place wouldn't be the same without these touches. Thanks friends!
Jonathan and I are here working almost everyday, even if the store is technically closed. If you see us just knock on the door and we will gladly let you in. Hours do fluctuate because this business is just the two of us. We communicate via Twitter and Instagram if you want to double check before stopping by. If you still us the telephone for voice talking our digits are (503) 970-1173. Call us.
Milk Milk Lemonade 1407 SE Belmont St, Portland OR 97214
Hours: Thursday-Saturday 11am-6pm, Sundays 11am-4pm
Palm Springs and Joshua Tree, CA
We took a much need mini vacation to Palm Springs and Joshua Tree last week after our work trip to Los Angeles. The desert is the perfect place to escape from the everyday stresses of life and just be alone. So alone. It was perfect.
Rocks and Minerals
We just paid a visit to the Rice Museum of Rocks and Minerals. Definitely check this place out if you haven't yet! Words cannot describe.
Free 1ml Dafne
The great February Fake Out 2015 continues on into March here in Portland, Or. Daphne has been blooming for weeks! In celebration of this fortunate weather we will be giving away 1ml vials of Dafne with all online orders through March 8th. Enjoy!
New OLO products
We are excited to debut Calcine incense cones and our new body care line, OLO Botanique. The first items to be released in the OLO Botanique line will be the Rose Face Solution, Cedar & Rose Body Oil and Cedar & Rose Moisturizing Soap. The fragrance formula for these products is based on the popular Cedar & Rose perfume and hair tonic. The OLO Botanique line is vegan and 100% natural.
Cedar & Rose Moisturizing Soap
Cedar & Rose Body Oil and Rose Face Solution
Calcine Incense Cones
The soap is made of shea butter, olive oil and RSPO-certified palm oil. Your skin is left clean and soft with just the hint of cedar and rose.
We use organic apricot kernel, jojoba and rosehip oils for the body oil and face solution. This blend of oils is formulated to hydrate your skin without leaving a greasy residue. The rose rejuvenates and tones the skin while the oils replenish moisture.
The Calcine incense are packaged 26 cones to a tin along with a small ceramic plate for burning. The burn time is 15 to 20 minutes and will leave the room scented with notes of cedar and vetiver for a few hours or more.
This line will only be available at our store, Milk Milk Lemonade. We are located at 1407 SE Belmont here in Portland for those of you that were unaware of our location. Hours are posted daily on our Twitter but we are typically open to the public Thurs-Sat 11am-6pm, Sun 11am-4pm. We will put them on the website soon but feel free to email directly if you just can't wait!
GIVING AND RECEIVING INSPIRATION
Let me start this off by stating that I love the World Wide Web. Love it. I can find anything I need in minutes, sometimes seconds. My iPhone is truly a magic box. But everyone who’s ever read a fairy tale knows magic comes with a price. I pay this price by dedicating hours a day meditating into this screen. I’ve seen at least one million cats doing something adorable and I know the most random personal information about famous people thanks to Wikipedia. The time I save finding out information I need is credited back two fold to the amount of time I waste cruising mindlessly for matter that doesn’t matter to me in the least. I’ve thought about this more and more recently and I’m determined I’m going to be more mindful with my time spent online. I want to focus more on the physical space I’m actually occupying, the people that are right in front of me. You know, give my undivided attention to what I’m doing instead of glancing down at my phone repeatedly while in the middle of a conversation. Maybe actually looking at the coastline and taking in its beauty instead of mentally cropping it into an image to post on social media. I’m becoming overwhelmed by the amount of information I take in and put out online every day. I will continue to use social media, it would be insane not to. I just want to rein it in a little.
The reason I post images of my life is because I enjoy having a connection to my customers. I’ve become friends with many people in other cities just through posting on Instagram, eventually even meeting some in person. I love recognizing a customer’s name and seeing their art or music or whatever it is they do. We inform each others lives and work and that is always a positive thing. But, there is always a little bit of stress involved with revealing behind the scenes information online. I have tried to take the stance that my business is so small no one is really paying attention to what I do. Over the years I’ve been proven wrong. People totally pay attention! It’s not always the kind of attention I want. I have no idea how many people I’ve inspired but a few instances come to mind. OLO has inspired a large corporation to have a “customer” seek me out to create a custom for her only to have her quit and reveal this to me before I sold her the final product. I’ve had someone introduce herself as a writer looking to do an article on me. I answered all of her questions openly and honestly only to have her, after thirty some odd emails, ask for formulas for two of my fragrances. She wanted to use them as a point of reference because she had been trying to make them herself but it was too difficult. She never ended up writing an article about me. Duh. I’ve had an individual open a store with the name Victory Wolf. Cool. Some of this attention is predatory, some is just naiveté. These experiences have led to days when I am left feeling vulnerable and almost hunted online. I vow to delete all my accounts and never post another photo, ever! Then I check myself and admit my own hypocrisy. I do seek inspiration online. Every day. I absolutely take ideas from other people and places and apply them to my work. Everyone interprets what they experience, virtual or in the flesh. That’s human nature. That’s how we all learn and grow our craft, whatever it may be.
But, there is a difference between being inspired and making something your own and straight up copying. It’s really disheartening to see someone’s work replicated very closely. My dear friend Hazel Cox has been making jewelry for a long time. Every single piece, every tiny detail is made by hand. She inspired one of my most popular fragrances, Dark Wave. Girl named it. She has been there to counsel me through the years because she’s done a lot and I respect the integrity of her work. Any time the stress gets to be too much she just tells me to put my head down and work, not to worry about what other people are doing just to do my thing and move forward. Recently, a piece of jewelry that looks remarkably like hers showed up on a major chain store website. The piece was not actually by Hazel Cox but at first glance it sure looked like it. The piece has since been removed but it was just a reminder to me to be mindful. Be mindful of where I take my inspiration and to be vigilant to make sure I give credit where credit is due. We are bombarded by information and images these days. It can be difficult at times to pinpoint where an idea came from. My goal is to slow down. Slow down what I absorb, maybe not post any idea that pops into my head. So, I’m going to slow the flow of information. I’m going to focus on what makes me fulfilled and stop trying to keep up. I’m not going to post every day but I hope that what I put out in the future will be more thought out. It may just have meaning in the moment but my goal is for it to have meaning to me.
