Odds are, at some point in your life, you’ve asked a perfect stranger which perfume they were wearing because it caught your attention as they passed by. More likely than not, when you got home you purchased the same perfume for yourself and couldn’t wait for it to arrive so you could dab it on (it has happened to the best of us!) There is something very beguiling and personal about a scent that wafts your way and catches your attention, isn’t there? It emboldens us to the wearer and gives us the nerve to strike up a conversation about what they currently smell like! We are also flattering them by asking, because they then know that we like how they smell, which makes the whole encounter a very pleasant one, and we both leave a little bit happier. The reason we are so affected by fragrance is that our sense of smell is closely linked to the parts of our brain that process emotions and memory. A beautiful scent can evoke romance or a field of flowers; a favorite holiday or in our case, a beloved grandmother. And, as easy as it may be for you to pick out a fragrance you love as it passes you by on the street, it can be difficult to tell what that same fragrance will smell like once it’s on your body. There are many factors that will affect the final aroma you produce: humidity, body temperature, pheromones and sweat, and even your laundry detergent.   Fragrances are not meant to overpower us! We at Little Bee are in love with light, natural fragrances, so we knew that we wanted to develop our solid perfume scents to be subtle, not overpowering, memorable yet not commonplace and overdone. Perfumes are meant to enhance your natural body chemistry not mask it. However, as we recently learned, this wasn’t always the case! “…in the Dark Age, people believed that a sweet fragrance could ward off the miasma that were frequently plunging Europe into a cloud of illness and of death. So much so in fact that the rich and poor alike, from Venice to London, used perfume not as a way to hide their own stench but rather…to simply say alive.” — ThePerfumeChronicles.com   Interesting, though just a wee bit … creepy? We’ve thankfully come a long way from those dark times and perfumes have gone through many changes throughout history. The Hungarians are credited with creating the first modern perfume in 1370, on the orders of Queen Elizabeth of Hungary. It was aptly called “Hungary Water”. Now, that doesn’t roll off the tongue as nicely as, say, “Chanel N°5” does, (created centuries later, in 1921), but we’re all for giving credit where credit is due! Nathalie Grainger in Quintessentially Perfume reminds us, “Go back 100 years, when the perfumer was making for a few select clients, and the cost of raw materials did not matter as the clients were rich and demanded the finest, most costly ingredients.” She then compares this to modern perfumers “Today, marketing teams tend to work on research briefs, market analysis and minimizing risk factors, resulting in fragrances that tend to be safe, similar and somewhat uniform.” Where did the romance go? These original perfumers paved the way for the many different styles of perfume that have emerged since, crafted from both natural and synthetic blends. And, as will happen in any industry, the purists evolved! “In the past 10 years or so, a small group of passionate artisans have begun making perfumes without synthetic materials, and they call what they do Natural Perfumery.” – Alyssa Harad in Coming to My Senses: A Story of Perfume, Pleasure and an Unlikely Bride.  (Which, by the way, is a simply delicious book!) Yay, we found our people! The ‘natural perfumers!’ Enter Little Bee of CT Solid Perfumes. Circa 2016. We understand the need for a fragrance that is light and appealing, and easily layered with other naturally occurring scents on your body and have crafted 4 subtle and unique solid perfume scents that contain a diverse blend of floral, citrus, and earthy notes all which have broad appeal and will get heads turning in your direction. A scent for person and every season! For best results, simply apply to your pulse points as often as you wish. Hint: As the perfumes are jojoba oil & beeswax based, Krista also uses it as a pomade on the tips of her hair!!! With so many options out there to choose from it can be difficult to select a perfume that’s right for you. We hope we made your choice a little easier. We stand by our products and won’t be happy until you’re happy.  Oh, and by “happy” we mean that you might possibly get stopped on the street and asked to share your perfume secret. Please send them our way. 😉 Don’t forget to follow @littlebeeofct on Instagram and Facebook where we post daily on our favorite subject. bees, oh and candles and decorating and entertaining…you get the idea. Thank you for supporting Little Bee of CT and the busy beekeepers around the world!