“We don’t follow a beaten path,” Han says.  “We stray a little bit.  It makes us different.”

Their process is simple.  “We just get as creative as we can,” Han says.  “There’s no specific pattern.  We come up with fragrances that aren’t out there.  We research geographical territories.  Winter Sweet was produced in the Pacific Northwest.  We look at regions and see what’s produced.”  The fragrances are tested at the Manhattan Diffusion offices by the employees, who serve as a focus group for new products.  They hold sampling sessions.  What they don’t like, they eliminate.  “Everyone should have a say in what they’re selling and producing,” Han says.  Often, the fragrances they offer adhere to the 80/20 rule: 80% catch on and 20% don’t. 

“We loved Winter Sweet, but it didn’t catch on,” Han says of the floral fragrance.  “We tend to produce florals, but not run of the mill ones.” 

“Run of the mill” is exactly what founder Robert Venz wanted to avoid.  It was the year 2000 when Venz started something special in a very small space.  Inspired by what he encountered while traveling the world, he launched Manhattan Diffusion. For a few years, he attended trade shows and ran the entire operation out of his small Manhattan apartment.  But, when it was time to build the business and take it to the next level, Mr. Venz rented office and warehouse space and brought Dan Han on board.  That was 2004.

“I do sales, finance and operations,” Han explains.  “Rob was creative and did the initial marketing.  He didn’t want generic fragrances that you might find in every candle store.  He took a different route.  His first attempt was in floral arenas.  He wasn’t a vanilla kind of person in the fragrance world.”

Sadly, in 2007, Venz passed away, leaving the small, flourishing company in the capable hands of his twenty employees, including Han. 

“We have a pretty talented team here,” Han says.  “We’ve continued going to trade shows and bringing out fragrances that aren’t so cookie cutter.” 

Besides unique fragrance, Manhattan Diffusion products are also known for their distinct colors.  “The guys in production get the color to the exactly right shade,” Han explains.  “We offer many colors – we didn’t want just a clear liquid.  It’s a different type of look for them that we enjoy producing.  Customers enjoy them.”

“The color provides form and function beyond the fragrance,” Han says.  For instance, the blue in Splash is neutral and more masculine than some of the other options available. 

Besides the Classic and Studio Reed Diffusers, Manhattan Diffusion offers a perfumer’s candle, mini-misters and reed diffuser wall sconces for use in small spaces.  The company, which started in founder’s apartment, has a history of thriving in small spaces.  And they are in Manhattan, a city full of small spaces.  Efficient room design is important, and incorporating fragrance into such areas is an art form itself.  

“The idea is fragrance is absorbed through sticks, but needs movement,” Han says.  He recommends placing diffusers in a place where they’ll encounter a fair amount of traffic, such as a mantel or a living room table.  People walk by and the fragrance spreads throughout the room. 

Shop Manhattan Diffusion

Do you have a favorite Manhattan Diffusion scent?  Post your likes or dislikes here.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/145867

Avery Gilbert talks about his book, “What the Nose Knows.”  Learn about the science of smell and how our sense of smell is undervalued.

Dana Roberts believes the Garden Isle of Kauai, Hawaii is a special place, and she’s sharing it with the rest of the world.

“Ninety-five percent of the island is uninhabited.  We have artists and spirituals here and a unique range of ingredients that can’t be found anywhere else in the world.” 

Roberts moved to Kauai after working for years with her husband, Shaun, in the sanitation industry.  The couple met in college in Southern California, where they studied sales and marketing.  After graduation, they noticed a need for environmentally-friendly chemicals in the cleaning practices of city and port authorities.  Green City Products was born. 

“We worked with chemists on alternative chemistries,” Roberts says.  The couple eventually launched Earth Friendly Products, which was their first foray into consumer products.  “It was my introduction to consumer products,” she says.

In 2002, the couple left the mainland to raise their children.  Roberts spent two years developing the Malie concept.  Roberts, in her discussions with chemists, said “I want that natural.”  Often, she was told that it doesn’t exist or couldn’t be done.

Don’t tell Dana Roberts that it can’t be done.  “The chemists said ‘It doesn’t exist’ and I said ‘There must be a market for it then,’” Roberts says.   So, she started looking into it.  That’s how she discovered Hawaiian hydrosols.

“They’ve been in the medical market for hundreds of years,” says Roberts.  “We’re taking a medical application and making it a cosmetic application.”  To develop the new chemistry, Roberts worked with a Kapuna, which is a spiritual leader in Hawaiian tradition.  They took wild-crafted ingredients, which are the purest and rarest in the world, and hand-crafted luxurious products that allow customers to experience “…the most unspoiled and exotic gifts Mother Nature has to offer” (from the Malie Kauai website).

Wild-crafted ingredients are found deep in the tropical rainforests of Hawaii – untouched by pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers.  The hydrosol process distills wild-crafted ingredients into delicate floral waters, and the therapeutic powers of the ingredients are intensified for maximum aromatic results.

In 2004, Roberts introduced the first Malie Kauai product, and the brand has grown steadily since.

Not only organic, but environmentally renewable products are the staple of the Malie Kauai brand.  “You’re making a statement when purchasing Malie Kauai,” Roberts notes.  Often, shoppers are contributing to the conservation efforts in Hawaii, also.  One percent of the profits from particular products are donated to the Koke’e Resource Conservation Fund, which protects the Koke’e forest – Hawaii’s oldest rainforest. 

 Eco-conscious customers take note.  “You’re making a statement when purchasing Malie Kauai,” Roberts says.

You’re also investing in the benefits of Hawaiian spa rituals.  Roberts, who has become a beauty expert during the development of the business, recommends a variety of Malie Kauai skin care products to keep your skin incredible. 

“I’m all about the body polishes,” she says.  “I exfoliate with body polish two times a week.”

The Mango Body Butter moisturizer and the massage tonic work additional magic on sun-kissed skin.   “I’m in the sun all the time,” Roberts says.  “And the products are so gorgeous and epic and have such an impact on the beauty of your skin.”

The word “Malie” means calm, serene and tranquil – like life on the Garden Isle of Kauai.  And, Roberts says, “It’s also my daughter’s middle name.”    
 

Anne Gutch believes in distinction.  After twenty years in the fragrance industry, the creator of the Flora Home collection knows what makes a home fragrance distinct. 

“My standard is that someone would walk into their home and it wouldn’t smell like anyone else’s,” Gutch says. 

Gutch began her career in Manhattan, working in the lab of a perfume house licensed to create products for Ralph Lauren Home.  It wasn’t long before Gutch was working for Ralph Lauren Home herself, developing product lines from start to finish. 

“I worked closely with a design staff,” Gutch says about her experience.  “We’d decide on the collection we wanted, often related to what Ralph Lauren was doing in other divisions, such as Women’s Apparel.  I’d take photos to the perfume houses and develop a scent that conveyed the feeling that we wanted the collection to have.”

When Gutch moved to Bloomington, Indiana with her family in 2002, she decided that it was time to create her own line of home fragrance products, with no help from a design team.  She’s it: the designer and the decision maker.  She determines what scent she’d like to experience, describes the smell and the feel to her contacts at the perfume house, and after a trial and error period, emerges with a distinct fragrance truly of her own design. 

“The fragrance is the most important aspect of the product,” Gutch says.  “It’s what differentiates my collection from the rest of the industry.” 

She launched her first three fragrances in 2003: Sunflower, Lavender and Wild Rose.  The Flora Home line included one candle, goat milk soap, body lotion and bath gel in each of the three fragrances. 

“I want the fragrance to take the customer to a place they want to be…”

“I wanted each fragrance in the whole collection to evoke strong memories in the customers.  I want the fragrance to take the customer to a place they want to be,” Gutch says.  “For instance, Island Fig has the scent of coconut in it.  It’s a tropical scent.  It makes you think of warm, sunny skies and the beach in Jamaica.”

She emphasizes that the experience of fragrance is more than the fragrance itself. 

“Part of fragrance is a visual effect,” she says.  That’s why Island Fig is packaged in blue – to remind the customer of blue skies and beautiful water.

Gutch has defined ideas about what scents she wants to offer.  She strives for perfection in her collection, even if that means tweaking a fragrance an exhaustive number of times.

“I’ve developed a real trust with the perfume houses because I’ve been working with them for so long,” she says.  “I speak with the perfumers and give them the criteria and guidelines.  They know the quality I’m after.  They know the standard.”

She told the perfumers she wanted a citrus fragrance, but nothing “…too citrus-y.”  She wanted a holiday fragrance for the fall, something “…spicy instead of floral.”  The result was Satsuma, the fresh scent of orange and exotic spices blended with cassie and orange blossoms.

“Satsuma took a tremendous amount of time,” she says.  “More than months, but not quite years.”

Island Fig happened more rapidly. 

“There’s never just one formula for choosing what goes into a fragrance,” Gutch says.  “You have to have a feel for it.  You smell something and you know if it’s right or not.”  For example, she was adamant: Lavender had to smell like a lavender field.  She didn’t want the medicinal lavender or the overtly floral lavender. 

“We added pine to make sure the whole environment was out in that field,” she says.

Something similar happened with the creation of Sunflower. 

“The word ‘sunflower’ triggers a memory, and experience.  It’s not always just a sunflower, but the embodiment of the whole experience – the farm stand, the sky, the surroundings.”  The fragrance is a blend of jasmine, violets, lily of the valley and rose, with a hint of citrus and fresh greens.

The value of such care and consideration in each fragrance is readily apparent in the entirety of the collection.  The packaging is simple, handmade and distinct.  The fragrances are true and well-balanced and unlike anything you might find in a big box store.  Anne Gutch believes in distinction, and has created her collection to reflect her belief. 

To see the range of Flora Home products available, go to Flora Home at EverythingFragrant.com.

What’s In Your Spa Gift Basket?

The last time you sent someone a spa gift basket, I bet you weren’t thinking to yourself “I’m so happy I found a spa gift basket full of products Made in China at the lowest possible cost.” That is probably, unfortunately, what was filling your gift.

Most people don’t know this because who sends themselves a spa gift basket? Maybe a few, but the rest of us trust the catalogs and on-line stores to sell us a high quality gift basket to send to our friends and loved ones. They certainly look good in the pictures. They sound great in the descriptions. But nearly every one features Made in China lotions, soaps, bath salts, body creams and candles. Yes, even when they have a nice French name.

This isn’t necessarily a fault, as Made in China can mean quality at times. But judging from the quality of the spa gift baskets most catalogs and on-line stores sell, that time is about 25 years away.

So Which Spa Gift Baskets Are Best?

Ours of course! Let me tell you why. Our Hawaiian spa gift baskets are filled with Made in Hawaii spa lotions, soaps, perfumes, bath gels, etc. Our Tahitian spa gift baskets are full of Made in Tahiti bath and body treats. Where else can you find that! In short, if we say “Jamaican” it features real Made in Jamaica spa products.

Sure, you will pay a little more for our spa gift baskets. But you get so much more for your money. And you give a gift your recipient may actually love!

See Our Spa Gift Baskets Now

Post Your Response or Ask a Question

Share your experiences and thoughts on spa gift baskets, write a review of one of our spa gift baskets, or post a question for other fragrance lovers to reply to!

Thanks –The Aroma Advisor