First-ever sale a success!

[Guest guest]

I participated in a low-key holiday bazaar. It was the first time

I've sold any of my products. It was a great success, and I learned a

tremendous amount. At a couple of points several women were gathered

around my table, and I'm pleased to say they were having trouble

choosing which perfume to buy. I did notice that men saw the words

" natural perfume " and were immediately turned off. One woman kept

returning again and again and she used up all the places she could

find to apply perfume. We laughed. She never did buy one. But I sold

two colognes (actually eaux de toilette), two liquid perfumes, and

one solid perfume (a " soliflore " based on jasmine); I also sold three

containers of my " healthy scalp & hair balm, " much to my surprise.

The most purchased perfume is one that I didn't think women would

like. Here's my description:

Your sum. Adam's Amber is brash at first, in a masculine sort of way,

then slowly the pines appear, and then an eastern amber. This could

sum you up. You'll want to let others know.

The ladies who bought it particularly enjoyed my perfume language.

Elsewhere on a flyer I wrote, describing the changeable nature of

natural perfume:

What starts out as one scent, when the top notes reach your

consciousness, becomes a very different scent as time moves you into

the heart notes, and something new again entirely as you reach the

lasting base notes.

One customer said, " I would buy it just to witness that. " I learned

that the public seems generally to be a mix of intuitive

understanding of smells and confusion stemming from synthetics. A

group of us examined the way that one perfume smelled totally

different on each of the three of us. I also learned that one really

can't predict what things will attract certain folks and turn others

off.

There is so much mutual sharing of perceptions, misperceptions, and

inexplicable likes and dislikes that can happen it's really

miraculous. A perfume that brought out, " Oh, wow, that smells like my

mother " from one woman brought, " Ooh, that's mysterious, " from

another. The eau de toilette is based on sandalwood and ladies were

buying that for their men. Without my saying a word. Here's what I

wrote about that one:

Live in bold face. Homme has an inimitable elegance, not to be pinned

down, ever changing. It might be as particular as you are.

Then an ingredients list. I found that people have no idea what most

of the base notes and some of the top notes are; heart notes seem to

be more common knowledge.

The women who were ready to spend money didn't need any convincing at

all.

Two things I did which were particularly successful:

1) I had little tester bottles out of course and a big jar with

cotton balls (I learned that from the Perfume House). People could

spray some on the cotton before deciding to put it on their skin or

not, and they could keep the perfumed cotton ball in a bag or purse,

to remind them long after the fact that they really do want to buy

some of that fancy perfume from that gentleman perfumer they met. I

also posted in large print that natural perfume " _must_ be applied to

the skin to properly evaluate. "

2) Next to each line of bottles was a stack of little paper

descriptions of each perfume (not so much descriptions as the

" fantasy language of perfume " ). Folks could pick up a chit as they

were smelling and let the words wash over them along with the scent.

I think this was particularly successful.

All in all my first foray was not only successful but also a lot of

fun, which afaic is absolutely essential. Onward and upward.