Thank you very much for the well-wishes. Sorry for the delay in my reply; it's been a pretty heavy few months. Well, a heavy few years, honestly, so I figured a reply to this message would also be a good State of the SOAW address.

SOAW has been on hiatus for a variety of reasons. COVID and Brexit hitting their stride basically at the same time made an absolute mess of things, and not long after my own bout with COVID, I developed chronic pain and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. So it hasn't been a great few years, and a lot of it has been constantly re-evaluating what I am and am not capable of in terms of this. Having to get to grips with a whole new set of physical limitations is a bugbear, I can tell you. I'm in the process of re-evaluating my scent blending in terms of not only my own limitations, but also various issues that I noticed. so here are the bullet points:

So summary - 2024 may see a return of Scent of a Warden with a whole new scent line. I just need to work out how to do it while maintaining a balance between meeting my commitments and not causing myself massive amounts of pain.

Update from the UK

Just to let you know, since I’ve actually had an expression of interest (it’s been so long that I figured everyone had forgotten) ... it might be time to post an update about things here in the UK and how that affects Scent of a Warden.

Basically my country of residence is imploding.

I don’t know what’s going to happen to my ability to resupply on ingredients, or ship things halfway efficiently, or even produce anything at all, given my dearth of free time and the potential scarcity of the meds I need to function and ... well, honestly food because I developed coeliac recently and that’s not going to be easy to accommodate, never mind the lactose intolerance.

So please consider Scent of a Warden on hiatus until at least the new year, when I can reassess and hopefully be able to give some idea of whether or not I can continue.

Postponement

Planned livestream postponed on account of migraine. Or, more to the point, on account of my being fairly heavily medicated for said migraine and probably not being in any fit state to make a coherent speech about what oils to add to bathwater to improve circulation.

Livestreams resume ... probably Monday, since it’s my Weekend o’ Roleplay this weekend.

Stream Recipe: Insomnia Remedy

For an oil burner:

For a hot bath:

Also developed live on stream, for the Dragon Age: Inquisition collection: Krem

Solid, earthy, sweetness denoting a comfort in his own skin - hazelnut, chestnut, brown sugar, mulled red wine, coffee, caramel, dragon’s blood resin and musk.

Friday - treatment for poor circulation and another one of Bull’s Chargers.

Going live with Scent of a Warden: https://www.twitch.tv/thesski

Livestream 2: Insomnia

The stress of the current situation can really mess with the sleep patterns. To that end, tonight’s Scent of a Warden LIVE stream will cover a couple of blends to help with insomnia, along with another character perfume blend - this one a little more familiar to any fans of Dragon Age: Inquisition.

10pm BST (5pm Eastern, 2pm Pacific), on https://www.twitch.tv/thesski

Stream Recipe: Mood Lift

As per my recent Twitch stream, an aromatherapy recipe designed to help with depression and fatigue:

For an oil burner:

For a hot bath:

* - I use eucalyptus because I have chronic sinus issues and it kills two birds with one stone. Lavender works just as well.

Another livestream in a couple of days or so, this one working on insomnia remedy blends and another character-themed perfume blend on the fly. Thanks to those of you who attended; hope to see you again next time! And if there’s a time that’s better for people (keeping in mind that I am in the UK and would like to at least pretend I’m diurnal sometimes), let me know and I’ll see if I can accomodate.

Now streaming! https://www.twitch.tv/thesski

Twitch Channel

Stream starts in about two hours, on: https://www.twitch.tv/thesski

Scent of a Warden LIVE

The current situation as regards SARS-CoV-2 and the resultant cases of COVID-19 is well-known at this point, and it’s pretty obviously put a significant dent in any plans that involve going outside for any reason. It’s made things difficult for a whole lot of people, most of whom didn’t need anything to make their lives any more difficult, and it’s a stressful time for all concerned.

I started Scent of a Warden because I took an aromatherapy course and did a whole lot of ancillary reading on the subject for mental health reasons, and I wanted to do something a little more interesting with the knowledge I’d picked up. Thing is, I still use aromatherapy to help deal with anxiety, depression, insomnia, mental fatigue, and even a few more physical issues (muscle aches, poor circulation, sinus issues, etc). I see a lot of uninformed advice as regards the use of essential oils and it is a significant source of concern to me, since I’ve studied this stuff and know how much harm a person can do if they’re careless with essential oils. I’d like to provide some help and advice from an informed source. It’s helped me a lot over the years; why not do the same for others?

Also, I’ve been asked many, many times over the years how I do what I do as regards creating perfumes for characters based solely on a description. I have never been able to tell anyone, because I don’t entirely know. Then it occurred to me that maybe I could show them.

The point? Scent of a Warden, while basically on enforced hiatus because I’m not even sure the post offices in my area are open, is going live on Twitch sometime this afternoon/evening depending on time zone. First stream will cover what oils constitute an ‘aromatherapy essentials kit’ and a basic aromatherapy blend for depression (which I’ll post on the Scent of a Warden site for reference after the stream). The last thing I’ll do on each stream is create a character-themed perfume blend live; I’ll have to start with my own but if people are interested, maybe we can work out doing other people’s (maybe for sending when things are a little more back to normal).

Currently I’m aiming for 10pm British Summer Time. Hope to see you there!

Updates: Coronavirus

Okay, as you know, we’re kind of having a bit of a pandemic right now. A thing that you should be aware of is that I’ve been symptomatic for COVID-19, and thus completely self-isolating, for just over a week now.

Suffice to say that I’m not taking orders at all until the symptoms go away because I do not want to send anyone anything that I have touched while symptomatic (don’t worry; all my ingredients and bits and pieces are sealed well away from me). I will take orders after that, though - I checked the Royal Mail website and they’re still delivering, though things might take a little longer than usual, all things considered.

I only bring this up because someone was kind enough to recommend me in a recent meme and I thought I should outline what’s going on at the moment since I want to send people nice-smelling things, not aid in the spread of a global pandemic.

Moving to Etsy and Brexit

Ordering from Scent of a Warden has always been a bit of a complicated prospect, and pricing has been difficult at the best of times. In an attempt to make the ordering, payment, and shipping process easier, I am trying to move everything to Etsy. This way, I can price the perfumes without shipping, and add the price of postage separately depending on location; not to mention not have to have a back-forth via email about a simple order.

So far, only the Critical Role sets (Scents of Vox Machina and Scents of the Mighty Nein) have been moved to Etsy, but I am looking at having the Dragon Age and Mass Effect scents moved over there by the end of the week. The others (Overwatch, Firefly, KOTOR) are pending, and any further projects (Pillars of Eternity and Leverage are the two projects currently being brainstormed) will have their test-run debut here before being sent to Etsy, so watch this space.

Customs will still be handled via this Tumblr for the duration, as I haven’t entirely figured out how to handle the conversations needed for a custom scent via Etsy. Currently I am considering using the Etsy customer chat feature, but it would necessitate payment in advance rather than my usual “only pay when you’re happy with the description” policy. However, given that I have seldom if ever had a customer entirely veto a scent description, it might be worth it.

In other news: most of you are aware that I live in the United Kingdom, which is not overly united at the moment and also having significant political upheaval in the form of an upcoming snap election which may or may not decide once and for all whether the UK is going to leave the European Union. I honestly don’t know what happens to small-scale trade like this if we leave the European Union, as all of our trade deals and trading standards are set by EU rules and a lot depends on what the conditions of our departure will be and which rules we keep, so at least part of why I am maintaining the Tumblr aspects of the site is because it might be a lot easier to manage than whatever policies Etsy will have to implement in the wake of Brexit.

Bath Bomb Tests: Verdict

Further to my previous post on this, I’ve had an opportunity to run some tests with bath bombs. I don’t have outside test information yet, but here’s the results.

Full-sized bath bombs: Success ... mostly. Turns out that when halving a recipe, scent oils don’t count; that or I added less than half. Still need to decide how I’m going to go about individuals, but I’m thinking that given postage, it’s probably not worth doing fewer than two or three at a go.

Bath bomblets: I can do these and still have the same scent concentration if I increase the amount of scent (which I’ll have to, because a single bomblet doesn’t make much of a dent in a bath). That should be fine - means less having to spritz the mixture with water for consistency. These are going to be reserved for the line-specific packs, like for instance Scents of Vox Machina, Scents of Mass Effect etc.

Plan going forward: I need to figure out my price points, but it looks like the options are going to be individual three-packs of full-size bath bombs and concentrated assorted bomblets. That latter’s going to be an issue because I cannot make one individual bath bomblet no matter how hard I try. I’ll probably need at least four takers for each individual set before I can ship. I’m considering rotating which ones I’ll take orders for on a monthly basis - like, once a month, I’ll open orders for a specific set for about a week. That’ll give me three weeks to make them, and give customers plenty of warning of when the set they want is coming up so they have time to budget.

(Yes, I will take requests of which set gets launched first.)

So once again, stay tuned for further updates. The product works; I just need to figure out the numbers bit. Once again I am torn between “I want this to be affordable and competitive, especially since they’re single-use” and “These are more of a bitch to make than the scents themselves because it’s the scents plus sticking my hands in a mild acid and things so I should probably charge accordingly”.

New Product In Testing: Bath Bombs

Scent of a Warden has been a bit quiet lately, but projects have been in the inception stages for awhile. One thing I really wanted to do, for those who don’t like or can’t wear scent for whatever reason, was kick off a line of bath bombs. Last week, I got all the raw ingredients I needed, and currently these are in the testing phase. My goals were to determine how many I could make, how many I would have to make at one time (as in, whether I could split the recipe), and whether or not I could produce individual bath bombs - to see whether I could make custom scent bath bombs.

What I’ve come up with is as follows:

Currently, the bath bombs are in the middle of the product testing phase. More information will follow when the product tests are complete. Obviously I’d be grateful if people could give some indication of interest, if there is any, and stay tuned for further updates. I mean, hey, bath bombs of your own personal Warden, Hawke, Inquisitor, Shepard, D&D character and so on; that would have to be a pretty cool thing, right? ^_^

New Product Announcement: Solid Soap

After a bit of a Christmas present trial run to determine weight for postage and similar sorts of things, Scent of a Warden is pleased to announce the addition of bars of soap to the product listings.  Each bar of soap is approximately 100g; the bars are clear at the moment but if this goes well, I may start adding colours. For those of you who don’t wear scents for whatever reason, you can still have the scents of your favourite characters, original or not.

Prices are as follows, and inclusive of shipping:

Also, regular perfume blends are still available.