End of Another Year

As 2012 draws to a close, I want to take a rather luxuriant stretch and not only feel relief, gratitude and pride, but anything else that might come up.

Enfleurage has happily adapted to its new spot on West 13 Street and the store is gorgeous. It’s a completely different vibe than we had on Bleecker, where we had more of a funky feel I guess. Enfleurage is now elegant and beautiful; it could hold its own anywhere in the world and not be out of place, no matter how chic the neighborhood.

Everyone who works there seems to love it too. We no longer have to deal with a large inventory of things unrelated, just to pay the rent. So we are free to concentrate on our fabulous aromatics, and slowly we are adding classes, our own candles, soaps, candies, etc. But after 14 years we have a minute to breathe, and we’re using the time wisely.

Tom is the one who drives this new entity, and he is excellent, energetic and creative.....He got our candy made for Christmas--our frankincense candy that is. We are now outsourcing it! He’s gotten the candles done, and gift cards, and so much more.

He is helped by our other manager, (of the back), Joe. You may know him as Stacy. Joe works tirelessly on the oils, pouring, pouring, pouring, pricing, labeling, etc. He is responsible for the Essential Oils!!! He also makes the blends when I’m away, which means he usually, almost always makes them, these days. He works on the floor as well, as does everyone, as everyone at Enfleurage does everything; but we try to encourage people to do more of what they feel happy doing, and less of the stuff they hate. Seems a reasonable approach to me.

Christina runs our Education department--she writes, plans, teaches all the classes, and keeps up the events website, in addition to her usual duties at Enfleurage. Christina is an excellent source of information, particularly for learning what the oils do, and making things. She is also responsible for our excellent Enfleurage Soap line.

Ken is responsible for anything that comes from Japan.  This may sound odd, but in our opinion Japan is one of the most difficult countries to deal with, including language-wise. So we have Ken to thank for our cute Japanese Aroma Diffusers, and Yuzu, when we have it. He is also responsible for talking with our Japanese customers!

If it weren’t for these guys, we wouldn’t be where we are. The store is happy, everyone in it is happy to be there, and we are getting good press these days. The latest is Condé Nast Traveler January issue! We are happy to be part of the “Oman’s Luxurious Fragrances” story! Link at end of post.

The new website has a year under its belt and is doing well. It’s much easier to update than the old one and even though we are not 100% on top of it yet, we’re lots closer than we were. Plus it’s pretty! We have sections for education and our distillery, and some of our more important oil sources--Colombia, India, and of course Oman. It’s simple but effective and we can work on it ourselves--so important. It also contributed to our dispensing with those damn paper price lists. Now we’ve got an in-house ipad with all the oils listed. We said goodbye to our old host, earthlink, when we upgraded the site. I only mention that because we were one of the first companies anywhere to make a website--we started in 1996 we were three pages at aromata.com. It was a bit sad to quit earthlink--we were one of the few “legacy” companies left! 

The distillery is up, and producing, and branching out to try other fun things, but it finally came together, despite the odds. Last year, in 2011, we split from our Omani “business partner” and this has been great. Things move a lot faster now, and it’s way better overall. The distillery is beautiful, and we are back to using more a gravity fed process than we were for a while.

We make great oil, including myrrh now, and ice cream! That’s spinning off in another direction and I just want to hold on and see what happens!

On a personal note, have some new friends, some of them close, and all of them great. Romantically, it’s status quo, I'm happy to say. Plus I am happier and more settled into myself these days, although still not entirely an adult I guess. But getting there, in what I think are the necessary and important ways, not the boring ones! One of the pleasures of getting older is that you start to understand more of who you are, and that is such an incredible relief after years of trying to be this or that.  Things are clearer, and you choose to spend time with different people, and for different reasons. I know I do. Everyone I know seems to feel the same. No need to waste time or worry about so many dumb things. I know, I say this every year.

I did a couple of water fasts; the first one was last April and was 10 days. I can’t say enough good things about that fast--it fixed me right up. Went on a few trips: to Southern India for floral absolutes, Northern Italy for a show, and Dubai for a class. I also did the Penn State Ice Cream short course in last February and spent Eid in Sicily just because I could. Was in the US during the summer and hung out with friends in New York and California both. Did my lovely, fun and effective health regimen in Santa Barbara--super intensive lymph work and colonics. 

Both Jon and Tom came to visit in Oman--Jon came twice and made the fundamental parts of the distillery beautiful. Jon has a house painting company (as well as bunch of other stuff) and one of the cool things he does is take photos of your place, from every angle, and run them through his photo-shop based program. He will try all colors for you and you can see how they look in your house, not just a house, which is what’s normally available. He also takes into consideration light, shadow, etc. All the things that will affect the color and light of the paint job. We wound up doing the house and distillery in colors I never would have considered (turquoise! salmon!) had I not been able to look at them on his program. My living room is like something out of Tolstoy with its turquoise, white and crystal! Jon’s info at the bottom of this post, in case anyone wants help making their space cool, or building a robot, or whatever.

Tom came afterward and fixed up other stuff.

Despite the fact that I love my house, and make it as nice as I can and all that, I have Tom to thank for my back patio area, my office being a place I actually want to go into, the distillery having order in the chaos, and the maglis just being beautiful. He is the king and queen of beautiful form in function.

Since I’m on the subject, I can also thank Joe (a different one, in Oman,) for the front porch and private seating area. He is also highly organized, with a pretty eye, and respect for organization, particularly when it’s charmingly done. It seemed that was the last thing needed before the open house and now the distillery is active. 

I also have to thank Dave and Eric for turning the new pump-fed disaster back into my known and loved gravity process.

We got some insane new oils in this year: Enfleurage of Hyacinth, Guava Blossom, Jasmine Sambac......and I spent my birthday with 1 ton of sambac flowers in Tamil Nadu--that’s 9 million blossoms.  And I did some interesting experimentation with ice creams and got into some seriously appreciated baking.

  

Jon has a website for his phrasemakers--he is a genius on many fronts,and you can conatact him through this website if you are interested in the paint thing I described, or if you need to quickly learn an Asian language.


It's called Fetchaphrase

Here's the Condé Nast Traveller article in this month's magazine (January 2013).

Kale, Punching & a Quick Slice

Every place has its great and not so great qualities. I spent a long time ragging on the US, New York in particular, because I had had enough. And it took a long time to take off those rose colored glasses I viewed Oman with. The honeymoon stage is indeed over, but the bump down was survivable, albeit barely.

New York is still abusive; it’s probably one of the main reasons it’s so hard to leave. Salalah is abusive too, though, in a subtler way. It rips you apart from the inside, whereas New York crushes you like a bug. These are not meant to be complaints, just facts. It’s a normal reckoning. There is also no higher place to soar than New York, and if there is, I don’t care about it. That’s a New Yorker talking.

There’s a few things I miss about New York, and here I am, ready to enjoy them:

The first one is green vegetables. The first thing I did when I arrived? Went to the market and bought kale. It was in the pot before I had my shoes off. And endive (it’s white, not green, I know, but I ate two heads like ice cream cones, plain, with nothing on them, just leaning over the sink, all the way down to their delicious bitter hearts.)

 Salalah is unfortunately meat based, and I’ve had to just make my peace with it. I’ve planted spinach, escarole, kale, lettuce, rocket, zucchini, and heirloom tomatoes in my garden and hope they will be strong and tall when I return.

I miss vegetables like crazy; cucumbers, carrots, and capsicums just aren’t enough. So I’ve got several sages planted too, and plenty of other herbs. Meanwhile, I am enjoying yams, kabocha squash, dandelion greens, more kale, some kale, and even more kale and spinach. And we are having our Enfleurage holiday dinner at our favorite Korean vegan temple restaurant.....with todok fritters and the like. Yeah baby!

The second thing I miss is exercise. Now, I know technically it’s possible to exercise in Salalah. But it’s something you have to make time for and make it a point to do. There is almost none of it in your day to day life.

California is kind of like that too, with everyone driving everywhere, but exercise is normal and encouraged. In Salalah not only do you have to make time for it, but you also have to consider your environment. Who else is there? Their gender? Etc. And yes it does matter. If you think it doesn’t then you are male. Most “women only” times in health clubs are in the morning, during the few hours where everything else is open, so scratch that. The women's health clubs are absurdly expensive as far as I know,  and even though I never minded a gym full of men in Greenwich Village, I’m not doing it in Salalah.

Now then, I haul around my stills and am active, it’s active for Salalah. I’ve made an effort to cut my computer time way back. Computers will kill you, all that sitting, and squinting and typing and staring at a blinking cursor. It’s shocking some people do it for fun. I don’t get it. But cutting down computer time is only part of it. Here in New York my first few days here are usually physically taxing--you’ve gotta walk! In shoes! And haul your crap. I’m at that market buying kale and milk and olive oil--my purchases go in my backpack; I’ll carry the lighter ones, and I’m walking it home.
New Yorkers pride themselves on their endurance and capacity for walking great distances, in all weathers, in great noise and chaos, and still retain their mental faculties, sense of humor, and sharp perception. In Salalah we pour ourselves into our cars, pull up and honk at the sandwich place, and park as close as possible when we have to actually get out and walk somewhere. It’s not so different to many car oriented places in the US, I suppose. But I’m not from that culture; I’m from New York.

The utter laziness we find in Salalah is unfortunate. Because many of us probably aren’t  actually lazy at all. But circumstances work their way into your life. We get used to things. And for women there is a whole extra heap of social crap on top: shame at being seen, worry about the tribe (same thing), princess syndrome, intimidation from the large group of males sitting around outside the restaurant/coffee shop/commercial market, the expectation and assumptions that women will not stoop so low as to get out of the car and actually go in, etc. Whatever. I doubt very much that most people of any gender would prefer the world where they just sit on their ever expanding asses and get served.
But that’s the way it is, at least for now.

Also, I can’t help but enjoy the plethora of exercise choices here in New York--martial arts, pilates, yoga, gyrotonic, boxing, there’s a ton of choices and it’s perfectly acceptable for anyone to try anything.

These two things, the diet and exercise, are pretty important to me. I think the food in general in Salalah is good though, as long as you stick with local production, limited though it is. The fish is fresh, and the subcontinental population ensures vegetables, even if they are limited and not the ones I’m craving. We need a cheese maker, though. And a decent baker. Please don’t write and tell me we have baked goods because we don’t. One day this will come. I rarely think about it when I’m in Salalah, but how about these words: Rye. Sourdough. Pumpernickel.
I thought so.

Exercise is a bigger problem because there are a lot of attitudes to change. And you can’t throw some seeds in the ground and fix it. We’ve got a lot of obesity, and sedentary-related disease, and it’s not going to improve until there is a big change in how people perceive exercise as opposed to “proper conduct for women” and men learn that women don’t actually enjoy being pestered, that we don’t consider it a compliment, and we laugh and deal with it because there is no alternative. In reality, women lose respect for men when they hoot, yell, honk, whistle, proposition, or come on like the cool guys they think they are, particularly when they act like 20-something gangster rappers from Brooklyn.  Guys, your moms are prejudiced in your favor. It doesn’t reflect reality. You look ridiculous. So please just try to get over yourselves, and leave women in peace to get what exercise they can, even if they are walking the airport road in an abaya. I mean, Jeez.

The other thing I love when I get to New York is the customer service and efficiency--please don't laugh. Last night we got a pizza--called it in, went down to pick it up at Two Boots--there’s three guys working and not one of them was on their cell phone, or standing around staring, or slacking off in any way. One was at the register, taking orders, getting drinks, answering the phone, giving people their slices....he was working. Another was baking pies, heating slices, boxing, slicing, etc. Also working. The third guy was actually making pizzas, which means constant activity at a busy New York pizza joint. All three were working. Love it.

Go in the coffee shop--unlike in much of the rest of the world, be it California or Oman, where you find one listless counter person taking orders, shuffling off to make the coffee, lackadaisically taking payment, all the while sneaking looks at Whatsapp or Facebook, you’ve got action, and plenty of customers, and constant activity: everyone does everything. Next!!

Since I own a store, I get annoyed with poor customer service very quickly, which means I’m annoyed a lot! And New York has plenty of crap service--some of the worst in the world in fact. (I don’t have to say thank you-it already says that on your receipt.) But the competition means that unless you have a virtual monopoly like Duane Reade, you’ve gotta run to do everything better than the other guy. That ultra competitiveness was one reason I left New York, because I had had enough, but when you have none at all, you have a disaster.

Round Up

It was a really nice Open House. Sometimes things look different than you thought they would. But maybe what you thought you were hoping for wasn’t really what you wanted.
Or maybe you just get something different than you thought you were going to get, and it’s a lot better.
I didn’t know if I should prepare for 5 visitors or 500.

In New York it’s much easier to estimate things like attendance. I didn’t really advertise it. And it’s not anything normal for Salalah. I think my Whatsapp and text invitations freaked a few people out. The responses varied from enthusiastic promises to attend (one friend actually few down from Muscat, coming directly from the airport and going home afterward--I am really just so impressed and thrilled) to panicked phone calls, to careful regrets, to nothing at all. This from Omanis. Westerners understand the concept so that part was easy. You never know what to take for granted, do you?

The Open House was well attended and I met a lot of great new people, from various nationalities, but what really what made me happy was the show of support from my friends. I slept really well that night.
Two friends in particular, helped so much they practically did it all. Joe and JonLee exerted themselves tirelessly and really made it work. JonLee set up a table where people could buy the oils, the candles, etc. And Joe organized everything and moved the freezer outside, where he gave tastes and sold ice cream. This is in addition to figuring out the logistics. 

It proved to be a threshold of sorts--I was forced by circumstances to do all the things I was “about to do.” Get the place stocked, make signs, etc. Make the front presentable, stock up on ice cream, consider my policies, all that kind of stuff. And now I reap the benefits by having it all ready.

It also got my creative juices flowing as I made some things I’ve not done before, perfumes and the like. I make most of my own skincare here--scrubs, masks, face moisturizer, and the like. I do have a cream or two, from some good companies, since my oil/water emulsion experiments in salalah have not been too successful. But mostly I made my own products. You can’t do better when you have ingredients like these! The latest night restorative I made is my own frankincense and myrrh (yes, I got a small amount of oil, a few ml)  rose otto, and maybe a drop or two of helichrysum in golden Jojoba oil. Hell, you’re never going to find anything like that made in a store, for any price.

I keep a jar of scrub with ground adzuki beans and oatmeal, which I can add to if I like, or just use as an everyday scrub to remove the dirt and sweat that builds up so attractively in my daily toils. Accompanying it this week is a white clay masque with Chamomile infusion (tea), french lavender essential oil and Italian mimosa honey. I made a big bowl of it and reclined in the tub covered in fragrant oozy mud, spraying myself from time to time with rosewater. My skin looks great, and would look even better if my lifestyle was a little healthier, I got more sleep, and drank as much water as I tell other people to. I’ve planted kale, spinach, escarole, lettuce and some other vegetables in the garden so maybe that healthy diet will materialize soon.

The ice cream front continues, slowly of course, but some fun things are happening now, and I will write about them after they are assured or have really started. But look for us in January’s edition of Condé Nast Traveler!

The Japanese documentary is out too! I forgot to write about it before. It’s an hour and all shot locally in Salalah, so if you’re from Salalah you will see a bunch of people you know. It’s pretty fun and apparently quite well done and informational as well, but it’s in Japanese and there are no subtitles, so unless you speak Japanese you can content yourself with the visuals. But the visuals are really cool, and I was enthralled with the whole hour.

Another reason I was happy about the Open House is that it was a Grand Opening of a kind, and even though every step of this journey to open the distillery has been a huge climb, especially back when I had someone to “help me,” this is a threshold. It made something happen, a buzz, a spark.






Salalah Frankincense documentary
click on the pink bar
If you are in Oman you will need to use a vpn to access the site. I don't know why

Distillery Open House!

We're opening for everyone! Please join us for Enfleurage Frankincense & Myrrh Distillery Open House! 
It's Wednesday, December 5, from 4:30-7:30 pm at our Distillery in South Sa'ada. 

Come try our frankincense essential oil, local honeys, frankincense water and of course, our own ice creams!

Featuring:

Frankincense
Darbat Jasmine
Salalah Milk Banana
Chai Hakim
Gardenia
Grandma's Christmas Dream

 Olfactory & Gustatory delight! And everything available for purchase--These are unusual and cool gifts from the Sultanate of Oman. Plus a limited amount of ice cream available for pre-order--Having a holiday party in Dubai? Sitting around a campfire in Mirbat? Or just going to your friends house to hang out? Whatever your holiday plans, why not do it with Enfleurage's Dhofari Ice Creams?

Plus, bet you didn't realize bees make honey from frankincense flowers! And have you tried the best and sweetest, softest, mountain wildflower honey from the mountains behind Salalah? And you can eat our frankincense oil, especially in honey! Sublime.....

 We have Myrrh hydrosol as well,  serious and remarkable as ever......and our own frankincense candles, made for us, using our own oil. 

We've also got some delicious extra-select frankincense resins, sparkling incense burners from the ladies of Mirbat, and, just for variety, a small amount of fabulous French Population Lavender oil, and our unsurpassed Tamil Jasmine Grandiflorum absolute. 

Plus refreshments of course!!!


Everyone is Welcome!

Enfleurage Frankincense & Myrrh Distillery directions

View Enfleurage Middle East in a larger map