Who Am I and Why Am I Doing This?
In early January of 2018, I found a lump. On Jan 30, I was diagnosed with cancer. Between when I found it and when I got the yes, I started this blog.
It served as my place to brain dump, to process things as they came up, and to be a place for my loved ones to go when they wanted to know how I was doing when I didn’t have the mental or physical lifting power to tell people in person.
Since then, I have shared it with a few dozen friends and friends-of-friends who have since gone through the cancer process, and they’ve told me it’s helpful.
What I found during the cancer process is that there are a lot of common experiences that aren’t discussed or warned about except in support groups and online forums from cancer survivors themselves. (PSA: I believe anyone who has been diagnosed is a current survivor. Our metastatic fam is included.)
Things like transitioning from being a full time patient to being a civilian again, or dealing with fertility choices, or decisions to cold-cap, or what radiation and chemo really feel like, or even just the fkn WAITING of it all that’s such torture—these are the things that I was desperate to learn more about but
OK, I Get the Cancer, but Perfume?
No, I know. Everyone online right now is an expert in fragrance.
Well, I am not. I do have a long history in the world of sniff, but no formal education. I would say I have a naturally good nose and a curiosity that makes me a decent haver-of-opinions, but whereas I used to just keep my own little notes, I decided to start writing things down and sharing them here.
My History in Smells
When I was 19, I met my dear friend Tamsan through a common friend, and began working for her at her custom perfumery called Essense of Martha’s Vineyard. I continued working for her every summer for several years, and it became a passion for me. She had a whimsical little shop with an antique bar in the back, and thousands of fragrance and essential oils lining the back wall and wrapping around the sides. My orientation was clean and dust and organize the bottles in the shop to familiarize my nose with the various notes, and watching her blend for customers who came in on vacation until I was confident to try one on my own.
It really unlocked an instinctive creativity in me that I had never experienced, and I found myself even on slow days tinkering behind the bar, tapping tiny droplets of oils onto pieces of coffee filter, and writing down evolving formulas, and making notes in my journal of potential combinations on my days off.
I will write more about this experience at some point, but suffice to say, this was my first intro into fragrance and base/middle/top note structure, and it rewired my brain in a way to instinctively know when something was finally “right.” It’s how I perfume, and now it’s how I cook, and do music, and create in the world.
I still see Tamsan every few years and spend a few days in her shop, which is now in a big, beautiful, ancient barn in New Hampshire, and fragrance is still a big part of my life.
I always wrote notes about fragrance and spent too long in the stores sniffing things, and I have always been incredibly sensitive to smells that others can’t pick up on. For the past 20+ years, I just did my own fun at-home tinkering and layering with some oils and didn’t really pay attention to the blends that were out there, but in the last year or so, as niche perfumery has begun to really grow and thrive (thanks, perfumeTok), I have found my curiosity in others’ blends really piqued.
A friend recently asked me if I could jot down some notes on some fragrances for a magazine she edits, and doing that has opened the door to writing about fragrance for the first time in my life. Voila, perfume blog.
So let’s see how this goes.
Life in Kate-Land 