Scent of a Warden

Hi I recently ordered some scents and I absolutely adore them. But how long do they keep for? and is there a certain way I should store them? Thank you

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:56:42 +0100

I specifically use oils that are not going to go off in a particularly short period of time, and in all honesty, I couldn’t give you a specific deadline for how long they’ll last, but I can say that it’ll be a good long while - over a year at the absolute minimum. As to a certain way of storing them - again, no clear-cut answer for that. They’re pretty durable, and I ship them out in amber glass bottles so sunlight won’t do them any harm, so … store them like you would any perfume bottle and you’d be fine. In fact, you probably don’t have to be as careful with these as you would with an alcohol-based perfume.

Hi! I've recently ordered a custom Shepard scent from you and am really excited about it. I did have a question, though - do you keep blend notes for a custom scent on hand so I could maybe order more in the future? Or do you start completely from scratch each time, even if it's for the same Shepard/Warden/Hawke? Basically, when I run out of my Shepard's scent, will I be able to get more of the same perfume, or is it likely to be a different scent?

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:38:02 +0100

This has actually come up recently, so I would like to direct your attention to the Commissions to Date page. This is a list of the custom blends I have done to date; it’s not updated as often as it might be, but I keep the full comprehensive list of orders I have done at home. So if anyone is interested in ordering a replacement of their original custom blend, rest assured that I do have the recipe on hand.

New Scent Range: Origins

Sat, 11 May 2013 18:04:43 +0100

Dragon Age: Origins had a unique selling point in that not only were we as players able to choose the race and background of our unique player characters, but we actually had the opportunity to play through the character’s origin story and have it tie back to our characters to a greater or lesser extent throughout the game.

In honour of this unique aspect of Dragon Age: Origins and to celebrate Scent of a Warden’s first official vendor appearance at MCM ComicCon, Scent of a Warden is pleased to announce the launch of the Origins range of scents. Rather than focusing on the Warden themselves in this instance, the Origins range focuses on the background - the place and the mood from which the six origin stories we are provided throughout the game are launched. It’s what a given Warden might think of as ‘home’, however they feel about said home.

Arlath’ven - a gathering of the secretive Dalish clans. Cedarwood, amyris wood, tobacco leaf and green tea with hints of rosemary, woodsmoke and valerian.
Alienage - the downtrodden City elves making the best of things. Mulled cider, nutmeg and stephanotis with undernotes of vetivert.
Dust Town - the dry, shadowed desperation of the Casteless. Gunpowder, ginger and bay rum with a hint of myrrh, white birch and beer.
House Aeducan - the rich, double-edged politics of the Noble Caste. Amber, oakmoss and steel with notes of clove and black tea.
Kinloch Hold - house of a thousand magics under heavy guard. Starfruit, ozone, violet and dragon’s blood resin underscored with ice, leather, camphor and steel.
Highever Castle - seat of the noble House Cousland. Ambegris, leather, hay, sandalwood and steel on a base of amyris wood.

These scents are available in both the 1ml imps and the 5ml bottle sizes, and are subject to all special offers (the 2-for-$22 bottle offer and the 5-for-$13 imp offer).

Scent of a Warden at MCM Comic Con, London

Fri, 10 May 2013 17:53:11 +0100

From 24-26 May 2013, Scent of a Warden will be visiting MCM Comic Con, Excel Centre, London with a vendor’s stall of its very own.

The usual selection of NPC perfumes will be available for sale, as well as a few other items and surprises; watch this space for further announcements.

Special guest at the SOAW stall will be @wenchlatte, artiste extraordinaire.

So if you happen to be in the area that weekend, come say hello! We’ll be right by the cosplay stage … or, failing that, just follow your nose. *g*

On Recent Giveaway Reblogs

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:16:55 +0100

I just wanted to flag up something I’ve noticed today - I’m not sure where it started, but someone reblogged an old giveaway from last year (the cutoff date is stated as May 2012 in the post) and it’s been doing the rounds.

For the record - and hopefully people read this before it goes viral and people actually expect this to be a viable giveaway - there is not currently a giveaway reblog thing going on at Scent of a Warden. There probably will be one after MCM (as there’ll be unsold stock I can set aside for something special for SOAW followers) but this one is last year’s and isn’t actually happening right now.

If you’ve reblogged it, I’d appreciate it if you could delete the post so that people don’t get the wrong idea. I don’t want people to think there’s a giveaway when there isn’t and then get disappointed when they don’t hear anything. (Not, I suppose, that 95% of the people who reblog these things ever expect to, but it’s the principle.)

You may have answered this before--but how long with the SSV Normandy be a scent? I ask because due to my circumstances, I may not be able to place an order with you for about a month. Will it still be available?

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 17:22:01 +0100

I did answer it before, but no harm in answering it again - it was a few weeks ago.

I don’t have an exact date for the availability for the SSV Normandy Limited Edition, but it should be available until at least mid-June. Which means it should still be available in about a month. There will also be plenty of warning when I do decide to wind that one down.

Review: SSV Normandy, Scent of a Warden Limited Edition

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 13:52:35 +0100

Review: SSV Normandy, Scent of a Warden Limited Edition:

kai—leng:

SSV Normandy: Cyclonic barriers, THANIX cannons, and a few of the comforts of home. Steel, amber, ozone, leather and linen with hints of coffee, black tea, honey and musk and the barest trace of gunpowder.

I got a bottle of this just because of the description, and because the Normandy has always been one of the most iconic figures in the game for me, even from the first time I opened Mass Effect 1.

In the bottle, the scent is BRIGHT. The first thing that comes to mind is bright barriers, holo displays, omnitools and a smoothly purring eezo core.

On my skin- which is naturally a bit hot as far as natural musk, which made me a bit worried, because bright scents like ozone, steel and tea have a nasty tendency to go sour or disgustingly powdery on me- it’s like going from the outside of the ship with her bright barriers and emissions, to stepping into the cockpit or the lounge on the crew deck.

It’s swank, but cosy, crisp, with warm undertones. The bright scent that makes me think of omnitools is still there, but the leather, honey and gunpowder come out and warm it up. It’s like I can smell the leather seats in the cockpit, the clean steel and honey make me think of the crisp scent of the medbay and Chakwas, and the tea comes out, making me think of the lounge or the mess hall. It just… it smells exactly how I’d imagine the Normandy would smell. Bright scents of natural biotics running around, clean medbays, the metal of the ship’s hull, the warm leather of the seats, clean Alliance uniforms- the way the scents combine… it’s hard to describe.

Unless we’re just going to come out and say it- Thess is a damned blood mage when it comes to making perfumes, because this has to be blood magic.

This is the first public commentary I’ve received on the current Limited Edition. Thankfully, it seems to have gone over well. *g*

Custom Scent Descriptions and Set Pages

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 20:55:57 +0100

There is a new page on the SOAW Tumblr - Custom Character Description Guidelines. Following on from the original post I made a couple of weeks ago, it seemed important to flag this up in a concrete way that won’t be lost to other posts turning up.

If you are requesting a custom Warden, Hawke, Shepard, Revan or other, please read the above guidelines before sending me a character description. I understand that the instinct is to try to keep character descriptions brief, but it’s important to understand exactly what sort of information I need before sending a character description. If nothing else, it saves time - if I receive short character descriptions, I will send them back as many times as it takes to get the sort of detail I need to do your custom character the justice he or she deserves.

how do you choose your scents? do you just come up with them yourself?

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:35:02 +0100

I’m not entirely sure I understand the question. If you mean, ‘how do I come up with my scent blends?’ I honestly don’t know. I do ‘just come up with them myself’, but I couldn’t tell you how. I just … do.

I apologise if this sounds a bit snappish - it’s not intended to be. I just get this question a lot and I’m really not sure how to answer it, ever. I always try but it always ends up the same - I have no idea how I do what I do.

New Scent Line: Knights of the Old Republic

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:55:24 +0100

Scent of a Warden may have begun with Dragon Age: Origins (hence the name), but it didn’t stay there for very long. Dragon Age and Mass Effect have been the primary focus, but since Mass Effect was added, the intent was always to add more lines for different games as my video game playing became more prolific.

To that end, Scent of a Warden is proud to present the Knights of the Old Republic range.

Carth Onasi - Loyalty, strength and compassion scuffed by bitterness. Coriander, amyris wood, steel, dragon’s blood resin and gunpowder with hints of cedar, clove and honey
Bastila Shan - Harsh light with a sharp shadow and a pang of regret. Black tea, lemon, dragon’s blood resin and frankincense with a hint of coriander.
Mission Vao - Sweet, sassy and electric. Lychee, lemon verbena, ozone and white musk with an undernote of neroli.
Zaalbar - High trees and a deep soul. Fir, cypress, musk and myrrh with a hint of chilli.
Canderous Ordo - Gruff, calculating steel. Gunpowder, bay rum, steel and cedar with a hint of hazelnut.
Juhani - Seeking light through doubt and shadow. Ylang ylang, stephanotis and myrrh on a base of sweet orange and neroli.
Jolee Bindo - simplicity, swamp isolation and knife-edge balance. Oakmoss, linen, tobacco leaf and rainforest with notes of dragon’s blood resin and a hint of valerian.
T3-M4 - Loyal, spirited and, yes, mechanical. Steel, spearmint, starfruit and palmarosa with traces of bergamot and benzoin.
HK-47 - Cool, contemptuous, impatient violence. Bay rum, gunpowder, cajeput, camphor and steel with hints of coriander and black pepper.

These will be added to the NPC-Themed Scents page in due course. I will also be taking orders for custom Revans.

A Knights of the Old Republic II line will follow in due course, as will a Jade Empire line, so watch this space!

New Look

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 05:07:55 +0100

Behold! The site has a new look, and new header art commissioned from hyperbali. Further announcements to follow this week (new scent range).

How to Order and Imp Limits

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 01:54:00 +0100

Just a couple of quick things.

First, I have made some changes to the FAQ, specifically the How to Order section as it pertains to the initial approach in an order. For quick reference, the first bullet point now reads:

If you have decided on what scents you’d like, please drop me an Ask stating your desire to order. Please be sure to list exactly which scents you want as well as specific quantity - even in the preliminary stages, this is information I need to know. If, for example, you asked for a NPC blend that I don’t have in stock because I’m waiting for a supplier to get back to me with one of the key ingredients, I’d like to be able to warn you about potential delays. So if you want, say, an imp of Garrus, Tali, Isabela, Kaidan and Varric for the five-for-$13 offer, or a bottle of Garrus and a custom Shepard blend for the two-for-$22 deal, write it in the Ask just that way, please. I will keep asking you to resend Asks until I have all the details I need to make sure you’re as well-informed about your potential order as possible before I agree to it.

Also, an increasing number of customers have been asking for particularly large numbers of imps in a single order. The truly large orders are proving more of a strain than I anticipated, mostly in terms of time and energy, as well as keeping up-to-date with raw material orders when forced to rely on international shipping. Therefore, I am setting an upper limit on the number of imps that can be requested in a single order, as well as the currently established lower limit. Customers can order no less than three and no more than fifteen in any single order. I will also not accept new orders from a customer until that customer’s previous orders have shipped. (Note: any orders that have already been accepted that exceed this upper limit will still be shipped as promised.)

I apologise if I sound particularly cold or harsh - that’s the problem with communication via text-only media. It’s just that given the day job, trying to fill orders that involve 25 imps or more all at once and then keeping up with the other orders is too much for one person to handle.

Thank you once again for your custom, consideration and patience.

On Descriptions of Canon Wardens, Hawkes and Shepards

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 03:44:29 +0100

This will become a page in its own right, outlining a few tips on what I’m looking for from a description of your canon player character for commissions. However, I thought this deserved to be said a bit more publicly, so I’m making it its own post too.

When I started Scent of a Warden, I barely even knew I was starting something that became as huge as it did. I wasn’t even going to do NPCs at first. I started SOAW specifically to glorify and celebrate people’s personal headcanon Wardens, Hawkes and Shepards. Each and every one of them are awesome and unique; you’ve all made people so unique and well-developed that you know what decisions they’d make in any situation - from the big things like whether to commit genocide or not to something so small as their favourite pair of underwear. You’ve made WHOLE PEOPLE. It’s fantastic, and so are they. I can’t draw, so art commissions are out in the conventional sense; this is the only way I have to show you all how glorious your Wardens, your Hawkes and your Shepards (and, eventually, your Revans and your Exiles, maybe your Spirit Monks - any of your RP characters, really) really are.

To do that as well as it deserves, I need details. NEVER be afraid of ‘writing a novel’. Never fear ‘tl;dr’ from me. If you feel that it’s important to illustrate who your Shepard is, you tell me when the time comes. I don’t care if it’s six paragraphs long; I promise you, I would not have started this project if I didn’t care about other people’s characters - if I didn’t really love other people’s characters and admire them greatly.

So, a few things to remember:

Detail is good, so long as it’s illustrative. You don’t need to put in things you don’t think are important to describe your character just to pad it out … but you don’t need to leave things out because you’re worried about oversharing either. When in doubt, remember that I’d rather have detail and not need it than need it and not have it.
The ultimate one-word question: WHY? When you’ve described something your Warden, Hawke or Shepard has done, how they come across to others, whatever - pretend I asked ‘why?’. Pretend I asked ‘give some examples of that?’ Because I would, if I was reading over your shoulder, or if you were telling me in person.
Remember classes and origins when writing your summaries. A rogue will feel very different to a warrior, as a vanguard will to an infiltrator.
You love your Warden, Hawke and Shepard - for all their flaws, all their moments when you facepalm and scream ‘WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?’ at the inside of your own head. I want to know that too. I promise I will love their foibles as much as you do; as much as I do the flaws and annoyances of my own Wardens, Hawkes and Shepards.
And that’s the main thing - I have Wardens, Hawkes and Shepards too. I know what it’s like to love htem, to love to talk about them, and to always stifle myself because I’m afraid that no one’s interested. Every time you freeze up at the keyboard and say, “Oh, she won’t care about this!” … imagine me sitting across the table from you - smiling, topping up your drink and saying, “Go on; what next?” I’m a fan, same as you. I love to read, watch TV, watch movies, go see plays … and I do it for the characters. Yours are as worthy as anything written by someone getting paid for it. I’m here to prove that … with perfume. *g*

To summarise: I am here because you love your Wardens, Hawkes and Shepards, and to make the olfactory reflection your amazing and unique player characters deserve, I need to know them. Most of all, I WANT to know them, and to do them justice. Never doubt it, especially not when you’re writing me a character description.

apostates: Scent of a Warden reviews #4 (big bumper...

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 23:35:20 +0100

apostates:

Scent of a Warden reviews #4 (big bumper edition)

Previous reviews
Here (Sebastian, Anders, Nathaniel, Carver, Alistair, Fenris)
Here (Ashley, Garrus, Thane, Zaeed)
Here (Kaidan, Varric, Tali)
And Here (Isabela, Cullen)

Scent of a Warden website - www.scentofawarden.tumblr.com

Anders candles (NEW)
(Scents of healing freedom with a sharp, electric, volatile edge. Palmarosa, spring rain, linen, oakmoss and ozone with notes of eucalyptus and rosemary.)

The SOAW Anders perfume is my all time favourite, so of course I jumped at the chance to test the new candles. Just like the perfume which I’ve reviewed before, the candles deliver the most heart warming healing scent. Rosemary mixes with ozone and oakmoss, but now with the added warmth that a burning flame brings. This is him warming himself by the fire, wringing out cold tired hands against burning embers. The warmth, the actual heat, tempers the liquid green that can ooze out of the perfume, and dries it down, giving a close skin sort of feel, tingling the end of your nose. If the perfume is Anders bright and bold in his clinic, then the candle is after the sun goes down, when he’s curled in sheets and warmth and love.
The scent strength is good, not overpowering, but enough to snake around a cold room for quite some time. I’m definitely keeping these for nights where I have a little down time, because they’re definitely something to be appreciated.

Traynor
(Sweet and warm with hints of sharp when it counts. Black tea, bergamot, violet and honey with a dash of clove and a hint of ozone.)

Comfort from the honey and tea, mixed with a strength from the bergamot, an almost sensuality that lingers, and needs to be sought out more. The violet is floral, but not green or wild, more dry and trusted. This is old books, this is sipping tea, but with electricity flowing through, fingers hitting brightly lit holo interfaces, this is technical but loving and beautiful. (Second favourite SOAW perfume, it’s gorgeous)

Bann Teagan
(Smooth, sweet graces with a core of strength. Hazelnut, mulled wine, sweet rum and sandalwood with notes of sweet orange and lemon verbena.)

Skin close sandalwood mixed with earthy hazelnut is what hits you first, like scorched earth and warm skin. Then you’re suddenly aware of a sweetness, the sort that makes you lick your lips and want more, the sort that makes you blush and fills you with warmth. This is flirtacious. The sweet orange mixing with the mulled wine, giving you glimpses into places he shouldn’t of been, stolen smiles and glistening eyes. This is strength and warmth, but with whispers of something more.

Javik
(The earthy, exotic and slightly bitter voice of a dead world. Coffee, chilli, camphor and oakmoss on a base of rosewood.)

Smoke and destruction and untold memories of a lost world. The camphor fills your senses with an almost brain tingling sensation, a strong powerful hit, whilst the oakmoss and rosewood sweeten it, temper it, temper the anger and the desolation. This is Javik all over, it’s fighting and intriguing and unknown, and just like Javik, it won’t go ignored. A gorgeous, complex, almost spice laden scent, and one that I’ll go back to many times.

Liara
(Sweet, ethereal and bright, but slightly shadowed. Bayberry, bergamot and white musk with low notes of violet and cypress.)

Innocent yet deadly, this scent really sums up Liara to me in so many ways. If perfume was colour, it’s whites and purples and hues of blue, swirling and snaking with precision. It’s a sharp intake of deep violet and white musk, giving a heady feminine kiss, but then wrapped in the bright snap of energy with bergamot and the sweetness of bayberry. It’s both sides of the coin, it’s the young excited scientist and the controlled, hidden shadow broker.

Saren Arterius
(A spicy scent with a dark and earthy not-quite-sweet note that saves it from being pungent. Geranium, chili seed, black pepper and cypress with notes of coffee and chocolate.)

This is dark, this is complex, this is hissing through your teeth with a controlled sneer. The geranium, mixed with coffee and chocolate almost hit my sweet tooth, it’s almost a wet edible scent, but it’s slightly reserved in its edibleness, it’s spice laden, it’s morphing and changing and you aren’t quite sure what it’s going to do next.

Andraste
(Freedom, the light of the Maker and the grit of the battlefield, underscored by betrayal. Amyris wood, lemon verbena, bergamot and mountain air with notes of gunpowder, clove and ylang ylang.)

This is gorgeous. It’s soft lemon verbena, sweet bergamot, and fresh bright mountain air. It’s sunshine, love and a warm smile. But it has a lingering, almost ghostlike aftertaste, of earth on a bitter morning, of anger, of a need to fight. Gunpowder and clove temper it’s brightness in a flash, bringing it down to a skin close warmth surrounded by a need of strength.

Legion
(Ordered, smooth and clean with hidden depths. Cajeput, steel and marjoram with a touch of palmarosa and benzoin.)

Clinical, clean, controlled. Steel metallic workings grinding against a wet fluid substance. It’s bright, and cold, and not unlike something you’ve smelt before, but it has a hidden comfort to it, it’s not stark, it’s not blinding, it’s slowly beginning to temper, slowly turning earthy, maybe even earth like.

Flemeth (Halloween LE. Wanted to write down the description just to show you how good the Limited Edition ones are and how worth it is to keep an eye on SOAW all the time. Woodland isolation and the scent of strange magics. Dragon’s blood resin, fir, marjoram, rosemary, black tea and steel tempered with hints of ylang ylang.)

This is burning, this is magic, it’s a dripping sweetness, all gleaming eyes and grinning mouths, It’s damp, dark, tempting green forests, and the bite of herbal that licks at your throat. It’s not to be trusted, it’s powerful, and almost sexual, but it’s more clever, more dark then you could imagine. The resin mixing with the steel, giving warmth to ice, the fir and rosemary oozing green, and the black tea is the welcomed scent that draws you in. It’s one of the most complex scents I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness, and I do feel powerful when I’ve dabbed a little on my pulse points.

Rose Shepard (Custom Shepard blend)
(Soulful romance, electrified: stephanotis, ylang ylang, sandalwood and neroli with hints of grapefruit, green tea and ozone.)

I wanted to write about this, and give kudos to Thess for her ability to do custom character blends, because she managed to bottle the very essence of my Shepard, managed to capture even things I wasn’t completely aware of. This is the warmth of love, it’s dusty and feminine and soft, it’s nights spent nursing tea in the mess, lips pursed and eyes sleepy, watching with a smile. It’s clean, regimented, alliance trained, but with a heart of a lover.

But don’t be fooled, because it’ll strike out if it needs to. It’s brilliant electricity, deadly and perfectly used, trained and second nature. It’s the scorch of bright tech popping through the air, followed by the cool down, the fresh ozone changing the atmosphere. It’s so Rose that it made my heart skip a beat, and combined with my Kaidan perfume, they both temper each other, Rose igniting Kaidan, Kaidan softening Rose, which is just how it should be.

Once again, apostates reviews the Scent of a Warden scents way better than I ever could, for which I am eternally grateful. And do keep an eye out - Flemeth and Andraste might pop up again one of these days…

New Limited Edition: SSV Normandy

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 03:41:00 +0100

The Andraste limited edition blend has officially been removed from the currently available SOAW roster (anyone who ordered theirs before now will obviously still be getting theirs; I just won’t be accepting any more orders for it). For the next three months or so, the Scent of a Warden Limited Edition scent will be themed on, not a person or a deity, but … sort of a place - the SSV Normandy.

SSV Normandy: Cyclonic barriers, THANIX cannons, and a few of the comforts of home. Steel, amber, ozone, leather and linen with hints of coffee, black tea, honey and musk and the barest trace of gunpowder.

The SSV Normandy scent is available in both 5ml bottles and 1ml imps as per the terms laid out in the FAQ, and will be on sale until at least the end of June. Enjoy!

Updates to the FAQ

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 19:32:41 +0100

I have made a few changes to the FAQ, mostly in terms of wording, layout and accessibility.

Thank you!

Scent of a Warden - How to Order

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 20:29:00 +0000

It’s been a long time since I first wrote the FAQ, and it’s generally dangerous to assume that people read it through carefully before placing orders. (Although I’ll be perfectly honest - I highly recommend that everyone read the FAQ thoroughly before placing their orders, first or otherwise.) I am really sorry for being less than clear about the procedure for ordering perfumes. Starting now, once a month, I will review the order process for Scent of a Warden scents, for people’s ease of reference.

If you have decided on what scents you’d like, please drop me an Ask stating your desire to order. Please be sure to list exactly which scents you want as well as specific quantity - even in the preliminary stages, this is information I need to know. If, for example, you asked for a NPC blend that I don’t have in stock because I’m waiting for a supplier to get back to me with one of the key ingredients, I’d like to be able to warn you about potential delays. So if you want, say, an imp of Garrus, Tali, Isabela, Kaidan and Varric for the five-for-$13 offer, or a bottle of Garrus and a custom Shepard blend for the two-for-$22 deal, write it in the Ask just that way, please. I will keep asking you to resend Asks until I have all the details I need to make sure you’re as well-informed about your potential order as possible before I agree to it.
Once you’ve detailed your potential order, I will send you a reply with my email address, asking you to email me to confirm your order. If you are commissioning a custom scent, this is the point at which I’ll need a thorough description of your custom character and the top five words that you feel best describe them. But I’ll remind you of that in the reply I send to your Ask where I send you my email address.
If you’re not on Tumblr, you can send me an anonymous Ask with that general statement of wanting to order; just include your email address and I will get back to you. However, I urge you to read through a few posts’ worth of the SOAW Tumblr to make sure that I’m not on hiatus (and the FAQ); if you have sent me an anon Ask with your email address about an order while I am on hiatus, I will not reply.
Everything else, from blend description approval to payment, will be handled via email.
Each new order requires a new Ask. If you’ve ordered from me previously, I still need that preliminary Ask. This helps me manage my workload and my email inbox.

Thank you for your interest and your patience, and I apologise for any confusion about the order process. I will take care to repeat this in future, but I would be grateful if everyone could read the FAQ fairly regularly, just in case of changes I have forgotten to mention or not remembering a specific detail.

Info: Place-Themed Scent Commissions

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 03:37:00 +0000

I recently received a query regarding commissions for place-themed scents - examples given were Palaven and the Presidium. I thought it was an important enough question to flag up the answer publicly, although I chose not to just answer the Ask publicly.

Unfortunately, I do Scent of a Warden entirely on my own - blending, bottling, packaging and posting - and I lack the staff and resources (mostly space and time) to keep a particularly large number of general availability scents around at any given time. To do place-themed commissions and potentially have them asked after frequently would oblige me to keep the scents on hand, and that in turn would rob me of the flexibility to eventually add new characters from new games (or at least, new-to-me games) to Scent of a Warden’s repertoire. So place-themed scents will not be in the cards for general availability, and for that I apologise.

However, place-themed scents will eventually turn up in the Limited Editions. While I will not include ones from planets the player character has never been to (so Palaven would not be an option), smaller game areas would be available for a couple of months at a time - Hightown, for instance, or Denerim Market, or Afterlife. If you are interested in this sort of thing, keep an eye on the Limited Editions.

EDIT: Also, for people into Mass Effect - I do not have the Omega DLC, which unfortunately means I cannot do scents for Nyreen or any other NPC only seen in that DLC. I will get it eventually, but I thought I should make sure people are aware now, as I recognise that there will be queries on the matter.

Reminder: Limited Edition

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:22:28 +0000

Just a reminder that commissions are currently open, and this week is the last week in which the Limited Edition scent, Andraste, will be available.

Andraste: Freedom, the light of the Maker and the grit of the battlefield, underscored by betrayal. Amyris wood, lemon verbena, bergamot and mountain air with notes of gunpowder, clove and ylang ylang.

SOAW News: Hiatus, Candles Etc

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 23:01:34 +0000

First and foremost, Scent of a Warden is now officially off hiatus. If a particularly large influx of orders comes in, I might have to revisit that, but for the time being, the queue is cleared, everything will be in the post as of tomorrow and I am now ready to take new orders.

To remind of the protocol - drop me an Ask (or a fanmail, or something) with a general overview of your order. I’ll get back to you with an email address for further correspondence and we’ll go from there.

Second: the testing phase has begun for Scent of a Warden candles. Once the testing phase is over (as in, the first orders have reached their recipients and received reviews), they may be made available on the site. Watch this space. Following that will be soaps; after that, bath bombs.

Finally, Scent of a Warden has commissioned art for business cards, advertising etc from the lovely hyperbali. So, in honour of SOAW officially being off hiatus … the faces of Scent of a Warden: