For those of you that don't know me, I thought an introduction should be in order!
My name is Julie Wray and I am the creator of Olivine Atelier. When I was young I had a mild obsession with all things beauty related, and it was only a matter of time before I was to turn that into a business...
When I was 24 I opened a perfume and aromatherapy blending bar called Aromatica. A few years later I went on to open Olivine, one of Seattle's first women's boutiques! After almost 20 years owning retail stores I decided to hang up my "closed" sign to create and sell perfume and beauty rituals full time and take my show online, and I have never looked back!
Nothing has changed for me since I was young. I still am obsessed with perfumes and beauty and now I have created a playground of sorts to create and explore this vast arena.
My methods are quite different from most perfumers. Although I have studied with some of the best, I mostly create new perfumes based solely on my intuition, and not on what I am 'supposed' to do. I rarely follow the rules of perfumery and I don't enjoy talking about notes in a perfume. Talking about the science of perfumery gives me the yawns big time.
But what do I enjoy? I can talk for hours about the way a perfume can make a woman FEEL. I can talk about the stories that fragrances creates in our lives. I love to engage in conversations about how a perfume can help a woman begin her day feeling more confident, more radiant and more complete. I love that I can open a bottle of perfume and remember a first kiss, a day spent relaxing at the beach, a memory of my grandmother or my son's first birthday.
Those are the conversations that I long to have about perfume.