This post brings you the recommended shipment deadlines for X-Mas gifts ordered in my online shop.

But first things first. It is only a few days ago since I was in Paris, and yet it feels like it happened in the last century. Almost. This alone tells me how fast time seems to go by the closer we come to the festivities and the end of the year. I  guess the felt time gone by  is somewhat proportional to the tasks accomplished in this time period. Maybe it is just me getting older. Anyhow. As it feels a long time ago already, I picked today’s picture and adjusted it real quick with an app on the iphone and uploaded it to share it with you.The picture shows part of the decorated window of the perfumery Marie-Antoinette, where the Loretta presentation took place (Place St. Catherine, Paris); to the left Tableau de Parfums and to the right my portrait, presenting roses and an old flacon, that I used originally to fill une rose chyprée.

I like this image because it reminds me of the little flacon and how fast things change. I tend to forget: It is a bit more than 7 years only since I presented my first scent. It is 2.5 years only since I presented the new pentagonal flacon. And , yes, wow!, I am looking forward to a new year, 2013, with new fragrances and a changed box and more. So definitely, WOW! Things change fast these days. For everybody, almost everywhere. Remember how you shopped for X-mas presents 15 years ago? I bet you did not do it through Amazon.com, or Luckyscent.com.

And to be honest, and in light of my impatient nature and my urge to move on: I like it that way. Let’s hurry into a bright future. 2012 is so yesterday already. …

Just in case you want to ask me: No, the little flacon will not come back, and right now I have no plan to introduce a lower volume flacon. Just a quick note, kind of in brackets: I read a comment in one of the blogs the other day, where there was a discussion why brands do not do more decant sizes, like 5 or 15 ml. Here’s why: Filling a 50ml  flacon or a 10 ml decant, packing it, labelling it, making shipment papers etc.  is all the same work. Thus, it does not pay off. Not really.

Anyhow, brackets closed. In this blog post, I actually wanted to mention the frightening fact that between January 1 2013 and now there are the holidays! We are approaching the holidays really fast. Frightening in the sense that I am not entirely ready yet. Are you?

Although, the truth is: I am half ready. I got all the raw materials to make this year’s special soap (rose….hmmmm!) and I started a batch job in the back of my mind to come up with a Christmas card, and a few other things I want to do for the holidays. The batch job is not excecuted to completion yet, but it is running. “Batch job”: I used this term quite frequently 20 years ago. It brings back memories of my days at the university in Zurich, where I had my first email account, on a VAX. It was a bit hasslesome to get into the server, and I used it mostly to get calculations done, some sort of genetic algorythms and search for similarities in genetic and protein databases. Anyhow, I sent my first email something like 23 years ago. And trust me: 23 years ago, you would not even dream of sending youtube videos links over the mail. At least me wasn’t dreaming this.

So, yes, X-mas ante portas, and with it lights and blingbling, and a lot of joy and dispair.Dispair because online placed orders arrive too late. We had a lot of communcation going forward and backward due to parcels on their way to somewhere.

So, yes, let’s use this post to announce it officially: If you want to buy presents for yourselves or someone else and you wish to see these fragrant gifts under the tree by December 24: Make sure to order early!
CENTRAL AND SOUTH EUROPE: by December 10 at the latest.
EASTERN EUROPE: By December 5 at the latest.
USA, FAR EAST, AUSTRALIA: by December 5 at the latest.
JAPAN: By December 10 at the latest.
SOUTH AMERICA: By November 25 at the latest.

Yes, shipment to some countries takes that long, especially the closer you come to the holidays. Have a great start into your new week! There are only 6 more to go before we hit 2013.