I tagged along on an MUA (MakeUpAlley board) sniffa event on 8/16 at Strange Invisible Perfumes in Venice, CA and had a wonderful time!

Their shop is beautiful, recently renovated in dark plummy burgundy tones with a gorgeous counter and plush stools to sit and sniff at leisure. They closed the shop for us for 2 hours, and we sniffed all 16 of their scents. My two favorites were Tosca (a tobacco leaf based scent) and Magazine Street (a spicy oriental scent). We received a lovely gift bag including a 1/4 oz bottle of her new scent, Vine, which was a soft green scent with blackcurrant in it, one of my very favorite scents.

They also had a great selection of soaps and face/body care products, of their own line and the 100% Pure line, of which I bought a yummy-smelling coffe and green tea-based eye cream that is very effective at reducing puffiness.

The sales assistants were warm and gracious, and we were treated to champagne and strawberries, plus a video greeting from the perfumer herself who unfortunately was unable to be there that day due to her sister giving birth.

I was overwhelmed by the wonderful reception and generous spirit of the owner and women running it - do stop in and visit them if you get a chance!

http://www.siperfumes.com/sip/

What a delightful time, and what swag you scored! Lucky Tara - and the MUA sniffers. Alex makes gorgeous perfumes, doesn't she? I'm awaiting the Vine and the new Musc Botanique. I've heard the store ambiance and SAs are a great combo, and that it all works together to make a lovely natural perfume experience. PS. Alex and SIP are members of the Guild (blush, blush).

Ooh, yes the Vine and the Musc Botanique scents were very good. I think the Musc Botanique is being released next week? It's one of the newer releases that will be available in parfum and edp form I believe.

Caz, you are quite the lemming inducer!

I went to their site--I didn't realize they had so many perfumes!

Sounds like a lot of fun, I wish I could have joined you guys If you ever do a South Coast sniffa, I'm there!

Still in the neat old renovated house in Venice? Nakedcity and I checked it out a few years ago. They were indeed very lovely to deal with. The trouble we had was that the scents we sampled on skin, though I believe they were supposed to be parfum concentration, had no lasting power. We were shocked. The longevity must have improved or we must have been scrubbing other stuff off previously and left nothing on our arms for the scent to grab. It was really weird.

I think we found the answer to that: most of the scents are sold as perfume only but the testers are all EDP. So for a lot of them you get a false impression on the longevity.

Hhmm...maybe, but I mean to say that the scents were almost gone within an hour. Even for EDP, that was stunning to us.

Thank you for telling us about it, Tara. Sounds wonderful!

Isn't Tosca just gorgeous! It's so unusual to start and then there is this a note that I adore. It's a warm comforting leather note. But Lyric Rain is my favorite by SIP, love it so much!

I ordered a box of samples some time ago, the box was beautiful, a black mini case with a snap lid. The little bottles fitted snugly inside. The shipping to Ireland was pricey though, but a full bottle of Lyric rain is on my wish list.

Caz, thanks for the report. It sounds like you had a wonderful time. Enjoy the Vine. I know you love a cassis note.