This is The Only Place for SMB Online

Hi all!

siriusmindbody.tictail.com

I just wanted to remind you that while the rest of our website goes through some changes (hosting & upgrades), be sure to go to 

SiriusMindBody.tictail.com

to shop online for your favorite fragrance oils.

Also, the Fragrance Oils Special is still available, but only when you shop at siriusmindbody.tictail.com!

Shop SMB!

Hanging On To Summer

I'm sure you've noticed that the days are getting just a little bit shorter and a tad cooler...
That means winter is right around the corner. I wish I was joking: here in Minnesota, it can happen just like that (picture icicles sparking off my snapping fingers).

I am not ready to give up on summer, not just yet. I've been on a coconut-infused excursion, and it's been great!

During the day, I wear a dab of Coco Mango fragrance oil. The mango is lush and sweet, but deftly kept in check by the tropically creamy coconut.










In the evenings, I use Black Coconut fragrance oil as a house scent. These two varieties of Coconut could not be more different from each other. Black Coconut is (as its name suggests) darkly roasted, which gives it a surprising sophistication. Its sweetness is elusive, hiding deep down in the lower layers of this fragrance, so you're most likely to catch it after the scent wafts past you.

You should try both of our Coconut scents as well as the other varieties of Sirius Mind Body alcohol-free fragrance oils. Why not get them now? The Buy 3 Get 1 Free sale at our Marketplace will last through the weekend. Go shop now, and enjoy all of our great scents!

Shop for Fragrance Oils at our Marketplace

Fantastic Oils + Easy Shopping = New SMB Marketplace!

Whoo hoo!

The new Sirius Mind and Body Marketplace is open!
I'm so excited for you to visit it and enjoy the improvements I've made for you:

• Descriptions and Catagories. There are so many ways to describe and categorize smells! I thought about all of the good times we had at our brick and mortar shop, watching and listening to reactions as customers sampled fragrances, and I used those experiences as a starting point. I think it's a good start, and I welcome your suggestions.

Golden Meditation fragrance oil

• Images. How do you translate smells into pictures?  Research! I spent a lot of time searching through image sources to find photos to describe how each fragrance oil smells. M and L took some pics too, and I thank them for pitching in. It was a fun process, and I hope you enjoy the images I've chosen.

Raspberry Fantasy fragrance oil

• Search. I know how frustrating it can be to try to find your favorite fragrance oil among the hundred plus scents Sirius Mind and Body carries. The new search function makes finding your fave so much easier.

Somali Rose is one of our four rose oils

• Shipping. As I've said before, shipping fragrance oils has become challenging, but SMB has risen to meet it, with the help of this new marketplace. I also mentioned in that post that I'd create a special way to rise to the shipping challenge. shipping...shipping... we all hate this necessary bit of shopping, so how can I make it a little sweeter for my customers? Free oils!

Buy three Fragrance oils, Get 1 Free!

• Yet another improvement to the marketplace is the discount feature which gives me more options to offer more specials and integrate them seamlessly with PayPal. Give it a try and enjoy free fragrance oils - yay!!

Yes, there is more work to be done - incense will be available soon.

Right now, the marketplace is a standalone shopping cart on the Tictail platform, so you can go directly to http://siriusmindbody.tictail.com to access it. When I integrate it into the Sirius Mind and Body website to replace the old shopping center, I'll send you another notice.

Speaking if notices, I've updated the email / newsletter form so we can keep in better touch. Click the link to receive the Sirius Mind and Body newsletter or update your info here http://mad.ly/signups/22046/join

I hope you have a great week and enjoy the new Sirius Mind and Body shopping experience!

~ Amy

The Shipping News - website refined

As my refining of the Sirius Mind and Body marketplace gets closer to re-launch (yay!), I've uncovered elements that could stand a little more attention. For instance, today a customer contacted me about shipping options. Specifically, she wanted to know what is the best choice for shipping her order?

Here's a bit of how I explained it, and I hope it helps:

The United States Postal Service has really tightened its restrictions on shipping liquids like oils: they've classified all fragrances as perfumes which means they assume all fragrances have a flammable alcohol content. And that means I can only ship one bottle of fragrance oil per package via USPS. They are not budging on this with me, even though I've provided them with documentation of the (lack of) alcohol content in my oils. grrrr!

All that to say, if you're ordering more than one bottle of oil, I have to ship it to you though FedEx, which has a slightly higher rate. Don't worry - I have something planned to make that slightly higher rate disappear! The upside of shipping via FedEx is that they seem to get packages in your hands safer and faster. No disrespect to the postal service, but I'm all about making my customers happy.

More on my shipping happiness plan soon...

~ Amy Cousin

Do you smell what I smell? Revisiting old friends and great scents

The website refining continues.
This weekend I'm writing new descriptions for all of our fragrance oils. Every. Single. One. 

I've been opening bottles and sniffing fragrances to come up with better definitions as I redesign the marketplace section of the website. The sniffing scents part is a lot of fun - I always enjoyed standing at the fragrance case in our brick & mortar shop and letting customers explore our vast selection. Two people trying on the same scent would often feel completely different about the scent. Describing a fragrance can get tricky because not only do individuals pick up on different fragrance notes, but our reactions to those notes are deeply personal. The memories that flood ones senses after a sniff are unique.

A few years ago, our fragrance house created an entirely new blend for us. It was absolutely delicious and quite complex: every time one of us would sniff it, we'd discover a new layer of every imaginable berry or melon. As if defining it wasn't challenging enough, we just couldn't come up with a suitable name for the new scent. Finally, we decided to let the customers name it. For two weeks, we asked everyone who came to the shop sample the oil and add a name suggestion to the box. We got some great suggestions, and eventually had to draw a name from the narrowed-down choices. What really struck me again was just how unique the associations are that we connect to scents.

With that in mind, I hope you appreciate the descriptions I've written. I've also drawn on my years and years of experiencing customer reactions as well. I welcome hearing your own descriptions as you re-visit time tested fragrance friends, and meet new ones.

~ Amy Cousin

Website refined: the quest for a better experience

re·fined
  [ri-fahynd] 

adjective

1.

having or showing well-bred feeling, taste, etc.: refined people.

2.

freed or free from coarseness, vulgarity, etc.: refined taste.

3.

freed from impurities: refined sugar.

4.

very subtle, precise, or exact: refined distinctions.

Origin: 
1565–75; refine + -ed2

Thank you, Dictionary.com. I thought redux was the appropriate word to describe what's going on at SMB, but it turns out to be refined.

If you've been following Sirius Mind and Body on Facebook, I'm sure you've seen me post something to the effect of "updating the website."  and wondered, sheesh - how many times do you have to update?

The short and simple answer: A lot.

I am constantly looking for ways to refine your online experience with me and SMB  to make it the most enjoyable website you visit. That requires me to frequently assess what is / isn't working and what's new in software and apps on the market. To tell the truth, I really like trying out new software & apps. Delving into what apps can do for my business is right up there on my list of favorite biz activities along with creating jewelry, buying jewelry making supplies, drinking coffee (oh yes it is a biz activity) and exploring hardware stores - especially local Mom & Pop stores. I'm not saying that I'm the best at tweaking apps or writing my own code, but I really enjoy figuring out what's going to work best for my customers.

My latest project is refining the marketplace or shopping cart. I finally found a platform that is accessible, easy to use and flexible enough to grow with SMB's needs. Yay! My goal is to launch the new marketplace next weekend. I think you'll like it, and I can't wait for you to try it. In the meantime, I'm sharing some of  the ins and outs of this redesign.

Next post: Do you smell what I smell? Describing fragrances in terms everyone can agree upon.

~ Amy Cousin

Yep, I'm finally blogging for SMB

Welcome to my blog!

Although Sirius Mind and Body has been around for a long long time - 18 years, to be exact - I've never had an SMB blog. Go figure.

Yes, I'll still post the latest SMB happenings on Facebook and Twitter, but I see this blog as the spot where we can go deeper on all things Sirius Mind and Body - especially our alcohol-free fragrance oils and hand-rolled incense sticks!

Remember the fragrance case at our brick & mortar shop?

I hope you will visit this space frequently and share with your friends.

~ Amy Cousin