About
beauty is silent and comes from a light that shines from within...
Lady Sara Cunningham
Hometown:Tucson, Arizona
Path or Tradition: Wicca/ Qabbalah, Navajo Beauty Way
About Me: I am Lady Sara, I taught in Los Angeles for many years. I had Stonehenge Shop in Pasadena, CA. I also had a mail-order course. Dr. Israel Regardie was my Qabbalah/Golden Dawn teacher. I have been living in the Oregon forest for the last 30 years ( writing and doing art).
Hermetic Qabalistic Perfumer, Lady Sara has decades of experience in formulating exotic, traditional and personalized scents. Living in Hollywood, she created essences for some of that electric city's fairest flowers to complement and balance their energies. It's all in the vibration, she explains. After a lifetime of holding these magical secrets fast, she is ready to reveal some of her fascinating formulas, their sources, and the means for creating them.
The olfactory arts are only part of Lady Sara's long artistic arc. Her body of work includes magical paintings, sculptures, unique jewelry, and her forte, Native American arts. Her rattles, drums, gourds, pipes, kachinas and other pieces are a tribute to her Navajo heritage. Her skills are so refined, she has been in demand for museum-quality repairs and restorations.
She now lives quietly in the wooded hills of Southern Oregon, where she enjoys communing with nature, friends, and animals. It feeds her artistic spirit.
Iona Miller
Known for her classic texts on both alchemy and perfume, Iona Miller is a nonfiction writer for the academic and popular press, hypnotherapist (ACHE) and multimedia artist. Her work is an omni-sensory fusion of intelligence, science-art, new physics and emergent paradigm shift, melding many social issues into a new view of society. She is interested in the cultural effects of doctrines from religion, science, psychology, and the arts.
Website: http://ionamiller.weebly.com
Videos: http://vimeo.com/user3547022
Join me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/iona.miller
Ms. Miller is published by Phanes Press, Destiny Books (Inner Traditions), Autonomedia, Nexus Magazine, Dream Network, PM&E, Journal of Nonlocality and Remote Mental Interactions (JNLRMI), Chaosophy Journal, OAK, DNA Monthly, Pop Occulture, Schiffer, Bolero, Science-Art Research Centre, and more. She serves on the Board of Medigrace.org nonprofit organization for CalmBirth.org bringing meditation potential to childbirth science in medical and home settings.
Recent articles include DNA Decipher Journal, Dragontree Journal, Verities Journal, Earth Star Magazine, Alchemy Journal Vol. 10 No.1, Mar 09 (Australia) and Vol.11 No.2, Paranoia zine #44, #46, #49, #50 (USA), The Paranoia Reader, HunterGatheress Journal, Vol. I and Vol. II, Green Egg zine #151 & #152, #154, June, August & Dec. 2010, JNLRMI (Russia), Der Golem (Germany), Antibiothis I and III (Portugal), The Art of Fetish (Miami), and Journal of Interdisciplinary Crossroads (India). Her artwork has shown in Miami, Phoenix, New York, and elsewhere.
Author of THE MODERN ALCHEMIST (Phanes)
and, The MAGICAL & RITUAL USE OF PERFUMES (Destiny, Inner Traditions).
Pantheon: Archetypes in Daily Life
The Holistic Qabala
Website: http://ionamiller.weebly.com
Videos: http://vimeo.com/user3547022
Join me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/iona.miller
Ms. Miller is published by Phanes Press, Destiny Books (Inner Traditions), Autonomedia, Nexus Magazine, Dream Network, PM&E, Journal of Nonlocality and Remote Mental Interactions (JNLRMI), Chaosophy Journal, OAK, DNA Monthly, Pop Occulture, Schiffer, Bolero, Science-Art Research Centre, and more. She serves on the Board of Medigrace.org nonprofit organization for CalmBirth.org bringing meditation potential to childbirth science in medical and home settings.
Recent articles include DNA Decipher Journal, Dragontree Journal, Verities Journal, Earth Star Magazine, Alchemy Journal Vol. 10 No.1, Mar 09 (Australia) and Vol.11 No.2, Paranoia zine #44, #46, #49, #50 (USA), The Paranoia Reader, HunterGatheress Journal, Vol. I and Vol. II, Green Egg zine #151 & #152, #154, June, August & Dec. 2010, JNLRMI (Russia), Der Golem (Germany), Antibiothis I and III (Portugal), The Art of Fetish (Miami), and Journal of Interdisciplinary Crossroads (India). Her artwork has shown in Miami, Phoenix, New York, and elsewhere.
Author of THE MODERN ALCHEMIST (Phanes)
and, The MAGICAL & RITUAL USE OF PERFUMES (Destiny, Inner Traditions).
Pantheon: Archetypes in Daily Life
The Holistic Qabala
Libby Patterson, the Perfume Doctor
http://web.mac.com/libbypatterson/iWeb/LIBBY%20PATTERSON/HOME.html
http://facebook.com/libbypattersonorganics Libby Patterson Organics
THE PERFUME DOCTOR Since 1975. Libby works with a discerning private clientele, around the world. Most of her work is couture private parfums that remain in the vault. She designs a seasonal collection for those who would like to experience her work, as a perfumer. You will find her in a garden, nature, or her perfume studio, working with a client on Skype, designing her collections, from inspirations she takes directly from her relationship with nature and her gardens.
Libby seasonally does an artist residency where she can focus on and be inspired by certain gardens and environments. She has relationships with growers worldwide, as well as organic gardeners, and farmers. She endeavors to select the rare, the best and the most deliciously scented raw organic and wildcrafted luxe eco botanicals for her perfumes.
To have a private consultation and perfume designed is the most luxurious invisible seduction tool you can ever experience or buy. Treat yourself, to one of Libby’s Scent Journeys, Perfume Workshops, or a Couture Signature Parfum. For a private appointment with The Perfume Doctor, please email [email protected]
http://facebook.com/libbypattersonorganics Libby Patterson Organics
THE PERFUME DOCTOR Since 1975. Libby works with a discerning private clientele, around the world. Most of her work is couture private parfums that remain in the vault. She designs a seasonal collection for those who would like to experience her work, as a perfumer. You will find her in a garden, nature, or her perfume studio, working with a client on Skype, designing her collections, from inspirations she takes directly from her relationship with nature and her gardens.
Libby seasonally does an artist residency where she can focus on and be inspired by certain gardens and environments. She has relationships with growers worldwide, as well as organic gardeners, and farmers. She endeavors to select the rare, the best and the most deliciously scented raw organic and wildcrafted luxe eco botanicals for her perfumes.
To have a private consultation and perfume designed is the most luxurious invisible seduction tool you can ever experience or buy. Treat yourself, to one of Libby’s Scent Journeys, Perfume Workshops, or a Couture Signature Parfum. For a private appointment with The Perfume Doctor, please email [email protected]
Favorite Blends
TOP 10 Favorite PARFUMS from LPO
1) BLACK GOLD
2) OPULENT RUMINATIONS
3) ABSOLUTE RECIPROCITY
4) QUEEN OF THE NILE
5) 528
6) VENOM
7) ABRA CA DA BRA
CHAKRA UNITY
9) RED CARPET
10) FEVER
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://web.mac.com/libbypatterson
Blog: http://aphrodisiacsfortheboudoir.blogspot.com
Blog: http://libbypatterson.wordpress.com
Tumblr: http://libbypatterson.tumblr.com/
Libby Patterson, Master Perfumer and Aromatherapist since 1975.
When Libby arrived at college, in 1975, she found an old photo album in the attic somewhere on campus. It was empty framed with early etched openings….Libby leafed through the 3 inch spine of the hand painted old album and had a vision that each herb in her garden at home would be drawn to fill the book, with its qualities. Then she saw each one in a bottle and saw them mixing with each other, as perfumes. She had an a-ha moment then, that stayed with her all these years. It takes five to ten years to develop your nose as a master perfumer. Libby started that year in earnest, one herb and one scent at a time, to befriend each. Lavender, geranium, rosemary, thyme were early friends. Once she learned enough herbs, Libby started synergizing the blends, studying the volatilities, the dry downs, the emotional affiliations. Better to work into the emotional body before things become physical.
Early upbringing and influences
The story goes, Libby took a lot of walks growing up, around her lake, and in the woodlands and meadows in northeastern Ohio, where wildflowers were plentiful in the spring and summer. Libby was taught by her mother to set the table, have table manners and practice with a book on her head to walk. Part of her training was flower arranging which began as early as she can remember. Libby would bring back flowers from her walks, arrange them in a Lalique or silver vase, and set beautiful tables for the family dinners. By the time dinner was over, the flowers had almost wilted. This got Libby to wondering how to preserve the beauty and scent that the flowers lended to their family time of day when Libby and her brother George would sit with Mother and Dad, to discuss the highlights of their day and share with each other. This raised Libby to be conscious about her time and her days.
Fashion career started at a very young age
Libby enjoyed an upbringing in a very comfortable home, was dressing her parents for country club events each weekend shopping and was voted best dressed in elementary school. It was no surprise then that age 17 Libby began a twenty-five year career in fashion merchandising, display, business and design. She graduated with a BA from the University of Akron, in Akron, Ohio, in 1984, with six areas of study over nine years: graphic design, sculpture, drawing, painting, photography and printmaking, with minors in graduate level botany and business (marketing). She started college in Columbia, Mo at Stephens College, the second to oldest women’s school in the country, started as a finishing school for women. Her mother went there in the 40′s and had registered her at birth. Second year of college was at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. No grades. Portfolio Review. Thousand acres of rain forest, tall trees, Douglas fir. Libby was smitten with the ferns, the trees and the psilocybin that she and friends hand-picked everywhere. It was the 70′s!
After that year her dad sent her a plane ticket. The message was clear. Come home. She worked as an art director that summer, for a firm in the area, then got into University of Cincinnati that fall, 1978 and began to study with the über uptight swiss Bauhaus designers in DAA (Design Architecture and Art). After another year of sex, drugs and rock n roll, Libby returned home to Akron Cleveland to once again work as an art director for a small firm designing ads, and she created her first magazine. NORKA. It was a small magazine that featured local entertainment. She sold the magazine after a season of success to a radio station. That fall she entered U of Akron, determined to finish her degree. It took five more years, and she ended up working in fashion at the same time she was in school and doing the other magazine Akron Venture. She was also a full-time freelance photographer for the bands that were coming out of Cleveland and Akron headed to NY. The Waitresses, DEVO, Chrissie Hynde. U2′s first tour of the States, Libby photographed Bono at the front of the stage at the Agora, a small club in Cleveland that held just over 200 people. Bono spit his beer on the crowd. Libby was under the stream and caught it all on film. Yes, film.
Art School, Being an Entrepreneur, The Transition
Libby worked from 1979 thru 1986 in Ohio for a couture designer as her assistant and the May Co, in sales & display. While in college, Libby started an arts magazine in 1980 with eleven girls as the art director. The girls produced monthly zines before anyone had heard of the word. Then she married an architectural photographer, opened up a studio for photography, fashion and architectural styling and graphic design, painting and product development. They moved to the east coast. After a six-year stint on the east coast that included New York City, Toronto and Washington DC, Libby moved to Taos, NM to begin her own company. She traveled for Blue Fish to NYC and LA to buy and manage their Taos store. In the course of the year, 1993, Libby increased their business from $400,000 a year to over $1,000,000. They were trending by summer at over $100,000 a month in sales. Libby had worked for the May Co, a Canadian Design Firm and a Couture Designer plus Nordstrom Company, and knew her customer service, her production and how to read an open to buy, and strategically build new business by working the numbers so she could creatively move money from one department to another to grow the business..
In spring and summer, Libby took on photographing the collections, hired a videographer friend on vacation from across the country, art directed and produced and shot the collections at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House. Her business jumped. She sent clients her videos of the collections every new seasonal flow. With her background in Fashion it is easy to see how Libby is so prolific as a perfumer. In Taos, she had tai chi mornings with an instructor, followed by smoothies that she made with her own blender from home. To excite business she closed the store at 6pm and reopened at 9pm, to midnight with music, snacks, and a party. Everyone came out of the woodwork for the events that she had on aromatherapy, essential oils. Libby would have people sit in circles on the floor and she would focus the evening on some aspect of aromas. This was the time period, politically when the Orrin Hatch Bill had just been defeated in Washington DC for the supplements to be curtailed or removed.
Health, Lifestyle, Herbs, Essential Oils, and the Heart of Customer Service
Libby was the top customer of aromatherapy line Neal’s Yard, ordering and selling through on $3000 a month in essential oils. But some people could not afford to stock their homes and bathrooms with the entire A – Z suggestions that Libby had in store. One day, in her adobe home, in Taos, NM, she was soaking in the bathtub and had a *light-bulb moment* where she literally conceptualized her company. She saw there was a gap in the marketplace, and decided that if she could offer blends, oils, flower waters, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, and shower gels, bubble baths, that people could afford to buy at $20 to $75 for small 2 oz to 8 oz bottles. The company was born. Libby had been asked to move back to New Jersey and open twenty more stores of Blue Fish. She decided to stay, in NM, and start her own company.
New Mexico, The Early Success of Angelic Aromas
Launched locally in Taos, for holiday in 1993, Libby received her first couple of orders. She had one from the metaphysical bookstore in Taos called Merlin’s and soon after from Wild Oats in Santa Fe. In 1994, right after the Northridge earthquake in LA, Libby launched her line at two trade shows with sale reps and overnight, she had $30,000 in orders. She had no staff, and no supplies and had to hire friends at $5 an hour to help her fill orders, pack and box them to ship them all over the country. Within a few weeks, Libby had outgrown her house and moved to a loft. With 2000 sq ft, and now 9 employees Libby soon branched out to painting furniture for her local store accounts and the Santa Fe Flea Market on weekends. In 1995, Libby went to Europe on a month-long trip down to the south of France from Amsterdam and back. It turns out Europe was not ready for naturals.The only essential oils Libby saw were in French Parisian pharmacies on the lowest shelf, next to the gauze bandages. Tea Tree, Rosemary and Thyme for medicinals. Libby returned home numb from disbelief that the whole rest of the world was not hip to the natural and organic movement that was sprouting up in the southwest, the west coast and limited in NYC and on the east coast along the cape and the summer resorts and in Florida.
Libby moved to Santa Fe in 1995, where she worked on her first licensing deal with a prominent natural products giant. In 1997 Libby moved to San Francisco Bay Area. Her aphrodisiacs were embraced by the Leather and Sex Party Open Relationship Ecstasy party crowd. Libby had the online stores of Good Vibrations and Babeland carrying her lines, along with the Hustler Stores in LA and across the country. In 1998 and 1999 Libby learned the organic market by working for Earthsake. She had sold her line to them, from Taos…and now took two years out from her business to educate herself on green products. She had seen the trend at Oibibio in Amsterdam in 95 and wanted to prepare for the coming shifts in the marketplace. Libby was successful once again in growing the business past the owners expectations, and after two years, Libby launched her yoga line of personal care products, called PURE, under the Angelic Aromas label. She had taken a break from the business servicing only the online giants, with monthly deliveries so she could learn the organic business. In the spring of 2000 Libby called on all her old buyers and visited them all over northern California, shipped boxes of full-sized collections of the line to LA, the East Coast and everyone said yes. She was back in business. Funny thing was every single store asked if Libby was still doing the aphrodisiacs.
Libby and the Late Night Raves
So, in 2000 Libby brought back the top twenty sku’s from Angelic Aromas. She started going to late night raves to promote her line to kids on ecstasy, pot, and who knows what else…..she would arrive at a venue, at 6pm, set up before pm and entertain people with spritzes and body massages with her oils, until between 3 and 6am. It was at 6am when Libby would arrive home. After 911 happened, Libby started traveling for family. Her dad was not well. And so, she sort of dropped Angelic Aromas again for a year. Then when her Dad had passed and her Mom was moved and all was ok, Libby started to do trade shows, instead of regional night shows.
The regional beauty and influences on Libby’s perfume designs
After launching her perfume and aroma business in Taos, NM in 1993, after almost twenty years as a hobby with private clients, then moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1997, Libby is now based in the greater Los Angeles area since March 2011. Libby has had clients along the California coast and internationally since 1994. The moves have been sort of like a chess board -- of beauty. Each area has titillated her love for nature.
The Taos landscape supplies inspirational vistas for the perfumer, across an ancient mesa that was once a seabed, and also a host to dinosaurs. Taos Mountain has been worshipped by the Pueblo Natives for thousands of years. The inside of the mountain is filled with crystal, and is an energy vortex that the locals say either spits you out or embraces you. For Libby it embraced her.Famous flower painter Georgia O’Keeffe lived nearby in Abiqui, there were many mountainous drives with hot springs at Ojo Caliente, Jimenez, Ten Thousand Waves, and down at the Rio Grande river north of town, for those midnight adventures, seeing the starry night skies and shooting stars above. The plentiful mud baths at Santa Barbara off the high road, the sacred dirt in churches, the deep blend of mystical cultures, all influenced Libby and provided a foundation for her mystical flower water intentional sprays….even before Dr Emoto was a household name. It was in Taos, that Libby designed private couture aphrodisiacs for women looking to attract and keep a man. Libby’s specialty then was to design perfumes that could be carried in glass vials, hand blown pieces of art in their own right, as necklaces. After launching the Angelic Aromas collection in over 500+ stores nationwide, Libby moved to Santa Fe for a little over a year and a half, into a larger circle of people, and culture, then in 1997 to the San Francisco Bay Area, to be on the coast. New Mexico’s beauty had become reclusive for purposes of her business.
San Francisco, Big Sur, Santa Cruz, Napa, Calistoga.
Philanthropy
In the Bay Area, Libby enjoyed the yin qualities of the bay from every bridge, every hilltop, and the cooler softer fog, romantic weather. She loved both the beaches with their strong waves and long walks, reflecting on her inspirations….as well as hikes up in the redwoods. Visits to Big Sur, were frequent…..along the coast, and to Santa Cruz, as well as up to Calistoga, and Napa. For her ten-year anniversary Libby did a very extensive catalog of all of her collections (over 500) and began touring through the United States doing trade shows. She designed a line of robes and sarongs in velvet and silk, pillows and throw blankets, shawls, to sell alongside her boudoir aphrodisiacs. Within two years every buyer now had an office computer, gone were the days of faxing in orders on illegible thermal paper, and editors replaced the need to attend trade shows for buyers. Websites, and published magazines were king and queen in how buyers found product. In 2004 Libby attended her last trade shows. She turned her attention toward incorporating a store into her two lofts. For two years Libby had a lingerie store, that sold jewelry, furniture, photography as well as her couture perfumes and aromatherapy aphrodisiacs. Everything was by appointment only. Libby hosted many women’s empowerment dinners in her upstairs loft, while the girls shopped in the downstairs loft….and began to be able to give back to some of the organizations that make a difference in the world for women. Some of these organizations include: Forest Ethics, 4Exhale.org, Media4Humanity, The Santa Monica Rape Foundation, The LA Zoo, Stuart House, ACCESS Oakland, and many more.
True Beauty Icons: The Project
In 2005 to Libby’s interests turned towards filmmaking. Her dad had been a filmmaker, and photographer & she was always fascinated. She studied with famed filmmaker Fabian Redrovan at an Esalen Arts event and dabbled in direct action with Rob Nilsson acting in one of his award-winning films GO Together. She attended the first digimart event in Montreal that put filmmakers deep into conversation with the digital media giants Mark Cuban, Corey Doctorow of Boing Boing, among others from Link TV, NPR, and more on distribution. After returning home and after the holidays, in January of 2006 Libby started her True Beauty Icons Project. She photographed and interviewed over 200 women on the west coast from various walks of life, and of various ages, lifestyles. Then in 2007 she went to NYC for a month to do an artists residency at the Gershwin Hotel, where she always stayed during her trade show days. She photographed women of import in NYC and culminated her stay with a one woman art exhibit of her work.
When Libby returned to the Bay Area after her exhibit, she continued to work on her TRUE BEAUTY ICONS Project and added Perfume Scents to the archetypes of women represented in the plethora of images. It was then that LPO and its first Aphrodisiac Collection was born in 2007. For the remainder of the year Libby worked tirelessly with private clients creating perfumes for them behind the scenes, and was very patient as her new collection, company and lines were born. In 2008 Libby started to create perfume for men…..almost exclusively, and the men’s collection of aphrodisiacs was born.
The Historic Garden: Cohen Bray House
In 2009 Libby became involved with a historic garden a half mile from her studio. She relocated her urban garden to the Cohen Bray House and began putting in ten hours days most days for the spring and summer months. She reclaimed the garden from the snakes and spiders, and began an earnest restoration along with three friends. She created an herb garden and began tincturing from the 1884 verbena tree, for her perfumes. At night, she entertained, cooked and perfume took a back burner to a love affair with the garden, and a man. She was asked to be on the trust’s board, which she did, briefly and helpd them to run a successful silent auction. to raise money for the garden and house upkeep.
The Scent Journey
In 2009 late summer Libby dug in her heels, went into reclusivity after her boyfriend’s mother passed. Libby sunk all her attention into the serums, the Ayurvedic skin care lines, and the perfumes. By 2010 Libby had built her international clientele, through word of mouth, facebook and had expanded her marketing to include cocktail events, dinners and tea parties in her beautiful bay Area loft. The SCENT JOURNEY was born. This is a well-known event that Libby can bring to anyone’s home or friends and clients could drop by to experience a multitude of new scents. Libby is a prolific designer, and always has a lot of new perfumes for people to experience. She began throwing larger art parties with her loft neighbors, and was hosting over 500 people in her loft, some evenings.
The switch to all organics
During her time in the Bay Area, Libby started LPO in 2007. This is when she began to create all organic perfumes. In 2007 Libby worked with a Leeds Certified Green Architectural Designer to clean up her business and become 100% sustainable, with as low as possible carbon footprint. She jettisoned plastic bottles that she had been using in deference to using all glass. All formulas were reworked to be all organic, or wildcrafted.
The Perfumers as Peers, Being Discovered
The LPO brand launched in 2009, in the summer, to the public. Up till then it was private for clients that Libby works with over the years. In spring of 2010 Libby premiered her Perfume Collections with her peers in New York City at a Sniffapalooza Luncheon, among bloggers and perfumers and press. By the fall her business had tripled, and with the extra press from online perfume bloggers such as Michelyn Camen, and Monica Miller and Mark Behnke, people began to get more of a feel of her brand. Although Libby had been perfumer since 1975, Sniffapalooza introduced her as a newcomer. This made sense to Libby since her clients were people whose privacy she protects fiercely. She often laughs that she is the best kept secret in Hollywood.
International Appeal
Libby continues to work with clients worldwide to create private label, couture signature perfumes, and a collection that she launches seasonally for her loyal clients. The LPO brand, and couture parfums have been made for people on every single continent, except Antartica….although one of her clients has traveled there. The lines continue to flourish through word of mouth.
From the Archives
Angelic Aromas, her aromatherapy company was subsumed into LPO (Libby Patterson Organics) over the past four years and earlier in 2011, Libby closed the Angelic Aromas site. She has over 1000+ formulations for emotionally based aromatherapy and scent perfume products and has created an ARCHIVAL section of her LPO line for loyal Angelic Aromas fans, who collect the colourful line of aphrodisiacs, known for their creative hand drawn and wild labels.
What exactly *IS* this QUANTUM ALCHEMY Focus?
Libby has always understood that the invisible power of perfume is powerful. She is influenced by the QUANTUM scientists, and concepts to help her to explain the connection between the scientific and the spiritual . In her designs some if not many of her perfume collections resemble the homeopathic concept of less is more. Perfume is applied into the etheric (above the skin within 8 inches) and cellular (on the skin)….and again through inhalation….the brain gets the signal in 3 seconds according to scientists…..which means that all the cells are talking to each other instantaneously. Her designs and her work is based on the need in a fast paced society, and sound bite lifestyle, to manifest quickly, to change the vibe, the emotion and what not. SO, her perfumes work into the neural pathways to excite and carve new ways of addressing life, problems, and eventually solutions….it is like the old adage where the person walks down the sidewalk, and falls into that same hole again….it’s really kind of like that with our neural pathways. This is why Libby suggests a new perfume every six weeks, in addition to your couture signature perfume that Libby designs for you, and all for you, the recipe is in the vault reserved only for you.
Libby’s Private Label Work/Intellectual Property
Over the years Libby has been sought out by companies and individuals to help them design their collections, licensing, manufacturing and/or just one private perfume. She has worked with all kinds of people, companies and continues to be stimulated creatively by the associations and limited partnerships. As her schedule allows, she will continue to take on private label, as she enjoys the process and working to achieve the client’s vision.
Mentoring Entrepreneurs
One of Libby’s strengths is in mentoring young entrepreneurs. She has successfully mentored dozens of young people, from being a sound board on the other end of a phone, to trouble shooting *big moments* and opportunities to branding, marketing, to helping rewrite bios, resumes, and business plans, to co creating companies, and ventures, to being able to focus the ideas, and create a logical way forward.
Leaving a Legacy: The Future Generations
Libby is looking for interns to learn her business who she can pass it down to. She is creating a legacy, over the next twenty years, of her work. She has a strong mission statement and vision statement. Sprinkled among the bigger legacy projects, she sees: the need to protect organics, as a huge priority. She partners with farmers and gardeners, wildcrafters…..to obtain the purest ingredients, to preserve the way of life for americans, and to have access to the most expensive, rare ingredients for her clients.
When Libby arrived at college, in 1975, she found an old photo album in the attic somewhere on campus. It was empty framed with early etched openings….Libby leafed through the 3 inch spine of the hand painted old album and had a vision that each herb in her garden at home would be drawn to fill the book, with its qualities. Then she saw each one in a bottle and saw them mixing with each other, as perfumes. She had an a-ha moment then, that stayed with her all these years. It takes five to ten years to develop your nose as a master perfumer. Libby started that year in earnest, one herb and one scent at a time, to befriend each. Lavender, geranium, rosemary, thyme were early friends. Once she learned enough herbs, Libby started synergizing the blends, studying the volatilities, the dry downs, the emotional affiliations. Better to work into the emotional body before things become physical.
Early upbringing and influences
The story goes, Libby took a lot of walks growing up, around her lake, and in the woodlands and meadows in northeastern Ohio, where wildflowers were plentiful in the spring and summer. Libby was taught by her mother to set the table, have table manners and practice with a book on her head to walk. Part of her training was flower arranging which began as early as she can remember. Libby would bring back flowers from her walks, arrange them in a Lalique or silver vase, and set beautiful tables for the family dinners. By the time dinner was over, the flowers had almost wilted. This got Libby to wondering how to preserve the beauty and scent that the flowers lended to their family time of day when Libby and her brother George would sit with Mother and Dad, to discuss the highlights of their day and share with each other. This raised Libby to be conscious about her time and her days.
Fashion career started at a very young age
Libby enjoyed an upbringing in a very comfortable home, was dressing her parents for country club events each weekend shopping and was voted best dressed in elementary school. It was no surprise then that age 17 Libby began a twenty-five year career in fashion merchandising, display, business and design. She graduated with a BA from the University of Akron, in Akron, Ohio, in 1984, with six areas of study over nine years: graphic design, sculpture, drawing, painting, photography and printmaking, with minors in graduate level botany and business (marketing). She started college in Columbia, Mo at Stephens College, the second to oldest women’s school in the country, started as a finishing school for women. Her mother went there in the 40′s and had registered her at birth. Second year of college was at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. No grades. Portfolio Review. Thousand acres of rain forest, tall trees, Douglas fir. Libby was smitten with the ferns, the trees and the psilocybin that she and friends hand-picked everywhere. It was the 70′s!
After that year her dad sent her a plane ticket. The message was clear. Come home. She worked as an art director that summer, for a firm in the area, then got into University of Cincinnati that fall, 1978 and began to study with the über uptight swiss Bauhaus designers in DAA (Design Architecture and Art). After another year of sex, drugs and rock n roll, Libby returned home to Akron Cleveland to once again work as an art director for a small firm designing ads, and she created her first magazine. NORKA. It was a small magazine that featured local entertainment. She sold the magazine after a season of success to a radio station. That fall she entered U of Akron, determined to finish her degree. It took five more years, and she ended up working in fashion at the same time she was in school and doing the other magazine Akron Venture. She was also a full-time freelance photographer for the bands that were coming out of Cleveland and Akron headed to NY. The Waitresses, DEVO, Chrissie Hynde. U2′s first tour of the States, Libby photographed Bono at the front of the stage at the Agora, a small club in Cleveland that held just over 200 people. Bono spit his beer on the crowd. Libby was under the stream and caught it all on film. Yes, film.
Art School, Being an Entrepreneur, The Transition
Libby worked from 1979 thru 1986 in Ohio for a couture designer as her assistant and the May Co, in sales & display. While in college, Libby started an arts magazine in 1980 with eleven girls as the art director. The girls produced monthly zines before anyone had heard of the word. Then she married an architectural photographer, opened up a studio for photography, fashion and architectural styling and graphic design, painting and product development. They moved to the east coast. After a six-year stint on the east coast that included New York City, Toronto and Washington DC, Libby moved to Taos, NM to begin her own company. She traveled for Blue Fish to NYC and LA to buy and manage their Taos store. In the course of the year, 1993, Libby increased their business from $400,000 a year to over $1,000,000. They were trending by summer at over $100,000 a month in sales. Libby had worked for the May Co, a Canadian Design Firm and a Couture Designer plus Nordstrom Company, and knew her customer service, her production and how to read an open to buy, and strategically build new business by working the numbers so she could creatively move money from one department to another to grow the business..
In spring and summer, Libby took on photographing the collections, hired a videographer friend on vacation from across the country, art directed and produced and shot the collections at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House. Her business jumped. She sent clients her videos of the collections every new seasonal flow. With her background in Fashion it is easy to see how Libby is so prolific as a perfumer. In Taos, she had tai chi mornings with an instructor, followed by smoothies that she made with her own blender from home. To excite business she closed the store at 6pm and reopened at 9pm, to midnight with music, snacks, and a party. Everyone came out of the woodwork for the events that she had on aromatherapy, essential oils. Libby would have people sit in circles on the floor and she would focus the evening on some aspect of aromas. This was the time period, politically when the Orrin Hatch Bill had just been defeated in Washington DC for the supplements to be curtailed or removed.
Health, Lifestyle, Herbs, Essential Oils, and the Heart of Customer Service
Libby was the top customer of aromatherapy line Neal’s Yard, ordering and selling through on $3000 a month in essential oils. But some people could not afford to stock their homes and bathrooms with the entire A – Z suggestions that Libby had in store. One day, in her adobe home, in Taos, NM, she was soaking in the bathtub and had a *light-bulb moment* where she literally conceptualized her company. She saw there was a gap in the marketplace, and decided that if she could offer blends, oils, flower waters, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, and shower gels, bubble baths, that people could afford to buy at $20 to $75 for small 2 oz to 8 oz bottles. The company was born. Libby had been asked to move back to New Jersey and open twenty more stores of Blue Fish. She decided to stay, in NM, and start her own company.
New Mexico, The Early Success of Angelic Aromas
Launched locally in Taos, for holiday in 1993, Libby received her first couple of orders. She had one from the metaphysical bookstore in Taos called Merlin’s and soon after from Wild Oats in Santa Fe. In 1994, right after the Northridge earthquake in LA, Libby launched her line at two trade shows with sale reps and overnight, she had $30,000 in orders. She had no staff, and no supplies and had to hire friends at $5 an hour to help her fill orders, pack and box them to ship them all over the country. Within a few weeks, Libby had outgrown her house and moved to a loft. With 2000 sq ft, and now 9 employees Libby soon branched out to painting furniture for her local store accounts and the Santa Fe Flea Market on weekends. In 1995, Libby went to Europe on a month-long trip down to the south of France from Amsterdam and back. It turns out Europe was not ready for naturals.The only essential oils Libby saw were in French Parisian pharmacies on the lowest shelf, next to the gauze bandages. Tea Tree, Rosemary and Thyme for medicinals. Libby returned home numb from disbelief that the whole rest of the world was not hip to the natural and organic movement that was sprouting up in the southwest, the west coast and limited in NYC and on the east coast along the cape and the summer resorts and in Florida.
Libby moved to Santa Fe in 1995, where she worked on her first licensing deal with a prominent natural products giant. In 1997 Libby moved to San Francisco Bay Area. Her aphrodisiacs were embraced by the Leather and Sex Party Open Relationship Ecstasy party crowd. Libby had the online stores of Good Vibrations and Babeland carrying her lines, along with the Hustler Stores in LA and across the country. In 1998 and 1999 Libby learned the organic market by working for Earthsake. She had sold her line to them, from Taos…and now took two years out from her business to educate herself on green products. She had seen the trend at Oibibio in Amsterdam in 95 and wanted to prepare for the coming shifts in the marketplace. Libby was successful once again in growing the business past the owners expectations, and after two years, Libby launched her yoga line of personal care products, called PURE, under the Angelic Aromas label. She had taken a break from the business servicing only the online giants, with monthly deliveries so she could learn the organic business. In the spring of 2000 Libby called on all her old buyers and visited them all over northern California, shipped boxes of full-sized collections of the line to LA, the East Coast and everyone said yes. She was back in business. Funny thing was every single store asked if Libby was still doing the aphrodisiacs.
Libby and the Late Night Raves
So, in 2000 Libby brought back the top twenty sku’s from Angelic Aromas. She started going to late night raves to promote her line to kids on ecstasy, pot, and who knows what else…..she would arrive at a venue, at 6pm, set up before pm and entertain people with spritzes and body massages with her oils, until between 3 and 6am. It was at 6am when Libby would arrive home. After 911 happened, Libby started traveling for family. Her dad was not well. And so, she sort of dropped Angelic Aromas again for a year. Then when her Dad had passed and her Mom was moved and all was ok, Libby started to do trade shows, instead of regional night shows.
The regional beauty and influences on Libby’s perfume designs
After launching her perfume and aroma business in Taos, NM in 1993, after almost twenty years as a hobby with private clients, then moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1997, Libby is now based in the greater Los Angeles area since March 2011. Libby has had clients along the California coast and internationally since 1994. The moves have been sort of like a chess board -- of beauty. Each area has titillated her love for nature.
The Taos landscape supplies inspirational vistas for the perfumer, across an ancient mesa that was once a seabed, and also a host to dinosaurs. Taos Mountain has been worshipped by the Pueblo Natives for thousands of years. The inside of the mountain is filled with crystal, and is an energy vortex that the locals say either spits you out or embraces you. For Libby it embraced her.Famous flower painter Georgia O’Keeffe lived nearby in Abiqui, there were many mountainous drives with hot springs at Ojo Caliente, Jimenez, Ten Thousand Waves, and down at the Rio Grande river north of town, for those midnight adventures, seeing the starry night skies and shooting stars above. The plentiful mud baths at Santa Barbara off the high road, the sacred dirt in churches, the deep blend of mystical cultures, all influenced Libby and provided a foundation for her mystical flower water intentional sprays….even before Dr Emoto was a household name. It was in Taos, that Libby designed private couture aphrodisiacs for women looking to attract and keep a man. Libby’s specialty then was to design perfumes that could be carried in glass vials, hand blown pieces of art in their own right, as necklaces. After launching the Angelic Aromas collection in over 500+ stores nationwide, Libby moved to Santa Fe for a little over a year and a half, into a larger circle of people, and culture, then in 1997 to the San Francisco Bay Area, to be on the coast. New Mexico’s beauty had become reclusive for purposes of her business.
San Francisco, Big Sur, Santa Cruz, Napa, Calistoga.
Philanthropy
In the Bay Area, Libby enjoyed the yin qualities of the bay from every bridge, every hilltop, and the cooler softer fog, romantic weather. She loved both the beaches with their strong waves and long walks, reflecting on her inspirations….as well as hikes up in the redwoods. Visits to Big Sur, were frequent…..along the coast, and to Santa Cruz, as well as up to Calistoga, and Napa. For her ten-year anniversary Libby did a very extensive catalog of all of her collections (over 500) and began touring through the United States doing trade shows. She designed a line of robes and sarongs in velvet and silk, pillows and throw blankets, shawls, to sell alongside her boudoir aphrodisiacs. Within two years every buyer now had an office computer, gone were the days of faxing in orders on illegible thermal paper, and editors replaced the need to attend trade shows for buyers. Websites, and published magazines were king and queen in how buyers found product. In 2004 Libby attended her last trade shows. She turned her attention toward incorporating a store into her two lofts. For two years Libby had a lingerie store, that sold jewelry, furniture, photography as well as her couture perfumes and aromatherapy aphrodisiacs. Everything was by appointment only. Libby hosted many women’s empowerment dinners in her upstairs loft, while the girls shopped in the downstairs loft….and began to be able to give back to some of the organizations that make a difference in the world for women. Some of these organizations include: Forest Ethics, 4Exhale.org, Media4Humanity, The Santa Monica Rape Foundation, The LA Zoo, Stuart House, ACCESS Oakland, and many more.
True Beauty Icons: The Project
In 2005 to Libby’s interests turned towards filmmaking. Her dad had been a filmmaker, and photographer & she was always fascinated. She studied with famed filmmaker Fabian Redrovan at an Esalen Arts event and dabbled in direct action with Rob Nilsson acting in one of his award-winning films GO Together. She attended the first digimart event in Montreal that put filmmakers deep into conversation with the digital media giants Mark Cuban, Corey Doctorow of Boing Boing, among others from Link TV, NPR, and more on distribution. After returning home and after the holidays, in January of 2006 Libby started her True Beauty Icons Project. She photographed and interviewed over 200 women on the west coast from various walks of life, and of various ages, lifestyles. Then in 2007 she went to NYC for a month to do an artists residency at the Gershwin Hotel, where she always stayed during her trade show days. She photographed women of import in NYC and culminated her stay with a one woman art exhibit of her work.
When Libby returned to the Bay Area after her exhibit, she continued to work on her TRUE BEAUTY ICONS Project and added Perfume Scents to the archetypes of women represented in the plethora of images. It was then that LPO and its first Aphrodisiac Collection was born in 2007. For the remainder of the year Libby worked tirelessly with private clients creating perfumes for them behind the scenes, and was very patient as her new collection, company and lines were born. In 2008 Libby started to create perfume for men…..almost exclusively, and the men’s collection of aphrodisiacs was born.
The Historic Garden: Cohen Bray House
In 2009 Libby became involved with a historic garden a half mile from her studio. She relocated her urban garden to the Cohen Bray House and began putting in ten hours days most days for the spring and summer months. She reclaimed the garden from the snakes and spiders, and began an earnest restoration along with three friends. She created an herb garden and began tincturing from the 1884 verbena tree, for her perfumes. At night, she entertained, cooked and perfume took a back burner to a love affair with the garden, and a man. She was asked to be on the trust’s board, which she did, briefly and helpd them to run a successful silent auction. to raise money for the garden and house upkeep.
The Scent Journey
In 2009 late summer Libby dug in her heels, went into reclusivity after her boyfriend’s mother passed. Libby sunk all her attention into the serums, the Ayurvedic skin care lines, and the perfumes. By 2010 Libby had built her international clientele, through word of mouth, facebook and had expanded her marketing to include cocktail events, dinners and tea parties in her beautiful bay Area loft. The SCENT JOURNEY was born. This is a well-known event that Libby can bring to anyone’s home or friends and clients could drop by to experience a multitude of new scents. Libby is a prolific designer, and always has a lot of new perfumes for people to experience. She began throwing larger art parties with her loft neighbors, and was hosting over 500 people in her loft, some evenings.
The switch to all organics
During her time in the Bay Area, Libby started LPO in 2007. This is when she began to create all organic perfumes. In 2007 Libby worked with a Leeds Certified Green Architectural Designer to clean up her business and become 100% sustainable, with as low as possible carbon footprint. She jettisoned plastic bottles that she had been using in deference to using all glass. All formulas were reworked to be all organic, or wildcrafted.
The Perfumers as Peers, Being Discovered
The LPO brand launched in 2009, in the summer, to the public. Up till then it was private for clients that Libby works with over the years. In spring of 2010 Libby premiered her Perfume Collections with her peers in New York City at a Sniffapalooza Luncheon, among bloggers and perfumers and press. By the fall her business had tripled, and with the extra press from online perfume bloggers such as Michelyn Camen, and Monica Miller and Mark Behnke, people began to get more of a feel of her brand. Although Libby had been perfumer since 1975, Sniffapalooza introduced her as a newcomer. This made sense to Libby since her clients were people whose privacy she protects fiercely. She often laughs that she is the best kept secret in Hollywood.
International Appeal
Libby continues to work with clients worldwide to create private label, couture signature perfumes, and a collection that she launches seasonally for her loyal clients. The LPO brand, and couture parfums have been made for people on every single continent, except Antartica….although one of her clients has traveled there. The lines continue to flourish through word of mouth.
From the Archives
Angelic Aromas, her aromatherapy company was subsumed into LPO (Libby Patterson Organics) over the past four years and earlier in 2011, Libby closed the Angelic Aromas site. She has over 1000+ formulations for emotionally based aromatherapy and scent perfume products and has created an ARCHIVAL section of her LPO line for loyal Angelic Aromas fans, who collect the colourful line of aphrodisiacs, known for their creative hand drawn and wild labels.
What exactly *IS* this QUANTUM ALCHEMY Focus?
Libby has always understood that the invisible power of perfume is powerful. She is influenced by the QUANTUM scientists, and concepts to help her to explain the connection between the scientific and the spiritual . In her designs some if not many of her perfume collections resemble the homeopathic concept of less is more. Perfume is applied into the etheric (above the skin within 8 inches) and cellular (on the skin)….and again through inhalation….the brain gets the signal in 3 seconds according to scientists…..which means that all the cells are talking to each other instantaneously. Her designs and her work is based on the need in a fast paced society, and sound bite lifestyle, to manifest quickly, to change the vibe, the emotion and what not. SO, her perfumes work into the neural pathways to excite and carve new ways of addressing life, problems, and eventually solutions….it is like the old adage where the person walks down the sidewalk, and falls into that same hole again….it’s really kind of like that with our neural pathways. This is why Libby suggests a new perfume every six weeks, in addition to your couture signature perfume that Libby designs for you, and all for you, the recipe is in the vault reserved only for you.
Libby’s Private Label Work/Intellectual Property
Over the years Libby has been sought out by companies and individuals to help them design their collections, licensing, manufacturing and/or just one private perfume. She has worked with all kinds of people, companies and continues to be stimulated creatively by the associations and limited partnerships. As her schedule allows, she will continue to take on private label, as she enjoys the process and working to achieve the client’s vision.
Mentoring Entrepreneurs
One of Libby’s strengths is in mentoring young entrepreneurs. She has successfully mentored dozens of young people, from being a sound board on the other end of a phone, to trouble shooting *big moments* and opportunities to branding, marketing, to helping rewrite bios, resumes, and business plans, to co creating companies, and ventures, to being able to focus the ideas, and create a logical way forward.
Leaving a Legacy: The Future Generations
Libby is looking for interns to learn her business who she can pass it down to. She is creating a legacy, over the next twenty years, of her work. She has a strong mission statement and vision statement. Sprinkled among the bigger legacy projects, she sees: the need to protect organics, as a huge priority. She partners with farmers and gardeners, wildcrafters…..to obtain the purest ingredients, to preserve the way of life for americans, and to have access to the most expensive, rare ingredients for her clients.