I love a good Advent calendar – even if the chocolates are dodgy, even if there are no chocolates, opening that little door each day is such a perfect, simple pleasure. For Advent 2022 a friend gave Chris and me a coffee advent calendar, with a different K-Cup coffee each day. Two years ago I got Sam a Moomin advent calendar – each door revealing a tiny, plastic Moomin figure. That year we decorated our Yule Log cake with meringue mushrooms and Moomins.
The January Joy Box is like an Advent calendar — but a perfume advent calendar meant to be opened in January. When you think about it, it’s a brilliant idea; January can be such a dismal month. The only good thing I can say about January is that it is on the right side of Winter Solstice – I have actually printed out a list of sunrise/sunset times so that I can see how far we’ve come since the solstice.
If you read my post about my “23 for 2023” list, you saw both “Find a signature scent” and “January Joy Box.” They are related endeavors. In addition to 2023 being a year of Focus, Order, Serenity, and Joy, it will be my “Year of Scent.” I will read about scent/perfume, try many different scents, and learn as much as I can about perfume, perfume ingredients, and the history of perfume. January Joy Box sort of jump starts this entire project.
January Joy Box is the invention of independent perfumer Sarah McCartney. Sarah has had one of those circuitous life paths that seems random until it reaches a point where all of the experiences and skills learned coalesce into an “of course she ended up here” destination – perfumer and founder of the independent perfume company, 4160 Tuesdays (website here). A maths and science major in university, head writer for 14 years at Lush – a company whose marketing was so creative, playful, and unique at the time it burst upon the scene that it spawned many imitators. Sarah embodies the word “creative” – it just seems to be how she lives her life, from the moment her feet hit the bedroom floor each morning. I so admire true creatives like that.
Anyway – January Joy Box. There are fifteen little tester bottles, each one labeled and wrapped in colorful tissue. Every two days in January you pick the scent for that day and fully experience it for 48 hours before moving on to the next one (and if you are like me, making notes so that you remember which ones you loved most and why). Everything about the January Joy Box truly brings me joy – the colorful wrappers, the scents themselves (even when I decide one isn’t “me”), and the names. Oh my goodness, the names: Evil Max, Be Careful What You Wish For, Fruits of the Tree of Knowledge, Burnt Cedar Rainbow Doves, Clouds Illusion – I know that cheeky product names have been a “thing” for several years, but somehow Sarah elevates even that to a more creative level.
There is a catch (for me) – in order to fully jump into the experience you really need to participate in the 4160 Tuesdays News Group on Facebook. That’s where people discuss that day’s fragrance. As you know, dear Reader, I quit all social media in 2019. Dipped my toes gingerly back into Instagram in early September 2022 and three months later dumped it again. I was not eager to enter the kingdom of Zuckerberg again. But I wanted to be a part of this group, so I created a pretty anonymous account on FB and will delete it on the first day of February. The 4160 Tuesdays group fascinates me – I love to read all of the discussions about the different scents – it’s like being in a room full of wine experts describing different vintages, using a language I sort of understand but sort of don’t. I still couldn’t identify a “mossy” note all on its own versus an “amber” note. I assume that comes from lots of experience and experimentation with different scents, so that eventually I will be able to conjure up an impression of an “amber” scent as easily as I can conjure up a feeling for citrus, or vanilla. I’m a life-long learner. If I could get paid to go to school every day for the rest of my life, I would jump at the chance – so I am enjoying this January journey and these teachers so much. I am soaking up as much as I can, because on February first I will be deleting my account. 🙂
The January Joy Box is the beginning of my “year of scent” and my search for a scent which fills me with joy and which I will want to wear always. I recently read in someone’s review of a perfume that it surrounded them in “a bubble of delight.” Sign me up for traveling through the rest of my life in a bubble of delight.
Love,
Michelle xoxo