FAQ's

 September 29, 2024 Newsletter:

We have lots of exciting news to share, but I do want to first extend our sympathies to all of our neighbors in the Southeastern U.S., some of whom are experiencing devastating loss in the wake of Hurricane Helene. We were thankfully safe in Charlotte, NC, but the mountains of western NC (fewer than two hours from us) are actively in crisis, as some communities are isolated by flooding and landslides without power, clean water, or cell service. 

Throughout the month of October, we'll be donating a portion of our proceeds to organizations providing relief from the hurricane's aftermath, beginning with the American Red Cross. 

In good news: we are re-opening for new orders at 11 a.m. ET on October 1st!

Here are the bullet points of what you need to know:

- all of our permanent and limited edition scents (i.e., The Love Story Collection), will be available for pre-order with a 4-6 week estimated processing time.

- all permanent and LE scents will become available at the same time, 11 a.m. ET. on October 1st (I thankfully was able to pre-schedule this restock through Shopify, so everything should come up at exactly this time).

- Match Made in Heaven will be available in large quantities and limited to 115 mls per person in a single month.

- She's a Witch, The Ghost Wants Birthday Cake, and Falling Stars will be available in all sizes, along with our other permanent and limited edition scents.

- if you need to change or combine orders, we need to be notified within 24 hours of the order(s) being placed to ensure that we can help you. We may not be able to combine orders made more than 24 hours apart.

- our goal is to keep scents available on the site for as long as possible, for a smoother shopping and check-out experience.

- we are also very excited to be opening a retail space in Charlotte, NC for our own scents as well as other artisan-owned perfume brands (more information below and to come)

Why pre-orders this time? Because some of our scents have been selling out so quickly this year, and we do have a fairly large catalogue of scents to keep in stock, we haven't been able to collect data over a long enough period of time to make accurate predictions to determine how much additional inventory to keep in stock, how long they might last, and which scents to prioritize. Working on a pre-order basis for now will allow us to offer a calmer checkout experience, without the concern of scents and sizes selling out while they are in your cart, or within minutes to hours of becoming available. The goal is to return to restocking with in-stock products and a faster turnaround time as soon as possible, but only once we have a better idea of how much inventory is needed to prevent super fast sell-outs of certain scents, so that you have a more comfortable and predictable shopping experience.

We are a small company, and everything is still handmade, bottled and shipped from our studio (if you'd like to read more about why we operate this way, I've gone into more detail here), so we will monitor the volume of online orders and temporarily close if we reach a maximum order volume for the month. 

In other great news, we are moving this month to a larger studio space in Charlotte, NC. We originally wanted to move in order to have more space for inventory, bottling, and shipping, but we found a beautiful, 100-year-old space that will also allow us to have retail open during regular business hours, no appointment needed. We will keep you all updated once we have an opening date! We will have our own scents in stock, as well as building inventory of other small, artisan-owned brands (we have a few on the way already! Any guesses? 👀). I'm hoping to begin offering some community events and workshops in the winter or spring as well.

Our Materials:

We make handcrafted, small-batch fine perfume in fractionated coconut oil and alcohol bases. We use natural absolutes, oils, CO2 extracts, and isolates, as well as synthetic ingredients, which often offer increased affordability, sustainability, skin safety, and olfactory effects that would not be possible with only natural ingredients. 

We do follow IFRA guidelines to ensure our fragrances are safe for your skin. Our fragrances are cruelty-free, and are free of parabens, phthalates, BHT, and synthetic dye. 

We absolutely do not use pre-blended fragrance oils, which are more suited for candles and bath and body products, of any kind. 

All of our scents are vegetarian, but not all are vegan (beeswax, honey, wool musk, and butter extracts are sometimes components of our perfumes). If a product is not vegan, it will be noted, and why. We are working on phasing out butter co2, and only incorporating beeswax/honey and wool musk as animal (by)products.

Our extrait spray bottles have been produced in Normandy, France for almost 400 years, and our label art is designed by our very own Madison Dahl.

Our natural materials are sourced from highly reputable suppliers in perfumery who specialize in, and are extremely knowledgeable of, the procurement of natural materials of the highest quality. They are often small businesses who work closely with producers and are knowledgeable of the materials' origins.

Perfume Appearance:

Perfume oils may appear cloudy (particularly with blends containing natural oils, such as juniper, and coconut CO2), separate (particularly common with oil blends containing cocoa), or darken over time (usually the result of natural vanilla components). These are natural occurrences and typically do not require remediation (a gentle shake to separated contents should work in that instance). Occasionally, if a perfume with a high concentration of coconut pulp co2 (The Cookie Party) is subjected to cold temperatures, the coconut can solidify into small particles. This is safe to use, but may clog the atomizer, and we will replace your bottle if it happens (just e-mail us with a picture).

Special Orders:

We hate the idea of falling in love with a scent that won't be available when we want more of it. To make room for new scents, we have a special order section. Special order scents won't be available for sampling from our site (although they can still be sampled at Ajevie.com!), and will be available for a short order window once per season. The next order window for special orders will be January 2025. The only time a perfume itself will be discontinued is if a key ingredient is no longer available.

Cancellations:

You may cancel your order at any time prior to a shipping label being created; please just e-mail us at helpmeplease@shopsorce.com with your order number and request. 

Resting/Aging:

Our scents are often not filtered, which allows components to age and evolve beautifully over time. All of our fragrances are designed to be enjoyed immediately upon receipt. Many find that a short rest of 2-4 days improves the scent quality and projection after receipt in the mail, as the perfume recovers from the temperature fluctuations in shipping (this applies especially to oil-based perfume). Many people also find that they particularly like their vanilla- and amber-based scents aged to a certain level; while components and concentrates are macerated to a consistent minimum level that varies per scent, you may find that you prefer your bottle at the 1- or 2-month mark, or the 1 year mark, and a new bottle may need to be put away upon receipt to reach your preferred level of aging.

Return/Exchanges:

Unfortunately, we cannot accept returns or exchanges on products. A refund or replacement may be available if there is a documented issue with the product or order. When perfumes are returned to larger stores, they must be destroyed - this is a cost that we cannot incur as a small business. We offer samples to prevent a situation in which you are dissatisfied with a scent - please sample first!

We are not responsible for replacing or refunding items that are not delivered/misdelivered in the process of shipping, although I do help in these situations - just email to ask. 

Shipping: 

Please see the banner at the top of the site for current processing time. When your shipping label is created and you are notified that your product has shipped, you should expect to see movement within the next 24-48 hours. We don't create shipping labels in batches - when your shipping label is generated, your order is already packed and ready. If you don't see movement after 4 business days, please reach out to us; the package may not have been scanned in at the post office, but we want to make sure it hasn't gone missing (and we will send a new one if it does).

Orders do not always ship in the order in which they are received. I may be waiting for a bottle size to arrive, a label for a certain scent, or for a batch of a scent to be ready. Please do not worry if you know someone who ordered after you, and their order shipped before yours. I will communicate with you if there is any reason that your order will ship past the posted estimated processing time. Please check your confirmation e-mail for your maximum processing time and estimated ship date!

Contact Us:

Please feel free to email us with ANY questions. We are happy to help as much as we are able. 

You can reach us at helpmeplease@shopsorce.com