It’s Time to Celebrate!

Hello, and welcome back to The Drydown Boutique Newsletter. Not to be totally cliche, but I’m struggling to wrap my mind around the fact that we are already preparing to enter November and therefore holiday season for 2026. It also means we are getting ready to celebrate one whole year of The Drydown Boutique! Before I get into what our scent theme for November is, Shaya, Lauren, Corrin, and I would like to take a minute to express some gratitude for The Drydown Boutique and our wonderful community. Lauren, Corrin, and I are also secretly and sneakily sharing our gratitude for the incredible woman who has made it all possible, Shaya.

Shaya:

As I look back on this first year of The Drydown, I keep coming back to how grateful I am that this little dream has become a real place, filled with people who love fragrance as much as I do. To every customer who has walked through our doors, spent an afternoon discovering something new, trusted me to help them find a scent that feels like them, or simply stopped by to say hello: thank you. And to the incredible brands and perfumers who have trusted us to share their work, thank you for letting us be a small part of the stories you’re telling through fragrance. One of the things I care most about it making the world of niche perfume feel a little less intimidating and a little more accessible, and creating a space where curiosity is encouraged and there’s no wrong way to love a scent. Getting to share that with this community has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. Thank you for being here, for supporting this little shop, and for making this first year so special. I can’t wait to see what we discover together next.

Sam:

Prior to working at The Drydown, I was kind of treading water and just dreaming about a day when I could work in perfume in any capacity at all. Now, I get to come to my dream job most days out of the week, work with incredible women who love perfume as much as me, and gab with our lovely customers, regulars, and Scent Club members who always have so many interesting things to show me and teach me. This is of course, thanks to the boss lady in charge, Shaya.

Working with and for Shaya has changed my life for the better in so many ways, but the change in me that I keep coming back to is Shaya’s insitence that I continually strive for more and dream bigger for myself. She makes sure that I know that she believes in me. Her faith makes it so much easier for me to believe in myself. I would like readers to know that Shaya is the kind of person who always always chooses to elevate the people around her and makes sure that the opportunities she finds she shares. We’re very lucky to have her! (Also happy early birthday!)

Corrin:

I’m so grateful for Shaya and for everything she has created with The Drydown. It’s been so special watching her build a space wehere you can see her passion and personality in every little detail. She has created a community and I feel incredibly lucky to be a small part of it! We’ve learned that almost every fragrance she loves on her skin smells absolutely terrible on me, but recently we finally found common ground in Cedar Chic by Carolina Herrera, which may honestly be our greatest accomplishment yet lol. I’m so proud of everything she has built in just one year, and I feel really lucky to have had a front-row seat to it. Happy one year to The Drydown and happy birthday to the gorgeous and talended woman behind it all!! I can’t wait to see what this next year brings.

Lauren:

Shaya is the kind of woman books are written about: bold, curious, whimsicall, and impossible to forget. Her expertise ranges from perfume to pigeons to French cuisine and modern medicine. Hardworking, magnetic, and deeply loving, she’s the friend everyone wants and the person you’ll want to talk to about base notes with for days on end. I love you, Shaya. Thank you for sharing your beautiful world with me.

Everything The Drydown has grown to be in just a year deserves to be celebrated. That’s why our Scent Club theme for November is “Celebratory Perfume.” What are the perfumes you love to wear for special occassions? What are you wearing for holiday dinners? We want to know all about them and share a few of our favorites too. So let’s get to it, shall we?

Bombon by House of Bo

notes: lychee, lily of the valley, white saffron, pink pepper, marshmallow, bergamot, caramel, white birch, aged cognac, ambergris

perfumer: Honorine Blanc

It’s no secret that we LOVE House of Bo here at The Drydown, and similarly to what I said in our wedding perfume series earlier this year, you could make a really good case for any House of Bo perfumes being great special occassion perfumes. However, if we went into detail about every single Bo fume, we’d be here all day. That’s why we chose Bombon to talk about today. Bombon is a really great example of what Bo does so well which is that they aren’t necessarily seeking to make photorealism the only goal of their fragrance. When you smell Bo perfumes, you can’t always pick out singular notes, instead you have a perfume that paints a full and complete picture. This is what makes them feel so classic despite being a contemporary brand. Bombon is sweet, fresh, fruity, and boozy all at once without ever once tipping the scale too far into any one of these categories. If you like it on the scent strip, you’ll lose your mind once you get it on skin! We cannot recommend it enough.

Dom Rosa by Liquides Imaginaires

notes: champagne, grapefruit, pear, damascena rose, clove incense, woody accord, cedarwood, vetiver, guaiac wood

perfumer: Sonia Constant

Listen. In this house, we love Sonia Constant. I know that I mentioned Dom Rosa in our wedding perfume series, and I hesistate to repeatedly mention perfumes at this frequency, but Dom Rosa is just. that. good. This is the perfume you wear to your fancy anniversary dinner. This is the perfume you wear when you are your absolute best-dressed and you need a fragrance to match. It smells like delicate and effrevescent champagne bubbles, a dainty and fruity amuse bouche, and roses. This is all rounded out with a mix of soft woods. It’s just so good. There just isn’t a world where this particular newsletter gets published without Dom Rosa on the list.

Dopamine Rose by L’epoque

notes: raspberry marshmallow, strawberry, rhubarb, rose, cyclamen flowers, ozonic notes, cashmere, musk

perfumer: Elena Valdivieso Ruiz

Dopamine Rose may just be one of the most accurately named perfumes that we have in store. It smells like a happy rose! If you’ll allow me to nerd out for a second, I want to vouch for why I think rose is such a fun note in fragrance because I know that the rose note can be sort of polorizing. If you’ve ever walked through a rose garden, then you know that no two roses smell exactly alike. Rose is cool because it’s just one flower, but it can be interpreted in so many beautiful ways and none of them are inherently wrong! This is why I firmly believe that there is a rose for every nose. This Dopamine Rose, in particular, conjurs the image of yellow and magenta roses, which a fast google search tells me is called the “love and peace” rose. It smells like roses, sure, but it also smells fruity, juicy, and zesty! This fragrance perfectly captures the feeling of joyfully of wearing a flouncy skirt on a summer’s day, or enjoying a lovely stroll with a loved one. It smells special from the moment you spray it until it leaves your skin.

Fleuriste by Fleurit

notes: flower shop, fresh cut flowers, bergamot, tomato leaf, pink berries, mimosa, hyacinth, freesia, neroli, musks, wood ambers, guaiac wood

perfumer: Maud Chabanis

Fleuriste genuinely smells like a florist’s fridge, it’s green like cut stems, and soft like floral petals. It smells like buying a bouquet to celebrate a big promotion, or graduation, or just because it feels like the right thing to do on a particularly happy Tuesday. Just smelling Fleuriste on the scent strip for the first time put an extra pep in my step. I think this is the perfect fragrance for the person that loves to celebrate with the most stunning floral arrangement you’ve ever seen!

Upcoming Events

Saturday 10/31 11am-6pm: Trick or Treat with The Drydown Boutique!

Stop by in costume (or come as you are!) for a little fragrance trick-or-treating. We’ll have treats for the kids — and a special mystery fragrance grab for the grownups.

Reach into our blind bag and pull out a fragrance sample… no peeking allowed! Will you discover a new obsession, or will your nose decide you’ve been tricked? There’s only one way to find out.

Expect costumes, candy, mystery scents, and plenty of Halloween fun throughout the day.

Come trick or treat with us — if you dare.

(One treat per person & you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit while supplies last ;D)

Saturday 11/7 6-7:30pm: November Scent Club!

Our monthly after-hours hang. November’s theme is Celebration Scents!

Bring a fragrance that feels festive, joyful, or worth marking a moment with. A bottle from home is always welcome, but never required. Come smell, share, and see what everyone else chose.

Saturday 11/14 11am-6pm: The Drydown Boutique 1 Year Anniversary Party!!!

Join us for an all-day celebration of our first year in business and the incredible fragrance community that has made it possible.

Come celebrate with us throughout the day with refreshments, special guests, local perfumer appearances, giveaways, and lots of fragrance surprises.

We’ll be raffling off an incredible selection of prizes, including:

* **One $300 The Drydown gift card** * **Two $150 The Drydown gift cards** * **Full bottles of fragrance** * **Discovery sets**

* Additional surprises from some of our amazing brand partners

Everyone who attends can enter the anniversary raffle, and every bottle purchase earns two additional raffle entries.

We’ll also have free fragrance samples available throughout the day while supplies last, giving you a chance to discover something new and take a little bit of The Drydown home with you.

Whether you’ve been shopping with us since opening day or have never visited before, we’d love to have you join us as we celebrate one year of independent fragrance, discovery, and community in Carlsbad Village.

Come by anytime throughout the day and help us celebrate The Drydown’s first birthday!

Friday 11/20 4-6pm: Meet the founder of Birkholz

Birkholz is one of our favorite houses available at The Drydown Boutique right now. Birkholz is a family-owned perfume brand based in Berlin with such a delightful lineup. Every single one of their fragrances smell decadent, luxe, and joyful. Come on by to meet the man behind the fragrance, Philip Birkholz!

Workshops

Sunday 11/1 4:30-6:30pm

Led by Michael Salazar, Perfumer & Founder of Aromas De Salazar

Discover the art of fragrance creation in an immersive, hands-on workshop guided by professional perfumer Michael Salazar. Participants will explore a curated selection of accords (top, middle, and base notes) and learn how to evaluate, combine, and refine them into a personalized fragrance. A glass of something bubbly (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) is included in your ticket.

You’ll begin by sampling and comparing individual accords using scent strips, then experiment with different combinations to identify your preferred scent profile. With Michael’s guidance, you’ll blend your chosen accords drop by drop, testing and adjusting your formula as you go. Every step will be recorded on your formula table, helping you understand the structure and balance of your fragrance.

Once your blend is complete, you’ll strengthen and finalize it inside a 15ml bottle filled with perfumer’s alcohol, and the workshop team will finish your creation with a professionally pressed atomizer. By the end, you’ll leave with your own custom perfume and the knowledge of how it was built from the ground up.

Perfect for fragrance lovers, creative explorers, and anyone looking for a unique, memorable experience. Don’t forget to name your signature scent!

So there you have it! Those were some of our favorite special occassion frags and a thorough list of all the special occassions we have coming up at The Drydown Boutique! This first year has been such a rewarding one and we cannot wait to see what the next one has in store!

Smell ya later!

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