The Lovely Muse Apothecary, Part 1: Luck and Beauty

My experiences with The Lovely Muse Apothecary feel like a series of episodes involving serendipity and good luck. As you’ll see in a moment, luck also appears to have played a little role in the rapid success of this brand that launched just a few months ago. Which is not to take anything away from the time and effort that owner and perfumer Aurelia Corvinus put into this endeavor–I’m certain the brand’s success is mainly the result of her talent, creativity and willingness to roll up her sleeves and get to work.

Episode 1: I connected on Instagram with a fellow fragrance enthusiast, animal lover and cool person named Aurelia Corvinus sometime in mid-March.

Episode 2: On April 4, I was browsing Etsy for solid perfumes when I stumbled across The Lovely Muse Apothecary, a brand new shop that had launched on March 17 and had just a few sales so far. I recognized the proprietor’s name (hey, look! It’s Aurelia from IG and how had I missed that she launched a perfume brand?!?!?) and was charmed by the variety of solid fragrances she offered, all in beautiful artistic packaging, plus she had solid samples for sale. I purchased four samples (Luna, Tryst, Bohemian Spice and Lemon Tree) based on the notes and descriptions, figuring I’d try those before buying a full-size of my favorite from the bunch. Aurelia recognized me and offered to upgrade a sample to a full-size product since we were Instagram friends. Umm, of course I said yes! My samples and a surprise locket (I suggested a couple scents but left the decision up to Aurelia) went into the mail on April 8.

Episode 3: My samples and a beautiful full size locket of Tryst, adorned with Gustav Klimt’s masterpiece The Kiss, arrived on April 15. The quality and attention to detail on everything was top notch and all four fragrances were wonderful. After giving everything a good test wearing or two, I went to Etsy to leave a rave review and saw that the shop was temporarily closed…for the best possible reason!

Author/entrepreneur/TV personality Nicole Walters had fallen in love with one of The Lovely Muse‘s scents (Tea & Honey) and had done an IG live broadcast about it on April 8. Soon after, Lovely Muse was flooded with orders. The shop had gone viral just three weeks after launch 🙂 which is extreme good luck for a new business. By sheer luck I had also placed my order JUST IN TIME before the flood. I was excited to feature this amazing new brand in a blog post but after chatting with Aurelia a bit, I postponed it, to give her time to catch up on orders.

Episode 4: I kept wearing my samples and falling in love. All four scents are beautiful and highly wearable, but a favorite had emerged and I knew I wanted to add a full size of Luna to my collection. Aurelia had just launched a slightly smaller “Try Me” tin (still a very generous amount of product at 10 ml, with all the gorgeous labeling and product cards that come with the full size lockets), so I bought Luna in the new size. As luck would have it, Aurelia was preparing to launch some new products and packaging at the time of my order and asked if she could include some extras with my Luna and get my feedback. Again, of course, I said yes! 🙂

Episode 5: My Luna arrived, along with a Daisy perfume in the new packaging (again, what luck! This scent had been next on my list to try from this house!) as well as a beautiful brass cameo locket of Magnolia. Everything was carefully packaged and arrived safely, looking and smelling wonderful. There was so much beauty, love, kindness and generosity in that one little package that it truly took my breath away! I adore all three of those scents and I can’t wait to tell you more about them.

Things have moved quickly for The Lovely Muse Apothecary, and I’m sure it was overwhelming at times, but Aurelia has been on top of it all. I’m astounded by her energy. In less than three months, she’s logged over 1,200 sales on Etsy alone, and has also launched her own website for The Lovely Muse Apothecary products. She’s made some quick pivots on packaging and expanded her line to include refillable lockets, perfume oils and body cream. She has products in House of Mpenzi’s Self-Care subscription box for the month of June. Aurelia’s also a wife, mother, spiritual self-compassion coach and amidst all of the above, she somehow found time to speak at a summit in May!

Plus, she has some new scents in the works and a few more surprises up her sleeve!

Having tried six fragrances from this house now, in three different packaging formats (or four, really, though she’s no longer offering the solids in the small pouch format, due to postal issues), there’s a lot to talk about and I’m going to save the formal product reviews for another blog entry. In the meantime I encourage you to check out the perfumes at The Lovely Muse Apothecary on Etsy or on the brand’s official website. All of the products are as lovely as the pictures. The fragrances are of excellent quality–complex, evolving, long-lasting and with good sillage. The packaging is beautiful, durable and reusable or refillable. If you’ve never tried a solid fragrance before, these would be a great place to start and would also make excellent gifts. Stay tuned for a more detailed discussion of the scents in Part 2!

All images by me. Tryst locket, Daisy tin and Magnolia Cameo locket were gifts from The Lovely Muse Apothecary.