From her house full of kitties and flowers nestled in a perfumer’s garden in the hills, to her extraordinary experience working with lace, flowers, and weddings, to the way she has merged all her talents and interests as an alchemist of scent, Laurie has always used her gift for capturing the essence of things and making them change and grow in ways that are beautiful and fun.

After incarnations as a designer and hand-creator of lingerie and as one of the Bay Area’s most sought-after wedding florists, Laurie discovered the world of perfume.  Fascinated by this secret and mysterious world, she spent the next several years immersed in it, teaching herself the alchemy of scent by studying books on perfume from antiquity to the present and experimenting endlessly with scents and materials from all over the world.  The work that she does now creating the perfumes, the spa products, and the exquisite packaging of  Velvet and Sweet Pea’s Purrfumery feels to her like the inevitable culmination of all her past careers and passions.

Laurie’s work as a perfumer comes directly out of the deep sense of connection she feels with the earth and its plants.  Her creations are liberally influenced by her love of beauty and romance, and solidly informed by her extensive years of study and her understanding of the history of perfume from ancient times to the “golden age” in the 19^th century before synthetic fragrances were invented.  But the heart of each Velvet and Sweet Pea perfume is rooted always in the profound sense of awe and wonder Laurie holds for the natural world.  Working intensely with her ingredients on many levels, Laurie always crafts her perfumes first with glorious scent in mind but also constantly incorporates the myriad other facets of her knowledge, from the aromatherapeutic and healing properties of plants to their historic significance to the way in which a particular harvest has been gathered and grown. 

In this way Laurie makes her art – as a stunning perfume to be enjoyed for its scent alone, or as a fine, many-layered treasure whose secrets unfold to the wearer as the scent blooms on the skin.