We wanted to turn to Deep Midnight Perfumes and our beautiful late friend Cat Marx, who passed away two years ago. Here’s an In Memoriam for her.
Here’s a message from her partner, John:
“Hello friends! I’m John, current owner of Deep Midnight Perfumes™, an indie perfumery located in Minneapolis, MN. Cat, my business partner and co-owner of DMP, sadly passed away in December [2020] and I’m trying to fill her shoes. This was a labor of love for her, and I hope to honor and continue her legacy—at first by continuing to run the shop, and later by supplementing her catalog with creations of my own.
Cat and I collaborated on nearly everything. She was a brilliant perfumer, and I was… also there. If you’re curious about scents that are uniquely mine, here are a few: Vintage, Wildwood, Sangreal, Drummer Boy, Faerie Knight, Prairie Gothic, the Walking Dead sets, and Feathers in the Moonlight (numbers 1,2,4,5,6). I share Cat’s love of the creative process, which for us meant that the scent is informed by the story. This leads to a wide variety of fascinating results—some simple, some complicated, some wonderful, and others wonderfully weird.
We sold on Etsy from 2010-2020 with a 5 star rating. We were consistently in the top 1-10% of Etsy sellers on Handmade Hunt. Over 300 unique perfumes are in the shop year round. All perfumes are vegan, preservative free, alcohol free, and cruelty free. The carrier base is scent free organic jojoba oil from plants grown in the USA.
Please continue to enjoy your favorites and perhaps find new favorites to come!
With love and gratitude,
John”
Isn’t that beautiful? Below we ask John some questions:
Would you like to say a few words about Cat?
Cat was a source of light and love, and treasured everyone she met. In 2009 she asked me if I’d be interested in starting a perfume shop with her. It was something she’d wanted to do since she was a child enchanted by Avon and Coty. I thought it was a good idea. We opened with a minimal investment and just 20 unique scents. Our packaging was terrible! We hand cut labels out of parchment (and burned the edges because that seemed cool at the time) and affixed them to cheap clear bottles with packing tape. We came a long way from such humble beginnings, mainly through her efforts and desire to make the best product we possibly could, always thinking about what we could improve. She created a legacy, and I’m happy to carry it forward on her behalf.
What are your hopes and intentions for Deep Midnight Perfumes?
My hope is to continue to grow the business and expand the perfume catalogue. There are many partially formulated scents, and I have my own ideas as well. I intend to run the shop for the foreseeable future. As long as people support the effort, I’m happy to do it.
How is your design philosophy unique?
While Cat and I shared fundamental philosophies, tailoring scents to characters and stories, and painstakingly iterating on formulas until they’re as good as they can be, I do also have a slightly undisciplined streak. I’m always trying to sneak in something a bit unexpected or bizarre. Cat would often reign me in, but some things slipped through the way I wanted. A few examples would be the almonds in Saturnalia, the anise in Comfort & Joy, the entirety of Prairie Gothic and Marzipan Moon. The last one came about because I thought, all of these ingredients could easily be overpowering in other scents, but what if they were all in the same scent? As it turned out, not too bad.
What’s new in the shop?
Sympatheia, the last scent Cat formulated.
Faerie Kitten, one of the first scents I created maybe 10 years ago. Atribute to Cat. Michaeline McDonald was kind enough to license her artwork for it. (“Innocence Fairy Cat” Artwork ©2004 Michaeline McDonald. https://www.etsy.com/shop/WiseTailsArt)
