I have been processing lots of grief lately as I try to understand what’s happening in Ukraine. I haven’t lived there for years, but it’s the place where I was born and that shaped me, and its pain is my pain. When one feels helpless, the best thing is to reach out to others and help someone else. So I decided to hold a fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF.) It’s been a while since I’ve been thinking of this idea and looking for the best way to organize it. This year has been challenging for many people around the world, and I know that our community wanted to contribute. We’ve raised over $5000.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is a reputable organization known for its projects all over the globe. They help with children care, offer help to impoverished communities and those experiencing military conflicts. Their structure is quite lean, so it means that the money, even if it’s a small amount, goes a long way.

The fundraiser ran till June 30, 2022, and the winner is Vincent. However, I will leave a link for those who would like to donate anyway.

How to Donate
Click on this link: Donate Now

The prize for this fundraiser was vintage Coty Chypre.

We’ve raised $10,425 for Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), an initiative that wouldn’t be possible without all of your participation. More than 50 of you submitted prizes for the fundraiser that drew people from all over the world and generated such an impressive sum. Thank you for all of your generosity!

Now, I have the fun part of announcing the winners. I will list the name next to the prize, and I will be in contact with the winner and the person who donated the prize in the next two weeks. Nevermind, I took this afternoon off and got everyone in touch. If your name appears below and you haven’t received an email from me, please let me know (but do check your spam filter first).

Once I email you, please follow up directly with each other. If you’re sending out the prize, please make sure to package it well, using plenty of bubble wrap and a sturdy cardboard box. We are not responsible for loss or damage in transit.

Prizes

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Bois de Jasmin’s 2016 Doctors Without Borders fundraiser is special. Even before I had a chance to announce it, readers started contacting me with offers to contribute their perfumes to the prize pool. Within the course of a few days we’ve collected dozens of prizes, which means that 57 people (my own prize included) can win something special. Doesn’t this kind of generosity boost our faith in humanity? So I propose donating to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, any amount you wish, and in return, you will be entered into a contest for a perfume class with me (regardless of where you’re located in the world) or a number of different vintage and other interesting perfumes courtesy of our big group of fragrance lovers. More details are below. There will be 57 winners.

Prize 1 Perfume Class with Victoria : I will send you a collection of 10 different vintage perfume samples (each sample is between 1/2 and 1 ml, in stoppered glass vials): Guerlain Jicky, Coty Chypre (yes, the iconic chypre!), Guerlain Shalimar, Guerlain Mitsouko, Chanel No 5, Chanel No 22, Caron Tabac Blond, Dior Miss Dior, Shiseido Feminite du Bois, Lancome Tresor (the original version, which smells vastly different from today’s, or depending on availability, another perfume of your choice). A set of paper blotters will be included. Once you receive the package, we will schedule a Skype call and I will give you my “immersion into perfume history” course. I will also give you tips on smelling and describing scents. (Of course, if you’re in the EU and we can easily arrange to meet in person, we can do it this way too.)

Please continue after the break to learn about the other prizes:

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Thank you very much to everyone who participated in our Doctors Without Borders fundraiser. Together we’ve raised $7,150. Thank you for your generosity and thoughtfulness. Also, a big thank you to Limegreen, Bregje, Rebecca and Reg for the extra prizes they’ve contributed.

To select the winners, I assigned each participant a number and then made a selection via a random number generator in the following order:

Diorissimo–update on 1/29: re-drawing the winner, because the first winner never responded and my emails bounced back. So, the new winner is Farrah.

Diptyque Volutes (Rebecca’s prize, barely used bottle)–the winner is Therese

Chanel No 5 parfum (Limegreen’s prize, barely used bottle)–the winner is Jane

Serge Lutens La Fille de Berlin–the winner is Kay

Chanel Coco 50ml (Bregje’s prize, 95% full)–the winner is Dana

Since Reg is based in the UK and couldn’t mail her bottle outside of the country due to the regulations, I randomly selected a winner for Reg’s prize out of the UK participants.

Chanel Cristalle (Reg’s prize, vintage bottle, used)–the winner is Lucy

Added 1/22/2016: we also had an offer of a samples package from my reader Linda. I randomly selected a fundraiser participant, and the winner is Diana.

Congratulations! I will get in touch with you this week.

Our standard contest reminder: I reserve a right to select another person if the original winner doesn’t respond within 7 days.

Last year Bois de Jasmin held a Doctors Without Borders fundraiser, in the course of which we raised more than $6000 for this amazing organization. This year I would like to repeat it. It’s been a year of much violence and conflict, and organizations like Doctors Without Borders have shown incredible courage, despite risks and dangers. So, I propose donating to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, any amount you wish, and in return, you will be entered into a contest for a 15ml (.5 oz) of Dior Diorissimo Extrait de Parfum. I also have a brand new, sealed bottle of Serge Lutens La Fille de Berlin, and that too will be added to the drawing. Update 1: thanks to the generous readers, we have now two more prizes: vintage Chanel Cristalle EDT (70ml left out of the original 100ml, thanks to Reg) and Diptyque Volutes EDT (50ml, sprayed once, thanks to Rebecca). Update 2: we have another prize thanks to limegreen. Chanel no. 5 Parfum, 7.5 ml (opened but virtually full, in box, not  vintage but pre-2014 reformulation). There will be five winners.

It’s vintage, from the early 1980s, in my estimation, and it smells exactly like the original version I smelled on my mom as a child. The bottle has been opened, so I can attest to the quality of the contents. It comes in the original pink and grey box. I will make sure that it will be packaged properly for mailing; it has already moved across the ocean a couple of times with me, so I’m sure it will be fine for another trip.

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