MAKES SCENTS TO ME

Lois Bolin Old Naples Historian

Naples was recently voted one of America’s Happiest and Healthiest Cities based upon a Gallup-Sharecare survey, which asked participants: Do you like what you do? And do you get to use your strengths every day?

I recently had the opportunity to see the survey’s formula in action: like what you do, use your strengths and you’ll create real buoyancy throughout your life. Makes “scents” to me.

A few months back, I stopped into a retail shop In Bayfront. As I entered, the lady behind the “bar” said, “Are you who I think you are?” Thinking it was a trick question I replied, “I don’t know – am I?”

It seems her dad, a WWII veteran, had met my husband, a Vietnam veteran, while looking for a rental home. We got lost in a maze of connect the dots and I said, “Those are cute hats.” The owner said that they were made by a woman who donates a percent of her proceeds to help other women, but they were not quite right for the Kentucky Derby or Easter. I mentioned that I knew a local milliner.

The Lady Behind the Bar

Myxn Scents at 457 Bayfront Place is the brain child of Tracy Sherles, who is no ordinary bartender. She is part mixologist, part pharmacist, part alchemist, infused with the spirit of an experienced entrepreneur.

Tracy was president and COO of a large company that managed more than 30 resorts all over North America. She retired in February 2013 and moved with her family to Naples.

Retirement lasted about a month.

The idea for her fragrance bar sprang from her quarter of a million miles per year travels during which she always had her favorite custom scented lotion. Not only is the store unique, so is the mind of the Myxn Maven. Here, “olfactory stations”(utility patent pending) are made from seven Plexiglas circles and hold 353 glass scent vials with another 150 scents behind the bar.

When entering the doors of Myxn Scents, the smells, sights and sounds melt away your stresses, as you are engulfed in array of emotions from serenity to delight. This space that offers lotions, spritz, cologne and nourishment oils, also offers a space of collaborative empowerment from women artists who have their own sense of style.

Peace Keeper of the Soul

One such artist is Dusty Holmes, an Army veteran who served as a nurse at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu before heading to Albuquerque, NM, where she worked as a nurse for 20 years.

She married her Air Force love, Dr. J.B. Holmes, and moved to Naples, Florida in 2007.

Dusty began working with clay in 2008 and still maintains a pottery studio in Bonita Springs. If you’ve ever been to one of Naples finest art shows, you may have seen Dusty “fiddling” with pine needles. No, she’s not passing time, she is continuing the work of master pine needle weaver, Georgia Hortin, who passed away at age 99 in September last year; but rest assured, Miss Georgia, your legacy is in good hands and at a great shop.