The opposite sex

What is the difference between a perfume for a man or a woman? What makes a scent feminine or masculine? I think the perfumer makes that decision. I don't care what the perfumer had in mind, if I like a masculine perfume I will wear that. I was thinking about the first time I met my husband. The fragrance he was wearing Oh wow I was addicted to it. Really! I couldn't stop to smell his skin and when he wasn't around I sniffed his shirt! Later I found out he was wearing the perfume (the real perfume concentrate) of Must de Cartier a fragrance for women!!!! He still don't believe that it's a fragrance for women but it is (originally). My husband is born in Egypt and this oriental perfume is perfect on his skin. If I think about a masculine perfume that could be worn by a woman I think about Joop! It has a sweet note that also could be worn by women. And what about Jicky from Guerlain... it was made for men but eventually took over by women. Vice versa it was the case with Old Spice, originally made for women but later a men's perfume. Who cares, just spray it on and enjoy!

My Magnolia perfume

How frustrating it is when you have an idea for a perfume and you can't figure it out how to make it. Four years ago I started to make a perfume for my sweet sister in law. She love perfumes and have a great olfactory sense. For her I made a perfume based on Magnolia. It's a fresh, tender but at the same time a sweet fragrance. In the top notes I used fresh citrus notes like Lemon, Orange and Bergamot, the heart possesses Magnolia, Lilly of the Valley, Orangeblossom, Jasmine Sambac, Rose from Bulgaria, Mai Rose and Cinnamon. The base contain Vanilla, Musk, Benzoin and Vetiver.
The fragrance smelled lovely and she finished the bottle in no time and asked for another bottle. But there is one problem... the fragrance don't have much staying power. So I added other oils to make it stay longer but the problem is that the fragrance change to much. I have to find something to make it stay longer without changing the fragrance to much. I tried Civet and that works but only in a small amount, I tried Sandal but that makes it to sticky, I tried Patchouli what didn't work. I tried more than hundred different formula's and I can't figure it out. Now four years later I still don't know. How frustrating! Every time I give it a rest and start again. I asked the friendly Andy Tauer and he give me the tip to use Ambergris or Ambroxide. The problem is that I don't have that stuff but I will try to find a company that can deliver that in small quantities. Maybe that's the answer!
One day I will find out what will work on that fragrance. One day......!
Have a nice weekend!

Finally

Finally it's spring! The Hyacinths are putting there head out the ground and promise to give there fragrances soon. I can't wait to smell all the blooming flowers in my garden again, like the Snowball(Viburnum) I love to make a perfume with that scent, the Jasmine, the Roses and the Honeysuckle.
I wish I had a Magnolia tree in my garden because I started 4 years ago to make a perfume based on Magnolia for my sister in law she loved it, it's sweet and fresh at the same time, I'm still working on it because it needs more staying power and until now I can't find out how to do that without changing the perfume to much.
I will talk about that and all the other perfumes I'm working on later.
Enjoy the spring!

The beautiful picture is from ptj.rozeta.com

Gala Loewe

I like to buy perfume but because it can be expensive I also like to buy miniatures, that way I can study them and don't have to buy the whole bottle. Every time I try a different perfume, but I have so many that I didn't try them all yet. So I can overlook some beautiful perfumes. Last time I found a sublime perfume: Gala Loewe. I'm in love with it. Every time I smell my wrist and the only thing I can say is: Ahhh and MMM! The bottle is a beauty, it's night blue with gold. The bottle is inspired by the dress of Infanta on the painting Las Meninas painted by Velasquez. The fragrance opens with fresh crisp citrus notes and some green notes. It has flowery notes of roses, jasmine, ylang ylang and lilly of the valley. The fragrance start fresh and flowery but the end is so wonderful warm, spicy, dry, ambery and sweet animalic. I can smell the spiciness of clove and bay threw the flowernotes. It has absolutely animalic notes what shimmers threw the whole fragrance. I can smell patchouli that gives a perfect match with the lilly of the valley. I think I smell also Chinese cinnamon that's a sweet dark cinnamon scent. The fragrance is complex and is not explored in just one sniff, it invites you to sniff deep threw the whole fragrance. It's not just a perfume it's an experience.

Perfume journey

Sometimes when I work on a perfume I get a new idea for another perfume. I'm still working on my "white flower" perfume and try to find an ambery note for it. I tried Coriander already what's really nice with the white flowers. I also wanted to try Celleryseed but I don't have order it yet so I tried the Selleryleaf that I have, it's a green leafy dark sharp note. But this note didn't work with it. I tried to ad a leathery note with a little bit of birch tar; not to much because this oil can be skin sensitive. After that I added some Gardenia. Both didn't work for the perfume I had in mind, but I found out that Gardenia smells real good with the leathery note. So that's a new idea for another perfume, maybe together with peach because that's also nice with gardenia. Perfume making is a wonderful journey.

My head up in the sky

Yesterday I had a lovely walk with my husband. It was cold but sunny. The nature here is beautiful but the whole time I was looking at the sky it was like a painting it felt like the sky was real nearby and the color was so clear blue with white powdery clouds. Lucky I had a camera with me so I can share the pictures with you. The Netherlands is cold sometimes but I love the seasons.

Perfume the story of a murderer

2 weeks ago I finished the book: "Perfume the story of a murderer" by Patrick Suskind for the second time. Now I've reed that this book will be on film this year and I'm excited about it. It's a strange story about Jean-Baptiste Grenouille born with no smell but an unique olfactory sense set plays in the 18th century in France. He never knew love at his childhood but because of his unique olfactory sense and his superior way of perfumemaking he becomes obsessed with making the perfect perfume. He started to learn everything about perfume and worked with perfumers in France. He became a master perfumer but wasn't finding what he was looking for. One day his nose smelled the perfect perfume, the perfume he was looking for, he traced the scent and found that it was the scent of a virgin. He had to own that perfume and planned to kill her so he could use her scent for his perfect perfume. One virgin was not enough so he killed more virgins to capturing the irresistible but elusive aroma of young womanhood. Ben Whishaw is playing Jean-Baptiste Grenouille in the movie, Dustin Hoffman plays Guiseppe Baldini. Here you can see a short trial of the movie.

The picture of Ben Whishaw is from Constantin Film, Munchen and the picture from the movie is from cinema blend

My world of fragrances

I love fragrances, I dream about fragrances. In my mind I create and smell fragrances. This blog is about my world.
The world of fragrances.
In 1999 I tried to create my first perfume. It didn't turned out to be the perfume I had in mind. I started to read about essential oils and all I could find about perfume. I needed to learn a lot about the making of perfume. Everyday I learned more and more. I learned about the reaction of the fragrance materials with one and another. It's amazing how some oils react with each other. I started to learn the essential oils and the characters of them. Now I am still addicted to it. This blog is about my experiences of the making of perfumes.
Right now I'm working on a perfume with white flowers with a ambery note. It has notes of Roses, Jasmine, Tuberose, Honeysuckle, Orangeblossom, Musk, Amber, Vetiver, Sandal, Vanilla etc. I love the fragrance of Tuberose and add a huge amount of Tuberose absolute in it. I like fresh white flower perfumes but this one is gone be more sensual. The result was still to "white" for me and I was searching for something warm. After a lot of experiments I tried to add Coriander and that was the trick it smell warm and sensual but also full of white blooms. I'm still working on it because it need to be more balanced. A lot of perfumes with a Tuberose note contain Selleryseed so I will try that also.