Friday, April 28, 2006

Memories

The strange thing about smell is that it bring back memories in a second. To proof how strong smell memories are try to think about the smell of the following things:
*The room of a dentist
*The garage
*The gym
*A morning in spring
*Christmas
See? What about the smell of your partner or your child? The smell of a blooming rose?
Olfactory information travels straight to the limbic system the primitive brain structures that govern emotions, it touches the emotion without relativation it's just there you can't run from it.

Smell is not only for the joy of life it's also for surviving. It tells you when food is bad or alarm you when there is a fire. I read once that doctors could use their smell to detect an illness by their patients. Some deceases have their own smell like yellow fever smells like a butchersshop and typhus like fresh bread, the pest like apples etc.
Sent can influance our behavior and emotions. Here is an article that said that the best flavors for car interiors meant for better concentration behind the wheel are those of coffee, mint, cinnamon and lemon. The most distressful and therefore recommended ambient for drivers remains the sea breeze. I think every one has sent memories but there is something that to me has the same effect: music. I can't cry by smelling a scent but to hear some part of music can make me cry and touch me in a strange way. I can cry without knowing exactly why, I recognize the feeling it gives but I can't tell why I'm so sad or happy. And also when I hear music from my youth I'm that little girl again dancing in the livingroom in the tutu my mother made for me. Could it be that hearing travels straight to the limbic system as well?

Monday, April 24, 2006

Perfume allergy???

Today I thought it would be a nice idea to buy a perfume for my husband because he has so much pain the last weeks. Now he can walk a little but still has pain even though it's not as painful as the last weeks. I went to the perfume shop in my little village where I live and asked for Moods by Krizia but they didn't have that, so I asked for Photo by Lagerfeld...sorry we don't have that. Well I wanted to buy a perfume so I had to find another one, and I found a delicious perfume Lui by Rochas, it was perfect a nice spicy woody scent and I knew that my husband would love this one. So they wrapped it in a beautiful paper and gave some samples of other perfumes as well. They put it in a pink plastic bag and I was happy when I left the shop with my pink plastic bag on my wrist with the wonderful fragrance in it.
I had to do some shopping so I went to the supermarket, once I looked to my hand it was turning red, just at the spot where I sprayed the perfume, the back of my hand. I was shocked...could I have a perfume allergy, my heart stopped for one moment, and than I was looking at the pink plastic bag on my wrist with the color fade away at the place where it was wrapped around my wrist. The alcohol from the perfume dissolved the color of the pink plastic bag on my hand.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Freesia and Hyacinth

Today I put the Hyacinths from my garden in a vase together with the Freesias that I bought yesterday, the smell is delightful. This combination of the smell of these two flowers is so nice that I'm going to try to make a perfume of it. It's a pity that you can't smell them but here are some pictures:

Friday, April 21, 2006

Chanel No 19

Chanel No 19 is one of my favorite perfumes, I like it so much because this fragrance gives me confidence and makes me feel good about myself. This was the favorite fragrance of Gabrielle Chanel, composed by Henri Robert and named after her birthday 19 august. At first it was a perfume just for her self but later she let it produce for the whole world. The fragrance of Chanel No 19 is not an easy one to describe. The different notes of this perfume are so perfectly balanced that it's difficult to define a single note, that's what makes this fragrance so intriguing. You could say that it's a green, transparent, dry powdery, thin, dry woody fragrance with sharp notes and some flowery notes.

The fragrance starts with a fresh, savory bitter green note that possesses a note reminding of poppy seeds and a bit like the smell of metal. The top notes are dominated by the wonderful scent of galbanum together with bergamot, lemon and neroli. To temper the harsh notes of the galbanum there is probably added a little bit of amyl acetate. The middle notes are flowery but in a dry way. The iris root is here the dominant one, together with may rose, muquet, ylang ylang and a little bit of jasmine. Hedione is also present together with methyl ionone that makes a bridge between the flowery notes of the heart to the woody notes in the base. The woody notes possesses vertiver, cedar, sandalwood, guaiacwood and oak moss probably with the leathery mossy note of iso butyl quinoline.
It's a fragrance that let you feel like you are walking trough a forrest with her woody notes and earthy mossy scents with beautiful flowers scattered on her soil.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

In the Ball-room


Here where the swaying dancers float,
The heady perfume swimming round
Your slender arms and virginal throat
Thrills me though riper loves abound.


The passionate eyes and lids of her
Whose face gleams white in many a fold
Of coiling wondrous sombre hair,
The blue eyes in the wreath of gold,


These turn to me in vain, who prize
You more than all the loves and lyres,
For from your unfilled corsage rise
The perfumes that my soul desires.


Ah might I dance for ever, bent
Toward your bosom's clouded gleam,
And let the lilies' acrid scent
Withhold me in the world of dream!


A poem by Theodore William (1871-1933)

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Creating a perfume

When I have an idea for a perfume I go sit behind my perfume organ and start blending. But where do I start? First I choose the notes that will be suitable for the perfume. There are different ways to create a perfume:

One way is just start blending; beginning with the base notes(like sandal, musk etc) building it up with the heartnotes(rose, jasmin etc) and finally the top notes(lemon, grapefruit etc).

But there are more ways.

Another way is to make a base of a particular desired note; like a green note. Blending all the green notes separate, for example: galbanum with hyacinth, narcissus, violet leaf, cyclamen aldehyde, cis-3-hexanol etc and adding it to the perfume. The same could be done with the rosy notes, the woody notes etc.
The same could be done with the top-heart-and base notes. Preparing the top-heart-and base notes of the perfume separated, after that choosing a satisfying amount of each base in the final perfume.
It's also possible to use prepared bases that have a complete perfume of their own like a Chypre base or a Oriental base and use it as a startingpoint and build it up with other notes or even combining these bases.
But there is more like the method of Jean Carles, I will show you what his method mean:
He start with two notes, let's say jasmin and rose:
Stage a
jasmin(in drops) 9 8 7 6 5
rose (in drops)... 1 2 3 4 5
Choosing the suitable combination from stage a for his fragrance goal and use this accord as shown:
stage b
(accord from stage a) 9 8 7 6 5
sandalwood ..............1 2 3 4 5
Choosing the suitable combination from stage b and use this accord like this:
stage c
(accord from stage b) 9 8 7 65
patchouli...................1 2 3 4 5
You will understand it can go on and on. The only problem is you have to weight the drops. There is a way to found out:
First you have to know the weight of every oil. Let's say you want to know the weight of the jasmin. You can weight 10 drops and you will know the weight of 1 drop of jasmin. Let's say we used at stage a 7 drops jasmin and 3 drops of rose. Makes for example:
7 drops jasmin = 0,140 gram
3 drops rose = 0,066 gram
total of stage a= 0,206 gram
We used for example 8 drops of stage a=0,165 gram
The weight of 8 drops of jasmin in this accord = 0,165 x 0,140 : 0,206= 0,112 gram
The weight of 8 drops of rose in this accord = 0,165 x 0,066 : 0,206= 0,053 gram
I know it's a lot of work like this but it's a nice method to try.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Happy easter


Happy Easter
Picture of the painting from: http://www.wintersfineart.com

Friday, April 14, 2006

Fresh sea breeze and a melon cocktail

A couple of weeks ago I made an traditional Eau de Cologne and experimented with the formula. The traditional Eau de Cologne had notes of:
Lemon, Bergamot, Rosemary, Lavender, Orangeblossom, Petit Grain, Clary Sage, Thyme, Peppermint(a little bit), Orange and Clove.
It smelled exactly like a Eau de Cologne. I thought it would be a nice experiment to ad unusual notes like Melon and Pineapple and give it a more flowery smell by adding flowernotes of Jasmin, Ylang Ylang, Honeysuckle and Gardenia. To give it more stayingpower I added sandalwood, Benzoin, Cedar, Vetiver, a little bit of Ciste rose and just a little bit of a warm and strong musk note. To give the fragrance a more softer and gentler topnote I added Rosewood, Linalool(a component of Rosewood) and Red Mandarin. Some of the original notes of the Eau de Cologne I have left out like Clary Sage, Peppermint and Thyme.
I was pleasantly surprised about the result. The fragrance has no similarity with the Eau de Cologne anymore it's complete different. The result is a pleasant fresh tropical fragrance that reminds me of a fresh sea breeze and a melon cocktail on a hot summer night.
I would change some things about this fragrance though. I added to much Ylang Ylang and I want to ad a crispy green fresh note maybe PADMA or Cyclamenaldehyde and I like to try Galbanum( I adore this scent) or Violet leaf absolute. I will keep you informed.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Luca Turin

I always enjoyed the blog of Luca Turin and I'm glad he's back since yesterday.
http://lucaturin.typepad.com/perfume_notes/
I was looking for his pdf file of his archives but can't find it anymore. Does anyone know where it went? I would love to have that file.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

A look inside my perfumery room







I like to show you my perfumery room. I just painted my "perfume organ" 2 weeks ago. My perfume organ is just a bureau with three sort of miniatures cabinets on the wall.








A closer look at my perfume organ. I still have to make the labels of my bottles again but that's my next project. The bottles on the wall contain diluted perfume materials, like diltutions of 5-10 or 25% etc.






I have to be sure to write everything down.






I use pipettes for my perfume materials. For the large bottles I put the pipette in a little plastic bag and put it around the neck of the bottle, that way I'm sure to use the same pipette for the perfume material so no fragrance material will mix with an other fragrance material.




On the wall of my perfumery room I have cabinets with some perfume miniatures.









Here you see some of my perfumes that I keep in my perfumery room.







I hope you enjoyed this little tour through my little perfumery room. Next time I will talk about the perfume books I have.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

A walk through my fragranced garden

Walk with me trough my fragranced garden and smell the sparkling mandarin and lemon spiced with nutmeg, come on and walk further with me to smell the green leafs of the lovely basil. Can you smell it?
I pick up a fruit from a tree and let you smell this citrus flowery smell it's like orange but more flowery, do you recognize it? These are the fruits of the bergamot tree.
Now it's time to introduce you to my flowergarden. In this garden all the flowers are blooming just at the same time. On your left you see the lilly with a heavy white scent that owns a mysterious spicy fragrance reminding a little of clove. Oh wait..... you have to smell this fragile pink flowers, what do you smell? Doesn't it smell a little like peach? These are peachblossoms, a light flowery fragrance with peachy notes. Lovely isn't it? And have you ever smelled something that is as nice as the elderflowers? It's sweet, souer and at the same time it possesses a hay note. I learned from my mother to make a refreshing syrup of the elderflowers with lemon it's a lovely refreshing drink.
Do you see the color of that rose with her soft pink petals? It's tender, soft and feminine; inhale the fragrance and let it soothe you. Now it's time for something heavier. Here.... try the narcissus her fragrance is heavy but oh so wonderful, look at her... isn't she pretty? Just looking at her makes me smile. Her green flowery deep fragrance touches me in a rare way.
I have more roses, come smell these wonderful white roses. Sweet like honey with fresh notes that I can't recall, is it a citrusy freshness or is it something else. Again I smell a green note, green and flowery.
I hope your nose isn't tired yet because I have to show you more. Look at this wonderful flower, a flower with a wonderful promising fragrance. The hyacinth to me is the promise of a warm summer to come. Her fragrance is overwhelming. Green sharp deep flowery.
I also have lilac trees one with white flowers and one with deep purple flowers. The white lilac flower possesses a sultry sensual note with spicy and deep sweet notes even though her fragrance is a fresh and happy fragrance. The purple flowers own a softer note reminding me of hay and a powdery flowery scent.
See those little flowers of the lilly of the valley. So small and still so fragrant fresh light and green, tender but present in a sublime way. Do you smell the soft and green lindenblossom? A green fragrance with a full body, sweet and still light as a feather.
Do you like sweet flowers? Smell the wonderful fragrance of these orchid. The fragrance is magic, so sweet and sultry. Not sweet in a sticky way but just sweet a bit dry sweet with spicy notes.
Add to all these lovely flower scents the spicy notes of the clove with his almost woody spicy notes, the cardamom with his fresh uplifting citrusy spice fragrance and the dark spicy sweet scent of cinnamon.
Make a bedding of vanilla with her sweet soft warm scent, sandal with his creamy dark woody scent, tonka beans with his unique hay caramel scent and finally benzoin to ad a sweet warm chocolate like scent and you have the perfume of my fragrant garden.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Amouage

In Arabic the word Amouage means: Weave of emotion. Said Bade al Hammed from Omaan started this fragrance company and wanted to restore the Arabic perfume tradition and asked the famous perfumer Guy Robert to make western perfumes with the atmosphere of the east with sensual Arabic ingredients like Silver Frankincense, myrrh and Rock Rose(Ciste/Labdanum).The ingredients for the perfumes of Amouage are the richest and finest. The perfumes from Amouage are presented in a little work of art of French crystal and embellished with 24 carat pink gold plated design.

Amouage Dia


Amouage Dia starts with a dark green scent probably from the Violet leaf and Fig. In the top there are some bitter notes that reminds me of the smell of Phenyl acetaldehyde dimethyl acetal(PADMA). There also is a Clove or nutmeg note present. After a while the rosewood comes along together with peach what makes the fragance softer and smoother. The fragrance of rose is prominent, together with Ylang Ylang. From here on the Guaiacwood shows up. I love the scent of Guaiacwood what has a woody but also a rosy smell. In perfumes the Guiacwood is used to lead the rose notes (that appears in the heart of the fragrance) to the drydown an give it stayingpower. The drydown is full of white musk, it's funny to recognize the same white musk that I use sometimes and give me thoughts about using it like in Dia with notes of incense and animal notes like ambergris and some dry woody notes. The fragrance is pleasantly complex and changes on my skin every time I smell it. Even though I expected to be more heavier I love the complexity of it. I would love to smell the Amouage Gold one time. The price for a 50 ml parfum is €280 and the eau de toilette is €192 .

Amouage Ciel

Amouage Ciel is a whole other story. It's a fragrance full of white flowers perfectly fitting for the summer. The fragrance has a mouthwatering freshness coming from the gardenia; light and fresh, a bit green but most of all white, what reminds me also a bit of lilly of the valley and freesia. There is a dry flowery note present that could be from an iris note. I have to say that this fragrance doesn't change as much as Dia. The first impression lingers threw the whole fragrance, only a fruity note appears and after a while the musk note arrive with some spicy notes. When I smell this fragrance I get a summer feeling and I could imagine it be worn by a woman in a turquoise chiffon summerdress. I enjoy this fragrance a lot because I love white flower perfumes especially together with green notes. Comparing it with Dia this fragrance is less complex and Dia has a more natural feeling.
The price of the eau de toilette in a 50 ml bottle is €175 .
You will find these and the other fragrances of amouage at www.amouage.com

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Private Number

Private Number by Etienne Aigner is another great fragrance I adore. The fragrance starts with the green note of Galbanum a scent that often appears in fragrances I love. Hyacinth is a very common combination with Galbanum, in this fragrance the Hyacinth add a fresh green note. The topnote is green, fruity and sweet. The fruity note is a sweet peach note, to make it more sweet and warm a honeynote is added that will lead you to the heart of this perfume. A flowery heart where I recognize a fresh light Lilly of the Valley note with a deep sensual note of Narcissus. The base is warm, honeysweet and musky ambery. A perfume to compliment your femininity.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Tuberose

You love it or you hate it, and I just love it. Tuberose or Polianthes tuberosa has a complex scent that reminds me a bit of Jasmine, Narcissus, Ylang Ylang and Gardenia but has more layers. It starts with green notes reminding of sappy green leaves. But it has also some sweet honeylike notes, fatty sultry notes, spicy notes reminding of Clove and even a note that smells like coconut. The fragrance is sultry, sensual, sweet, heady, heavy and intoxicating. Originally the Tuberose comes from Mexico but now it grows in France, India, Marocco and Egypt. It has fragrant waxy white flowers that gives their fragrance at night. A concrete and absolute is extracted by solvent extraction from the fresh flowers, picked before the petals opened. The absolute is more expensive than his weight in gold. I reed once that the smell has similar notes like the scent of the vulva of a woman and even the smell of sweat. The important components of Tuberose are: Methylsalicylat, Methylanthranilate, Methyl benzoate, Benzyl benzoate, Eugenol, Geraniol, Nerol, Farnesol and Benzyl alcohol. I have an old German book of Fred Winter(1942) where he gives a formula of a Tuberose scent:

Methylanthranilat 2 gram
Methylsalicylat 8 gram
Methyllaurinat 6 gram
Methylnonylacetaldehyde 0,1 gram
Benzyl acetaat 1,5 gram
Jasmine artificial 1,5 gram
Coumarin 1,5 gram
Citral 1 gram
Peru balsam 2 gram
Benzyl alcohol 20 gram
Tubrose absolu 10 gram
Jasmine absolu 3 gram
Cassie absolu 1 gram
Ylang ylang 0,5 gram

I like to combine the Tuberose with Oakmoss, Verbena, Jasmine, Orangeblossom, Tolu balsam, Ylang Ylang, Benzoin, Rose, Palmarosa, Rosewood and Mimosa.

The beautiful painting of the Tuberose is from Kitgentry.com

My poor husband

I'm really sad for my husband because he's laying in bed now for three days and he can't get up because of the pain in his back. My husband has a hernia and now the pain is so bad that he can't walk. His left hip and leg hurts like hell. I'm staying at home from work to nurse him. It's so sad that he can't help himself, and he feels so quilty that I have to help him, but I don't mind I love to help him as much as I can. He gets Morphine and Valium for his pain but he still feels the pain. I always was interested in herbs and the working of essential oils so I made an oil for the pain with: Rosemary, Corianderseed and leaf, Sweet Majoram, Black pepper, Wintergreen and Pine. He tells me that the oil is a wonder, it will take the pain away for some time. So every time I rub the oil on his painful spots. I hope he will get better soon.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Cleaning up my perfumery room

Just cleaned up my perfumery room. I cleaned up the trial bottles that were not right. It must be the spring that makes me feel like cleaning up I think. I even painted my perfume organ, I call it my perfume organ but it's just a bureau with three sort of miniatures cabinets on the wall next to each other where I keep my bottles with diluted perfume materials at reach.
I made also a list of the perfumes I'm working on:

*White flowers (rose, jasmine, honeysuckle, tuberose, orangeblossom)with an ambery note
*Jasmine-Musk with apple, orange, ylang ylang etc
*Magnolia with orangeblossom, jasmine, Bulgarian rose, mai rose, vanilla etc
*Manderin-Jasmine-Rose-Patchouli with Petit Grain, Palmarosa, Cedar, vanilla etc.
*Lilac-Linden Blossom-Bergamot with magnolia, peach, musk etc
*Vanilla flowers a light vanilla perfume with flowery notes from mimosa, jasmine, ylang ylang etc
*Dark musk
*Light musk
*Powdery musk
*Green rose
*Vetiver (for men)
*Powdery with hyacinth and ambery notes
*A perfume based on the scent of a hot summer night with notes of honeysuckle, hay, grass etc
*A perfume based on the scent after a warm summer rain with vetiver, lilly, gingerlilly etc
*Tuberose with creamy notes
*Pink Lotus
*Black Orchid
*Sweet Orchid
*Leather
*A perfume with watery notes of Lotus, Waterlilly and Pineapple
A few "feel good" perfumes based on aromatherapy:
*Harmony with notes of Petit Grain, Palmarosa, Rose etc
*Happy with notes of Manderin, Basil, Lemon etc
*Relax with notes of Lavender, Tonka bean, Vanilla etc

And some trials of the accords of
Chypre, Fougere, Ambrein, Mellis etc.

There are more but these are the important ones for now. I will give a full description of all the perfumes I'm working on one by one later.
Have a nice weekend!