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.

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