Monday, September 25, 2006

Filling up the gap


Still working on my Chypre/fruit fragrance. I tried adding some notes but some of them didn't work, the character of the fragrance changed too much. I must be really careful not to change the fragrance too much. When I'm making a fragrance I also look at the way the fragrance change after applying it on the skin or on a smelling strip. I study the way the top notes flow over in the heart notes and how the heart notes finally melt in to the base notes.

Top notes are the first notes you detect when smelling a fragrance, the top notes are the more volatile notes, they have light molecules and evaporate real fast. Examples of top notes are lemon, bergamot, orange, peppermint and grapefruit.
After that you smell the heart notes that have notes that evaporate slower like rose, jasmine, tuberose and violet.
And finally the base notes that have the heaviest molecules like musk, benzoin, vanilla, civet and oak moss.

But there is more....
Some notes are between the top and heart or between the heart and base notes and act like a bridge between those notes. Using only top, heart and base notes can leave a gap between the two stages. Examples of notes that are between the top and the heart notes are petit grain and neroli they both are neither a top or a heart note they are a bridge between the top and heart notes.

That's why I have to know the time each note stay on a smelling strip, I write the time of each note down. This way I know how to use the note. If I detect a gap in the fragrance I know which note I can use to fill up that gap, so the fragrance will smoothly change over time.

2 comments:

chayaruchama said...

Lieve Jenny-

I find your musings fascinating, and have been following your progress with great interest...

I hope you and DH are well, and that he is feeling more like himself-

Dikke kus-

Idaatje

Jenny said...

Lieve Idaatje,
Nice to hear you like my musings.
My husband is doing well, he has to do therapy now to make his back strong again.
Dikke kus terug.