Taste

Do you recognize this? Sometimes you can almost taste someone's perfume. I remember one time I was eating diner with a whole group of people and couldn't enjoy my diner because every time I opened my mouth I could taste the perfume of the woman sitting next to me....

Have a nice Sunday!

The most sexy fragrance

My most sexy fragrance is Must de Cartier perfume (not the edt). It brings back special memories to me, it's a warm sweet oriental heavy fragrance. Above all it's a warm sensual fragrance with animal notes like civet and musk, woody notes like sandal, vetiver and cedar and (of course) galbanum. But also some flowery notes like jasmine, rose and narcissus. When you smell this fragrance you don't have to wait for the reaction it will give to you, the reaction is there in a split second. Of course I have more favorites as sexy fragrances but this fragrance can change my mood in a sensual sexy mood.
What's your most sexy fragrance?

Mitsouko

Mitsouko (mystery in Japanese) from Guerlain is a perfume that you simply have to smell to understand. The perfume evokes an emotion to me I can't describe in words, it's especially hard to describe when English isn't your own language, but even in Dutch it would be difficult to describe. It's kind of a sad emotion in a way and at the same time it gives me an elegant and rich feeling. It's not a perfume that I would wear when going to work, it's more for special occasions, I can't imagine wearing this fragrance with a jeans but that's just my opinion. Mitsouko is a perfume of the Chypre family, it has oakmoss and I smell a lot of Labdanum absolute(Ciste or Rock rose) and a warm balsamic opopanax note. The topnotes are made of fresh citrus notes and the heart has rose, jasmine and lilac. I can smell something like thyme as well and some smokey notes that could be coming from birch tar. Guerlain started a new trend by adding a peach note coming from Aldehyde C14, many perfumers followed that trend. The peach note isn't overwhelming but ads a smooth fruityness to the other somewhat spicy harsh smokey notes. This perfume is so wonderful made that you have to smell it ones in your live.

Galbanum and apricot

Because I liked the result of the experiment with galbanum I decided to continue with this experiment. To accentuate the green note of galbanum I used cis-3-Hexenyl Methyl Carbonate that gives a nice green violet leaf scent. A nice and often used combination with galbanum is hyacinth so I added that as well and some light rosy and lily notes. To give the perfume fixation I added some green woody base notes like a little oakmoss absolute unfortunately it's only allowed by IFRA (International Fragrance Association) to use a little so I used some substitutes as well and vetiver which has a incredible nice green woody asparagus kind of scent in combination with vertofix coeur that has a vetiver scent in combination with a leather note and finally some cedar and cedryl acetate to enhance the woody notes. Okay the perfume was nice in this stadium but just nice, I call that a safe smelling perfume, nice but simple with no surprises.

I smelled the perfume on a smelling strip and on my skin to study the result and thinking about what was missing. The process is all in my head, I think about notes that I can use and imagine how this note would smell in combination with this perfume. I liked the green fresh note but liked it to be more full bodied and warm, and there it was.... it needed a warm fruity note I chose the note of apricot a warm fruity full bodied note and added quite a bit together with some cinnamon and a touch of vanilla. To give the perfume some warm softness I added a wonderful orchid note and some narcissus because beside the flowery notes it has some fruity aspects as well. The result is a green fruity warm perfume with a soft feeling, I keep you informed about the experiments with this perfume.

Just played around

Working on a perfume and perfectionice it takes a lot of work and time, and sometimes it's better to take a break and start working on it with new energy. So sometimes I like to just play around with my materials without any goal just play with them and see if I can find nice combinations. It's real fun to work like that and give the opportunity to find interesting accords. Today I just played with my materials as well and started with one of my favorite materials: Galbanum a wonderful green material. I added some other green and leafy notes and some fresh notes. An interesting material with a galbanum note is Pharaone, the first time I smelled this material it wasn't nice at all, well I still don't find the smell nice but because of that I was getting interested in the material, it's described as having a galbanum/pineapple/angelica note. I diluted the material way down but it still was bad, so I tried the Pharaone in the Galbanum to see how it would smell in a blend. And the result is real nice.... it lifted the fragrance and gave it a fruity note. That's the strange thing about perfumery, you can't judge a fragrance material without working with it, and see how it reacts with other materials.

Perfume house Guerlain

Pierre-Francois-Pascal Guerlain was born in Abbevile France. His dream was to become a chemist and went to London in 1820 to study. He worked in a shop that sold aromatic vinegar and soap to earn some money. He became the assistant of the masterperfumer and in 1828 he returned to France to open his own shop. He was a specialist in making personal perfumes for his costumers. But he also made toothpaste, soap and creams.

Soap label from 1890

Pierre became very famous and delivered perfume to the Belgian kings and the prince of Wales. He created Eau de Cologne Imperiale for the emperor Eugenie and became the official deliverer of the emperor Napoleon the third. His son Aime followed his father and wanted to make heavier perfumes instead of the fresh eau de colognes that where popular in that time. The result was Jicky. This perfume came in 1889 on the market and was nothing like an imitation of the nature or a creation of flowery smells: it was a combination of sensual notes; Civet, Coumarine, Vanilline and Linalool all synthetic products and Lavender and Bergamot. Jicky was "new", it was so new that people in that time need to get used to the perfume and only 20 years later it became a success.


In that time there where created a lot of perfumes and some of them are still around. One of them is L'Heure Bleue form 1912. The clear part of it is created by Bulgarian rose, Iris and Heliotroop, and the magical dark heart is created by Vanilla, Jasmine and Muskus. Until now perfumers use the basenotes from this perfume to variate with it to created a new perfume inspired by L'Heure Bleue.




The company Guerlain is still alive and there where always followers in the family. The last perfumer until now is Jean Paul Guerlain.
The company Guerlain created a lot of perfumes here are some of them:

Mitsouko

1919.

Type: Chypre.

Notes: Bergamot-Rose-Jasmin-Peach-Spices-Oakmoss.

Guerlinade

1922

Type: Flowery Oriental

Notes: Bergamot-Tonka bean-Vanilla

Shalimar

1925

Type: Oriental

Notes: Bergamot-Iris-Vanilla-Ambar

Vetiver

1959

Type: Woody

Notes: Vetiver-Nutmeg-Pepper

Jardins de Bagatelle

1983

Type: Flowery

Notes: Jasmin-Magnolia-Gardenia-Tuberose

Samsara

1989

Type:Oriental

Notes: Jasmin-Sandalwood-Rose-Narcis-Vanilla

L'Instant

Type: Flowery Oriental

Notes: Lemonhoney-Magnolia-Ambar

Opium + Shalimar =........

I made a perfume for the birthday of my sister in law. She and also her husband my brother love the perfume Opium from Yves Saint Laurent. So I thought it would be a nice idea to make a perfume in the style of Opium. Although it' s not my favorite perfume because somehow it doesn't work on me like I have with other nice perfumes like Angel, I like the smell of it. I actually combined two styles of fragrances; Opium and Shalimar by Guerlain.

Shalimar is a sweet sensual animalic perfume that is based on Coumarin(a substance of Tonka bean), vanilla; Guerlain used the synthetic Ethyl vanillin, Linalool(a substance from Rosewood), Civet and Bergamot. I just love this perfume and I know my sister in law loves it also. I combined these notes with some spicy notes just like Opium has, like Clove bud oil and Coriander and a Lilly of the Valley note and of course Patchouli. To soften the Patchouli I used a little Cashmeran and I used a peachy note coming from Aldehyde C14. I added wonderful woody notes like Cedar, Sandal and Guiacwood, and warm amber notes like Labdanum absolute and Ambrettolide, and sensual musky notes coming from Exaltolide and Galaxolide. I added a little Jasmine and Rose to give it some flowery notes.

The result is lovely it's warm, sweet, ambery and spicy, I made it as a perfume extract, now I have to wait and see if she likes it. Tomorrow I will give it to her.....

Grrrrrrrr......

While my Chypre/fruity perfume is maturing I worked on another perfume of mine the Oriental/leathery perfume. This perfume is based on oriental and animal notes. I wanted it to make a sexy fragrance based on amber and other warm animal notes like civet and castoreum but also leather and myrrh. I added some flowery notes of rose, jasmine, tuberose, orange flower and lily. This all is sweetened by a warm sweet honey note. To give it a fresh top I added some bergamot and mandarin.
It's a fragrance that touch my emotions, it's warm, sensual and pure sexy and has great staying power. I like the fragrance a lot but it's also a bit heavy and I'm not sure it's wearable at daytime. I want to make the fragrance a bit lighter than it is right now, maybe by adding some Hedione or more lily notes. I'm close but it needs some changes to make it lighter.

Photos are from http://images.easyart.com/ and http://www.inmagine.com/