Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Apologize

I realize I don't post as often anymore, I apologize for that. I have many things to say I want to do more reviews of the Guerlain perfumes and also of the perfumes by Ineke. But lately I can't always find the time. I just post when ever I have the time or whenever I feel like it, I want to enjoy to write the posts and don't want to feel like it's a must. I hope you all don't mind that I don't post on a regular bases.

Fragrant wishes to all readers of this blog

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Smell




Yesterday I was in a perfumery shop and had a real nice conversation with the lady of the shop. I asked her if I could smell some of the new fragrances and we start to talk about fragrances in general.

I told her that I think Chanel no5 is nice and that it was really new and special in the time it was made but that it's not one of my favorite. She said she was a real fan of Chanel no5 and that when she wears it people always say to her that she smells so nice. I told her that Chanel no19 is my favorite and that I like Coco Chanel as well.

O, she said, before I liked Coco Chanel as well until I went to a funeral of a good friend of mine, she said that the daughter of her friend was wearing Coco Chanel and since then the smell of this perfume reminds her of this sad day and that she can't wear it without being really sad.

That reminded me of a perfume I can't wear or smell without being sad, it's Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana I weared this perfume when our dog Jacko died. Since then I don't wear it anymore, I can recognize this perfume without any doubt when someone wears it. I still miss my warm and dear friend.

This is our dear friend Jacko who died two years ago

We started to talk about how difficult it seems to translate smell in words, I found out that when I ask someone to describe a perfume they look at me like I asked something really strange, they say something like that it's nice or that it's sweet or that it's fresh but they find it difficult to tell more about it.

A couple of days ago I visited my brother, my friend was there as well, my sister in law and I started to talk about a perfume. She used words like, it has a high tone or this perfume smells round etc. My friend raised her eyebrows and asked where the hell we were talking about. She said it was like we were talking a different language. We explained to her what we were talking about and after the explanation she understood a bit more of this special language.

I told the lady of the shop about this and she affirmed this, she told me she did a wine tasting course once and that it was difficult to describe the taste or smell. There are some kind of words used to describe some aromas, but she told me that some descriptions were not her descriptions, everyone has their own scent memories or referents, so the description by someone else could be from a whole different scent experience than yours.

We also made the connection to music, we both like music it seemed. Music can touch you in the same way a fragrance can, but somehow it's easier to describe music then to describe a fragrance. We can even find out what kind of notes the music is made of, try that with a perfume....Maybe we have to learn how to describe what we smell it's an important part of our live, strange that we have a difficulty to find the words for such an important thing.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Blending perfume


Today I was thinking about the difference between a blend and a perfume. I still don't know the difference but I guess a blend is a simple mix of some aromatic materials, well maybe it doesn't need to be a simple mix but it isn't a perfume although you could call perfume a blend but that's not a common word used for a perfume(I think). You're still with me? It sounds a bit confusing.

I searched for the word "blend"(in verb form) in the free online dictionary and this is what it says:

*To combine or mix so that the constituent parts are indistinguishable from one another.

*To combine (varieties or grades) to obtain a mixture of a particular character, quality, or consistency.

*To form a uniform mixture.

*To become merged into one; unite.

*To create a harmonious effect or result.

Mmm you could say the same thing about perfume, so maybe you can use both words but I prefer to use the name perfume above a blend. A blend to me is a mix but not necessarily a perfume. To mix some aromatic materials doesn't make a perfume even when it smells good. You wear a perfume on your skin it becomes a part of you, perfume has something special it becomes personal. I think you can say that a perfume is a blend but not every blend is a perfume.

Blending different aromatic materials is a remarkable process, you think you know how the result will smell because you know what you just mixed but the outcome is sometimes different than you expected. Sometimes you know because of earlier experiences but you can't always predict how a mix will smell. Like when you paint and you mix colors you'll see that blue and yellow mixed together will form a whole new color; green. We all know that by now, it's the same in perfumery we know the outcome of some combinations but we can't predict them all. A couple of days before I added a tiny bit of Maltol to a creation. Maltol is an aroma chemical that smells like sugar. I added a real small bit, but the outcome wasn't sugary at all, it made the fragrance more stand out it gave the fragrance a solid base what gave the top and heart notes a lift. I like discoveries like that.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

I found a new hobby

At my Perfumemaking group we are talking about tincturing. I like the idea of making tinctures of unusual materials. Zz from Parfume Moderne gave us some tips on how to make tinctures. I remember that I tried to make them a couple of years ago but that wasn't a success.

Right now I made two tinctures; one with coffee and one with dried apricots. When I like the result I will make more tinctures. I used 2 grams of the materials and 14 grams of alcohol to try it out, I'm not sure that it will work that way or that I have to add more coffee or apricots.

I can imagine that it's a really nice hobby to find all kinds of things to tincture. I know that Zz tinctured mushrooms for example that sounds really interesting. I'm already looking around for more materials to tincture, but right now I just have to wait patiently......

The photo is from http://www.jashbotanicals.com/

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Orris by Andy Tauer now available


The wonderful Orris perfume by Andy Tauer is created without thinking about the costs. It's made of the expensive materials Orris and Agarwood with dark rose, spices and mysore sandalwood.

Andy shared this perfume with 40 people by sending them a free sample to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of his blog. I was one of the lucky ones that received the sample.

The reaction he received on this perfume was sensational. Everyone wants this perfume. And even though Andy didn't have plans to make this perfume in production because of the high costs of the ingredients, he decided to create a limited number of bottles of this incredible stuff.

The Orris is different than any other orris scent I'd ever smelled. It's soft dry woody, but because of the spices it isn't just soft powdery but more intense. It's soft with a smoky and spicy touch. It's starts with lemon and spicy notes but soon gets dark, deep and smooth with still the spiciness on top of it. Somehow all the perfumes of Andy have something that you can recognize as an Andy Tauer fragrance. He has his own style that always come through his creations.

The Orris perfume could be ordered right now the shipment will be by 15 November.
http://www.tauerperfumes.com/blog/

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Blending, mixing, stirring and sniffing

The whole week I'm blending, mixing, stirring and sniffing. I took the whole week off so I can spent all my time on making perfumes. I'm studying the musk materials right now, I have many different musks and I'm trying to find out which musk combines well with the other. The odorants of musk are really different I have sweet musks but also musks that have a dominant animal note, I have musks with a dry note a full rounded note, a green note, a musk ambery note and so on.

I'm also working on the fruity/chypre again. The fragrance matured for a while so I had the change to smell the result. I'm in love with this fragrance the picture I had in mind for this fragrance is a self-assured woman who is feminine but also strong. The fruity notes stands for the femininity and the firm base with oakmoss and amber for her self-assurances. I added some notes that are also used in men's fragrances but combined with feminine notes like fresh juicy tropical fruits and flowery notes of jasmine and tuberose. I like the result but I will smell it over a longer period, I can't wait to wear it when it's done. I will try just a couple of things to see what it will do to the fragrance.

Two male colleagues asked me to make a perfume that smells fresh, watery, fruity-apple like and it has to be a little but not too sweet. It has to smell in the direction of Cool Water by Davidoff and One man show by Jacques Bogart. Sounds interesting so I experiment with that as well.