A Natural Perfumers Journal

These are handmade origami flowers. Each flowers sits atop a paper stem. There is a "wick" running through the center of the flower and it is infused with pure jasmine sambac concrete. Origami flowers are presented as garlands, you know, all strung together, called a kusadami . I had just made a flower and something made me lean over and cut a length of string from the spool that sat in the basket on my bench. Within 10 minutes and without leaving my seat (everything I needed just seemed to be within reach) I had made a scented origami flower on a stem. I immediately wrapped them in the cellophane to save the scent for the person who opens them.

I decided the other night that, even though I dislike technicalities intensely, I was going to get my head around perfume classifications. Knowing my perfume classifications means that when I smell a perfume I will be able to say, for example, if it's a floral/amber perfume or a floral bouquet. I see it as a bit like knowing the difference between classical and jazz in music. It's really important! Anyway, to help cement the whole thing in my head, I made up two sentences using the initial letter of each classification for the start of every word in my sentence. Have a look! ( The sentence runs up the side of the posters). The sentences I made up I can easily remember, they don't really make sense but that's not the point. The point is that now I know my perfume classifications and can list them off by heart: ) My nose does the job of recognizing where the various perfumes go, it's putting a name on them I was having trouble with. These posters I designed myself to ...

When I think of the country I think of hay, I think of sweet honey, I think of familiar places and I think of my Mother. Genet reminds me of the country. I picked Genet absolute out yesterday (I love a challenge) and I placed it with Hay absolute. I'm still not sure though if they are going to be OK together, it seems that a lot of the time my nose is picking out similarities in essences, for example the fact that Genet has hay like notes and I chose Hay absolute to go with it in an accord. I'm thinking maybe that's just too much hay? Here are some observations I made as I was looking for other essences to go in the blend. Geranium and Genet - not compatible at all- a big NO! Cardamom absolute with Genet - not compatible with Genet- another big fat NO! Geranium and Cardamom-sort of compatible (but that's another blend) Cannabis tincture and Genet -Another NO! Geranium and Cannabis Tincture- NO! NO! Clove and Genet - SO NO! Clove and Geranium-YES! (but no ...

Do you know something? When I ordered Elemi Crude Resin I wasn't expecting what I got. I always found Elemi Essential Oil to be sort of boring and medicinal and I couldn't imagine really using it all that much in perfumery. But I wanted to experience the resin just to see what it was like. It came in a solid block that had the consistency of hard butter. Yielding to a firm press of the thumb. As I peeled off the layers of wrapping the smell became stronger and stronger. I plopped the whole raw block of resin out on my work bench and looked at it. An opaque creamy white mass with shades of yellow and darker cream, bits of bark and seeds and even what look liked flower petals were embedded in it. Essential oils glistened in it's cracks. It smells like a soft peppery pine thats got a sort of a citrus tang to it, but what I love is the woody background note that is like warm wood. Arctander says of Elemi Crude Resin solvent extract or absolute "This is a very i...

Not fully finished, I have an old pine country dresser that I am modifying. I put extra "steps" in so I could bring all my essences up to eye level and now I have room for base, middle and top (the top is divided in two, floral herbal and citrus at the top and woodsy floral spice on the lower step of the top shelf. That's a great big block of Elemi resin in the basket on the left. Lovely stuff which deserves a journal entry of it's own. My mandala is there and a photo of my grandmother. I still have a lot of work to do to make my studio how I want it.

I have in my collection 5 Lavenders. Lavender absolute, ORIGIN: Seville Spain (Lavendula luisieri) AKA: LS Lavender essential oil, ORIGIN: French Provence (Lavender angustifolia) AKA: LF Lavender essential oil, ORIGIN: Indian Kashmir (Lavender angustifolia) AKA: LK Lavandin Abrialis, ORIGIN: French (Lavandula hybrida) AKA: LA Lavender absolute, ORIGIN: Bulgaria (Lavendula angustafolia) AKA: LB I am going to go through a process of comparing and contrasting these lavenders. I know them all fairly well already but let's just see. Lavender & Time & Description LS --------- 20:48 - warm, rich, soft, woody floral, middle note LS --------- 20:59- mellow, woody, round, leafy LS --------- 21:09 - mellow, papery, soft woody, dry LS --------- 21:30 - woody, papery, balsamic LF --------- 20:52 - sharp, clean, herbal, top note LF --------- 21:01-softer, although still a little sharp, crisp LF --------- 21:10 - very clean, crisp, herbal, green, a little dry LF --------- 21:41 - cri...

I placed an order with a company I love a few weeks ago and then I sort of forgot about it. A big box of goodies arrived and I opened it excitedly (think of a kid on Christmas morning). I had a fair idea what was in the box. I could smell the Labdanum immediately (I'll talk about that later). But at the bottom of the box was a large canister. I was perplexed. "What is this?" I asked myself, I opened the container and took a sniff. I instinctively use my nose to recognise materials rather than the label (it's good practice). I didn't recognise it, I liked it but I knew I had never smelled it before in any form. I looked at the label. Tolubalsam. Smells like warm (mouth watering now I've got my head stuck in the can. I'm sure this stuff would get me high if I keep smelling it) vanilla toffee biscuits (cookies). I can see it crystallized in the can. It looks solid. "How am I going to get it out" I wondered. I later place the whole tin in a bainmarie...

After countless trials and a couple of weeks to let them sit and marry, one of the blackcurrant blends has come up trumps (become a perfume). Interestingly it is the one I thought would be the worst disaster, where I threw caution to the wind and went for *punk*. It is a complex blend. Classification: Fruity/Gourmand The top notes are ripe and fruity. The heart is very soft, floral and sweet and the base is warm musky vanilla. The perfume is tenacious and ripe, lasting over 6 hours on the skin. This is a perfume for the person who is not afraid to be different. It is for women. Call it CRASS, but it's good!

As a child I remember playing under the row of blackcurrant bushes that grew along the side of our path. I recall some children complaining that the bushes smelled like cat pee when they brushed past the leaves. But I loved the smell. I would rub the leaves and stems and buds just to get the smell. I loved the way it smelled on skin. To me it wasn't cat pee, but a green fruity peppery smell. When I ordered a small amount of blackcurrant bud absolute I could already imagine what it was going to be like. When it arrived I smelled the outside of the bottle before I opened it and there I was back in my yard in early summer like a child again. I want to make a perfume with it that I would have liked at that age. Something sweet, something strong, something bursting with life, something that would be *too much* for Mom, and Granny. I have made almost a dozen different experimental blends and I will leave them alone for a while. I have an idea more now of where I want the perfume to go. I...

First Whiff 1. Himalayan geranium: initial smell is sweet, light and floral. 2. Atlantic bourbon geranium (certified organic): initial smell is dry, floral and slightly bitter. 3, Anatolian bourbon geranium: initial smell, rounder and also dry. More floral than the Atlantic. After 2 minutes 1. Light and sweet but drying out slightly, not at all bitter. A sweet floral note. 2. Much dryer, becoming more leafy now and a green tinge coming through. 3. Also much dryer but becoming more fruity than leafy, more of a soft fruity floral. After 5 minutes 1. Is still light and now fruity floral, still more sweet than dry. 2. A distinct bitterness which is not present in the Himalayan geranium, a dry floral note. 3. No bitterness, the more fruity of the three. After 10 minutes 1. A definite citrus note coming in from nowhere, lifting this one up again, mmmmh I'm really enjoying the Himalayan geranium. 2. A softer herbal tea type note, less bitter and a little cloying compared to the Himalayan ...

The day before yesterday I got a package all the way from America. In it was 8oz of rose wax and 8oz jasmine wax. I could smell them through the box. What a joy to open the packets, the rose is fragrant and true to rosa damascena, it is the consistancy of beeswax or even harder. It's quite brittle. Yes, I think this rose wax will make an nice addition to my solid rose perfume. When I opened the bag of jasmine wax I was bowled over. WOW! Now I am talking head stuck in the bag all day long type smell. Mouth watering, sweet, jammy jasmine. At first I couldn't place the special note of this jasmine wax and then it came to me, after a few more very deep smells. Warm ripe nectarines or ripe fuzzy peaches. It brought me back to the hot summer I spent in London when I was 12 and I would buy a ripe warm juicy peach from the fruit stand every morning. They don't seem to grow peaches like that anymore.

Happy Valentines Day! I took a break last night from my serious and complex work in progress 'Match Made in Heaven'. It gets rather emotional in my studio at 'Match Made in Heaven' peak blending times. Let me tell you, Rose was not happy a happy woman, and as for the new couple, Frangipani and Blond Tobacco, I think they have a few creases to iron out in their new relationship. Still, my heart broke for Rose and on Valentines day I just couldn't face the tears. So, I composed two new blends yesterday evening. You see I have two teenaged sons, always asking me if I can make something that smells like Armani or CK. I always tell them I am not really interested in trying to copy a purely synthetic perfume. But last night I decided to make them something for them to take to school on Valentines day. I had a look on Base Notes website, *the* place to look if you want to find out about any perfume ever created both natural and synthetic. The first blend I made was base...

I have been in shock for the last few days. It has transpired over the last few days that the EU are bringing in new legislation, based on IFRA standards, that in short could put the natural perfumer out of business. First of all it took me a while to read and understand the official type documents (I hate them) and then it took me another while to understand the implications. At first I felt shock, then disbelief, then confusion (well confusion was present most of the time) then understanding and finally motivation to action. You see the IFRA standards are standards set in place to protect the consumer, that's fine with me. But the thing is that while it is easy to regulate and monitor synthetic fragrance materials, because they are always the same molecular structure, it is not so easy when it comes to the complexity of natural materials. Not only that, but isolating a chemical compound in an essential oil for example and saying that it is dangerous, doesn't always apply bec...

Diversing from my story of romance for the moment...yesterday I made a batch of foot lotion bars, using natural aromatherapy essential oils of peppermint, tea tree and lavender. Aromatherapy is very different from the art of perfumery, I just put equal amounts of each essential oil, and I was generous, the oils will do what they are supposed to do and they smell fresh and clean like they are meant to. I then started on a batch of Sensual massage bars, now these are perfumed with my first simple perfume. It has top notes of orange and mandarin, cinnamon and ginger, a heart of ylang ylang, two lavenders and clove absolute, the base is, mysore sandalwood, peru balsam and dark patchouli. I have to go back and get out my notes and follow the recipe, I count out a hundred drops of lavender absolute, 33 drops of clove, 33 drops of cinnamon 33 drops of ginger. The sandalwood I add a full 20mls, too many drops to count! The patchouli is carefully measured, 30 drops only and so on...the base for...

This morning my ethanol arrived, I am going to spend the day creating accords. My pipettes need cleaning, it was so frustrating for me just not being able to blend. You see I can't use water to clean the pipettes, it just doesn't work. And I can't blend with dirty pipettes, that would make my perfumes muddy. I have been using surgical spirits to clean my tools but I didn't like the smell it left behind. It's not that easy to obtain pure undenatured ethanol but I did it. Now where do I start? My heart is beginning to beat faster at the thought of all the possibilites open to me. While I was waiting for the ethanol to arrive I was doing loads of test strip smelling, here are some accords I would like to try, corriander, rosewood and something else; another one is, immortelle, tarragon and coco absolute; another accord I would like to try is boronia absolute, neroli, and tuberose; oh and I want to blend the three brothers (remember them?) with three sisters, how would ...

I have been having a few days when I am not blending, I'm waiting for my ethanol to come from Limerick. I am using the time I have to get intimate with some essences I don't really know very well. One of these is araucaria, which I don't really know anything about at all. I have the absolute. When I first opened it, it reminded me of clean bandages, clean, sterile, very light and ethereal. I am going to do a little internet search and see if I can find out more about it's origins, back soon.Well I found an image, and I also discovered the common name for araucaria is the monkey puzzle tree. I also found a description of the perfume note on Aftelier.com . Here is what Mandy Aftel says about it: "This rose-woody, spicy middle note from Spain has a crystalized consistency. Araucaria has good fixative properties and will not overwhelm perfumes with light floral middle notes."

I wonder if there is such thing as beginners luck when it comes to perfumery? I let my 15 year old son Jay (see the photo on left) have a go with my essences about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I said he could try 3 times. So he made a Jay 1 a Jay 2 and a Jay 3. I made him write it down and made him stick to twenty drops per try. We bottled his blends and left them to mature. I tried his Jay 1 yesterday. It's lovely! It reminds me of something I can't quite place. I will try to describe it, the top notes have an unusual twist, also hard to place, ok maybe the top needs a little tweaking but it's a nice blend of rosewood and corriander which really go well together and to my nose share similar nuances. The heart is floral but not at all cloying, unisex I would say, creamy notes of jasmine, ylang ylang and orange blossom, nothing unusual there, but there is a fresh green hint too, I swear it's as if I am smelling an actual blossom, it's a bit like carnations. The chocolate note s...

I was exploring some of my more unusual essences yesterday evening. The technique I learned from Mandy's workbook works very well. I place a single drop of an essence on a labeled scent strip and write down the time of application in my notebook. Then I decribe the scent. I wait 10-15 minutes and I label strip number two and then place a drop of the same essence on that strip. Then I compare the two strips. I was looking for a place to leave the first strip while it was drying out and I decided to put it in under the little drawer on my "organ". See the photo above. It hung there very nicely. I carried on with my explorations. I did the base notes first then the middle...then I had a realization. They were all hanging there and reminded me of the keys on our piano. I leaned in a little and started from the base notes end, I smelled up, and then I smelled back down. The effect was quite extraordinary. I could tell which notes did not belong and I could tell which notes ...