Ask the Perfumer - Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 10 a.m. to 10 PM EST

-
I'm blending new perfumes today - what are you doing? Ask the Perfumer is open for this cool Sunday in Miami.

Comments

  1. Ankica10/10/2010 12:33 PM

    Hi Anya! I was blending few things myself this weekend.

    My doubt of week is:
    I was building scent from 10% dilluted material. Since I still don't have precize scale, everything was made by dropper or for non liquid material with my eye.
    When I was happy with result, I put concetrated oils and cocoa abs. It smelled differently...Is it because of cocao? I put everything the same, but I had to dillute Cocao abs at that moment since I ran out of it... so I dilluted on 20-25% and I've put it in the perfume immediately. I put 4 times more than I did before (when everything was on 10%) so that it could be equal to my previous blend. But it didn't.

    I am sorry if I am confusing you... I am confusing myself as well :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. anyasgarden10/10/2010 7:48 PM

    Oh, I've been playing hookey today! Ankica, sorry for the late reply, and yes, I'm completely confused with your blend percentages, lol.

    Try to be consistent in your percentages, and always, always remember that some strong aromatics - and cocoa is one of them - can overwhelm a blend very quickly.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Boxgasm - for perfumers, aromatherapists, bath and body manufacturers, chandlers. What the heck is a boxgasm? Well, read below and you may have one.

-
Image
Project Boxgasm Announcement: If you are an artisan who makes perfume, bath & body products, aromatherapy products, candles - you can now make your own custom boxes! The Natural Perfumers Guild wishes to share this discovery with everyone, so please share the link to this blog with other groups, forums and chat places you may frequent.  The more the merrier - let's upgrade our products to the next level, with lovely, custom boxes!  I am the President of the Guild, and I like to roam social media sites and check out, and "like" the various projects and announcements of the Guild members.  Little did I dream when I visited a Facebook page of one of our members, a page that only had 21 followers, since it's new, that I'd discover something that can help all artisan small business owners. But there it was, an iconic image out of South Africa - custom perfume boxes! When I called some members of the Natural Perfumers Guild and told them about the discovery th
Read more

Ask the Perfumer Sunday Oct 21, 2012

-
Image
Ask the Perfumer - and an Ambergris hypothesis Guild member Lisa Coburn posted a link on Facebook that took me to a video on how cephalopods--squid, cuttlefish and octopus, are masters of disguise.  As I watched it, I made a perfume connection, straight to the elusive, mysterious, rare and valued ambergris, a gorgeous material used in perfumery. Photo of the famed 'Yeti' chunk of ambergris. Ambergris is produced by the stomach/intestinal secretions of the sperm whale to protect its insides from the sharp beaks of the squid and cuttlefish, two main items in its diet.  The whale evacuates the chunk of ambergris when it becomes large enough to be an irritant on its own, albeit a softer, rounder irritant compared to the beak and cartilage of the squid or cuttlefish.  As a perfumer, I often have to gently remind excitable newbies ;-)  that the scent of the ambergris is secondary to its major contribution to a perfume, which is its ability to 'marry' and allo
Read more

Contest: Fresh ginger, fresh ginger, wherefort art thou fresh ginger?

-
Image
Can you help me?  I need two things from my readers. There will be a freebie gift for two helpful souls who reply, one for each subject. First:  Back in late 2006, I stumbled across *fresh* ginger root essential oil at liberty natural.  There were two - one from Madagascar, one from Indonesia.  I immediately told my perfumery friends about it, and I used the fresh version in the kits for my students.  Why the excitement? Fresh grated ginger - zest, fresh, hot, spicy fragrance Previously, the only ginger root oil available was from the peeled, sun-dried roots, and it was a middle note for perfumery.  It had a mellow, soft fragrance, much like the dried ginger powder you get for baking purposes.  This fresh ginger, on the other hand, smelled just like the fresh cut or grated root!  Hot, spicy, wet, luscious, and a top note! I've used the aged, dried ginger EO, because it is valuable in perfumery and for food and drink purposes, but its soft character was just that, soft, c
Read more