Ask the Perfumer - Sunday, July 17, 2011 - until 10 PM EST

-
A question that frequently comes up is: how long do I have to age my compound before mixing with alcohol to create the juice, and then how long do I have to age the juice? Or, do I mix the compound with the alcohol and then age? Let's discuss.

Comments

  1. Unknown7/17/2011 2:20 PM

    Anya,
    Your opening comment poises the perfect questions. Perhaps I start
    with do you age with or without
    alcohol?
    As always, thank you for all your
    help

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnyasGardenPerfumes7/17/2011 4:59 PM

    Hi Denise:

    I age with alcohol, because as you know from the textbook, I make the perfume mods with the already-diluted aromatics. When I am ready to make the perfume, I mix the compound by weight, and add the alcohol by volume.

    There are many techniques, and I wanted to talk about them, but it's a lazy, quiet Sunday, and not much chat.

    Then, of course, there's the techniques taught in the Intermediate course ;-)

    Thanks for stopping by

    Anya

    ReplyDelete
  3. Olive and Oud7/17/2011 5:26 PM

    I'd love to hear anything you were hoping to talk about. I don't feel I know enough yet to bring anything to the conversational table, but I'm eager to learn.

    Laura

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fallah7/17/2011 5:42 PM

    Hi Anya,

    My question is about making light perfumes. A lot of customers seem to want something light, fresh etc. A lot of them seem to really want citrus notes specifically. As we all know, this is not so practical in a natural perfume; the customer winds up disappointed about longevity.
    When formulating a perfume, how do you negotiate between these two conflicting things?

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnyasGardenPerfumes7/17/2011 7:11 PM

    Hi Laura:

    I was hoping for a conversation with others who use different techniques, but since it's the height of summer here, not much activity for the chat. Even Twitter is in the doldrums ;-)

    Anya

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnyasGardenPerfumes7/17/2011 7:13 PM

    Hi Fallah:

    Look for accessory notes that are citrus-y, such as lemon myrtle. They will prolong the citrus experience. Also use light mid-note fixatives like copaiba balsam, and try fixing your alcohol with up to 5% glycerin or benzoin.

    Anya

    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

Natural Isolates and the Natural Perfumer - Being the Captain of Your Own Fragrant Ship

-
Image
Get a cup of coffee or tea - this is a long blog post, with lots of twists and turns and surprises - good surprises!  Please see the blog post yesterday on the Guild member vote on the definition of natural isolates if you have not already read it. Backstory Do you ever wonder why I never taught a course in natural isolates or began to sell them on my website? After all, I was the pioneer natural perfumer who first used them in my MoonDance and StarFlower perfumes, both best sellers and award winners. Something told me that I needed to do a lot more research because a wrong move, the wrong isolate sold, could ruin the creations of lots of perfumes made by my (natural perfumer) customers. I have a duty as a trusted authority in natural perfumery, a person who heads the Natural Perfumers Guild, and who started a Yahoo discussion group on natural perfumeryin 2002, to be responsible and proceed slowly. Currently there are no regulations that address natural isolates, or ...
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 a...
Read more