Natural Perfumery Institute - Excerpt on how to make aromatic dilutions for study

- January 27, 2012

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The Natural Perfumery Institute's textbook for the basic course in perfumery was edited so that students who are not native English speakers could easily follow the information and instructions presented. The technical editor I hired previously worked for Microsoft and Boeing, writing manuals for engineers from all over the world. Engineers are known for their ability to pick apart and question what is presented to them, honing the written word down to its most precise and understandable form. As you can see by my writing, I'm not so precise, so I knew I needed Andrine's expertise. She's also a natural perfumer and alchemist, so I had the best of both worlds when rewriting my original textbook into its present form.

Here is an excerpt from the textbook, instructing the student how to make dilutions. The student has already read about the type of bottles, droppers, scale, etc., for this exercise, and now the student has the equipment before them, and will proceed to make 10% dilutions of the aromatics required for the exercises:

Preparing the Equipment and Materials for the Dilution Exercise

1.    Select five dropper bottles and the five diluted aromatics that are in your study kit: jasmine, neroli, rose, vanilla, and oakmoss. Pour each of the aromatics into separate dropper bottles (they’ll fill them more than halfway). Cap and label the bottles. Set them aside.

2.    Determine how many dilutions you are going to create at this time. It is recommended that you not work on more than two or three dilutions at a time until you become comfortable with the exercise.

3.    For the number of your dilutions, take an equal number of dropper bottles and remove their caps, placing each one next to its bottle. Take a corresponding number of the undiluted aromatics from the kit and set the bottles to the left or right, whichever is more comfortable for you.

     Note: Only open one bottle of undiluted aromatic at a time on your pouring tray or table    in order to avoid confusion or mix-ups between caps and bottles.

4.    Place the scale directly in front of you.

     Tip: Always place a pouring tray on your table, and keep your liquids on that while you are working with them. You may have to place your scale near the tray if the tray bottom is uneven, but you should keep the aromatics on the tray as much as possible.

Using the 7 ml (2 dram) dropper bottles, for a 10% dilution that will create 6 grams (to avoid filling the bottle too much), your weight measurements are:

     .6 gram of aromatic
     5.4 grams of alcohol

     Tip: In the future, when you are making dilutions of various amounts, always make a little less dilution than the bottle will hold, because when you place the dropper into it, the dropper will displace some of the liquid, which could cause an overflow if you have too much liquid in it.

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Whether you choose the online or offline course, the content is the same in the textbook. Please visit the course website for more information.