Archive category from earlier years; perfumery topics, awards, reviews, regulations, events.
Today’s new issue of Sniffapalooza Magazine contains an interview that I did with writer Kathy Patterson. Kathy also reviewed Vintage Rose and Champagne de Bois. You need to scroll down the page a little to find the article, but you may want to check out some of the other pieces in this issue too: http://www.sniffapaloozamagazine.com/interviews.html
It’s been a really busy week. Ambre Noir is on the site now and should be great for fall. I’ll keep working on Gardenia Musk and Lieu de Reves as I can. I tried some interesting new ingredients and that’s always exciting. Received shipment of a kilo yesterday that had leaked some, but it only lost about…
Today Now Smell This featured an article about five recent rose releases and included Vintage Rose in the reviews: http://nowsmellthis.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/8/1/3818369.html I was really happy to see Vintage included there! Miller et Bertaux Shanti and Red Flower Guaiac sound fun to try too. You’ve probably heard about the two new Serge Lutens scents from all the press about them. Serge…
We’re enjoying some bouquets of very fragrant carnations and stock grown from seed; the carnations are especially nice, with more spicy scent than most varieties. They’re an heirloom type called “Enfant de Nice” from Renee’s seeds. Her larkspur called “Alouette” have also been spectacular this year, very prolific in beautiful colors and wonderful as cut…
I worked on the new gardenia musk Sunday. The floral accord is a pretty gardenia/jasmine that’s had good feedback, but I’d like the scent to have just a bit more oomph. I added a touch of very light cedar and some soft salicylate to give a little more volume and it seems to help quite…
I’m trying Andy Tauer’s new Vetiver Dance this afternoon and am enjoying it; the lily of the valley comes out prominently on me the first few hours and makes this a very different vetiver scent than any other I’ve tried, much more floral but still unisex. I like the green notes in here too, and…
Ambre Noir is getting closer. I put the frankincense and myrrh back in, removed one cedary component, enhanced the sandalwood, and added a touch of castoreum. It’s dark and rich but has the touch of incense back. I need to live with it for a bit and make sure I’m happy with it, but I…
I recently had the wonderful opportunity to try a sample of Onda from a very generous person, and it got me thinking about some of the leathery skanky notes I like in very small amounts: castoreum and the para cresyls. Onda is very bold and probably the most animalic scent I’ve ever tried, including SL…
If you think it’s bad to lust after bottles of perfume, it is worse lusting after ingredients that only come in 25 kilo minimum purchases. 🙂 A 25 kilo purchase all of one ingredient is too much for me at this stage. So when I sample an item like this and fall in love with it, I…
I’ve been working on some product photos in Photoshop to remove the backgrounds; it’s a challenge to get the edges smooth and is going slower than I’d hoped. I’ve not done much blending this week so hope to do that this weekend. I did get to try a sample of Geoffrey Beene Grey Flannel today and enjoyed…
Sienna Musk is on the site and ready to go, though it’s probably nicest when the weather cools a bit more. It’s a spiced woodsy musk scent that is warm and cozy, but not what I’d crave with the temperature reaching 110 degrees F today. We’re having a very intense heat wave. The smoke has become much worse again from the…
It’s been over 100 F three days in a row, and today’s peak was 106 F on my outdoor porch thermometer. We always have a few of these heat waves each summer. I worked a bit on Lieu de Reves yesterday and Gardenia Musk today. I spent several months working on each of these last winter but didn’t finish. I’ll…
Today’s post is an interview with scent scientist Dr. Avery Gilbert, whose new book What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life is now available at Amazon. I haven’t received my copy yet, but in the meantime I read some of his research papers and found them very interesting. He has researched…
I finally got to work a bit on Ambre Noir again today. I still like the last tester version I did better than the experiments after that, so I retreated to that formula and am taking another path with it. I like the drydown but not the start, and I’m thinking that instead of adding more…
I thought this was an interesting blurb in Perfumer and Flavorist about how natural ingredients are being tweaked to de-color them or remove allergens or change the scent profile in some way (such as removing the dirtiest part of patchouli). Jean Claude Ellena has discussed doing this to design custom natural components in his perfumes;…
The smokiness in the air was a little better today, though we didn’t have blue sky yet. We had a bit of a breeze that may have helped reduce the thickness of the smoke, and maybe the fires are getting more under control and that’s contributing to the improvement too. I worked on orders and gave a quick try to…
I’ll send out two identical traveling musk packages Tuesday the 24th. The first two people can sniff, report back their results via email to info@sonomascentstudio.com or to my personal email (given in the package), and then send on to the next two people. We have the first six or so in line already. Here are the…
The picture above shows tonka beans, orris root, a jar of labdanum absolute, and lavender blossoms. Photo copyright SonomaScentStudio.com. When I made Ambre Noir, I wanted a very dark labdanum-rich amber scent with a little leather and rose and very little vanilla. I also wanted woods, moss, and incense. I like the way it turned out, but…
A new book is coming soon by another fragrance researcher: What The Nose Knows written by Avery Gilbert. Here’s a link to the website for the book http://www.whatthenoseknows.com/ and a link to a review of the book on basenotes: http://www.basenotes.net/articles/20080610what-the-nose-knows.html I thought it was interesting that he has a background in psychology and has done some research into the colors…
The 54th annual meeting of the American Society of Perfumers on June 2 included a discussion between seven panelists about the future of fine fragrance. Questions included the following: “How public should perfumers be? How technical can fragrance companies be in their marketing? Can and should consumers be introduced to the molecules and other nuts and bolts…