This and That…
Just wanted to check in today. We had a glorious pink sunrise this morning! The light cloud cover sometimes makes the sky glow pink as the sun rises. We look out over a valley where the fog often rolls in overnight, but the fog breaks up sometime in the morning and if it is just right as the sun comes up the sky is beautiful. Wish I could get a picture.
I tried Tom Ford’s Noir de Noir on one wrist yesterday with a bigger spritz than the first time I tried it, and the most prominent notes to me are plumy rose with a woodsy patchouli base. The patch comes out very strong on me, a little more than I’d like, but not as strong certainly as L’Artisan’s VdR. I like the rose in Noir de Noir though and it lasted all day. Don’t know if the patch is this prominent on others; it’d be interesting to sniff it on someone else. I find I need to test things a couple times to really see what they do (sometimes I don’t apply enough the first time, and I just get a better feeling for the scent on my skin after a few wears).
Saturday I took the tonka back out of Gardenia Musk because it was going too sweet, and I’m trying a couple new additions to it. Will see if this works better.
I’m giggling at your on-again, off-again affair with the Tonka in your Gardenia Musk. Tonka can be the bull in the china shop at times — just when you think it might settle down and play nicely, there goes the Noritake!
I got your samples last week and am trying to schedule myself a day when I can sit myself down and devote a lot of time to them. I’m very much looking forward to it.
Good luck with the Gardenia Musk.
Hi Nathan,
I’m getting frustrated with Gardenia Musk, lol. I’m loving the floral blend of delicate jasmine and gardenia, and the final drydown today is quite nice, but the first hour is still too sweet even without the tonka. You’re right, tonka is delicious when used gently but can have a tendency to take over. Part of the challenge is that this floral accord is very delicate and I don’t want anything too strong to overshadow it.
Much of the sweetness in this blend comes from the musk auranone, and I’m going to try leaving that out or reducing it and adding something else. It’s such a pretty musk and has nice floral and peachy aspects, but when I add these floral notes to it, the blend gets too sweet. I’m using some green notes and ambergris to cut sweetness, but I don’t want to add perceptible wood notes to this scent and I avoid ozonic notes, so my de-sweetening options are limited in this case. I have some other musks in Gardenia Musk that are much more dry and they help a lot, but I’m still not sold on it. I put that Gardenia Musk page up on my website one night when I thought it was done, but oops, it wasn’t done yet, and I’ve not had enough time to work on it steadily, so here I am still tweaking.
I’m trying a new macrocyclic musk today that seems very pretty and more dry to me, so I’m just about to put it in Gardenia Musk in place of the auranone to see what happens. It has the kind of character I need for this scent and might work.
I had someone wanting to try Wood Violet without the strong plum note, so I was experimenting with that yesterday and have a very interesting dry woodsy cedar blend with touches of violet and jasmine, plus a light touch of cinnamon and clove like Wood Violet. I think it might turn into something new (I did the basic Wood Violet sans plum first, but then kept going with it from there, making more changes, because it seemed to have possibilities).
Thanks for luck on Gardenia Musk! 🙂 I’m off to try the new musk idea now…
Oh my lord! *clutches heart* That Wood Violet sans plum you’re working on sounds terrific.
Not that I mind the plum — I’ve tested out two recent fragrances where the plum note was the most interesting aspect to them: Indult Isvaraya and Parfums d’Imperfiction O Alquimista. Once the plum wore off, they both turned rather same-ol’ same-ol’.
You sound like you’re struggling to keep the layers to your Gardenia Musk fragrance under control, yet Gardenia Musk is, like, the exact kind of perfume that begs to be at least somewhat complicated. I can fully understand, however, the desire to steer away from adding woody notes under the florals — your brain must be spinning trying to come up with something different and new.
But I have to admit that I perked right up when you mentioned ambergris. I was, like, “Ambergris? In a Gardenia Musk? Yum!”
I’m testing the new dry cedar scent this morning and am excited about this one. Will post more about it soon. I’ll need a few test sniffers before long. 🙂
The ambergris is nice in the gardenia musk. I’m trying to keep it light and soft, not heady or vanillic or woody or indolic (so many “nots” make it harder). I do like the new musk in it. Still juggling things around though.
Hello,
It is so fascinating to me the way you describe your work with Gardenia Musc. It really sounds like a work of art.
I sure will be one of the first “samplers” when it is available!
Good luck!
Thanks Aleksandra! I hope I get a formula soon that is what I’m after!