Tweak and Sniff, Tweak and Sniff…

I sometimes feel discouraged by how many trials it takes me to develop a new scent, but this quote by Frederic Malle about how many trials went into the making of Carnal Flower puts things in perspective:

“The challenge in creating a new tuberose perfume is to get away from Fracas.  Dominique Ropion and I went through 690 trials before we arrived at Carnal Flower because we wanted it to be as close as possible to the natural tuberose scent.” (Allure, February 2008, page 116)

I often go through 50 or so trials while developing a new scent, but never anywhere near 690.  Wow.  But their effort was clearly worthwhile; Carnal Flower is an exceptionally beautiful tuberose scent.

I’ve been working on several new fragrances, usually rotating days to give my nose a rest on one while I work again on another.  One of them is mainly jasmine and tuberose, with some orange blossom, clove, musk, and sandalwood.  I made some good progress on it yesterday and look forward to wearing it in spring.

It’s been unusually cold here the last few days and we’re expecting snow on the nearby mountains tonight.  I’ll be able to see white-capped mountains out the window tomorrow if the clouds lift long enough.  Know that’s nothing special to a lot of you, but it just happens once or twice each winter in my part of California.

I’ve been meaning to do a January top ten list here on the blog and better hurry up before the month is out!