Book Reviews

I can't wait to review the book I'm reading now. Oh, I love it so much.

But for now, I'll write a bit about two other books I recently finished reading.

Ellena, Jean-Claude, Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent, New York, NY: Arcade Publishing, 2011. ISBN: 9781611453300

Burr, Chandler, The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York, New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 2007. ISBN: 9780805080377 HD9999.P932B87 2008

I included the LoC call number on the second citation because it was in the book, and I used to add those to a list of books we had collected at my old job. It can help you learn what a book is about by looking at those, and while it might seem obvious for many books, that isn't always the case.

I would definitely recommend The Perfect Scent to anyone interested in fragrances and the perfume industry. It covers many of the aspects of fragrance creation, from the scent itself to the bottles and marketing. Naturals vs. synthetics comes up, and most fragrance companies don't want you to realize their scents aren't all natural. All natural fragrance is really a niche, though some of the larger companies do use large amount of naturals in their perfumes.

I also thought it funny that fashion designers want the public to believe they make the scents themselves. It never occurred to me that they would have, though I didn't know much about who did create them until a few years ago. The Perfect Scent delves even deeper into this, revealing how much goes into one single scent.

I don't really recommend Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent unless you're obsessed with Jean-Claude Ellena. It's not that it's a bad book per se, but it covers a lot of the same ground as the The Perfect Scent. One of the two fragrances featured by Burr was created by Ellena, and he does a better job of capturing Ellena's thoughts and creative process better than Ellena does. Of course Burr is primarily a writer and Ellena primarily a perfumer, so it's probably proper that Burr would write the better book. Ellena does have another book that I haven't read yet, so perhaps that one will prove better.

Cocoa Absolute

Cocoa absolute has a great scent- rich and chocolatey. You can use a little to modify a fragrance, making it a little dirty and a little sweet, without going full out gourmand. With The Lab #7 Cocoa, I didn't add just a little, I added a lot.

I spent a long time figuring out this fragrance. Starting with the base notes, I added patchouli and vetiver for their earthiness. And then let it sit. Added some labdanum to complete the base notes- I love labdanum and its ambery odor. I added some ylang ylang for the middle, and went uh oh- the chocolate brought out the banana notes in ylang ylang. I did not want to create a chocolate covered banana fragrance, though I'm sure there's a market for that.

I let it sit again. Then, to adjust the chocolate-banana middle, I added some clary sage and pimento berry (aka- allspice). I finished it up with spice up at the top, with a good blast of fresh ginger, and dash of woodsy petitgrain.

One problem with chocolate absolute- it does not work well in oils. I let this fragrance sit around for awhile so the chocolate scent could permeate it, and then filtered it before bottling. A lot of the thick brown absolute still made it's way into many of the bottles, and it would be best to shake them to disperse it before applying. I pulled aside the one with the most cocoa absolute hanging around, and it didn't stain or color my pale skin, so that shouldn't worry you. I wouldn't rub the fragrance into your clothes though, since it might stain those. Plus you shouldn't be covering your clothes in oil.

The Lab #7 Cocoa is available from Ivre de Fleurs and Etsy for $10 for a 4ml roller ball.

KPFA, Soap, and Dusk

Ivre de Fleurs will be selling at the KPFA Crafts Fair this year! I went to this show when I first moved out to the SF Bay Area, and I've been there a few times since, including last year. My husband and I bought so many presents there last year. I'm a bit sad it won't be 3 blocks from where I live this year, but crossing the bay is worth it.

I've just poured some soap- it smells great, and it has so many amazing things in it- blueberry, cranberry, and acai powders, but I have to admit, it's not looking so pretty now. I do intend to sell it, since if it all works out well it should be a nice bar of soap, but it won't be a looker. Which isn't so bad when you think about it- soap washes away to nothing, leaving no trace of its beauty or lack there of.

And it's not like it's the ugliest soap I've ever made.

On to dusk. I don't even really know how to describe how I made it- it just kind of guided itself, in a way that I don't normally make scents. Oftentimes I have an idea, and I just add a little here and there to complete the idea. With this one, I just kind of went with the flow, and the result is a fragrance that reminds me most of dusk- the darkest stage of twilight. There's a good dose of patchouli in the base notes, which probably gives it that feeling. There's a heavy dose of florals and some spice, but no overwhelming note. This scent is really more of a feeling than an idea, with things of beauty barely visible, awaiting the darkness to come.

The Lab #6 Dusk is available from Ivre de Fleurs and Etsy for $20.

The Lab # 5 Lavender

This started out as an idea for a lip balm flavor- lavender, anise, and vanilla. When I did my flavor tester (I made a zillion of those), I wasn't impressed. I took the scent blend and put it in some soap, which was rather lovely. It did make the soap turn dark due to the vanilla in it, so it wasn't the prettiest soap, but it did smell nice.

This scent is an expansion of that idea- vanilla at the base, lavender at the middle and top (lavender absolute and essential oil), and anise at the top. Vetiver, patchouli, and clary sage bring some earthiness to it, and black pepper spices up the top. I also added some yuzu absolute to brighten it up- that stuff is hard to find and rather pricy for a citrus note, so once this fragrance is sold out, there will be no more of it. Perhaps a slightly different version, but unless I can get my hands on some more yuzu absolute, I won't be able to make any more.

The Lab #5 Lavender is available at Ivre de Fleurs and Etsy for $15.

Davana

Davana is an odd scent. Kind of fruity, and to me, kind of boozy. It reminds me a bit of cough syrup sometimes. It is also a bit of a chameleon, and can smell differently on different people. Of course that's true of all (or at least many) fragrances, but when creating this scent, I couldn't stand it in the bottle, but liked it on my skin.

I wanted to emphasize the fruitiness of davana, so I added Roman chamomile. Frankincense and Peru balsam at the base added additional sweetness and some citrus. At this point, it seemed like it could be a sugarbomb of a fragrance, and while there is a market for that, I don't want that to be the end result.

Back to the middle notes, I added rose geranium and ylang ylang. This probably didn't help with the sweetness, but adds a small touch of floral. For the top notes I went with spice (black pepper and juniper berry) and some floral woods- petitgrain and rosewood. The scent definitely isn't a fruity floral- the floral aspect is pretty quiet.

Lab #4 Davana is available from Etsy and Ivre de Fleurs for $10.

Also new on Etsy are blended floral balms. There are currently three different blends- Trio Blend, which leans towards jasmine but with hints of rose and tuberose; White Flowers, a blend with jasmine, neroli, and tuberose; and Mimosa Neroli, a honeyed scent with an orange flower twist. These are $10 for each .15 ounce jar.

Vanilla and More

New Gardenia and Sandalwood Fragrance

Before we get to Lab #3 Vanilla, I'd like to introduce Gardenia Sandalwood Natural Fragrance, available in our Etsy Store. The gardenia is infused in apricot kernel oil, and while sweet and beautiful, the scent doesn't last long on the skin. I added some sandalwood so there would be something there once the gardenia was faded, and it provides soft, lingering back up to the gardenia.

On to the vanilla. When I first started studying fragrance, I loved vanilla. It's a nice scent after all. But as I continued, I started using a greater variety at base notes, and at times I didn't even have any vanilla absolute or CO2 on hand. Once I realized I wanted to make something with vanilla but didn't have any, I made sure to get some. Plain it may be, but it's still useful to have around.

This fragrance starts with a vanilla infusion, with vanilla CO2 added for more depth. Peru balsam, which has some vanilla notes to it, was then added. At that point I left it alone for a long time, and wasn't sure what else to do with it. One day after sniffing it, I decided it needed some wood notes, and so I added Himalayan cedarwood and some sandalwood. As with the Neroli Rose, this fragrance has no top notes. It is available through the Ivre de Fleurs store for $15 for a 4ml roll-on bottle.

The Lab #2- Neroli Rose

Neroli Rose is another simple blend- middle notes of neroli and rose absolute, with sandalwood for some longevity. I skipped a top note for this fragrance. I understand their importance, but I wanted the focus to be on these two flowers. Sandalwood blends seamlessly into it, quietly sitting in the background.

I don't think I'll build off this fragrance in the future, though it's likely I'll create a blend at some point with all three oils. There are so many ways this scent can go that it's hardly a starting point. This would be a good scent to layer with your favorite perfumes, to add some floral notes.

This scent is only available through the Ivre de Fleurs website, with only three bottles available. Samples will be available soon on Etsy.

New Limited Edition Fragrances!

Fragrances #1-#5

The Lab fragrances are limited edition perfume that explore different ideas in scent. Each silver roller ball holds 4ml and costs between $10-20, depending on the essences used. Each perfume is naturally scented, including some with rare and expensive oils. All of them will be available through the Ivre de Fleurs website, and #4-#7 will be posted to Etsy soon. I will also add sample sizes for sale on Etsy.

I will be writing about each of the fragrances in separate posts, starting with #1 today.

The Lab #1- Wood
When I started making perfume, I loved all the florals- rose, jasmine, neroli. I still love them, but over time I have come to appreciate pretty much all of the scents out there. Except for clary sage, but I do like blending with that one. I just don't like it alone.

I love the various wood scents out there, in particular rosewood and sandalwood. Sadly, these face endangerment, but I hope with increased attention, there will be a way to protect these trees and obtain their beautiful oils. I know for rosewood that some distillers use the branches, and I've seen it distilled from the leaves as well.

 Virginian cedarwood is pretty far down my list of woods. It turns out it's not even from a cedar tree, but from a juniper tree (Juniperus virginiana). It has a scent like a pencil, which can still be nice and useful, but it's not my preferred cedar. For this fragrance, I decided to use Himalayan cedarwood, a real cedar (Cedrus deodora). It creates a nice bridge between the top note rosewood and the base note sandalwood.

In the future I might build off of this fragrance- I thought about adding agarwood, but that stuff is expensive, and I wanted to keep these relatively affordable.

In the Works and Such

I was really hoping to write more once I no longer had my day job, but I just haven't felt like writing as much as I should. I've had so much other stuff to do, and still more I can do, that I haven't made blogging a priority.

I've been working on some new perfumes, and quite a bit of soap. I'll be coming out with fall/Halloween soaps hopefully in the beginning of October. It can take so long for soap to cure, and since I've gone palm free and soy free, I'm finding it trickier to make a hard bar. I don't think the hydrogenated soy helped much anyway, but even with sodium lactate, I've found some batches hard to remove from the molds. I'll also be working on winter/Christmas soaps soon. As much as I love fall, I truly love winter. The scents, the colors- everything is perfect and beautiful. I really want to capture the freshness of newly fallen snow. It's too bad I'm not likely to see any this year, and haven't seen good snow in a long time. Last year I did see a few patches of old snow in Ohio, but that's not exciting.

I'll be writing more about the perfumes as I post them for sale. I've been having lots of fun with fragrance lately, and I'm even delving into home fragrance! Home fragrance is tricky though- essential oils don't seem to want to blast you in the face the way some people might want them to, so it's taking some time.