Hedione revisited
Hedione is a fantastic raw material (again, Firmenich) and I say that in terms of effect and value. I was told that Hedione used to be extremely expensive that it was used at one or two grams. Perfumers found that dosage and the effect of that dosage to be amazing! Then Roudnitska comes and “overdoses” Hedione at 2 percent in Eau Sauvage. It was mindblowing to perfumers. It is funny because Hedione is today can be found dosed 10 times of that in Eau Sauvage.
Pink pepper
I want to thank the Firmenich perfumers who indirectly taught me how to use pink pepper (from CO2 extraction), an expensive, fruity, peppery note that gives off so much diffusion. The best example of pink pepper used in formulation is Elle by YSL (Olivier Cresp, Jacques Cavallier) because it is really overdosed, which is insane… insanely expensive! Pink pepper adds a nice sparkle to the fragrance.
Schinus molle oil is a sister to the pink pepper oil, but you will notice how much weaker the former is in terms of diffusion/explosiveness compared to the latter. Pink pepper is so diffusive that it is almost aldehydic!
You will observe that many Firmenich formulas have pink pepper inside because they have a strong hold on the production of this great natural raw material.
A text
I just received a text from someone important in my life: “Alex you are very brave you know. You are an example for me. I am so proud of you. I know that you will succeed. Don’t worry. I’m here for you if you need me.”
The perfumer’s brain.
A handful of us had the chance to listen to our “nez” talk about his successes in perfumery (Brazil, New York City, Paris). And he was talking about an interviewer’s question regarding influences that made him such a great perfumer. He reasoned that he found a part of his talent in perfumery because of his love for music. Being a musician that played several instruments, he had this natural ability to deconstruct music. He could listen to music by ear, his head would deconstruct the music, and reconstruct it in his own way. He found to translate this talent with perfumery and thus, with smells, he had a facility to do the same thing as he did with music. But there is a reminder that being a musician does not necessarily mean that that one is fit to create fragrances. The perfumer was born into the world of odors and found a way to reinforce his creative talent with his other talents.
You realize that the nose is just a tool in creation – an important one nonetheless. But in the end, the brain is the most important tool. Because perfumery is simply a result of deconstruction (an idea) and construction.
Cumin in formulation
I was very disconnected by cumin oil when I first began perfumery. When I think cumin, I think of India where my olfactive memories are tied to the smell to their culinary culture. You go to the house of a traditional Indian family and the smell of cumin and other spices is impregnated in the walls of their house. There is a also a interesting aspect of sweat in the smell of cumin. Because of all of this, I never thought of cumin as a note in fine fragrances. I have since bridged a connection between the two! It turns out that cumin is indeed widely used in masculine and feminine fine fragrances (will develop this in another post).
Cumin oil is really strong and personally, I do not use it so much for its odor but for its effect. Even with a dosage at 1 percent in solution, you can feel the effect of cumin oil. Depending on your accord, if you have 5 grams of cumin diluted to 10 percent solvent, you will smell the cumin as it is.
For me, I use cumin oil to create a dry and powdery effect on the “top” of the fragrance. With the right accord of musks, you create this comforting cloud of powder when you smell the fragrance on the blotter strip. On the skin, cumin is rather sensual especially when it is married with patchouli (this is just my opinion).
I separate smells with effects. For me, musk T a very common musk in perfumery has a very faint ”smell” (perfumers who internally link smell + effects together will immediately disagree with me) but it has a very strong, special musky effect that I can smell. And it is not that I am asnomic to this musk because I really smell it, but just the effect. It is like the salicylates where for me the strange textural effect that they give are more interesting to me. So there exists raw materials that have a smell and also a strong textural “effect” like cumin. So you take cumin and dose it at low quantities that you do not really smell the odor of cumin but you still sense its presence.
Take cumin oil and create an accord with a good dose of ambrettolide and musc T. Ambrettolide is a musk that for me runs from “top to bottom.” It is a vertical musk that creates a musky cloud far away from the strip. Ambrettolide pushes volatile raw materials away from the strip, so it seems like you are smelling raw materials departing from the elevated cloud as opposed to off the strip. Musk T has a similar “shape” as ambrettolide, so it supports the ambrettolide. You can add exaltolide to further inforce the powderiness on the top.
I realized how difficult it is to describe what I am doing with words, but try to follow me 
. So with cumin which creates a powdery effect on the blotter, you can elevate this effect away from the blotter.
A bit of cistus oil can further reinforce this accord.
Random thoughts
Favorite olfactive smell of the moment: Loukoum (Turkish Delight) – rose + honey + vanilla + tonka + touch of cherry + almonds :)
Young perfumer to follow: Olivier Polge (Dior Homme + Kenzo Power = fantastic)
Raw material of interest at the moment: iris resinoid (a little ethyl linalol, a little iralia = magic)
Current formula of interest: Midnight Poison
Confidentiality
Confidentiality is something that is extremely important in the fragrance industry, and it is something that I respect and adhere to. It is simply because the industry is a very competitive one which is not so different than the film, music, and fashion industry. At the end of the day, from a business standpoint, it is all about winning projects and every edge is important for a company to have. I do not want to confuse this concept of confidentiality, which for me is the internal information within a company, with the sharing of know-how in perfumery.
As you have noticed, I have written a lot about perfumery, but with much moderation. No one is sitting behind me and editing my posts and telling me what to write or not to write, but I know now more or less what to write and what I should not write.
I write about captives (proprietary, internal raw materials for certain companies) for example from an “outsider” point of view as I do not work for the top 5 in the context of things that I have to still deal with each day. These captives are not “secret,” you can read about them in scientific publications (if you are resourceful and have access ) and simply on the web. Google: serenolide, nirvanolide, norlimbanol, hindanol, etc. The web has more information about perfumery than I could possibly write about…
Chandler Burr writes about them here…
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/business/worldbusiness/22iht-perfume.4.10314263.html
http://www.chandlerburr.com/articles/synth5.htm
It is interesting because internally, the exchange of information is actually quite free. But at the end of the day, you know exactly what is appropriate or not to put on the web and it has nothing to do with hiding information!
In any case, I write here not as a perfumery school or a whistleblower, but simply that I am still a young perfumery student not yet fully integrated in the industry. And I guess writing is my only way of “doing” perfumery right now. I am not motivated/built as a writer (of words!) nor do I have time to embellish and write seductive articles - all I want to do is to “write” with raw materials.
If you want to read about perfumery from a creative aspect: Octavian is probably the most credible writer on perfumery along with Chandler Burr. They are both much more daring in their writing than me but I know that they write with care as well.
So in fact, this weblog does not contain even a fraction of my own experiences/observations, the stories that I have heard, the humble quantity of know-how that is in my brain, etc… I am still a little person in the great scheme of things, knowing still almost “nothing” about perfumery, and this weblog is just a pinhole (small) view of the little me. So can you imagine how big and crazy the perfume industry is as a whole?
I wear a different cap.
X grams Iso E Super
X grams Vertofix
X grams Hedione
X grams Bergamote Oil
X grams Habanolide
X grams Tonalide
X grams Coumarine
X grams Helional
X grams Dihydromyrcenol
X grams Lemon Oil
X grams Ambroxan
X grams Amberketal
X grams Vetiveryl Acetate
X grams Ionone Beta
X grams Timberol
X grams Verdox
X grams Galbex
X grams Alpha Damascone 10 percent
X grams Lavandin Oil
X grams Cardamom Oil
X grams Nutmeg Oil
X grams Pink Pepper Oil
X grams Cumin Oil 10 percent
X grams Calone
etc, etc, etc
Here is a totally, fake formula that I randomly wrote up as an illustration for a rather simple, masculine fragrance. The end result of the formula is a fragrance for the consumers, for you. As a perfumer, it is his job to make people feel, to make people dream. The consumer does not care to know about the raw materials inside.
I can use pretty words and write some poetry about being inspired by…
… Napoleon’s cologne waters of lemon, bergamot, and nutmeg. Or the explosive, fruity firecracker effect from pink pepper mingled with warm spices of cumin and cardamom… cooled by a sea accord and by the Italian citrus oils from Calabria… with a backdrop of foresty woods and white, powdery musks.
But as a perfumery student, I am interested in the “truth”. And the truth is the formula… the raw materials and the dosages. The cause and the effect. The accords. Why habanolide and not musk T? Why this and not that?
This is why that in this blog, I rarely talk about fragrance aesthetics, sentiments, poetry, or history. Perfumery makes me feel and I have impressions. I care about all of the aforementioned, but they are secondary for me at the moment.
A technician or artist (or just someone from your family, don’t worry you can tell me the truth)?
Sometimes I do not know what the fragrance industry is looking for. From what I hear and from what I have observed in formulation, you have a new generation of perfumery “technicians.”
I have put all my ideas and creativity aside to learn the art from the “technician’s” perspective and I’m starting to see the “matrix” and understand what the perfumers are doing today (perhaps and most likely at the demand of the clients).
The perfumery world has changed and there is a price for going fast. You really hear the older generation of perfumers express a level of jadedness.
But there is a question that stands: is the industry looking for young people with interesting ideas and who are a little bit daring?
