“You know you’ve achieved perfection in design, Not when you have nothing more to add, But when you have nothing more to take away.”

So the Parisian life is kind of busy apparently… but I finally got to smell the Le Labo city exclusives and visited Francis Kurkdjian’s boutique. I’ve been a “horrible” perfumery student because I keep forgetting my notebooks at home when I smell things, so I’ll be writing out of memory.

Let’s start with Le Labo exclusives…

Tubereuse 40 - Inside Tubereuse 40, you smell the result of being inspired by an existing “eau de cologne” accord, and you can tell that Morillas put a really nice twist on it. But this is a fantastic fragrance. It’s an interesting take on a tuberose because it’s a modern take on “tuberose” which is olfactively distant than let’s say Fracas.

Poivre 23 – this one stood out for me because it is multifaceted: peppery/spicy notes, ambery, balasmic, and fruity notes. It is a very textural fragrance where you get a spicy enveloping note and hidden inside, you have this pruney, fruity something… and an accord of absolute of rose or absolute of Egyptian jasmine? This is by far the best fragrance in the line.

I do not mean to not write about the other fragrances, but I was so rushed to smell these that I decided to commit to smelling the aforementioned two that stood out for me instantly.

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3 minutes walking distance from Colette, we have Francis Kurkdjian’s new boutique store. FK gives me hope. He’s doing something really good for perfumery. This guy is a genius… from the vision to the concept to the message all the way down to the packaging, everything is FK. Even in his fragrances and this I will let you guys discover, you can find his winning accords inside.

Hidden inside his fragrances, you can smell his affinity for the orange blossoms… in a fragrance, you can find Narciso Rodriguez for Him… you can find a Jean Paul Gautier accord in another…. etc. Of course, Acqua Universalis is very interesting and quite beautiful. But I cannot help but return to the olfactive structure of CK One and green tea.

His fragrant bubbles (one of cut grasse: cis 3 hexenol) is a very interesting concept. It is strange that many years ago, I dreamt of fragrant bubbles and I find it amazing that it was made into a reality – in his case, to allow his niece to explore the olfactive world.

I have hundreds of unfinished drafts that I have no time to finish and they start stuck in draft limbo. I have so many things that I wish that I could communicate about life, creativity, perfumery, etc, but I just do not have the time to develop them into text. I just need to find a block of time and crunch them out. Thanks for your readership.

- Alex

vetiver haiti oil

galbanum CO2 oil 10%
angeliques racines oil 10%
carvi oil 10%
nutmeg oil 10%
bergamote italy oil
cardamom CO2 oil
vanilla absolute
tonka bean absolute
iris resinoid 10%
hedione HC
ionone beta
neroli oil
encens oil
linalol
ethyl linalol
hedione
florol
hydroxycitronellol
mandarinal 10%
musk T
ambrettolide
ethyl maltol 10%
iso e super
methyl pamplemousse
styrallyl acetate

———
bergamote oil
mandarine oil
orange bigarade oil
styrallyl acetate
rhubofix
hedione HC
ionone beta
florol
hydroxycitronellol
orange crystals
coumarine
cardamome CO2 oil
incense oil
vanilla absolute
liffarome 10%
pamplefleur
celery oil
thyme oil
heliotropine 10%
jasmine sambac absolute
cis jasmone
ambrettolide

‘To design something really well you have to get it. You have to really grasp what it’s all about. It takes a passionate commitment to thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that. Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask a creative person how they did something, they may feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or have thought more about their experiences than other people have. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. They don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions, without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better designs we will have.’

Steve Jobs, Wired (March, 1996)

24. First impressions last and thus are important.

25. When I teach others, I learn and master what I am teaching.

26. When I help my colleagues win, I help my company win and thus I win.

27. Honesty is the best policy

28. Never say “I can’t” but instead begin with “how can I?” (it forces your brain to work instead of giving up)

29. What I believe are my limits are not truly my limits until I try to push myself beyond these references.

30. Solutions are often simple and in front of your face you just have to think outside of the box.

31. In art, there is no right or wrong answer.

32. Having/maintaining good health is linked with great performance. Thus, being healthy is important.

6:00 am… I just woke up with fragrant ideas in my head and now I cannot sleep. I decided to write about the few things that I have learned during the 24 years of my life. One day, I’ll come by and explain each lesson with anecdotes and observations.

1. Talent can come from strange and unexpected places.

2. Sending out CVs by email is the bottom-line of job-searching strategy.

3. To advance in life, you have to have guts and take risks.

4. Less is more.

5. Passion, pure passion, conquers all – passion brings great joy and great sorrow.

6. Self-doubt and fear are destructive traits.

7. Less theory and more practice.

8. Book smarts and social intelligence are both necessary, but the latter is the most important in today’s world.

9. The most important lessons in life cannot be learned in books.

10. Following the norm is the worst economic strategy ever (unless you are the first to create the “norm”.)

11. Knowing how to communicate (not only verbally or in terms of words/text) is root of success.

12. You must do what you love.

13. Teamwork is key: two is stronger than one (that requires a good chemistry between the two individuals).

14. It is important to have an active humility that triggers curiosity and curiosity triggers the need to listen/learn.

15. To learn something intelligently you have to deconstruct and reconstruct the learning in multiple levels. (Understanding comes from breaking things apart and trying to put it together)

16.  Friends are the best things in the world.

17. I am limited by my weakest muscle (I have to constantly evaluate the weakest muscle – skill set and work on it).

18. There are no rules in life.

19. The ultimate success comes from differentiating yourself from others (go back to 10).

20. Winning results come from hardwork.

21. “Helping other people help me.” *

22.  ”Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.” *

23. If I am comfortable and if I am not being challenged, there is something wrong with the situation.

* Inspired by Stefan Sagmeister, New York based graphic designer.

In my previous post, I talked about my belief that a raw material not only holds a smell but also a shape (texture).  Again, I do not know how other people smell, but my nose actually can feel a smell. When I smell raw material, I preceive it as a multi-dimensional entity. I would like to present the idea that a raw material takes up space between the blotter holding the raw material and the nose.

While musks all have different smells, they all have different “shapes” in which I can actually physically draw out and show (for a future post to illustrate what I want to say). In fact, I differentiate musks with greater ease by their shapes than by their smells.

In general, natural raw materials can change the “shape” and texture of a composition on a blotter. Here are some stronger examples: cedarwood virginia/texas, angelica roots, cumin, iris (derivatives), violet leaves, nutmeg, frankincense, immortelle (essence), galbanum, nonandienols/nonadienals, calone, helional, hexalon, iso e super, ambroxan, iris nitrile, lilial/bourgeonal/lyral/florol, ionones, salicylates, etc.

These raw materials changes the texture on a vertical level because it pushes everything off the strip (these raw materials change the diffusion of a fragrance): pepper, pink pepper, citrus oils, elemi, aldehydes (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, etc), mandarinal (Firmenich), etc.

By playing with these textural effects, you can introduce an interesting effect when the consumer smells the fragrance off the strip. Therefore, when I formulate, there are times that I use certain raw materials not for their smell but for their effect (texture). When the contribution of effect is > contribution of odor, I can intelligently dose the raw material at dosage X where the effect is perceived and the odor is not.

Take a formula without a lot of character and put an overdose of frankincense oil. For me, frankincense oil adds an effect (in additional to its smell) that “cuts” through the formula – a personal descriptor

It is interesting because rarely do we talk about how we smell and evaluate fragrances. We can talk about evaluation from an “evaluator’s” standpoint, but that is just one level of olfaction. So for the past few months, I have been trying to understand how I analyze and approach a fragrance. No one has ever taught me how to smell, but whether done subconsciously or not, I developed my own methodologies to smelling.

I realize that my nose telescopes between three states of evaluation which I can call: consumer/evaluator/perfumer. These three states consists a spectrum. When I smell a fragrance, nose telescopes through these states of olfaction to gather information. The states are not static and there is no order. However, I do force myself to go from “top to bottom” which is consumer – evaluator – perfumer.

Let me try to explain. I take a step back and try to smell as a consumer. This is when I smell a fragrance at a global level. My mind is trying not to think and break down the fragrance. I am not looking for technique. It is the simplest, purest level of smelling. Ideally (but which is never the case), I am enjoying the fragrance at a level of naivité. This is starting block where we can talk about beauty and aesthetics.

Then into the rabbit hole I go. Level: evaluator. This is where I am smelling for accords, structures, and olfactive families, etc. I am smelling for large aspects and facets that stick out. Green Tea. Leather. Tobacco. Fougere. Chypre. Floralcy. Muskiness. Rose (the result of a superior dosage of a base/absolute/essence or the sum of many parts) – tea rose? Spiciness. Greenness. This comes from a “limited” experience in formulation and having many olfactive references in your brain.

Level: perfumer. This is the fun part for a young perfumer to try to look one level deeper. My nose is searching for raw materials and asking “how” did the creator achieve this specific facet/aspect? This is going into the accords detected and breaking them down. Leather. Okay I smell leather but from what source: birch tar or castoreum or quinolines? Jasmin: jasmin sambac, jasmine grandiflorum, hedione, jasmine base? Spiciness. But from where? Coriander? Clove oil? Cinnamon Oil? Floralcy: linalol or ethyl linalol? Salicylate: benzyl or cis 3 hexenyl salicylate? Greenness: green fruity like from liffarome or aldehydic, sharp of triplal?

At each level, I am looking for clues. Almost without thinking, my head is going through checklists and being a detective. Sometimes things are not evident from the getgo like I might smell a strong facet of moss which by instinct causes your nose to try to smell for lavender/coumarine (fougere) or patchouly/ambery notes/bergamot (chypre). Then my mind compares the structure against all the fougeres or chypres if that is the case in my olfactive memory.

Then there is a level of technical aspects that I smell for. Balance and diffusion. Over the past few years, I have trained myself to smell in terms of shapes, textures, and color (also a memory aid for me). For me, fragrances (raw materials) are not just odors but they hold a shape (not on skin) but on the tester strip. The most obvious shape “changer” are the musks. I have yet to hear a single perfumer talk about this but perhaps they consider aesthetic beauty when smelling off a strip in terms of odor where as I make a separation between smell and shape.

Jean Claude Ellena (or perfumers with a strong background of natural raw materials) fragrances show really interesting textural structures on the tester strip but again, I wonder if artistically speaking he actually makes the separation between shape and smell. JCE has a signature that comes from a special accord of musks which he always uses and it is recognizable… this is where I go back to say that I dissociate shape and smell. His accord of musks creates this cloudiness and powderiness. In Kelly Caleche, he creates a sparkling, textural effect with a really nice natural raw material. This is something that I will get back to.

To be continued.