Sunday, January 06, 2008

Chypre, indolic flowers, fruit and spices

It's wonderful that I have more time for the creation of my perfumes again. The whole weekend I was busy with experimenting. I took a closer look at my new friends, some materials I didn't study yet. I mixed unexpectedly combinations of materials, some of these mixes turned out stinky combinations, and some of them were surprisingly nice. I smelled my Velvet Blossom again, and I love the result very much. A very satisfying feeling to have accomplish exactly what I had in mind for this fragrance. A tender, fresh, but oh so velvety floral fragrance, based on Magnolia and Lilly of the Valley. I also worked on my fruity/chypre again. A perfume based on a Chypre accord made of oakmoss, labdanum, pathouli, vetiver, cedar and a little bit of castoreum. I combined this accord with fruity notes of bergamot, lemon and lychee.

I added a herbal green note of basil, a material I love very much, it gives a fresh green and a bit minty note to the fragrance. I also used watercress which gives a wonderful green leafy and very fresh note. The perfume so far smelled of course like Chypre, but also fruity green and floral. One of the flowers I think I always will use in my fragrances is jasmine, so also in this fragrance....

I used a jasmine absolute from Egypt, a very high quality absolute which smells wonderful. I also used may rose and gardenia. There is no such thing as a gardenia absolute so I had to reconstruct the scent of this flower. The floral notes are real nice, but I wanted them to smell even more indolic, so I added some more indole, and after testing the fragrance, I added even more of it. I just love indolic perfumes. The perfume smelled very nice, but I wanted to add some spicy notes to give more character to the fragrance.


So I added coriander seed, which works real fine. But I wanted the fragrance to smell even more spicy. I started with adding a tiny bit of cumin, a note that overpowers a fragrance real easy. So I had to be careful. But it was safe, I could use more of it, so I did. I wanted the fragrance to have a more dry spicy note, so I added some black pepper as well. Yes, that was a good idea. The black pepper is really nice in combination with the lychee. I also added some cardamom to give an effect to the citrus notes. It gives a very fresh spicy dry citrusy and even a bit bitter green note to the bergamot and lemon. And finally I added a tiny bit of clove. So the list of spices that I added is rather long: coriander seed, cumin, black pepper, cardamom and clove, but a nice combination of spices, which works really nice with the fruity notes. I have to remember this combination of spices when I want to cook......

16 comments:

chayaruchama said...

Lieve Jenny,

I like the sound of that spicy, fruity chypre.

Did you end up altering Velvet Blossom ?
If so, how ?

I like the thought of you squirreled away, creating new accords and blends-
It sounds alchemical !

Dikke kus-

Jenny said...

Lieve Chaya,

I'm glad you like the sound of my spicy, fruity chypre. I know that you, like me, love chypres.

Yes, I like the Velvet Blossom really much like it is now. You told me not to mess around with it too much, when you smelled my last trial, because you liked it the way it was. And I didn't, I only changed little things, like I mentioned in my other post about it.

I like to hear your opinion about it, I will send you a sample of it, together with a sample of the chypre, in about two weeks, after it has matured a little.

Dikke kus terug.

Anonymous said...

Dear Jenny, a mouthwatering spice accord indeed. I can see very well how the cumin aldehyde, the eugenol, the linalool and derivates work together! fragrant greetings to you! and a wonderful 2008!

Jenny said...

Dear Andy,

A happy new year to you too! Yes, the spices and especially the cumin oil worked surprisingly nice in this fragrance. I first started a bit careful with the cumin, but it's okay to dare a bit more sometimes. I think it's not good always playing safe when you create perfumes. It's good to make a statement with some notes. I love the combination of cumin and cedar.

Big hugs from the Netherlands

Anonymous said...

Yes, at least one statement one needs to make! I so agree and there is something about cumin (although I prefer to work with isolated cumin aldehyde) that I find perfect to bring out floral green notes, like in lily of the valley!

Jenny said...

I don't have cumin aldehyde and never smelled it. Why do you prefer this above cumin oil?

Anonymous said...

In order to be honest: I find it easier to handle and dose on one hand , on the other hand it is more "metallic" , sharper in a sense, aldehydid, then the natural extract. But I guess that again is a matter of taste. Enjoy your evening.

Jenny said...

Okay I see. I will give it a try and will order some, to see if the use of it has an advance on the oil in some cases. Thanks for the tip.

Nice to hear that you work on a Chypre as well.

Divina said...

I reaaaaaally want to try it Jenny! Reading this made me smile, I have gotten completely worked up over it right now!!

kussjes,

Divina

Divina said...

If my above statement sounded like begging - it was! Just to clarify things :)

Jenny said...

Dear Divina,

I can send you a sample next week if you like. But remember that I'm working on it, it's not finished yet. I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions about it. Please write me an email with your address and I will send it to you.

Divina said...

Thanks so much - I'd love that! :)

Divina said...

...Ik voel me een beetje stom nu, maar ik kan je mailtje eigenlijk niet vinden op de front pagina en er is geen zoek-function. Is het mogelijk om een mailtje naar mij te sturen? fragrancebouquet at yahoo dot com

Dank je wel, Jenny!

Jenny said...

Dear Divina,

I just sent you a PM.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jenny,
I am absolutely stunned to find your blog. I don't know how you got all this information; you must be genius~!!! I bought a book on perfumes that lists all the notes in each perfume probably ever made. I always wanted to do this. Reading your blog is very exciting. Where do you buy the ingredients from? Would you mind sharing that?
Thanks,
Annette

Jenny said...

Hi Annette,

Thanks for the compliment. I see you already joined my group, good for you. You will learn a lot there. We have wonderful helpful members in our group who would be happy to help you.

I buy my essential oils mostly from Primavera Life, their quality is superb. There are not many companies who sell fragrance materials in small quantities, I sometimes by from Omikron a German company.
http://www.omikron-online.de
But at the group we also do group buys, that means we all buy larger amounts of the materials together which will be devided between us. This way we can buy from larger companies as well. Other companies you could try are
Perfumerworld
The Perfumer's Apprentice
http://www.perfumersapprentice.com/
and The Goodscents Company
http://www.thegoodscentscompany.com