NATURAL ISOLATES, THE BRAVE STAND OF THE NATURAL PERFUMERS GUILD

With a press release, the Natural Perfumers Guild (NPG) has defined what is considered a natural isolate by its standards, to which all perfumers endorsed by the guild will have to abide.
In the same go, NPG has defined what Guild perfumers should NOT consider “really natural” although they are “legally natural” according to international standards.
In brief, natural isolates are those single molecules extracted from essential oils and natural raw materials existing in Nature, while single molecules extracted from Bio-Tech made material are NOT natural.  continue...  

Natural perfumers Woldwide

WHAT IS THE OUD CARAVAN PROJECT?

An interview on Suzanne’s perfume journal to explain the Oud Caravan project

AROMATHERAPY IN CASE OF PANDEMICS



Pandemics a manual for survival

The problem of today’s pandemics is a modern problem.
The disease is easily recognized, its modes of propagation are immediately understood, but the common antibiotics are without effects.
When suddenly appears a virus resistant to 8 antibiotics, no virologist believes that this monster may have acquired his immunity all by itself. They know that it is impossible.
These are the pandemics that threaten us in the near future, you recognize it when you hear doctors on television, saying: “We have never seen anything like that.” Read all the article

THE NATURAL PERFUMERY TREND (third part)

Luca Turin may very well have started the whole process of recognition for Natural Perfumery when in 2006, in his iconic duffnotes on NZ Folio, he declared to the perfumistas community with an amazing foresight: “There are now officially four kinds of perfumery: normal, niche, vintage and natural.”
His statement was not a recognition of the value of natural perfumes, not yet. It was only the recognition of natural perfumers stubbornness. He understood that they were starting a trend and that they were not going to renounce to their idea of making 100% natural perfumes whatever happens and whatever Luca Turin said.
Continue to read...

THE TREND OF NATURAL PERFUMERY (part two)

Not many years ago there were just 3 official types of perfumery, Vintage, mainstream and Niche perfumery, such as Creed or Lutens .
The last 20 years have witnessed not only the birth and growth of independent natural perfumers but also the of “New Niche” perfumers, like Ormonde Jane, Andy Tauer, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, ecc… , who steadily won recognition and reached a level of success superior to that of natural perfumers by proposing a return to the origins of modern perfumery, where the artistry of fragrance resided into the clash or complementarity of synthetics with naturals.
Their success in the niche market has been due to the fact that they were offering what had totally disappeared from mainstream perfumery and was disappearing from “Old Niche”, creativity, experimentation, new ideas…
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THE NATURAL PERFUMERY TREND (part one)

Only 3 years ago natural perfumers were a striving bunch of stubborn idealists who had been brought together by Anya McCoy in the natural perfumers guild.
Those who accepted her views stayed in the guild, others left and went ahead on their own, stubbornly.
Stubbornness is an obvious quality of natural perfumers. They started making perfumes that nobody wanted to buy, that critics criticized, with ingredients that are very expensive and often difficult to find. The cost of their materials are medially 20 times superior to medium price Synthetics, this makes their fragrances more expensive and therefore more difficult to sell, and with a lower profit margin. Moreover, consumers have known only synthetic mass mainstream perfumes, and their first encounters with natural essences are most of the time something of a shock.
Natural perfumers just went ahead not heeding to reason or to anyone, carried by passion for the natural smells.
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Perfumery and aromaterapy

Honoring the guest is much more than a part of the tradition of Islam, it is part of its fundamentals.
From my years of travel in the Muslim world where I have been for so long a guest myself, I have learned the art of receiving guests.
When hosted by a perfumer, a guest expects to receive some gifts of perfume sample or at least to be invited to smell some very special perfumes.
My guests are always amazed when I serve them tea or coffee flavored with the essences of exotic species. Cardamom, Ginger, Mint, Lemon …
To the drinking water I add a drop of perfume, I spray over the cookies essence of grapefruit or lemon, and if they come to me with some cold or other illness, I prepare for them some sugar cubes with a few drops of anise or incense ….
Then I say my favorite phrase: “Never trust a perfumer who does not drink his perfumes.” Continue...





Human sweat and perfumery pheromones

 

Whoever smelled pure Civet for the first time has wondered how such an odor could enter into a perfume bottle. My first impression was the smell of rotten tooth.
It takes some training to be able to understand Civet perfume, one has to overcome the social olfactory programming that make us classify straight away this odor among stenches.
An infinitesimal dose of Civet can double the longevity of short lived fragrances, and although being in amount so little as to be subliminal, it also confers to fragrances a new olfactory dimension, the animal one, and our instinct recognizes it immediately. continue...

Male perfume, tips for conquest

Men usually prefer woody or spicy or “grassy” accords, while flowery ones are considered to be feminine scents.

My experience with perfume customers has shown me that there is a clear division between men and women scents, but many women prefer men’s perfumes while only a minority of men prefer flowery soft and romantic scents to wear. Continue....

Spirituality of the sense of smell

Love for perfumes and spirituality go together, at least in the tradition of Islam.

Very much unlike the idea of Serge Luthens for whom perfume is an expression of decadence and sensuality, the prophetic traditions of the three monotheistic religions, in their ritual as well as in their mystics, have given to us many clues about the direct relation that exists between the spiritual reality of men and their olfactory capacity.
Starting with the Hebrew mysticism, because it springs from the prophet Abraham who is not only the spiritual but also the biological forefather of Moses, Jesus and Mohammad, the sense of smell is described as the only one giving pleasure to the soul, while all other senses give pleasure to the body. Continue ...

Ambergris

It is not easy to buy Ambergris even for one who knows it well.

The business is in the hand of very few people who are ready to throw millions of dollars for really big lots. They control the prices and are very fast in travelling to the finding places with the cash payment.
It is a matter of “grab and run”, that often occurs in luxury hotel rooms.
It is certainly dangerous to go around with such big amounts of money, and the life of an Ambergris hunter is surely adventurous and romantic. Continue ...

Selling perfumes

In Amman, 1990

We were looking at the yachts and sailing boats from the high, it was near Palermo in Sicily.
My small daughter told me: “Papi, I want to buy a boat when I am grown up”.
“It is easy” I replied, “you just have to sell perfumes to the people, and do you know why it is easy? because everybody likes good smells”.

Baba Farid, one of the greatest saints of the subcontinent, ended up his life in a small village of Punjab, Pakpattan.
That was his mission. Other saints were in Dehli or Lahore, two great cities of all times, seats of power and civilization, they had thousands of disciples, and they advised kings and viziers.
He taught, fed and cured backward village folks all his life. Continue ...

Perfume-Therapy

A perfumer who looks for inspiration inside himself is not only necessarily very limited, but he also risks to end up into an ego trip completely incompatible with true inspiration, as by definition inspiration transcends the person who receives it.
I heard Guerlain in an interview saying: “I never “created” a perfume that was not for a woman who really existed and preferably who had a significant importance in my life”.

A real perfume is made for real persons. Continue ...

Mystic of Perfume Making

There are different ways to initiate the composing of a new fragrance, but the spirit of it should always be one; “Kodo” the Zen of perfume.
In the Hebrew mystic it is taught that all senses give pleasure to the body while the sense of smell gives pleasure to the soul.
In the Sufi Way, each “state” is associated with a scent, and in the Semitic language the word “fragrant” is synonym to the word “good”, as if every good perfume necessarily comes from a good thing , and every good thing necessarily emanates a good perfume. As a conclusion of this we have the tradition of the “perfume of holiness” that emanates from pious people whose actions are virtuous (good). Continue ...

Perfumer's pervertion

I just received from South Africa a new essence that is not yet available on the international market of raw material for perfumers.
The bottle had leaked a bit and the wrapping of the parcel was perfumed.
The power of this essential oil is incredible.
Since 2 days my work place and the next room have been invaded by the fragrance of this strange mix of bubble gum and cat’s pee, although I have cleaned everything and thrown out far away the empty package and the inside wrapping.
Do you have present when you enter a room and say: I can smell a mouse?
This is the smell of the pheromone that these animals leave with their urine. It is very parent to the smell of cats urine as well.
The only essence of the perfumer’s palette which has a similar note is a good and real Black current absolute, although much more fruity in body. Continue ...

Mechanism of olfactory memory

Psycho-Aromatherapy is by Robert Tisserand

The perfumer invites people to smell perfumes, this can be a daily routine.I have a customer who smells the raw materials for his fragrance. I have it tried out by the barman next to my office, I diffuse scents during my didactic conferences. My pockets are always full of perfumes, I do not miss an occasion to spray them on other people's hands, I leave behind me a sillage that stuns people who do not know me.

A perfumer never has to ask to someone what he thinks of the perfume he has just smelt it is enough for him to observe and read the faces.Facial expressions are infinite, liking, repulsion, appeals to me but I wouldn't wear it, doubtful, skeptical, intrigued, reminds me of something long ago but I do not know what, reminds me of something that I don’t like.
At the end the expressions are only of two categories: smiling and negative. Continue ...

The Perfume and the Medias

We tend to believe that it is sufficient for a company to appear on a major magazine to pick up customers.

My long time experience matured with the press has shown me that this is not at all the case.
The funniest example is the last one in date, the review of a national Italian mode magazine, “Velvet” of La Repubblica.

This magazine was so kind as to send one of its reporters to one of my Natural Perfumery courses in order to unveil the mysteries of perfume “creation”. In this case I was to compose the “Velvet Perfume” together with their journalist. Continue ...

Tridimentional Perfumery

My search for the real muskdeer scent has carried me in some of the farthest spots of the Hindu Kush but at last I found it from its fount.

I fully understand the need of all perfumers for a sustainable musk scent substitute, but the point maybe is rather about the use of an animal note in our botanical scents, such as Ambergris, Civet, Hyraceum or Castoreum, in order to obtain a perfume with a third dimension.

Like the small machines resembling binoculars through which you look in order to watch 3 dimensional photographs, there are only 2 images in the machine but the vision is truly tridimentional. Continue ...

Olfactory education

There is a clear parallel between music and perfumery, between olfactory and musical melodies, and we shall use this likeness in order to understand better the “why” and the “how” of olfactory education.
Just like music, perfumery is an art and even a major art, being entirely dedicated to one of our senses of perception, the sense of smell.Why is perfumery not taught at school just like music or drawing?Is perchance our sense of smell a minor sense of little importance?Do we perhaps love perfumes less than other civilizations?
School programs offer to all the basis of musical education, teaching the seven notes of our musical scale.
Olfactory education is no less important and to be able to name the scents of lavender and rose is no less important than to be able to name the blue and the red of the color spectrum.
The program that we deisigned is very simple and can be reassumed in one phrase: "how to become a perfumer in 4 moves". Continue ...