Creating A Perfume, Follow The Notes -- Part 1.

Follow The Notes And Create A Perfume. - Part One.

When one thinks about the perfume they're wearing, they don't usually think about what goes into it, unless they're a perfumer like me.

I'm going to explain the process of making your own perfumes and/or colognes, by comparing them to the notes or chords played on a musical instrument, as that's probably the easiest way to understand it and it's also pretty accurate.

Imagine a guitar or say, a keyboard or piano, with someone playing a three or four-finger chord. When you listen (really listen) to the chords, you'll notice the different parts of them. There will be higher notes, medium-range notes and bass notes within them and the ones you'll tend to hear longest will be the bass note, with the middle notes second and the highest notes, or top notes, only for a little while. You'll also tend to register the highest notes first.

Perfume making follows the same principle. It's made up of top, middle and bottom notes, but of essential oils, not actual musical notes. Like writing a musical score, it's trial and error, blending and reblending to get that exact scent, or in music, sound. Same principle, different things.

Every essential oil and also the absolutes, which aren't considered true essential oils as they're extraction process uses ethanol, are either top, middle or bottom notes. Some of the oils can cross between being a top and a middle note, depending on what else you're blending with it. By blending them and reblending them, especially if one has a good idea of what's wanted in a whole scent or perfume, eventually you'll hit on the blend that's exactly right. Again, kind of like making music.

Fragrance oils as I've said before, are synthetic (made by a chemist in a lab), though sometimes like in the case of the famous perfume Chanel #5, one was used. After the first four tries by the perfumer, hired to make a perfume that would last over the ages and not getting it right (for the public), the first four times, he finally added the fragrance oil, Lilly Of The Valley (the magic ingredient), thus creating the 5th and final batch of Chanel and one that became so polular that it's lasted for years and is still going strong in sales. It's also one (of many) I'm allergic to and can't use. Figures. The point is, the essential oil notes and the fragrance oil notes, if you're not allergic to frangrance oils, can also be incorporated to make a scent, though I don't do it. When I taught online perfumery classes a few years back, I did accept fragrance oil users into the class and they did make scents they loved, so they are very popular too.

If anyone wants an actual class, where you'll get walked through exactly how to make your own perfumes, colognes and things, leave your comments here.
Thanks.

Next - The how to's, or Part 2.

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