Chypre & The Natural Perfumer Guild
Posted by Titanium Wild , 1 August 2012 12:38:00 pm
Firstly, helloooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! Not blogged for an absolute age, but I'm back, athough if Blogger keeps behaving like a petulant child on the naughty step, I'll be moving this blog and it's content over th Wordpress.
Secondly, one significant(for me) piece of news. I'm now a very proud member of the Natural Perfumers Guild. I won this through a competition on the Natural Perfumers yahoo group run by Anya McCoy.
In my absence from the blog, I've grown increasingly more interested in making my own natural perfumes, alongside my melts which I currently sell, and my soaps etc which I hope to have for sale later in the year.
Perfumery is fascinating to me, nature has such an amazing array of wonderful scents to explore and utilise, the possibilities for developing your own unique creations are endless.
As funds are limited I am currently relying upon my essential oil collection for inspiration, but I will branch out into resins/absolutes/concretes etc when I'm able to do so, as well as attempting to tincture my own aromatic materials.
With all this in mind, I set about trying to create my own interpretation of the classic chypre theme. Now, classically chypre has a base of oakmoss and labdanum, niether of which I have! I do, however, have patchouli and vetiver which are also used for this particular olfactory family.
Beginning with a basic 3 tier fragrance containing clary, cypress and patch, I add geranium and bergamot(another classic chypre inclusion). This seemed to accentuate the 'green' notes within the aroma, and created quite a sharp opening, rather like the scent of a flower stem when it's first cut.
Adding a little more patchouli helped diifuse some of that sharpness without losing the green note, which I wanted to retain.
To this I added a hint of lemon, which seemed to do nothing, so I added a bit more....now I have a much sweeter 'green' note, similar in some regards to cut grass. Extra clary and cypress is added at this point, along with a teeny bit of black pepper. This creates a little spicy intrigue, enhancing the lemony accents, and marrying the base with the additional aromatics.
I feel that at this point I have no smoke, no real substance to the blend, so I add a little extra geranium, and also a touch of vetiver, which seems to overwhelm and dominate the blend, so a touch more patch and clary reins it in somewhat, whilst still keeping that lovely, smokey quality.
A little hint of coriander adds an extra dimension to the blend and there we have it, a rather simple but still nicely aromatic little chypre.
Overall I'm happy with it, for a first attempt I don;t think I did too badly. I do have in my inventory a little sandarac gum, which I may infuse into some oil and use as a base for my creation.
There are so many possibilities to be explored on this olfactory journey and I hope to share a few of them with you.
Til next time.
Beth
What a complex blend! Well done for winning the competition and following your passion.
Now, which was the carrier for your perfume? It sounds a really fresh, uplifting blend.