The hyacinths that I bought in the local flower shop on Saturday, a little spring teaser for grey January days, opened their flower buds. Yesterday, the scent was a bit sharper, more invasive than today. Hyacinths come actually with quite a complex, not always pleasing scents. Notes are green, silvery, sharp, balsamic, spicy, sweet, a hint of powder,  a touch brown cacao bitterness.

However it smells: It is quite dramatic.

Quite an amazing little thing. I put a few molecules and botanical raw materials together, yesterday, after jogging in rain, under the most grey sky imaginable. I picked cinnamic alcohol, phenylacetaldehyd-diemethylacetal, phenylpropanol, rose absolute, a lily based that I made a year ago (a fragrance in itself, consisting of 11 ingredients), ambroxan, and a few others. Just playing with scent strips.

And actually, I wanted to continue there. But I just learned that the flacons will be delivered later today to the “factory”. A few thousand again, coming from France, handmade by Waltersperger, blue ones and amber ones.  Thus, I will need to head down to tauerville. No play time today.

So I am back in Switzerland since last Friday, trying to convince my day-night brain cycle that I am here and not there in LA anymore. Quite a useless venture it seems. Thus, I have an e-mail inbox that is all empty with almost all mails answered because I am there 24 hours.

Thus, I have some time during the day to move on with fragrant stuff. Yesterday, after doing all the necessary calculations I mixed the Cologne du Maghreb, a little batch for 200 flacons of 50 ml. The picture to the left shows you what goes into it. I took it yesterday before pouring all raw materials one after the other into the 12 liter aluminum can. Last year’s advent calendar treat was based on this cologne. You find it reviewed for instance here on Sorcery of Scent by Dimitri.

It is 19 ingredients. All of them are all natural. All botanical. Just essential oils and resins and absolutes. Not less not more. Why all botanical? I answered this  a while ago in a comment on my blog: Because I feel there is no need to add anything else here. It is good enough as is.

In a sense it is an ultra complex mixture and yet ultra simple: Just mixing the right citrus oils together with a few raw materials that last a bit longer. In this sense, I could label the Cologne also Eau Fraiche. But then: I guess Cologne fits its quality better, with the lemon bergamot neroli rush.

I will give you more details on the construction in the coming days and why and what  and when. For the time being: I enjoy the citrus signature that yesterday’s venture added to the house.

Next week, hard to believe right now, I will be in LA and on October 7 we will all get together to officially launch Miriam at Luckyscent’s scentbar, the first fragrance from the Tableau de Parfums series. Thus, it is urgent time to get things organized that need to be done beforehand.

One of these: Finally mix an new batch of Le Maroc pour elle. For this I needed to order a lot of raw materials because I run low on a lot of ingredients: Rose absolute, Jasmine absolute, Mysore Sandalwood, Petitgrain, lavender, lemongrass, patchouli and more. Today’s picture shows you what I am doing right now, in a second from now: filing certificates of analysis from Essencia, such as the rose absolute damascena, from Bulgary. It goes into one of two ever growing filing folders for future reference. I am keeping these certificates for years. And they tell me interesting things, such as: My rose absolute was produced in 2009, and it contains 0.6% Farnesol E-E-, and 1.7% Eugenol and alike. Comes in handy when coming up with EU allergen declarations.

All amounts of what I got as new stock goes into another large excel file where I have a growing list of all raw material quantities and prices that I use for production. Thus, if done properly and if adjusted when mixing, I have the overview of my raw materials at one glance. Otherwise, I would be lost.

What I am also doing right now: evaluating new suppliers and new raw materials for further developments. At least on paper, and email, asking for conditions etc. In a sense, I am planning there for beyond 2013, looking for new inspiration and new tools for existing ideas. The W.-factor said a few minutes ago: ” Sehet die Vögel des Himmels; sie sähen nicht und sie ernten nicht, doch Ihr himmlischer Vater ernähret sie doch.” (Mat. 6/26,Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. )

I guess the message is not to worry too much and take the future as it comes. I will try. But I want those goodies….

In three weeks I will get ready for Pitti Fragranze in Florence. With this in mind, I visited my bike mechanic guy to announce my bike for repairs. I used it on a daily basis and hence figured that these 5 days where I am at Pitti might be ideal to get my bike’s age related its and bits fixed. The mechanic’s workshop looks and smells like you would expect it. A lot of metal parts, grease on fabric, and their typical smell. Actually, a bike mechanic workshop smells better than a car workshop. It might be a difference in grease, the missing gasoline aspect, who knows?

He, the mechanic was very happy. Finally a client who announces his broken bike early enough. And I am happily looking forward to riding a shiny all functional bike again. And the workshop brought back memories of my Hyacinth and a mechanic experimental scent. (Reviews of this experiment see this search on : Google.com ) This together with my fiddling lately for a fragrance for Ingrid, the third woman portrait on Woman’s picture.

I am sort of very unhappy there and I realized today, while dreaming in sample making stasis, that I need to rethink my previous work. I always felt that what I had worked on was not right, but could not pinpoint it. I tried to build a fragrance for this third woman picture around hyacinth. But I come to the conclusion that this starting point is wrong. Thus, I feel I will go to field zero there.  The moment I realized this (sniffing the latest versions on my wrist) I was relieved.  By knowing what not to do, I know what to do next.

To be frank with you, my dear reader, I remain somewhat obscure here, worrying that I start confusing you. We have not even launched the first fragrance from Tableau de Parfums, and yet I am talking about the third one. But this I can tell you: Ingrid is a very sensual woman. There is something very deep and a sad note in her face. She for sure can wear a rich, oriental, musky, dark fragrance.  Thus, I am working on Ingrid’s fragrance, but do not like to talk too much about it, as it still far away.

On the other hand, this is reality. Perfumes do not fall from heaven. When I started discussing the whole Tableau de Parfums project idea, I always underlined that creating perfumes is not easy and sometimes takes a lot of time. The W.-factor always says (he got it from somewhere) “it is 95 % transpiration and 5% inspiration.  Right now I am sweating. But the 5% told me today “Myrrh”. And Sandalwood. And the rest we will see.

Today’s picture: Another rose scan. I am a big rose lover!

Yesterday, on our weekly half marathon jogging tour, we passed by the cemetery to visit two graves. The cemetery was still, or rather: again, full of blooming roses. This summer was very special, wet, not too hot, and it seems to have been an ideal rose summer. The roses on the graves came in all colors and sizes. An amazing arrangement of roses. Some of them were without perfume.

Others were full of perfume. I smelled a lot of them. Some were incredibly rich in citronellol, a terpene alcohol, that smells a little bit lemony, rosy, green, floral. Some roses were like citronellol pots. Others were Phenylethanol rich. Another molecule that you find in roses, hyacinths and geraniums and more flowers. Some of these roses smelled like opening a bottle of phenylethanol with a hint of geraniol, another terpenoid alcohol.

Others where freshly ground white pepper. Others smelled like bay with a good dose of eugenol. Others were green apples. Others were crisp and minty leaves.

One rose actually smelled like a mirror copy of an experimental soap I made in November 2010 that I stored to test its long time stability. It is a crazy soap in the sense that it is quite expensive to pour. When I discussed a few issues of the rose CO2 extract with EcoMaat back then in November, telling them that I plan to use it for a soap, they talked about 7 star hotel rose soaps. Thus, this rose out there smelled like the rose soap. Or the other way round. Which made me happy.

Maybe the soap rose is a hint more on the peppery side, a little bit more woody. But the goal is not to copy nature anyhow: I pick a flower out there in nature and try to transform it into something different. Or I pick a molecule out there and try to transform it into something different.

When we finally continued jogging, bringing the mind and body in some sort of euphoric state, I continued thinking roses, not in order to come and create, but just enjoying the memories of the roses smelled a moment ago.

And now I wonder: When have you smelled your last rose, out there?

Today’s picture shows you a rose fruit, right after bloom, scanned this morning, picked all resh in the wet garden today.

There are days where things change definitely. Today is such a day. Evelyn Avenue is live now, and with it you get a first glimpse of the perfume brand Tableau de Parfums(TM). You learn about Woman’s Pictures and Brian Pera, the man behind it all. You can follow on Evelyn Avenue what the story is behind the fragrance Miriam, and why.

For months and months he worked on this. Brian is the guy behind Evelyn Avenue. I am only the perfumer, coming up with fragrant pictures, such as Miriam.

When I got first contacted by Brian, I was skeptical. I just recovered from a close encounter with an investment banker with lots of money saved in the financial crisis, trying to build a brand. Thus, I said to myself: Not another collaboration in this universe where so many perfume project are born just to produce something that smells like  [add any favorite body fluid here]. Then I got the script for the film Woman’s picture. Then I saw a first cut of the movie. I saw Miriam. Her portrait is one of the three women’s stories  in Woman’s Pictures. I saw here sitting in a chair, watching her mother, holding these fragile hands. I saw her in her pinkish TV studio, I saw these bitter sweet moments of truth and felt the weight of her memories, and I knew that I wanted to start this  project with Brian.

You can see a summary of what Woman’s picture, the movie, is all about on the main page of Evelyn Avenue.

We faced a lot of hurdles. Many are yet to come. But I am proud on what Brian has reached. And I am happy that I got there where I am now with Tableau de Parfums: A perfume line and fragrances that are dear to me.

What is Evelyn Avenue? Find it out by clicking here.

I will from time talk about Tableau de Parfums here. But mostly, I and Brian will talk over there, on Evelyn Avenue. Please stop by.

Thank you.

Before I finish: Here’s a thank you to Brian for his creative sparkles. Here’s a thank you to the W.-factor who does my books and who has to do more bookkeeping in the future.

And here is a thank you to the guys from Luckyscent. Their support makes a lot of the exciting things happening in the coming months . Without their undemanding support, you would miss a lot, happening soon on Evelyn Avenue.

Thank you guys!

Today’s picture shows you a sun rising. Comments are off. Invite to you leave comments on the blog of Evelyn Avenue. Thanks.

How about a few instructions for everyday life? Here’s one and more if you continue scrolling on ReadyMade’s Febrary/March edition (click here). In this edition I give a short instruction how to make a fragrant glycerine soap. Or you can learn how to make a simple solid perfume in Mandy Aftel’s contribution, or Yosh Han will give you scented tricks and more.

My favorite in this ReadyMade magazine, however, was the “your guide to becoming a ROAD SCHOLAR”. Perfect timing.

On Tuesday, I fly out to Moscow and I learned already a lot from ReadyMade: I will roll my shorts in the suitcase and not fold them….

Have lovely weekend and enjoy the wonders of a fragrant world.

Today is dilution day. Big time!

All PENTACHORDSⓇ go into dilution today. As I want to have juice for 1000 flacons each in stock by mid May, we will pour some 150 liters of volatile flammable liquids forth and back. I will do so with a flame extinguisher nearby.  And making sure that all metal parts are earthed to prevent spark formation that could start an ethanol fire. There, I have quite some respect.

Last year, when preparing for the launch of the two new fragrances in autumn (the rose vermeille and the eau d’épices) we had a very hard time keeping up with orders, stock and making sure that all was ready for the launch and beyond. In the end, we got it sort of out of the house, but a bit too late. This year, I want to have all PENTACHORD scents ready by May, allowing me to present them to the press, to perfume lovers, to retailers and to produce all for shipment in summer for launch in autumn. It sounds weird, but this is the way things work. And this early time frame allows for some delays which might come in handy.

For those of you not familiar with the PENTACHORDS idea: It is a  dedicated line of scents within the Tauer family of fragrances. I will be available in September 2011, in a 50 ml pentagonal flacon that is light turquoise colored. You might want look at the Pentachords  as gallery sculptures, or a fragrant  chord each, uncompromisingly minimalist, built on 5 notes only. These 5 notes are 5 ingredients that I blend in a way that the resulting chord is a harmony. This is not easy. I worked on the concept for a while but rarely talked about it. What sets the pentachords apart, by the way, is the ingredients: You will find in the pentachords top notch molecules that you do not get in this concentration and for the anticipated price tag anywhere else.

Perfume lovers tend to forget: There are molecules that are very expensive, more expensive than naturals like Patchouli or a Vanilla Carbon Dioxide extract, or the best lavender oil from France. It is these molecules that render each pentachord unique.

There will be a pentachord_WHITE, a pentachord_AUBURN, and a pentachord_VERDANT. But first things first: Dilution time!

(PENTACHORDS is a registered trademark in the US, EU and CH)

We got the tickets for Milano, heading there for a day towards the end of this week, in order to discuss a few 2011 things with my Italian business partner who takes so much good care on my brand in Italy. I will discuss the plans for the coming months and the scents of spring. And the LINDEN BLOSSOM scent. I hope that I have all ready by April to ship the bottled fragrance that is playing with the Linden blossom note, and that I built around a natural Linden blossom Carbon Dioxide extract from Bulgaria. If interested: you can find out more on the development of this fragrance on the open letters series on Nathan Branch’s blog, clicking here.

I calculated the price of all the raw materials going in there. … oups. When I create a fragrance I do not think too much about its price. Actually, I do not think at all about its production costs.  Thus, I realized (again), how complex and rich this fragrance is. It is a very flowery composition, with lots and lots of roses, a neroli – citrus chord, an added orange blossom absolute line, ylang, tons of sandalwood essential oil, vanilla carbon dioxide and an overdosed linden blossom essential oil addition.

I will present the fragrance as part of a separate line within the brand, called Collectibles, in green 50ml pentagonal flacons and a different labeling concept that should underline the artistic, limited and exclusive aspect of the fragrance. The first batch of 1000 flacons are ordered and I should get them in March.

The scent is mixed and sits in the cellar, maturing as reddish-orange juice, about the same color like the middle point of the pear in the picture to the left. I bought it on Saturday because it looked so yummie and because the color fits neatly with the color of the fragrance concentrate that needs to mature for another 3-4 weeks.

I will dilute it when I am back from my trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg.

And yes, the pear has not survived the weekend.

This morning, reading the comments section of yesterday’s post, I wondered how many roses are needed for the rose absolute that I poured into the mixture of the Incense rose.

The mixture I did yesterday is for about 500 flacons later (25 liters) and I put about 183 grams of rose absolute into it. This is a heavy fragrant, viscous, dark red, expensive liquid. In every flacon of the Incense rose you find rose absolute, worth about 1.2-1.4  $ US. Compared to industry standards this alone is much more than what you get somewhere else for the entire mix. Equally expensive, by the way, is the Ambroxan that you find in the Incense rosé. I put a lot! of this synthetic ambergris material into it, and I use it in a high quality that has its price of about 1.3 $US per flacon. Quality can make quite a difference when it comes to synthetics.

Anyhow: I was talking about the roses.

The amount of rose absolute that I put in the Incense rosé corresponds to about 185 kg of rose petals.

It comes from about 800 rose bushes.

It uses a little less than 1 tenth (1/10) of a hectare, this means these roses grew on 1000 m2.

Isn’t this fascinating?