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?

Yesterday, I got my sweet Fennel essential oil, Foeniculum vulgare steam distilled seeds oil (the bitter Fennel is the essential oil from entire plants). So yummy! It is quite a tricky note to work with, though. It is green, very green indeed, with a strong anise like dry down, almost something woody about it in the dry down, and a lot of sweet flower powder in the middle. Think fennel, inflated, exaggerated. I want to try and see what happens with this stuff in soap. It is quite difficult to imagine how a particular natural scent develops in alkaline , soapy environment.  But I found some evidence that fennel is actually used in soap.

Don’t ask me why, but I somehow can see a green fennel, geranium etc. soap.

Anyhow: Actually, I wanted to mention here an interesting aspect in perfumery. It is this an aspect Vero (see www.veroprofumo.com) and me come back to quite regularly: Fragrant raw materials  that are from plants which also used in the kitchen, are special in perfumery. Think rosemary, thyme, pepper, vanilla, etc. It is like -because folks know the scents from their food- perfume lovers have a different access to these notes.

I feel the herbs are very special in this context, too. And so are fruits, and vegetables. Although I am not a big fan of vegetables in perfumes: cucumber, for instance….I prefer it in a glass, pickled.

Why is this (herbs in perfumery being special)?

First they are easily recognized. And we human beings like to be on known, solid ground. Thus, we identify these notes and feel at home because we know them.

Second they are presented in a different context. And we human beings are curious and like to explore new territory.

Thus, it may be these controversial effects that make these food notes interesting in perfumery, without always making a gourmand perfume, of course. Think rosemary and citrus that you find in a cologne. Not gourmand, but there is something to it….

Talking rosemary: 6 liters of the “Cologne du Maghreb” (mentioned the first time here) sit in the fridge, maturing. And I confessed to my design guru (whom I will meet later today) that I will give some of this juice away, during the advent calendar, but in the old design flacon, the simple thing, you remember? A difficult decision: But in the end I figured that the blue flacon without proper stickers would not be right. Thus, I fill a bit of this cologne in the old flacon, as gift for friends and family and a few draws.

The weather has changed. What was 15°C and sunshine is about 5 °C and grey. “Nature is ready for winter”; I thought when hiking the last mile on Friday. I guess every day without snow is another day with a free lunch for deers and birds. After this year’s long and heavy winter they sure deserved it.

I feel that folks around me are getting ready for winter, too. Marketing folks know about us reaching out for the candles, too.  A lot of cocooning related ads, folks nestling down in beds. The weather lady, too. She warned us of rain on Saturday and recommended staying in bed on Sunday.

Well.

My winter mood shows more in other activities. And as I have to work on a large (like really large) order: I will spend my next days inside, with bottles and boxes. And: We successfully entered Kimchi making groove (love this stuff! right now a bowl with it is getting ready and ferments on the balcony), bread baking (think loooooooooong predough), and ordering fragrant material. I got more rose Carbondioxide extract from Bulgaria (Rosa damascena). This material IS expensive (think 6000 $ a kg), priced somewhere in between rose oil and rose absolute. It is less rich in Phenylethanol, the major constituent of rose absolue, but contains a lot of molecules that you find in rose oil and is quite waxy. In a sense, it comes very close to the natural rose, closer actually  than a rose concrète (the stuff an absolute is made from). To be honest: I have not really made my mind up what to get done with the rose CO2. It is not easy to work with. A soap might be interesting, though. Think: Really luxurious. Really. Luxurious.

Today’s picture: red leaves on a autumn twig, scanned Saturday, before the rain.

First: The draw for an early X-mas soap is closed and we have a winner: Kelly (4h…@…). Congratulations to you, an e-mail is on its way to you, too!

And for all others who did not win: Thank you and please stay tuned.  And a thank you for all your comments. It sure feels good!

Today, I write about a meeting I had yesterday, about the design of a scented card. Very tauer centric, sorry. But first things first….

We decided last week to launch the CARILLON POUR UN ANGE in 30 ml, as part of the HOMAGE line. I planned to do this anyhow some time, but now we know: By May 2011 it will be ready in the 30 ml format. As my fellow Italian perfume lovers had basically no chance to experience this fragrance in the past and to test a new tool: I decided to make a few thousand scented cards for Italy.

I learned about these by SCENTIS, a French company, making paper strips and more; among the more are scented cards: about 7.5×11 cm, made of special, high quality paper without glue and extra long fibers. This paper is what makes Scentis special and where they are unique in the world. This paper absorbs fragrances and releases them over days and weeks. Yes. Weeks. I got a sample card and it is truly amazing how long the scent lasts, and how close to the original it remains. Amazing. Thus, we will get scented cards, with a relief print and some text on it. One side will feature the brand (Tauer, IMMERSIVE SCULPTURES) and the other side will be product specific, but without any notes. Just the name and the color code. An invitation to smell, each individually packed into little polypropylene bags for me without me doing anything. delivered to my house in February, provided the first tests with the fragrance are successful. I cannot wait…

Today’s picture is tauer centric, too. It shows you a detail of what I have seen all evening yesterday, while polishing Incense extrême flacons.

95 % of orange peel oil (sweet quality, Florida or Messina) is  Limonene. Isn’t this amazing. In the remaining 5% must be the components that make sweet orange oil unique, because limonene alone smells like a neutral citrus. Think household cleaner.

I got samples of two qualities of sweet orange peel oil: one from Florida and one Messina. The later is a bit more bitter and zestier. The Florida quality is a bit sweeter. In the certificate of analysis you find a few other components besides limonene, such as Pinene, Sabinene, Myrcene, Ocatanal (=fruits), Decanal, Linalool, Citral, Citronellol, Geraniol. And these are just the most important components (and also EU allergenes).

This is the fascination of working with natural essential oils: They are so complex. And then there is grapefruit, there is lime, there is yuzu and mandarines, and clementines. Take the same Limonene at high percentage and add a few other its and bits and you end up with a grapefruit or  a lemon peel oil. Isn’t his amazing?

You see: I am in a full blown citrus phase these days. One reason: I am planning the annual scent apero in December in the back of  my mind, thinking “CITRUS”.

Today’s picture: A scan of a lemon. Enjoy!

OK. Back again.

The new kids in town, ROSE VERMEILLE AND EAU D’ÉPICES, are online and as always, I tend to forget the implications like an e-mail box filling ah! and oh!’s and ???. I guess I am a lucky guy these days. Furthermore, we had to do an open heart surgery kind of thing on the newsletter that is scheduled to leave the house in a second… the patient survived, but we needed a stent. Unfortunately, we were not able to convince Magento, the software behind the Tauer Perfumes’ website, to send the newsletter out. Thus, my helping IT guys had to  find a way around, with me in the background whining and begging and forgetting that there are more important things in life.

OK, back again, still thinking Florence (pasta!) and scents seen @Florence…. hmmm: A tough one, I feel like I need to make a few comic strips on that one).

A few were actually good, worth trying. Let us talk about these. Olivier Durbano’s latest was for sure one of them. Olivier is with the same super trooper distributor in Italy, Guido from Profumimport, and our stand always feels like family. A family of noses, perfumers, that care for what they do and each other. Thus, Olivier showed his newest kid in town, too. It is a truly stunning rose, he uses a lot of the most expensive rose oil, and came up with a rose that is truly original, spicy and floral, but never sweet or cloying or soapy. Stunning and very, very wearable for men and women.  You find a recent review on it on Sorcery of Scent by Dimitri. Bottom line: A rose like you do not find it anymore these days, except with a few artisanal perfumers. Available soon from Olivier Durbano and in shops that care for artisanal perfumery, such as Luckyscent.com

Must try.

It is strange. You think about it, prepare for it, see it coming with eyes wide open . Yet, once it is here, you are amazed. Today, we continue making more samples for the Italian perfume exhibition Pitti Fragranze, and assembling everything for the two palettes that the truck is going to pick up tomorrow.  We work with Schenker and as these guys are reliable, we know that by 10 am the palettes need to be ready.

Another amazing development, that I think about, see it coming with open eyes and that totally amazes me every year: Autumn is getting here. The light has changed, the mornings are different, the fruits ripening on the bushes and trees. EEEK! Summer is almost over. In a sense, it feels like Tauer’s fruits will be ripe by Pitti. Let us hope they survive the transport.

Talking berries and fruits. Here’s another information bit on the EAU D’ÉPICES. One of the axis being spices, it features in one of is corners cinnamon (essential oil), being part of a spicy head notes bouquet. Cinnamon is strictly restricted and I stick to the recommendations there (as it is a sensitizer, sensitizing your skin). I use a couple of molecules to pump it up, one of them: ETHYLCINNAMATE. This molecule smells like cinnamon, red berries and is somewhat sweet. By its red berries tonality it softens the spices’ harsh corners and it supports the cinnamon. You see… a lot of  strands to follow.

I was talking about WEB corners, and AXES, and HEAD/HEART/BODY notes a lot. I will come back to these different ways of looking into a construction.  But not today!; today is palette day.

Before we dig into the body and some notes of the EAU D’ÉPICES (with an educative goal: give you an idea on style): Here are the winners of the draw of last week (tataaaaa!):

The consolation prize goes to Elena (cm….@yahoo.com): A discovery set is yours. And you pick the samples of your choice.
Full bottle of Eau d’épices goes to Elisa (elisa.g….@gmail.com).

Congratulations to both of you. And to all readers who commented but did not win: Thank you, for sharing, and good luck with the next draw.

And back to the developing story… I finished the newsletter draft, scheduled for release at September 15, after Pitti Frangranze, in order to send some impressions from Florence in the newsletter.  In 2.5 weeks we head south, through the Gotthard rail tunnel, finished in the early 1880, 15 km of tunnel, imagine! Back then, folks in Europe really were very entrepreneurial. And brave, taking a lot of risks.

My risks are somewhat smaller. The biggest risk  for me in Florence might be to get into total exhaustion mode. It will be busy days with a lot of sniffing and talking. One of the objects of the sniffing and talking will be the EAU D’ÉPICES. We have discussed some aspects (not all!) of the spicy head notes and the orange floral heart in previous posts
The MAIN AXES of the fragrance are: spices, orange blossom, incense, woods. Talking in axes is somewhat simplistic. Another picture might be a WEB. The corners of the web are: Spices, citrus, orange blossom,jasmine, orris root, incense, amber, wood, tonka beans. And all corners are connected and resonate.

The orange blossom is a heart note, it does not stay forever, but leaves you after a while, given full room for the body notes.  Making the heart notes stay  longer is called fixation. One tool to fix heart notes is by using musk molecules. I do not use these musk molecules.  But there are other synthetic molecules that may act as fixation. Some of them are so potent, they are just like a glue, and are hard to dose, because they become obnoxious after a while. Others are truly pleasant, like some of the synthetic ambers, my favorite being AMBROXAN, a molecule that is somewhat costly, with a price of about 1300 $ US for the kg it is about three times the price of a good Incense essential oil: Ambroxan is a single molecule, but is smells very complex (amber, vibrant wood, floral tobacco) and not cheap like other synthetic ambers that you find in washing powder.

And: It is a great fixation for flowers, without suffocating them. Thus, Ambroxan is there in the base of Eau d’épices, with its woody vibrancy it lifts the heart and fixes the blossom. And it acts like a bridge between floral heart and incense woody base. To render the ambroxan, to make it full, to add depth, I complement it with AMBREINE, a natural extract of Cistus ladaniferus that is … well, very complex! It is a special quality material, like a cut out of cistus, leaving the woody, spicy vibrant side intact, but removing the sweetness. Imagine the fragrance of pineta in summer! It blends very well with ambroxan, and it grounds the INCENSE essential oil that I am using in the base. The incense is an essential oil from Boswellia carterii, steam distilled in France, collected resin in the wild in East Africa and the Arab peninsula, it is a different quality than the incense that I use in the Incense extrême. It is more airy, lighter, less woody, brighter if you want. These three, ambrein, incense essential oil and ambroxan, make up one major building block of the base of the fragrance. There are more building blocks in the base, adding to the complexity.

Complexity is ultimately responsible for the many facets of a fragrance, of its brilliance and its roundness. You can get complexity quite easily by naturals, simply because naturals per se are very, very complex. Of course, you can not just put a drop of a natural oil into your kiloliters of perfume mixture. You must use them in substantial amounts. To give you an example: I use 2 parts Ambrein, 3 parts ambroxan, 4 parts incense essential. Together, these three ingredients make up about 1/5 of the perfume base.

Before we address some of the TECHNICAL DETAILS and the WHY: Here’s the factual list of spices in EAU D’ÉPICES:

Cardamom, coriander, clove  and cinnamon bark essential oil. Lemongrass, which is also on the ingredient’s list, is not what I would consider a spice. And it fulfills a different role, too.

As I am using synthetics and naturals: Some of the spices are pumped up…Coriander is pumped up with a bit of Linalool; this molecule is present in coriander essential oil anyhow at about 60-80% and by adding a bit of it directly you pronounce the coriander note.  It extends the woody line of coriander, softens it a bit and leads over to flowers, like giving a hand to the flowers and pointing in the direction of the woods with the other hand.

The cinnamon bark essential oil is naturally mostly cinnamaldehyde ( about 60%), with some eugenol (about 5-10%) and cinnamylalcohol. These are all IFRA and EU Cosmetic law regulated substances. The limiting factor is cinnamaldehyde which is a dermal sensitizer, thus a molecule to be careful with. IFRA limits of cinnamaldehyde are 0.05% in the final mix. We are in EAU D’ÉPICES at 0.045%, thus making use of it at almost max. concentration. Here we have an example for the effects of regulation: I do not produce fragrances with higher cinnamon bark concentrations. The cinnamon essential oil is pumped up with cinnamylalcohol and a molecule called linalylcinnamate, which acts like an eye shadow, making the cinnamon bigger and a bit brighter.

Why spices? Because the thing is called Eau d’épices. In this scent the spices are very dominant and present. The spices are together one of the main axis of this particular perfume. They are like an entire book volume of about 4 volumes being: Spices, Flowers, Incense, Woods.

On a more general base: I use a lot of spices in my scents because spices do the same thing like aldehydes. When used in small amounts they amplify other notes, set accents and bring in light. A hint of cinnamon bark lifts a rose bouquet, for instance, and makes the rose shine and last. In a sense, spices are magnifying glasses.

The picture shows you a mix of spices in a pan that I use when making my own curry from scratch.

And do not forget: if you want to win an Eau d’épices: comment over there (click here).