When creating perfumes, arranging notes in order to create a  new fragrance with a certain form and structure, you do the same thing. You squint your nose, and reduce the idea you have in your mind to a few structural components. Having arranged these central lines or structures, and having arranged them properly, with the right dimensions and proportions, you move on and arrange the details, focusing increasingly on details.

But the key is that the first few lines are right. If not, the entire composition will be false.

I will leave for a week abroad in a few minutes and will get back and blog and talk in a week. I leave a little illustration of a gardenia flower, that highlights again structures and shapes. Enjoy!

Enjoy!

I must revisit tonight, and see what happens over night. I bet it smells even more intense, as actually the flower’s perfume is not made for our nose but in order to attract pollinators, i.e. insects flying in the night. Competition for these seems to be tough or they might have to be lured in from a long distance.

Smelling gardenia was one of the compensations yesterday. It was my home office day yesterday, fighting with certificates of analysis of tuberose, rose, orange blossom, and many, many more: I am getting Loretta, the second fragrance from the Tableau de Parfums, series ready for autumn launch. Most of the paperwork we have to do these days is for the European Union. If you ever wondered why there is little growth in Europe : Start a business and you will see.

The EU is a gigantic regulations producing machine, whereby the regulations threaten to suffocate innovation and creativity.

But then: I do not really care. And I do not want to offend EU lovers. As always, I try to look at the bright side of things, happy as I am an outsider, and in a sense rediscovering the formula of Loretta while taking care of the EU regulations. Tuberose, another white flower, plays a central role there. In a sense, gardenia and tuberose, are like brothers or sisters. In my imagination, the gardenia is the more behaved, more elegant, more modest, more timid of the two. Tuberose seems to be a bit more daring, more sexy.

Well, I guess, and Vero said so too: You need to be brave and a touch crazy to start a venture within this field.  Both of us are now a couple of years present in the markets. In a sense, we are already getting classics in this super fast evolving field. But without getting rusty! Vero.profumo is having its 5th birthday right now. There is a great 50 samples celebration give-away on the Campomarzio70 facebook site (starting May 14th) and you have the chance to win one of 50 samples of a great new scent that almost nobody had a chance to smell. I did and can tell you it is sure worth taking your chance to win.  It all starts on May 14 and thus, stay tuned and make sure you do not miss it.

So that was a busy and intense day, yesterday. And in the evening, I basically just passed out, as this was the 3rd interview in a row this week. As much as it is fun talking into a camera about oneself, it is intense, and even if you forget the camera after a while, I remain in a state of high attention. But on my way home, I passed by my florist’s shop and yes! I got my gardenia pot and look forward to flooding you with gardenia posts.

The lilac, by the way, was heaven on earth. Almost too much.  Damp, sweet, and intense lilac after a heavy rain in the afternoon sun.

Exciting like yesterday. I had a lovely chat on flowers, gardens, perfumes, and … gardenia. When I was in Rome, next to the hotel, right around the block, there was a lovely flower shop and they had one gardenia pot after the other. Amazing! Thus, the chat yesterday afternoon made me double check again an article about research on gardenia’s head space late last night. Some of the molecules I do not know, but ordered them from SIAL right now, as I am curious. Some of the head space molecule I know. And as always, it seems as if a very large part of the flower’s unique character is due to minor components. Actually,  minuscule components far below 1 percent.

Main components are farnesene, ocimene, linalool, methly benzoate, some tiglates, and some lactones.

Natural head space, my nose, tells me: sweet spices, with a touch metallic green, the spices being a mixture of clove buds and peppery cinnamon, a powdery envelop, and a fruity sweetness that is creamy and reminds me of a banana – coconut combo with some vanilla. A combo that makes you go “hmmm!” when it hits your nose.

As I was in some sort of gardenia mood, I ordered a plant from my local florist. I cannot wait. The picture today shows you one of the molecules identified by head space analysis: Ocimene. It is supposed to smell “green, metallic, citrus”. We will see.

I made in front of my public the three drawings, asking the public what they see. You see the drawing to the left. Quick: What is it?

It is a bird. A tree. The sun.

This is code. This is the way one part of our brain sees the world. In abstract forms, simplified patterns. This simplification, this abstraction allows us, our brains, to move through this world very effectively. We do not have to identify patterns of a tree, its form and shadows, its colors and patterns, its size and relative position to other objects for half an hour in order to get the information right: Yes, it is a tree. We have learned to simplify by abstraction. We need to.

We live in our world of abstraction, every day and even in the world of scents we use these abstractions.

This is why I can ask “what is this” and get the answer “it is a bird”. I did, however, not ask “what does this look like”, because the code never looks like the real thing.

This abstraction does not show us how the world looks like, and it misses its beauty and the contrasts where light and shadow meet, where colors explode, where shapes and forms create new impressions, where scents recreate pictures of the past, bringing back memories.

It is the artists task and privilege, it is the art’s mission to know about these abstractions, to use them, break them, transform them and to show the world around us without  code and abstraction. Art allows us to the the world differently.Art can show us the beauty of the world and how the world presents itself. This is true for any form of art, for painting, for music, for movie making, for writing or for perfumery.

This is why art is important. It allows us to see the world differently and opens our  minds.

I talked to a lot of perfume lovers while in Rome and a few strangers. The crisis was on many’s lips. Contrary to a year ago: The crisis has arrived in the heads and this is usually when things start getting worse. But then, if there is something one can learn in Rome, it is that things change, and I am sure that the crisis will be a change for many, too. And a chance. And be it only a chance for society to prove that we care for the young and old and weak and that we are all willing to share and give a part of what we have for the wellbeing of others.

Yes, a few things need to change in Italy, in Europe. And I think it is time to start changing now.

The reason why I was in Rome: I presented Miriam, the first fragrance from the Tableau de Parfums series, at Campomarzio 70. You can have a look at how lovely this was in the picture folder of Campomarzio’s facebook site. It was a wonderful evening. We all enjoyed the hospitality of Campomarzio 70 at via vittoria. And we enjoyed the fragrance and the movie story that inspired Miriam.

And I talked officially about art. But I guess that is going to be a topic for tomorrow’s post. Now, it is time to get into gears again and pack perfume. And think about a few design things that are utterly important to me but nobody will care about them anymore in 100 years. Or maybe somebody will?

I think there is a different quality in and of analogous photos. Maybe it is imagination, but I feel that looking through the lens of an analogous camera is different than through a digital camera. Maybe knowing that you have to wait for the result, pay for each picture you take, maybe this is part of the difference. The same is true for writing, I think. Writing a letter by hand feels different and the result is different, compared to writing by using a machine interface.

So things change and the way we see the world and talk about it depends on the interface we are using to explore and see.

I send you fragrant greetings, and will be back on this blog after my return from Rome.

I will then make some samples and get home again, to continue here.

So tomorrow:  A cheap flight from Basel, a booking.com special offer for a hotel, a few hours for myself in the evening and then on Thursday, starting at 5pm, there is a get together at via Vittoria, in CampoMarzio’s Essential Gallery. I will present the fragrance, and more important -because in the end everybody can and should make her and his own ideas about the scent- the collaboration with Memphis based movie maker Brian Pera who initiated this whole project and builds a multiverse bringing art of all sorts together. More on this, the latest film projects, fragrance projects and more on evelynavenue.com .

One nice aspect about Rome is: It is about the 20th or so times that I go there. When I was in my twenties, I was going there at least once a year. Back then by train, over night. Thus, I know my way a little bit, where to go for a jog, and my Italian has improved to a level that allows me to order a beer. Well, I guess I could do better there. But then: I prefer to jog in the woods instead of learning Italian grammar.

Happy labor day to you’all!

But the biggest olfactorial impression made a lilac bush at the end of the 5 hours hike, down in the valley. A violet variety with a perfume that was simply amazing. Sweet, very sweet and diffusive, yet delicate. According to Bo Jensen and his references on head space done on lilac, a lot of this diffusive quality is due to benzyl methyl ether. I need to check this later, at some point. Bo’s site is a great starting point for anybody interested in natural scents and which molecules are involved for instance that a lilac smells of lilac.

Today’s focus is however less on creating new perfumes but rather on blunt factory stuff . Later highlights will be continuing on packaging design and following up on some ideas there. AThus, as soon as the online shop orders are out I will head to the factory to bottle Incense extrême, and if time allows, to make some samples. I need to hurry up a bit, as a good part of this week sees me in Rome, where I will officially launch Miriam, from Tableau de Parfums. I guess I will talk about Rome tomorrow. Have a great start into your week!