making ofscents

just a few drops

Today, here in Zurich, we are still in some sort of a hold position with a couple of depression systems that do not seem to move much. The JET stream is still not there where I wish it to be. It feels a bit like in a rain forest, but without the temperatures really.

So, we will see whether today’s (afternoon) drawing class will take place outside or not.

Last week, we were outside and did trees. Uiuiui… difficult! The trick is to draw the details without getting lost in details. And the trick is to capture the “gestalt” of the tree. Yesterday, meeting a friend for some sniffings and chattings, we were also talking about “gestalt” in perfumes.

We were smelling a couple of scents, and some perfumes that you can buy on the market. “It misses the Gestalt”, I said about a fragrance. “It is just a mix of things” my friend said. So, yes, we were a bit disappointed. But then: Perfumes are so subjective and maybe I am wrong asking for “gestalt” in perfumes. Before heading for this meeting I was working on another perfume formula, in my squeezed in lab space, doing it the usual way: I wrote the formula into Excel, starting with another formula that is nice, vintage like. In the excel I write my formulas in units of 1000. Like 10 units of this and 200 (overdosed!) units of that and 0.5 units of this. These virtual units are then calculated by excel to “real” milligrams. The final amount of a trial is 12500 milligrams. Hence, one unit is 12.5 milligram.

This helps to understand a formula.

The particular formula that I was mixing is like an homage to a general vintage fragrance. Citrus chord, rose, ylang, an iris note on a complex base of woody balsamic notes. Why? Because I like it. Hard to describe: Do not worry about it.

While mixing it all out I took a 15 seconds video of me adding 250 mgr. Bulgarian rose absolute (20 units , thus 2% of the total mix) into the trial vial. I just posted it on instagram, twitter and facebook. And yes, although it is just 2%: It makes a big difference.

Since then … well: I guess perfume lovers just love roses!