Blog Update Feb 2009

Yes it has been a long time without a post! I have been busy working on many things perfume and non perfume related! As I type this I have spilled some tuberose absolute on my shirt so certainly I have set the mood correctly for finally posting a new blog entry. Since I can't think of a particular topic to talk about in detail right now, I figure I will just fill you in with what I have been doing lately:

First of all, I have been putting in a lot of work on foot, simply going into every boutique, every department store and perfumerie, and smelling absolutely every fragrance I have ever heard mention of. I have also been mentally cataloging my thoughts on all of them. I won't bore you with any of my specific reactions to these parfums, but as a general statement of interest - what I can say is that I am surprised by the variety of styles of fragrance currently in existance; to be more precise I would say that I have been finding often on store shelves almost exact duplicates of fragrances I have made on my own and cast aside as substandard works not fit to sniff! To be sure this has helped up my ego a few notches!

One particular example is Cartier Declaration; I had long heard this to be the masterpiece of Ellena - a platform on which alot of his later work was built. Since I love Ellena's creations for Hermes and Blvgari I was ashamed to admit that Declaration was one of the few I had actually not sniffed! However, a few months ago I had decided to try and build it only from the descriptions provided to me by other blogs, note lists and reviews. I tried for a few days to tune it to what I imagined it may smell like and eventually gave up in frustration. My shock of today was to find that the real Declaration is was 95% the same as mine!!! The lesson that I have learned from this as a perfumer is maybe not try to constantly compare my creations to supreme classics (it will be easier to smile sometimes this way!) but also to follow my own desires for the creation of accords and not only by classical form, as there are many preferences in our diverse world.

Other parfums which I have either sniffed or re-sniffed in the past month and found to be particularly interesting have been Ma Dame from JPG, the new edition of Fracas, Annick Goutal's Heure Exquise, Dior Poison, Shiseido's New Zen and Givenchy Hot Couture (an old favourite of mine). I have been disappointed by Cartier's Roadster and by Blvgari's Jasmin Noir.

With my time I have also lately been putting a lot of effort into my perfume related studies, this is taking up much of my schedule, which unfortunately has prevented me from doing much writing here online. I am however, also very pleased because I can see myself making leaps and bounds both in my ability to understand the chemistry of perfume and in my ability to create the type of feelings I imagine and translate them into a scent with various aroma substances. I am currently testing a recent creation on my left wrist, a spicy concoction revolving around a heliotrope note; it can use a lot of tweaking but I am very pleased with what I have created thus far.

Lastly, I would like to add that this week I will be visiting the boutique of an independent perfumer and hopefully I will be able to do a bit of an interview. I will definitely have a report up about it soon! This will be the first time I meet a professional perfumer face to face and I am very excited. I also have a few posts including one review that I would like to post asap so please forgive me for the absence but hopefully in a short time I will get some content flowing again.

Best regards
- Matt :)