Goldfish memory
So there was time to work on the provencal summer, the fragrance which features lavender as one key theme, with this wonderful prototype name given by Prince Barry. A name that is promise on one hand and challenge on the other. A previous version was the starting point. Not the most previous version, though, as this latest rough sketch looked more like a provencal thunderstorm, too heavy and to rough (too much cistus), a hailstorm over a sultry summer heated sky.
So I worked on it and encountered a premix that I made a while ago, and I was amazed how good it is, I almost forgot about it. I labelled it Rose&Thyme, Version 2 (as it is the second trial). It features bulgarian rose, damascenone, lemongrass, thyme (red), Benzylsalicylate, Bay, and some more stuff I can not remember right now. And, blessed with my goldfish memory, it was a truly exciting discovery again.
To have a goldfish memory has advantages, sometimes. You swim happily in your glass bowl and about every 5 min you start your tour again inside your bowl, discovering these great things around you once again. Thus, I rediscoverd this mix which is truly lovely. Not as a stand-alone perfume, but as a rose with a hint of thyme. It is so good, that one day (if I still remember back then) I might try to build a fragrance on it…..
Thus, I went back to this trial and used my rose and thyme, version 2, and wanted to make it greener in the start, add a kick more of a spicy pine note, increase the lavender, reduce the too dominant body note (dominated by okoumal). Well, I did so (Galbanum resinoid, more bergamot and grapefruit for the green touch, increasing the proportional amount of lavender, adding some fir cone essential oil, vetiverol enhancing the vetiverylacetat, increasing kephalis, reducing okoumal) and it took me quite a while (hours, to be specific) to come up with this trial , let us call it version 120806. It is in Excel now and waits to mature. Impatient as I am (comes as side effect with the goldfish memory…) I made a 15% dilution to aks for my favourite guinea pig’s expertise. And….W. likes it, with a “but”…He said, and he is getting better in it and more demanding; “Very good, but you need to round it off”. That’s the problem with guinea pigs after a while: They get better in dealing with the stuff you put on them and come up with comments that start to sound professional. Like…”hmmm, nice citrus, but a little bit too edgy”…or “oh…that smells like one you can buy”….
Unfortunately, my guinea pig is not that evolved yet, that he could tell me how exactly to round things off….
A self test this morning brought up a clear picture of….-somewhat nice, -needs maturation, -needs less myrrh, - needs more okoumal (just a hint more),- a touch ambergris might help, too and jasmin, to round things off. I will visit it tomorrow again, a goldfish hoping for new discoveries….
August 14th, 2006 at 5:44 pm
Sounds very promising Andy. I think I might allow myself a spritz of Orris in celebration.
August 14th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
Well, Leopoldo: Enjoy!
I will treat myself soon (as soon as I got out of this train) with a good “Appenzeller” beer, a beer from a small brewery in the mountains….
Maybe some knize ten when going to bed…for nice dreams.
August 14th, 2006 at 7:22 pm
Sounds as if you are beginning to make a breakthrough with the Provencal. I guess that the re-discovery of the Rose-Thyme was a bit of a Eureka moment. I have just clicked into place the perfume organ in my head and the thought of Rose and Thyme together sounds wonderful, it makes a change from Rosemary and Thyme which was quite an amusing TV programme over here in the UK.
August 14th, 2006 at 7:47 pm
Dear Andy, This sounds absolutely fabulous - I have always found it dizzingly hard to work with thyme. I will be looking forward to your report on the new mixture.
I will drop a sample of a new fragrance in the mail for you latest on WEdnesday together with a snail mail from me with some random thoughts ;-)
Take care!
K.
August 14th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
Dear Barry
Yes, it was. I had completely forgotten about it and have not even showed it to Vero. I am curious to get her feedback on what I have now…once it is matured.
Unfortunately , I do not know this TV programme Rosmarine and Thyme…but I do not have time to watch TV anyway, except for this half an hour before going to bed. To cool things down and go to bed with messages from the Home Order TV… Greetings to the UK
Dear Konstantin
Oh… I am so curious…can’t wait! Thyme is indeed very hard to work with Thyme, and the line is very thin (the line how much to use) a little bit too much and all is gone! But the rose absolute, as it often does, helps here, too. It soothens the thyme and brings out this wonderful spicy, herbal quality, at least in my nose….
Fragrant wishes
August 14th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
Great phrase and precise description of how the goldfish memory works, a good style of working for a perfumer.
Rose and thyme must be good together, the sharp and the soft mutually enhancing each other. Looking forward to the end product, when you are ready…
August 15th, 2006 at 8:19 am
Dear Luccia
Maybe, but sometimes this goldfish memory comes with some disadvantages ;-)
The way to the end product may take a while though… in the mean time I will hopefully have so other things to talk about.
Greetings