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Halleluja. The Gods and Bayer and the W.-factor be praised. My operation temperature is back to normal and somewhat shaky but rather clear again in my head I will take the tram that brings me to the train that brings me to Munich soon.

I was never worried about myself, but always about my not being able to travel to Munich, thus: A true relieve!

Finally, my thoughts go to you all who send me all these lovely get-well messages. This for sure helped a lot, too!

I will try to keep in green area and will be back Monday.

I ended my day at 39.5degree Celsius yesterday, sweat like a horse and started my day with 39.1.

I am worried. No posts for a day or two….

contrary to my plans I engaged in a photoshop session to come up with another picture that might one day go with the vetiver. You find it below. I really appreciate any feedback, do not feel shy.
This is going to be a very , very busy week and will end in Friday’s highlight in Munich, where Vero and me will present our fragrances and chat with perfume lovers, and the press. Thus, before next week I will neither find time nor muse to work on oil and canvas for the vetiver picture. And, to be honest, there speaks something very much in favor of this picture: The W.-factor saw it, printed on my desk, and found it great . You rarely get this enthusiasm there….
Picture: Another try for the picture going with the vetiver

I sit at the computer, typing INCI lists in excel files, switching between my lists and the EU’s Cos Ing cosmetics ingredients database. Which happens to be a nice source for proper INCI names.

In the background it thinks “green”. And it makes a lot of typing mistakes…..

Thus, there is definitely more to perfumery than mixing stuff!

(leave photo by Andy, May 2008 in Zurich)
Finally, talking green: Here ’s the lines from The Fifth Element, featuring GREEN. I was trying for hours to remember where I came across green….finally, it came back to my mind:
DJ Ruby Rhod: What was that honey? It was BAD! It had no fire, no energy, no nothing! So tomorrow from 5 to 7 will you PLEASE act like you have more than a two word vocabulary. It must be green.
Korben Dallas: Can I talk to you for a second?
[Throws Ruby up against a wall]
Korben Dallas: I didn’t come here to play Pumbaa on the radio. So tomorrow from 5 to 7 your gonna give yourself a hand, green?
DJ Ruby Rhod: Supergreen.
(from Memorable Quotes for the Fifth Element )

I love it.

This post is about greeeeeeeen stuff. And Gabriel.
While we are all inspiring each other coming up with names for the vetiver (with vetiver dance, khus being favorites, I guess…): A little update on the muguet trials. There was time last weekend to look into it again.

The muguet trials run since the very beginning under the code name “gabriel” in my excel. The latest trial you would find under Gabriel 8.0 Don’t ask me why. It is like that.
It is complex, green, very green, aehmmm soooooo greeeeeeen, and much better then 7.0. I left the core structure intact, but shifted towards Mayol, phenylethylalcohol, added more jasmine absolute and salicylates and: more aldehydes. ah yes, more rose absolute, too, in order to round it up. Ah yes, and I introduced a soft hint of sandalwood. What needs to be done next? hmmm: I guess down again with Mayol. And maybe up a little bit with ambroxan to lift it a little bit. We will see in a couple of weeks.
What is amazing about this one: It lasts forever. And it is in all its greenness soft and gentle after the first 5 min. When Gabriel enters the scene, he has his shining sword in his strong hands, and the silver line shines in his hand, lightening his golden hair, reminding us that we are save.
And, in order to make this a true web 2.0 experience, I sniff my latest trial at 25% dilution, sitting in the train, watching youtube and listening to the lyrics of Lamb’s GABRIEL. Enjoy.

I have tried to paint a picture that goes with the vetiver. It is a rather abstract, somewhat art deco inspired composition consisting of a few lines and shapes. Featuring black, white and two different green. Using photoshop and flash you see what goes through my mind when I think “vetiver”.

I leave the interpretation up to you.

What I can tell you: I like it a lot for its ambiguity, dynamic and simplicity.  The W. - factor thinks it is not in line with my other flyers. An argument that I do not share; I personally see a line that is present in L’air du désert marocain.

Names, the second: (Thank you all who commented so inspired and who proposed names! I am open for more…)
My favorite is: Vetiver dance, or the same in French, La danse du vétiver (I got this idea when reading Kelley’s input yesterday) followed by
Khus (synonym for vetiver, used in northern India)
Espace du Vétiver

Alnair (star in Grus constellations, Arab for “the brightest one”)

Perseus

Southern Cross (because of the Java vetiver, the green pepper?), Green valley

Picture: a proposal for the flyer, ??? could easily be replaced by la danse du vétiver.

Well, well. That was a busy weekend.

Andy was:
Jogging. And while doing so he came up with ideas for the next vetiver. Yes, the first one is not even bottled and I am already thinking about the next one. Inspirations: Besides this one particular spot in the woods, where the wet earth was sweating and almost cried for C12 aldehyde with dry vetiver and cistus extract, there is this particular new batch of vetiver I got. From Haiti. Wow! Vetiver from Haiti is known to be rich in alcohols, and this one is incredibly soft and woody with little smokiness. So I shopped vetiver and more….

Shopping. Downtown. Trying to fill some gaps, like Ester Lauder. I was brave and faced the beast downtown Zurich, the endless perfume counters in an average department store’s ground floor, with nice ladies trying to make sense of a shopping behavior that doesn’t. This guy buys only five star ;-) One 5 star was sold out and the lady saw the book under my arm and told me that I am not the first one coming by these days, asking for it.

Having guests. One guest came by, in order to shop for a 5 star fragrance at Limmattalstrasse. That’s where I live. So I told him that he was lucky I was home at all and that I do not sell from here, no home orders if you want. But we ended up in the living room sniffing forth and back.

And finally: Thinking about the flyer that goes with the vetiver that will be ready end October. I like it, the W.-Factor doesn’t and I think this is worth a full post…tomorrow.

And ultimately: Playing. Wordwide Telescope. You have to get a powerful computer and then download it. It is from Microsoft and it is !MIRACLE! free.  It is dream stuff in the sense that you start dreaming about galaxis and stars and the more you play and search, the more you realize how small, how very small we are. Here’s the Wiki article on it: WIKI
And here is the link to the website. wordwide telescope
And absolutely ultimately: Thinking about names for the vetiver that will be ready end October, featuring notes of black pepper, lily of the valley, vetiver, and other woods on an ambergris background. Scorpio, Jabbah, Sagittarius.  I guess you see the source of inspiration. Again: Worth another post…… In the mean time: Got names?
picture: Grapefruit seen May 18, 6 pm, before dinner

bottle joy…

(need to refresh to load sound again)

I got the question lately who makes my samples. And so I think it is time to tell again….

I start with the labels

fill the glass vials

add the little pumps

to get the vials filled

and finally the labels on the vials

and then the glue on the labeled vials

and then the labeled vial on the flyer,

and after a while I get a pile of it….

and while doing so I think of adventures and sandwiches in the mountains and dogs and flowers and grass and Turin and Tania and the sky and lily of the valleys and my car’s tires and the scent of my car’s tires and the hyacinth and the mechanic and angels I think I am happy then.

I happen to live next door, or balcony to balcony, with a neighbor who was married once to a woman who planted a Wisteria. Well, I guess she liked it, he planted it. This was about 10+ years ago. The result you see below. This is what I saw after coming home from a late jogging in the woods, in search of inspiration on visuals.  According to Wikipedia  the wisteria is named after Mr. Wistar, a US physician, with a charming nose and a docile look, and our neighbor’s Wisteria specimen climbs over three balconies along the house and whatever comes close is entangled in ionones, salicylates and terpene alcohols. And in all its overwhelming intensity, it remains clean. A clean scent.
Clean was/is also my latest trial on the lily of the valley. Using the time over a prolonged weekend, I engaged in heavy mixing, along green lines, approaching this delicate scent, and trying to add a twist to it, that transforms a copy/paste of lily of the valley into a scent that mirrors it and allows to approach it, from various angles.

Ultimately, I think it is time for a Tauer fragrance that is clean, except for a hint, a touch , a little bit of styrax, as this oily companion highlights the cleanliness of the flower.