birchtar
I mixed another batch of L’air du dĂ©sert marocain on Friday. It sits now in my cellar, 2. 5 liters of thick juice, waiting to become ready for dilution in about 3 weeks. Mixing air du dĂ©sert develops into a regular task these days and brings about insights; every time I mix, I rediscover a formula that is quite a challenge to understand. And I enjoy the colors of the oils I mix. Like Birchtar rectified oil. Mixing is also like bathing in oils which -for some- is eye opening. Sniffing Birchtar, a thick dark brown juice right from the bottle transports me to a place 30 years ago, playing in the woods, thrilled eyes reflecting the flames of the fire, smoke impregnating the skin.
Although I mix 2. 5 liter of a batch, I need to dilute Birchtar first in order to be precise enough. Talking big impact of a few drops! This is part of the magic of perfumery; the game with sub-promile numbers.
Picture: Diluting Birchtar in ethanol before using it to mix a batch.
November 17th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Wow, Andy! My love for tar scents is endless… :) I wish i could smell from that big bottle! :))))
November 17th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
The dark golden brown, maple syrup like, caramel like Brazilian caramelized sugar sauce on Brazilian pudding …smells so good!
I loved this picture.
Want the recipe?
November 17th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Good evening, Jeff!
Is it endless? Wow…then you are a Lonestar Memories guy!But I am not sure you would enjoy the direct-bottle-sniff. It is heavy…really heavy. And , by the way, due to the exceptional strength of birchtar oil, the bottle is rather small…..
And good evening to you , Simone
right from the train, somewhere between Berne and Zurich, starting to think pudding … yummie! I make from time to time my own private caramel sauce going with vanilla pudding…. but here, the brown liquid smells more like what happens if you let the sugar get black…
November 17th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Andy, is it possible that it is the birch tar that prompted in me such a strong reflection/memory of my grandfather’s wood shop and house, where birch grew outside, and were cut for projects & firewood?
Love that L’air… it just happens to take me to the 45th parallel.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Dear ScentScelf
Now, to be honest: It is a very smoky scent. The wood shop: I imagine it to be more woody than birchtar. But maybe it is part of the scent picture of your grandfather’s house? Indeed, this might well be. I find (and realized this again when preparing the steaks in the Cali desert this October) the scent of birchtar is very close to what you get sitting next to a wood fire that is missing a touch oxygen.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Geliebte !
My adoration of birchtar is NOT reciprocated by my dear family…!
That does NOT prevent me from rolling in it, much like dogs in you-know-what…!
One of the reasons I adore Lonestar.
November 18th, 2008 at 7:15 am
Dear Chayaruchama
Oh…. I know exactly what you mean and I know this feeling. Complete surrender to a scent even if everyone else around thinks you are insane and may have slept with a mummy ;-)
Much love to you!
November 18th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Yeah, Lonestar Memories is my favorite perfume of all times :))) On second place I have 2: L’Air and Rose Incense, hehehe, so I’m rather Tauer guy :))
November 18th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Yo…Jeff
A born smoke lover it seems!
November 18th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Birchtar… lovely, delicious, yummy. Can you put a bit more of it to make an “extreme” version of your fragrances? Like “Le maroc pour elle foumĂ©”? “L’air enfoumĂ© du desert marocain”? “Lonestar cigar memories”? So, I hope you understand how much I love the smoky note… and it’s always “too little” for me in the most of fragrances.
But there is also a wisdom I have learned once in Zurich… “if you can smell it, than it might be already too much” ;-)
November 19th, 2008 at 3:10 am
Andy,
Yes, it is part of the scent picture of the house, specifically a corner where a doorway in one direction leads down to the wood shop, but along the wall is the wood burning fireplace. (Funny, that; these days, at least in the US, we need to point out when a fireplace is for wood burning, and not for gas flames licking over ceramic logs.)
However, sometimes there *is* a smokiness of a certain type in the wood shop; the wood is heated as it passes the saw, and there is a sort of “rumbling” of a mixed burning wood/hot metal smell in the back of your nose.
I love that you are able to have such a recent and pleasant memory as one of your reference points to this scent; I remember the picture you posted of those steaks…yum…