general thoughts

after mixing is before mixing

So I mixed Incense rosé and Miriam yesterday. Both juices are in a safe guarded place now and mature. After mixing, carrying the two aluminum bottles with me (you see how they look in today’s picture), I realized that I actually carry quite a bit of money with me; my bookkeeper tells me so, too. We got the invoice for the latest raw material order, and I will need to order more in the coming weeks. Although, on a side note, I am shifting slightly my priorities: From availability of perfumes to cash flow. This means that I rather don’t have a fragrance in stock than blowing up my stock and reducing my company cash. This is a lesson I learned last year: We had 100% availability all year of all fragrances. This meant that my stock was always very high and that I had a lot of money blocked in stock. This year, with a couple of investments in mind and a lot of uncertainty about the markets and how the financial crisis will be dripping down, I want to have a bit less stock.

Anyhow. I just wanted to mention this issue on the side, showing you the  multitude of questions that even a very little business brings up.

Thus, the last order consisted of Iso E, Okoumal, Ambroxan, irone alpha, linalool, rose absolute, cardamom oil, Clementine oil, rose oil, ylang oil, and cistus ladaniferus essential oil &extract.

The last natural is a thrilling raw material. I mentioned it yesterday, as it is an essential part of Incense rosé. I use it since years in some of my compositions, among other things you find it in the Air du désert marocain, too. It is rather expensive, around 3000-4000 $US per kilogram. I use a quality of cistus essential oil that is standardized. It is basically the steam distilled essential oil of twigs from Cistus ladaniferus plus a bit extra added for standardization. The standardization is made by adding some of the extract that results as by product /waste in the steam distillation process. Thus, the producer adjusts each batch by adding more or less extract to make sure it smells the same, and the extract adds extra fixation power.

The scent of this raw material: Warm and woody-spicy. Not sweet balsamic like you know it from Labdanum absolute. This essential oil is more on the wild-leathery-spicy side. Very dry and warm, if this makes sense. Actually, if all goes well I will use it later today again, together with cypriol, to test an idea I have since days in my mind but not mixed in a test bottle, yet. But first things first: The travel agency tauer continues booking flights and trains and more. So far I have booked Munich, Rome, Paris, Paris again, and Rome again.  It is going to be a busy spring, a touch too busy.