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rose again

So there we go again: rose. Today’s picture shows you a quick shot, taken with my phone’s camera, in the morning. Dew on rosa xxx. I want to give you a quick update on my works with the rose oil from Kandahar. Well, well. As always: Not easy. It is a tricky balance between keeping this rose oil alive, present, and putting it into a context without crushing it and it is a fight with fixation, making things last, and it is a fight with finding the right body notes, the ground that should nourish the flowers and keep your nose interested for a few hours.

What I have now, is sort of nice, very “rosy”, but for my nose a touch too soft in the base, not really paying tribute to where this rose comes from. Although already pretty complex, with the base featuring natural tobacco, hints of patch, vetiver, vanilla, amber gris, the whole composition is still too “banal” and this is mostly due to the base missing clear contours and power.

Contours are actually very important. Often it is just one or two ingredients that provide extra lines and contrast and suddenly, with the contrast added, the flowers bloom and start to blink. Sort of. Often, contours are also reached by overdosing one particular ingredient, mostly in the base, adding this extra twist.  So I will try this, together with a little simplification of a formula that got already too complex. Always trying to keep in mind that in the center is the natural rose oil from Afghanistan.

In a sense, referring to painting, I will try to take a brush one size larger and use it on the canvas with a brave hand, and strong colors.

The goal, still, the scent needs to be done by autumn, ready to ship in about 3 months. uiuiui… better keep going now.