hello from a newbie with a question

Hello, newbie. I'm newbier than you. Therefore, hello Odyseus.

There will be no ridicule. I have spoken.

Kidding.

I want to help you, but don't have the knowledge. You are an individual. However, you have a wife. Her preference is important. It is important for your mate to like your smell. Still, there's leeway.

The scentophiles here will help you, undoubtedly.

Regards,
C.

Welcome,

Creed might make something like that for you. Ask them to name it 'Bois du Portugal'

Here's one from the directory...
PS Onyx by Paul Sebastian

Top Notes
Italian Bergamot, Green Leaves, Cypress,

Middle Notes
Tonic, Black Pepper, Cardamom, Nutmeg,

Base Notes
Agarwood, Vetiver, Patchouli, Vanilla Musk, Sandalwood,

Odyseus,
It is tough to answer your questions for a couple of reasons. First because members here are almost exclusively users and collectors of scents that already exist as standard commercial products. Seldom is there knowledge or thoughts about custom created fragrances. Second, because no matter what smells you like in fragrances, and how long the list you can offer of those liked-smells, it's still guess work for anyone to use that information to pick a fragrance that you're sure to like. You really must smell fragrances that are out there yourself to know which smell you can apply truly feels like how you like to imagine yourself smelling.

However!

However, your post offers a great and enjoyable challenge. Very fun to think over parts of it.

Several years ago a member here went to the Florence studio of the perfumer Lorenzo Villoresi to see if he would eventually be interested in having LV create a personal fragrance for him. I think the price then was somewhere between US$500 and $1,000, and I can't remember how much quantity of liquid that included. That's a reasonable price, and a product by a fine artist with smells. If I recall correctly, LV's method was to assemble a fragrance for the customer from a variety of the perfumer's available bases and other ingredients, thus making a "custom" fragrance from a few dozen already mixed elements. I'm not sure however, and anyone could correct me. I have no idea how the perfumer would judge who you are, what you've done, and your needs in such a way as to make a perfect smell that reflects all of those. I think it would be very hit or miss. Lorenzo Villoresi also makes a dozen or so fragrances for men, which are rare in the world, and you can smell them and see sort of how the perfumer envisions what a man should smell like.

I think the house of Creed, if they decide you're important enough a person for them to spend any time on, will mix you a custom blend for plenty of thousands of dollars. And I mean plenty of thousands. This is not a cost effective option. I'd dismiss this option right away and find someone else or just start smelling highly regarded products (on Basenotes) until you find ones you like. My bet is that doing so will lead you to a dozen or more and you'll be happiest changing them from day to day depending on your wishes and feelings of the day. That's how I live my scent life, anyway.

I don't know of other private perfumers but who knows, maybe some are here and they'll drop you a note by the PM (personal message) feature on the site.

CuyahogaJoe's suggestion is an excellent one: Creed's product called "Bois du Portugal" is a fantastic fragrance, lasts very well on the skin, and shows excellent taste. If someone in your travels is fortunate enough to recognize it, which won't happen but a half dozen times from now until you're no longer needing scents, I promise, he or she will be impressed at your wise choice.

But get that or any other scent only if you smell it and like it. We can never tell what art you'd like on your walls, or what smells will count as art to your nose.

Welcome to the site by the way! Thanks for the challenging question.
--Chris

I had the impression that the Caron boutique in NY do bespoke fragrances that might be worth a try.

One suggestion: get in touch with LeLabo in NYC. I believe they do custom work. No idea about prices, but I would assume it would require a large purchase (volume) and their largest regular "off the shelf" fragrance is $900. Creed charges in excess of $10K I believe.

Joe

Good read:
http://www.robbreport.com/Articles/S...omatherapy.asp
$2400 for ONE ounce!!!

Hello and Welcome to you Odyseus!

I am going to answer without reading any of the other responses, so please excuse any repeated ideas. I don't want to get any ideas from their posts and give you what they said in different words. I do that sometimes.

1. If you are looking for a signature scent then I would not really worry about prices. If you were looking for a few for yourself then I would deffinately be price conscious. I would say that you should just look for what you like the most since you wil be making it you. For starters, places to look would be at any department store, Sephora, and whatever local stores that sell fragrances. That way you can test out the scent, maybe get a sample, and really try it out rather then just going for something that you'll end up hating in a month. Next, I would keep searching for what your style of fragranceis, based off what you liked in the stores, and order samples from other basenoters and luckyscent.com. This will give you an even wider selection to choose from because you'll have some niche and name brand scents. If there are any boutiques I would go there too. Make sure you get samples so you can test them on your skin over time so you know if you like them or not. Sometimes the first sniff on a piece of paper can be misleading.

2. If you like sandalwood then try: Santal Imperial by Creed, Santal Noble by SMN, Sandalwood by Art of Shaving, and M7 by YSL(agarwood, not sandalwood). Those are some of my favorite scents in general and I think one of them might catch your fancy... I hope anyway. If you already like the Creeds then you might want to just get a new kind of Creed. I think that you should look into L'Artisan fragrances. That is my favorite house and creates some really good stuff that you probably never smell on another person in your life... unless you meet another basenoter. If you decide to try those out then talk to me about it and I'll give you a list to test out.

I hope this helps a bit. I don't really understand the third question. I think you are talking about creating a personal scent? Anyway, good luck with testing and I hope you find something worth while that both you and your wife enjoy.

Again, welcome to basenotes!

Welcome.

Bespoke fragrances can be pricy, although if you can come across a less famous perfume house, it does seem as if it could be an option.

Since there are literally thousands of fragrances, and most of the American male population wears one of a dozen or two--if at all, it is very likely you could find something very much to your liking which is already available--yet still not likely to be worn by acquaintances.

Valentino V for Men might be a good choice: it has sandalwood, basil, pepper, while bergamot/mandarin replace your liking of bitter orange.

Laura Biagiotti Roma Uomo has notes including sandalwood and grapefruit and basil; tangerine is the orange accent here.

Aramis JHL is a bit sweeter: orange, sandalwood, and carnation/clove are balanced with other spices and vanilla.

Knize Ten is the adventurer's choice: its sandalwood, orange, and carnation/clove are elegantly balanced with leather.

A Ton of info here already....So I'll just say welcome to all of the new members......Gary

These are all very good recommendations, and very cost effective. If you really aren't concerned about price, I would point you in the direction of Ayala Moriel, she offers bespoke service for the low low price of $450! She will create the cologne you want, offer three samples of three different fragrances she's created just for you, then tweak that fragrance according to your reaction. I don't know how big of a bottle you get for that price, I don't even know if she includes a bottle, but the whole process may take up to six months. www.ayalamoriel.com Enjoy hunting!
- Rich
--------------------------------------
Ava Luxe will do a custom blend for $200. I think that this is really affordable, and it comes with either 10ml parfum or 30ml eau de parfum included in the price. http://www.ava-luxe.com/2005/custom_blend.html
- Rich

Welcome from another newbie, Odyseus.
If you're anything like me, you'll have to smell a bunch of stuff before you really know what you like. And what you'll end up really liking will have as much to do with your memories and associations with smells as with what you want to project. So take this on as one of your travels. I have to wear a fragrance around and think about it, sometimes for days, before I start to feel like I know it. What is instantly appealing may not have much lasting power for you, and what you initially find weird or off-putting may settle into a challenging beauty. Guess it depends how you like your beauties.
So enjoy lingering with Circe and Calypso (fragrance-wise, of course) and you'll find your Penelope. If you decide to have a scent made for yourself, I hope you'll tell us about the process and the result. Sounds like a really cool experience. Cheers!

one other idea...

1) sample a lot of things to find out what you like
2) layer/blend two or more fragrances you do like to create something new

This avoids the expense of a bespoke fragrance yet provides you with something unique.

Pecksniff's in London also does a bespoke service for around $400 dollars or thereabouts, with cheaper "refills" afterwards (meaning, when you run out of your scent, they'll keep the recipe on file and refill it for you for less).

But, I agree with the others, try lots of stuff first. I am 99.999999% positive you'll find twenty fragrances you love in the first few months of sampling. My guess is that, like most of us when we got started, we thought we'd seen most of what fragrance had to offer, having spent time at department stores or mall fragrance stores and found the designer scents there often not all that great or too much alike.

Then we found the niche world and things changed. I'm guessing this will happen for you as well. There are so many thousands of niche products, with scents that run from the ultra classy to the downright raunchy, that you HAVE to find one you like. And, any of these will cost less than even the cheapest reputable bespoke service (even Clive Christian, touted as "the world's most expensive perfume" is cheaper than the $400 bespoke service at Pecksniff's, which is amongst the more reasonable).

Unless you just have unbelievable amounts of excess money to spend or are looking for something to name-drop to wealthy/fashionable clients ("What am I wearing? Oh, this is just a little number I had Olivier Creed whip up for me"), then finding a nice scent that's a little outside the mainstream will do just as well (or, in many cases, better! LV spends months/years on one of his own fragrances, but two or three hours on his bespoke ones. How could they be better???)

Welcome to the forum and happy hunting!

Also, two that immediately come to mind as possibilities for you for classy fragrances that are a little off kilter would be Lorenzo Villoresi Piper Nigrum and Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Secret Melange. These run from $80-110 and I'd be impressed if anybody who isn't a basenotes member even knew the fragrance HOUSE, much less the fragrance itself. In short, I don't think you'll find many others wearing them.

If you like Agarwood, you should be trying YSL's M7.

I made my own unique scent a while ago. First I sprayed on Himalaya, then I sprayed on Paca Rabanne's XS directly on top of where I'd sprayed the Himalaya. Very interesting.
Renato

If you shop around for Bespoke perfumes, you'll discover that this price is actually amongst the more reasonable ones. The price is not really much higher than ordering one bottle of pure parfum ($100) and the Perfumed Pendant ($150). The balance is covering the time and materials needed for the development.
Not that I feel I need to justify my prices, but I think it's important that consumers of bespoke fragrances know that perfumers are not just pulling these prices up to make easy money. Custom perfumes require a lot more work than creating a perfume for my line - because it needs to satisfy the customer, not just myself... And the more tweaking that needs to take place - that means that more materials are getting wasted, and these are very costly, especially with a line like mine that uses only natural essences.


As explained on my website, the service includes a 9ml Parfum Extrait and a silver pendant with creme parfum. If you don't want the creme parfum you can choose between another bottle of parfum extrait or a roll on of parfum oil.


The perfume takes 6 weeks to mature. The rest of the process really depends on the individual customer. If the customer likes the fragrance right away, it will be only a matter of weeks. If lots of tweaking is involved - it will obviously take longer.

Thanks for clearing that up! It's always helpful when we have the actual perfumer on the boards, help us wade through the sea of options we have. Do you know of any other perfumers who do bespoke service?
- Rich

There are many nowadays, it really depends on what you are looking for. Most independent perfumers nowadays offer these services. I recommend picking one that you like their style and philosophy (and can afford their price, of course).
Other two that are in North America and that their prices are within the ranges of not-necessarily-millionaires are Mandy Aftel of Aftelier and Dawn Spencer Hurwitz.