Please Critique my Recipe

Probably 100 times too much Ambergris... just as a ballpark figure... (Sorry for the American Baseball colloquialism...)

Sure, you could easily add more items in that one...

HAVE FUN!

What do you actually have as ingredients? Give us a list and we can help you start.

Where'd you pick up your supplies? Specifically the ambergris, and the synths

This could turn out to be an interesting thread for me. I've got a few aroma chems/oils etc, I'm trying to make some, and more are in the post.

Most things so far have been pretty terrible and have gone in the mille fleurs bottle - just in case - so I'm following lucky's minimalist route.

The best I've come up with so far is the following:

40 drops iso E
10 drops Hedione
dilute to 85%

I've added 2 drops of cedryl methyl ether (Cedramber) to that, and it's sitting in the fridge maturing while my nose recovers from diluting some of the decanal that arrived the other day.

Any suggestions welcome...

I've got a few ml of Firmenich Sandalwood 184025. That smells much more like sandalwood than the sandalwood oil I bought from the local hippie shop.

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I've had friends who had problems with new direction's EO being cut with solvents. I would recommend you checking out the suppliers thread for trusted EO sellers.

I have the following (from olfactik)

Aurantiol
Benzyl acetate
Benzyl salicylate
Benzoin Resinoid (Mobile)
Bergamot Oil FCF
Cade Tar (Rectified) (EO)
Carrot seed EO
Citral (Synthetic)
Citronellol
Clary Sage EO
Coriander Seed EO
Coumarin
Cypress (EO)
Elemi (EO)
Frankincense (Somalian)
Geranium China (EO)
Labdanum Oil (EO)
Lemon (FCF)
Linalool
Methyl anthranilate
Methyl ionone gamma
Oakmoss (RIFM) (ABS)
Octanol (Aldehyde C8)
Patchouli (EO)
Vetivert (Haiti) (EO)


Just happened to have a few ml of these:

All by Fermenich

Delphone
Delphol HC
Cassis
Grapefruit
Mandarinal
Splendione
Tamarine
Veloutone
Wardia

I've been promised some Ambroxan from a friend.


And I've got some EO's of doubtful provenance from e-bay or the local hippie shoppe. These include cedar, which should be OK 'cos it's cheap to produce - I used some to scent wood polish - gingergrass and violet leaf.

And vanillin. Loads of vanillin. I'll make that up tomorrow.

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It's not too bad; I've been wearing it all day and no one held their nose and ran away or anything. The cedramber seems to just take that slightly abrasive edge off the Iso E.

So far so good, so I've added to and adjusted the formula:

Iso E 30 drops
Hedione 10
Cedramber 3
Light Patchouli 100% 1 drop (I really need to dilute this to make it controllable)
Benzoin 10% 5
Coumarin 10% 2 (probably one too many)

I think I might be on to something here; it's the first thing I've formulated that actually smells a little bit like perfume.

I diluted my oakmoss abs today, and put a little on the back of my hand to get to know it. If I wear the iso etc formula on my wrist and swap between the two they seem to go together, so tomorrow I'll mix 'em up.

Maybe with some sandalwood and bergamot? And the tiniest amount of coriander?

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Hi Skelly,

a lot of woman's perfume's rely on a basic skeleton of what i call my MAGISH accord:
Methyl Ionone, Ambergris, Galaxolide, Iso E Super and Hedione.
The exact formulation can be found here. On this website you will also find a dozen complete formulations and a few other accords for inspiration.

One thing i noticed is that you purchased Ambergris from Perfumers Apprentice; as far as i know they sell it in 1% and 3% tinctured dilutions. That would explain the the huge dose Paul is referring to; i think you used a diluted tincture (or perhaps a frangrance oil named Ambergris; it exists, De Hekserij in The Netherlands sells it).

Happy perfuming!

JEroen.

This sounds good, but I think you should certainly dilute your patchouli and still only use one or two drops - it's very easy to end up with everything else overwhelmed and you just have hippie juice otherwise.

BTW Paul mentioned the ambergris was overdone - if you bought the 1% tincture from PA then I think you've the right amount or perhaps even too little. With one of the pure, synthetic ambergris such as ambroxan, ambrofix, cetalox, ambrox DL and others Paul would be spot-on, but most of those are crystals.

Rather than an inferior natural sandalwood, you could consider using one (or a mix) of the sandalwood replacers that are about: SantalIFF, Sandalore, Javanol, Ebanol etc. If you are going to use just one then either sandalore or ebanol, javanol is too strong and harsh used alone and SantalIFF is better used either with other synthetics or to round out natural sandalwood, which might help if you're not happy with yours.

Final thought: you've got some methyl ionone gamma there - perhaps a drop of that at 10% might enhance the floral quality a bit too.

Thanks to Chris and Jeroen for their links and formula tips; that's a really useful site you've made J. I'll work some of those up as soon as I obtain the ingredients.

Here's my latest formula, with notes. I made this up before I read the suggestions that Chris made, so it's still a little heavy on the patchouli. It's very good patchouli, mind.

Bergamot EO 100% 4. This bergamot - from olfactik - is much more vibrant than the EO I bought from the local hippie shop. I think the blend will take more.

Benzoin 10% 10.

Cedramber 6.

Coriander EO 10% 3. I'm quite pleased with this. Seems about right.

Coumarin 10% 3. The coumarin crashes out of solution (though not out of the blend) when refrigerated. I'll either have to make it up at 5%, or try a co-solvent such as monopropylene glycol instead of neat ETOH

Hedione 20. Hard to go wrong with this.

Iso E 50. Can probably reduce this, but it doesn't seem to do any harm.

Oakmoss ABS 10% 8. Perhaps a bit much, though it's gorgeous, dark, complex stuff. Much, much nicer than the oakmoss fragrance oil I was using before, which smells like old damp carpet in comparison.

Patchouli (light) EO 100% 2. OK. Too much. I'll change this next time.

Sandalwood Firmenich 184025H 3. I only have a few ml of this left, so I'll blend it with natural oil as per Chris's suggestion and use that.

methyl ionone gamma - none as yet, though thanks for the suggestion

I'm tempted to mess about a bit with this, but I won't touch it for a few days. Trying to compose perfumes seems a little like mixing music or preparing a photograph for printing, in that it's really easy to get fatigued and do the equivalent of overdoing the bass or the dodging and burning, so a break is in order.

All suggestions, criticisms and comments welcome; it's all good, and helps me learn.

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That's great and I think the way you are going about it is very sensible. I have to say that I still get carried away with my enthusiasm and wreck the blend I'm working on due to impending deadlines . . . patience is the greatest virtue in perfume making.

It's amazing how much difference something like traces of coriander can make to a blend even though it's such a small proportion.

I'm not familiar with the Sandalwood replacer that you are using and don't recognise that number so can't comment on that.

I'm looking at this from a feelings point of view and I feel as if it smells like this (tell me if I'm wrong). A nice basic structure going on.

A citrus start with a jasminish soaring quality = Bergamot and Hedione
On a fairly woody/green/musty rich base = Cedramber, Oakmoss, Patchouli and Sandalwood
With a woodsy underlying kick with longevity and diffusiveness = Iso E
With a sweet but not sickly almondy touch = Benzoin and Coumarin
A smooth but herbal fresh twist of spice = Coriander

I suggest some body to this, some linking elements to fat it out a bit. Maybe a really classy rose and a touch of real jasmine, not to overpower but to put some flesh on the bones. Some richness like tobacco or labdanum (micro). Maybe some vetiver to green the greens. I feel like this is a lovely structure but needs the colour turning up a bit, but not by much.

This essential oil blend worked well for me, I call it "growing up fast" because it has the youthful sweet smell top note transitioning well to a more grown up woman's scent, but without losing the sweetness of the top for quite a long time. Smells very classy and professional, gentle and sweet, but ends up quite patchoulli/amber/mild spice smelling (I may tweak the base, would prefer more sandalwood but don't own it, any suggestions?):

top:
vanilla 10 drops
sweet vanilla synthetic 3 drops
strawberry 1 drop
tea tree oil 1 drop
(francincense, ylangylang, mandarin blend) 4 drops
aged english lavender 4 drops
bergamot 7 drops

mid:
jasmine 3 drops
geranium 1 drop
tuberose 1 drop

base:
musk 20 drops
benzoin ~15 drops
amyris 3 drops
4 drops amber (french labdanum, patchoulli, benzoin, vanilla, incense, amyris blend)
1 drop oriental spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, orange, patchouli blend)

I like the idea of the vetiver, mumsy; I'll try that as soon as I sort out a fresh supply of alcohol. I have labdanum abs 5% which is extremely rich and sweet, and the EO, which is a lot livelier, but without the sweetness. I'll blend a little of these with each other first, to see what happens.

Some of these oils are pretty fabulous and interesting on their own, especially the ones I've obtained from reputable sources. I really need to get to know them before I can blend with them. This labdanum EO, for example, smells almost medicinal if I smell it neat from the bottle, but has a different character if I get traces of it on my fingers.

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Update: I had a few ml of EtOH left and couldn't resist. I made up a 10% solution of the labdanum EO, added two drops, and... WOW! It's totally transformed, jumps off the strip, and now smell like perfume instead of a sweetish - albeit quite nice - blend of oils. It's probably wildly unbalanced and needs loads of work, but what a difference.

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I think I would say Benzoin was a fairly staple EO in a perfumers palette, but ask yourself what sort of fragrances do you actually like. Do they lean towards citrus or sweet or woody? Get the right things for you. Benzoin will sweeten without overpowering like a vanilla can, but it has a nuance of its own. I think it is useful but it doesn't always blend so well. Find some benzoin posts and see what is said about it before you purchase some. Also if the two of you are beginning at about the same time, then swap some. It will help contain the costs.

Look up the frags you enjoy and get a feel of what sorts of ingredients they contain. Thos will be the right sorts to start with for you. I love Oakmoss.

Tea tree is difficult to work with. I used it here to give a little more freshness to the top notes without adding more citrus. It seemed to blend in to this mix ok though I should probably have diluted it first so I could use smaller amounts. If I had more synthetics I may have included some of those instead, but since I was going for a slightly more fougere fragrance, I'm still happy with it

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I have heaps of benzoin and bergamot if you want to swap for those

I don't know if I'm too late but the Haitian vetiver oil from Olfactik is actually Javanese! I ordered some from them and complained within five minutes of smelling the bottle. They have since updated their website and I've been fully refunded.

Here's more information on what's out there:

http://www.basenotes.net/group.php?groupid=92

No worries!

Thanks for the heads up, though I wouldn't know one from the other atm...

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