
Originally Posted by
David Ruskin
To achieve the powdery violet effect you are after you will, I'm afraid, need to use synthetics; mainly the Ionones and Methyl Ionones. To get to something like Violetta, you will need many synthetics and speciallity bases. Cedarwood can help to give part of the powdery note, but won't on its own. Orris is also powdery, but can have a sour earthy greenness which is not what you want. And it costs a huge amount of money. What is the big deal with using Synthetics? They are usually cheaper and, in my opinion, easier to use. An Essential Oil is made up of many different chemicals (often several hundred), and can be thought of as a fragrance in its own right. Much more complex in behaviour, and many more unknowns when used in compounding. A synthetic, whilst it may contain several isomers, is effectively a single material, and so simpler to use.
I don't understand what you mean when you say "my nose is only really accustomed to natural scents". Do you mean you are more familiar with the smell of Essential Oils? If so, this can easily be changed. The first step any and every trainee perfumer should take is to learn their raw materials. Dip a single material, and follow the performance and behaviour of it over a couple of days (and in some cases several weeks) to see how its smell changes over time. This is much more straightforward with a synthetic. Make notes all of the time, and you will know which material is a top note, and which is a back note.
Don't be scared of synthetics, they perform a vitl part in perfumery, and without them we could not get the results we want.