by Jim Peterson | Jun 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
When my tinctures started smelling like isopropyl alcohol, panic moved in. My first thought was that tincturing in the light had been a mistake and that I had bleached the ambergris and made it worthless. Desperate, I searched around and landed on Wikipedia. Then I...
by Jim Peterson | Jun 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
Eight years ago, I didn’t know what ambergris was. It all started with a book from the fifteenth century, entitled De Honesta Voluptate translated into English as On Right Pleasure and Good Health, published in Latin with an English translation on the facing page. In...
by Jim Peterson | Jun 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
A perfume’s “top” notes evaporate fast. Within 15 minutes or so there’s little left of them. This makes them no less important to the finished creation. They are the first aromas one smells and, in fact, are often experienced by those who wear them and no one else....
by Jim Peterson | Jun 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
Perfumery: Practice and Principles, by Robert R. Calkin and J. Stephan Jellinek describes the “heart” notes, also known as “middle” notes, of L’Air du Temps. A floral bouquet builds on the base notes (see last post), and becomes the heart and central theme of the...
by Jim Peterson | Jun 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
Perfumery: Practice and Principles, by Robert R. Calkin and J. Stephan Jellinek, is my favourite perfume book. First published in German in 1954, it came out in English 40 years later. My first copy fell apart and I’ve had to order another. Chapter 12, “Selected Great...
by Jim Peterson | Jun 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
When I was a toddler, things smelled very strong. Vegetables were revolting–cauliflower smelled like vomit, Brussel sprouts like something long dead. It wasn’t until my twenties, that I began to use this sensitivity for more pleasurable effect. In the 1970s,...
