by Jim Peterson | Jun 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
I’ve always wanted to smell like the beach, not a crowded beach with its overtones of suntan lotion and salt water on skin, but a solitary beach with a scent like steamed mussels and freshly cracked oysters. On top of this irresistible sea-fresh quality I would find...
by Jim Peterson | Jun 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
I’ve been playing a new game: I reconstruct flowers, working with a list of essential oils, absolutes, and aroma compounds, that gives no quantities. The challenge is to balance the amounts of these ingredients to come up with a viable replica of the flower at hand....
by Jim Peterson | Jun 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
So-called exaltants amplify other smells. Truffles do this by enhancing the flavors around them– an egg cooked with truffles tastes more like an egg. The same thing happens with mature ambergris tincture when it amplifies the smell of the finished perfume; it...
by Jim Peterson | Jun 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
Often when confronted with a new problem, I suddenly get sleepy. I thought this was a defense and just a way of procrastinating, until I realized that during a 15-minute nap, I get a lot of work done. I’ll often awake with solutions to problems or at least possible...
by Jim Peterson | Jun 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
It’s frustrating to discover a fragrance, get all worked up about it, put it on the skin, and have it disappear in 20 minutes. Perfumers describe this phenomenon as caused by a lack of “fixation,” the idea being that certain ingredients— “fixatives” –“fix” the...
by Jim Peterson | Jun 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
It’s one thing to make a satisfying combination of top notes, but it is far trickier to coordinate them with the underlying facets in a perfume. After working on a top-note combination of grapefruit and red peppercorn essential oil, I added aldehyde C-11 enic. for...
