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Thursday, December 29, 2005
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A Brand New Venture
Today I received a shipment of 66 essences and absolutes. I'm going to list them all at the end of this post. I'm working on training my nose
to understand as many different essences as possible. There are a lot
of reasons for this.
This isn't really a soap thing, it runs
sort of parallel to the soap thing. Many of these essences are either
too precious to be eaten by lye or the amounts you'd need to use to get
scent would be beyond therapeutic amounts and might be sensitizing. But
I want to learn the essences so that I can learn to formulate real
perfumes. And I want to learn the essences so that I can better judge
the various fragrances/accords that are made to mimic them. Plus, I've
just always wanted to learn about this.
I'm not a trained nose,
and I don't have hundreds-to-thousands to spend on textbooks, nor years
to spend in school, nor resources to go plant myself in France and be
someone's apprentice. I'm going to do it my way. I'm going to take each
of these 66 essences and research it, then live with it for several
days to a week...however long it takes, really, until I feel like I
intimately understand it's odors. I'm in a good position to do this in
a fairly pure way...A drop or two in some jojoba oil and I have a
perfume, moisturizer. A couple drops in my own homemade, unscented
shampoo and conditioner. I can use an unscented soap, or I can put a
drop or two into some liquid castile for now. I have unscented
deodorants, I have unscented fabric softener sheets. I should be able
to surround myself in the appropriate odors one at a time with minimal
distractions and really live with them until I feel like I understand
them.
And yeah, I'll be posting my thoughts on here. Starting with this one:
Of
course, when they all came today I immediately had to open them all up
and sniff them, stopping after 2 or 3 and walking outside for a minute
to clear my head. Many of these essences have names that I was
unfamiliar with...but every single one of the odors was familar to me..
Every single one. This actually doesn't surprise me; I've traveled a
fair amount and I've smelled a lot of perfumes, too. I've always been
one to pull leaves and twigs off of things and sniff them. Ever since I
was little. No, this doesn't really surprise me. It does, however, make
me feel confident that I can do with these odors what I've done with
food in the past: by experiencing them one by one, I can learn to smell
a compilation of many and then pick apart the pieces so that I
understand how it is made.
That's exciting. :)
Essences:
Rose Absolute
Clove Leaf
Anise Star
Basil Sweet
Birch Sweet
Cajeput
Litsae cubeba
Spruce White Amber Refined
Amyris
Angelica
Bay Laurel
Benzoin Resinoid
Black Pepper
Balsam Peru
Blue Tansy
Calamus
Cardamom
Carrot Seed
Catnip
Chamomile Mor
Cinnamon Leaf
Cistus
Clary Sage
Clove Leaf
Coriander
Cornmint Indian
Cypress
Elemi
Eucalyptus Glob
Fir Needle
Galbanum
Grapefruit Pink
Helichrysum
Hyssop
Jasmine Absolute
Lemon
Lemongrass
Lime
Sandalwood Mysore
Mace
Mandarin Red
Marjoram Sweet
Melissa
Myrrh
Neem Oil
Niaouli
Nutmeg
Oregano
Palmarosa
Parsley
Pennyroyal
Ravensara
Rosewood
Rue
Sage
Spikenard
Tagetes
Tangerine
Thyme Red
Thyme White
Valerian Root
Vanilla Boosted
Wormwood
Yarrow
Ylang Ylang III
Labdanum Absolute
5:06:36 PM 
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© Copyright
2006
Melanie Teegarden.
Last update:
1/1/2006; 4:21:36 PM.
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