Woodland Fresh

Spontaneous new photo of the Sierra Solid Gold mini compact. Although Vera and Page 47 are the fragrances that are trending at the moment, Sierra seems the obvious choice to me for the holidays. The evergreens in the solid perfume are orchestrated with a special prosperity chord that contains frankincense and myrrh. There is also spice and vanilla which counters the fresh conifers with a warm, gourmand notes.

Here is what a customer in NYC, who recently ordered a compact says about it: "Sierra: outdoorsy, mystical, energizing, alluring. This makes me feel so alive and vibrant. Thank you!"

An Odoriferous Potion

The last week or so I've been craving a "stinky" note in perfume, not only to wear but also to include in formulations. This must be why I love Chaparral so much, it has it. What is the stinky note, called "rank" by perfumistas? Well, for moi it has an element of oud. It's earthy, musky, wild, indole-ish, sour, and grounding. GreenWitch has a bit of a ranky note, reminds me of kimchi, but that's note the one I'm after.

Vetiver, patchouli, labdanum, myrrh, spikenard are some of the botanicals with the right characteristics but not quite. As I mentioned oud is closer to it and will be included. Thus, to satisfy my olfactory fervor I'm going to make a "stinky" chord which will be included in various natural botanical perfumes but will also be made into a solid for me.

Now, off to package more orders and begin sniffing of all my aromatics to find the notes for this foul, odoriferous potion.

Image: Botanical illustration of Myrrh on parchment

Perfume Illuminated: Duets

"On hearing that sonata,
I could no longer tell whether I was breathing music or listening to scent."
~ Guy Maupassant

Perfume borrows much of its linguistics from music, the aromatic field blooms with words like accord/chord, note(s), orchestration, composing, organ, tone, harmony. Perfume is illuminated today by the concept of duets, another musical term. A duet is defined as a musical composition performed with two individuals or two instruments. For flavor and fragrance this translates into two individual ingredients paired together, like a good marriage, to form a whole greater than the sum of their parts.

FRAGRANCE

Artists often look toward patterns and connections when creating a composition. In the creation of botanical, natural perfume there are specific notes that I have learned work well together. Many times when I am sitting at my drafting table, working out the details of a perfume, I will take into account what materials pair well together. Coupling together notes, often in groups of larger than two, is referred to as an accord or chord. I am rather abundant with generating chords. The best way to begin is by paring two notes that work well in unison, here are a few based on allied aromatics, I encourage you to discover others.

Jasmine + Ylang Ylang
Vanilla + Tolu Balsam
Patchouli + Rose
Vetiver + Clary Sage
Cabrueva + Sandalwood

Some essences are like social butterflies, they are very friendly and blend well with most. Others are curmudgeons and can be tricky or need a little coaxing.

FLAVOR

Some flavor duets that immediately come to my mind are:

Salt + Pepper
Peanut Butter + Jelly
Cumin + Red Pepper Flakes
Basil + Tomato
Kalamata Olives + Feta Cheese
Chicken + Orange

I discovered this website which has a food pairing tool which is fun, some of the flavors they are putting together seem really unusual and worth exploring. Who would have ever thought of combining Mango with Peppermint?

Images:
Music, Heavenly Maid by Sir Edward John Poynter all other images Roxana Villa.

Scent of the Day: Amber

The weather here has been wildly dynamic. In one day I can shift from yoga pants and a spaghetti strap tank to several layers of wool. Late last night Madame Wind Element decided to make her presence known. She moves through the canyon, announcing her arrival as we here her dance through the trees. The sound is very much like the ocean waves.

This Moonday morning beckons for something warm, I've already got a ridiculous amount of wool on from cashmere fingerless gloves, two cardigans, thermals, a crochet skirt, a scarf around my neck and a second larger one draped over my shoulders. Who would guess I am in sunny California! However, within a few hours I may be peeling it all off.

One of the very first accords I ever created was Amber. I now have several different varieties of Amber accords. The material "Amber" within the realm of botanical/natural perfumery is either a fossil resin from the fir tree, Pinus succinifera or most often an accord. There is quite a bit of confusion with the term because it is used to define many different types of scented items. The etymology of the word stems from the Arabic anbar, referring to ambergris. Ambergris is a substance produced by the cachalot whale. In modern times many fragrance developers have created incense and perfumes called Amber, which are composed of a variety of ingredients including many synthetics aroma chemicals.

As a botanical perfumer I have created several Amber accords utilizing resinous materials such as Labdanum, Benzoin, Conifer, Frankincense, as well as Woods, Patchouli, Vetiver, Oakmoss, Clary Sage and Vanilla. Some of my accords are so complex they venture into the terrain of a full fledged perfume.

This is what is on the drawing table for today. Greg has asked me to make more of his signature Amber, friends are asking for the release of the perfume I have been calling Amber and there are accords that need to be made for existing perfumes.

Amber accords are found in Lyra, Aurora, Sierra, Vera and Greenwitch. I've selected to display Lyra as our Scent of the Day poster child, since of the the five mentioned, her Amber accord is the most prevalent.

A Secret in the Forest

The main green notes in perfumes come from leaves and stems which give the impression of the scent of grass and crushed leaves. Heather Ettlinger of the blog “Memory and Desire” has just posted an entry about green perfumes which include our “Q” and Sierra. When I begin a perfume I don’t generally start with the idea of working within a particular fragrance family, perhaps that’s the rebel artist in me. Instead I start with an idea and create the perfume using notes which will best convey the idea. With the perfume Q, it began as a tribute to Beltane which auspiciously led to the Oak. In the case of Sierra, it was the great Redwood trees of the Pacific coast which began the long and winding road of its creation.

About a week ago I was in the midst of making a new batch of Sierra, for some reason this perfume in particular has been rather challenging for me. The perfume contains multiple chords within chords, worlds within worlds, thus when it is reformulated all those chords need to be ready and matured in order to begin. I had just finished the new batch and had three family members take a sniff and give me their impressions. The feedback wasn’t quite what I needed. Greg suggested I ask someone within the perfume arena to give me feedback. The next morning, to my delight, I received a message from Heather Ettlinger with her impression of Sierra. I was delighted at how swiftly spirit had intervened to provide input and am so grateful for Heather. Here are bits and pieces from the e-mail she sent me, which she graciously has permitted me to post.


For the last four days, I have been delving steadily deeper into the forest of the green-colored sample of Sierra. The first time I applied it, I was stunned by its lush dark greenness - almost the blackgreen of the evergreens in Austria, and a real sense that I was deep inside that forest in the midst of a snowfall, with the black branches blocking out light and snow and creating an otherworldy pocket of warmth. The top notes are quite camphoraceous in the first few minutes, and I was a little concerned that this would go bitter, as some camphoraceous notes can turn bitter on me.

How astonishing, then, to find that just fifteen or twenty minutes into that lush forest, I found myself enjoying what seems like it must be orange, spice, and perhaps the ambery resin of labdanum?

It's as though in the middle of an immense and forbidding black forest (Percival probably entered the Great Woods in search of the Grail at just such a point of darkness) I was standing at the doorstep of a cottage, the candlelight and shine of warmth and laughter radiating from within it. I imagine here that it is advent, and this couple is celebrating the winter festivals in their hidden forest home, but they have spared no expense for their guests who have wandered here, enchanted, just as I have. The lady of the house has taken us all in, the fugitive princess hiding in a tiny cave, the weary beggar, the dancing girl, and two tiny little men with bright violet eyes, who speak no language we know, but understand all we say. We sit late into the night; the table is decorated with living branches, sap pouring through the greenery onto the table and crystalizing into amber gems before us. An intoxicating tea is served with exotic fruits, studded with spices. It is a long, marvelous evening, much longer than we thought possible.

This scent lasts much longer than I would ever expect a botanical scent to last, and it has real backbone - real courage! I adore it, Roxana. Sierra remains lively and interesting through a good eight hours..

I am very happy to have had the opportunity to try this lush green walk in an enchanted woods, and if I am the princess hiding in the cave, I am brought out of it and into a home of safety through this deliciously inviting scent. In short, I love it.

Inspired,
Heather

The botanical perfumes “Q” and Sierra each give a portion to a related organization from the sale of the 1/4 oz flacon of perfume. "Q" is affiliated with the California Oak Foundation and Sierra is affiliated with TreePeople. Both these perfumes are part of our series celebrating the
aromatic landscape of the state of California. Learn more about the Californica series by clicking here.

Entirely Green on Memory and Desire
Roxana Illuminated Perfume™

Images: Above "Sierra" © Greg Spalenka, middle image is a secondary image used for Sierra from our website, the other image is a painting by Sir John Everett Millais titled The Proscribed Royalist 1651, Date: 1852-53 from ArtMagick.

Spring

Everything is blooming most recklessly;
if it were voices instead of colors,
there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.
~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke

Spring has most definitely sprung here in the Santa Monica Mountains. The little chickadees are out in mass, bunnies abound and the Oaks are blooming! In fact, I don't think I've ever seen the Oaks bloom like they are now. So along with all the wonders of Spring, allergies have hit in full force. (Yuck!) It's also time for Spring cleaning, or re-organizing in my case. The studio is in complete chaos at the moment as I get rid of old art supplies and re-structure the space to accommodate my vast collection of aromatics.

It's super busy here to with six custom perfumes, orders and a new perfume ready to release in the next month and upcoming classes. I've created an amber type chord I am currently calling "DIRT", its not fresh, vegetative dirt, more like desert rain dirt. Two of the perfumes I've been working on were in need of something like this. The aromatic profile is so terrific, I can see wearing it on its own. Alright, it is not technically a true perfume, but heck, it sure smells delightful and perfectly in tune with the season. A botanical perfume chord for planting ones seeds of manifestation.

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
~ Margaret Atwood

Happy Birthday to my beloved Greg, today marks his half centennial existence on our lovely blue planet. Time to make merry and prepare for the numerous celebrations that await! The illustration above is one of his digital images, originally created for the Laguna Art Institute.
©Greg Spalenka www.spalenka.com

Roxana Illuminated Perfume™

Layers

“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.” ~ Anais Nin

Eve and I are voracious in our appetite for good stories. Sunday evening we decided to check out the new Arclight Movie Theater and see the film Atonement. Our hunger was fulfilled with multiple courses of love, wit, beauty and tragedy.

As I put on sheaths of silk and woolens this morning with an intention of staying warm while blending, I contemplated the importance of layering. Layering in all aspects of life adds complexity and thus creates interest. This is evident in the mastery of the film Atonement as well as the storytelling of the TV series LOST.

When creating botanical perfume we create layers of similar notes, called chords or accords, and then blend those for the final orchestration of the perfume opera. I've created several chords to work with including variations of wood, floral, rose, citrus, leather, spice, green, amber, musk, jasmine, carnation and velvet. Some of these are simple perfumes, soliflores in their own right.

Multiple chords in perfume, are like those wonderful layers in great storytelling, seamlessly blended to create a synergy greater than the sum of its parts.

See how Greg creates his lovely illuminations, including Lotus Fairy,
clicking on the Bouquet button here, at right:

Cheers to the Bards!
www.illuminatedperfume.com

Atonement, the movie
Ian McEuwen
LOST

Image above: One of the many layers used to create the final image Lotus Fairy, by Greg Spalenka. The Bouquet button is an image he created for his website.