Interview with Perfumer, Roxana Villa

Back in March, the blog editor over at Ziibra contacted me requesting an interview. I replied with a "Yes, I'd love to!" immediately. Here is the link below, what you should know before ready is that I get a bit passionate about what drives and triggers me. There's so much deception in perfume, which includes those working in the realms of botanical and natural, I can't help but bring some authenticity to this bizarre industry I am part of.

Interview with Perfumer, Roxana Villa

Smoke and Mirrors

The world just keeps getting more and more strange, not in a good way in my opinion. I was going to use the word surreal, but I like surrealism, even the word strange may not be appropriate. What has my panties in such a bunch? The lack of truth in perfume but also in other sectors like food which has quite a bit of cross over.

This morning in my inbox was an e-mail from the Organic Consumers Association about the latest theatrics happening with large "organic" corporate poultry farms who want to be allowed to give their chickens more synthetic methionine. Regrettably the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) agreed, despite petitions. "The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) submitted testimony against the Livestock Committee’s petition, along with more than 17,000 signatures on a petition calling on the NOSB to phase out the use of synthetic methionine and honor the Organic Food Production Act (OFPA) requirement of year round legitimate outdoor access."1 Disgusting! Anyway, this incident combined with more and more perfumers throwing around words like "natural" and pretending they actually make the perfumes that have their name on them and they promote has me in a bad mood.

You may recall that back in 2012 I attended a perfumers breakfast meeting where I learned that all main stream perfume, including many uber niche and niche perfumers, don't actually make their perfumes but hire a lab to do so. Here's a paragraph from that post.

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We were educated that all perfumes in the main stream are created by an individual who works at a fragrance house. A company, celebrity or artist comes to a fragrance house with an idea where the staff perfumer begins the process of transforming the idea into a perfume.

Rather quickly many of us in the audience realized that this system would not work for those of us who prefer to construct and formulate are own perfumes. We were told that it was cost prohibitive to create a true natural perfume and that we should consider broadening our palette to achieve a wider reach. Yosh shared how she struggled with the idea of someone else manufacturing/producing her perfumes and letting go of specific ingredients like a beloved Vetiver from Haiti.

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This fact that most main stream niche perfumers use a lab was a huge reveal to me, I had no idea but can see how this would be lucrative. It actually occurs a lot more than you would imagine. The challenge for me is that I don't like that this little kernel of information is kept secret AND that these labs will label some ingredients as "natural" that have nothing to do with nature.

Here's the tie in with the labeling of "organic" poultry that allows a certain amount of synthetics because "the corporation" asked for it. This particular issue is of authenticity is huge to me. I just read somewhere that "millennials", those born somewhere between 1980 and 2000, prefer transparency. If this is true than perhaps this new generation will assist in pulling back the curtain on some of these theatrics reminiscent of this scene from the original Wizard of Oz movie.

1 Organic Consumers Association

May Flowers: Bed of Roses

May Flowers: Bed of Roses
by Laurie Stern

I’ve always had a love affair with flowers, especially roses – they are my favorite May flowers, although I wouldn’t want the daisies to hear me…

"I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck. "
~Emma Goldman

Drawing ©Laurie Stern, created when she envisioned her flower business

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I love flowers so much that I started a flower business on a whim. One day I saw a flower stand and I thought to myself, “I want to do that!” And so I did. I got a permit and bought a vintage canopy bed at a garage sale and named my stand “Bed of Roses.” I went to the flower market and started buying flowers, surrounding myself each day with the most aromatic and glorious of nature’s gifts. I experimented endlessly and discovered for myself the wonders of flower arranging. Soon, my customers were asking me to arrange flowers for their daughter’s weddings, and my little Bed of Roses wasn’t big enough anymore. My business grew and my arrangements became bigger and more elaborate. One day I looked up from the roses and ribbons and 15 years had passed. I left the wedding flower business, though I loved it, and started creating perfume, a different, more ethereal bouquet. But even today, nearly 25 years after I pulled the canopy bed from my tiny truck and set up shop in Kensington, the thought of bridal bouquets and May flowers makes me delirious! I remember making bouquets with trailing jasmine, and adding roses, gardenias, freesias, and sweet peas to form a new flower scent…


It’s amazing how nothing really changes. I’m still arranging flowers, even though I’m not waking up at 2 a.m. and working on weekends. I still bring many ravishing scents together to create a new flower, a new arrangement – all of my perfumes are mixed bouquets. There’s Songbird, my first favorite perfume, a mouth-watering blend of citrus, spices, and sweet, narcotic flowers that unfurls towards a soft, powdery finish. Then there’s Honey, a blend of French orange blossom, Moroccan and Bulgarian roses, deep vetiver, Madagascar vanilla, honey, and beeswax crowned with antique clove, pomegranate, and pink grapefruit. There have been many more perfumes, hundreds in fact, and I put just as much care into creating these bouquets as I did when I filled Tussy Mussies with delicate blossoms and antique French ribbons for my brides. My love affair with flowers continues, always tempting me to try something new. Today, as I stand among the May flowers in my garden, I feel a shiver of excitement, and I can’t wait to see what enchants me next.

Thank you so much, Roxana, for inviting me to contribute to your wonderful May Flowers blog event! You are so gracious and a delight!

Images: Antique postcard from my families collection dated circa 1900, Argentina, Bed of Roses drawing and Bouquet photo ©Laurie Stern.

May Flowers: In Sonoma

Twenty two is considered a master number. It is no coincidence that fellow niche perfume artist Laurie of Sonoma Scent Studio joins our bouquet on such an auspicious day.

May Flowers in Sonoma

Image: Antique postcard from my families collection dated circa 1900, Argentina.

Prince Charming

The Prince of Charm, Andy Tauer, came by for a visit Thursday evening. He brought his partner Werner (pronounced Verner) with him. I was so enchanted that I forgot to document the visit with pictures. When I did remember, the affair felt way too sacred for a camera. In fact I contemplated not posting about it and holding the memory close to my heart.

Andy and Werner arrived here at our little tree house-like abode at 5pm. I was gifted with one of the new Tauer Perfume sample packs, shown above. We began the evening with a toast with some jasmine sambac hydrosol. Then I invited them to my studio for some sniffing. Werner declined on the sniffing and choose to hang with Greg and the fresh guacamole.

Meanwhile, I took Andy on an olfactory adventure through each of my fragrances. As he inhaled each individual perfume, from a freshly dipped scent strip, I noticed that he looked perfectly poised like a ballerina. He stands very erect, as if in second position, and becomes completely devoted to the experience of taking in the scent molecules being offered to him. That was when I wanted to snap a picture, but, I was also extremely conscious of the sacredness of that moment.

During the sniffing he asked lots of great questions and seemed most intrigued by Q, Chaparral Vera and Sierra. In fact Sierra was his favorite of the seven he experienced. He asked how could it be that I use up to 50 different ingredients in one perfume. Thus, I shared a few of the accords that go into Sierra, explaining that each accord can have up to ten ingredients in each one. Andy does not formulate using accords in fact he refers to them bases. He shared that perfumer Vero Kern uses some of this accord methodology.

We probably could have spent the entire night in my studio talking perfume and formulation. Greg came in at one point and reminded us that the guacamole was almost gone, as well as the light. From the house the adventure weaved its way deep into the Santa Monica Mountains just as the sun was starting to go down. The view and quality of light was quite fantastic. The sunlight was being filtered through the pink colored clouds to produce a very surreal and magical landscape. An image I don't think any of us will soon forget.

After our walk we served dinner, followed by dessert and more fragrant journeys. This time we sniffed a variety of ingredients found in my palette. It was fun to introduce Andy to precious essences he had not yet experienced, like Mitti and a co-distillation of Vetiver and Rose. It was also interesting to compare and contrast our tastes. The other item Andy was curious about in my perfume formulation was the process of tincturing.

The evening then turned from the olfaction to visual & auditory. Andy and Werner were taken to Gregs world, where visual art reigns supreme. This time it was Greg's turn to enchant with his new film reel and award winning illustrations.

The Andy and Werner duo are here in California for a few weeks. This past Saturday Andy appeared at The Scent Bar where he will present again on October 17th. For now they are off to the peace and tranquility of L'Air du desert.

Here are my thoughts on Vetiver Dance:
I've been on a high dancing with Andys latest fragrance, Vetiver Dance. It is a stunning and beautiful perfume. He managed to tame vetiver essential oil, which has a tendency to get very heavy and prominent in formulas. Vetiver is one of those notes that is extremely viscous and not necessarily "friendly", a tricky one to manage. Andy expertly choreographed vetiver to dance fluidly in the composition of this fragrance. I am most enchanted with the Ambergris note, is it real or married with the synthetic ambriene? Either way, it is a luscious, velvety note that floats up through the dance as the vetiver diminishes. Read more about Andy's new fragrance at Perfume Shrine.

Andy Tauer Perfumes
Vero Kern
Lucky Scent

Roxana Illuminated Perfume™

Images: Top is a photo I took of Andys perfume sampler gift, Face in the Sunset image© Greg Spalenka, Alchemical bottle on parchment©Roxana Villa and Vetiver Dance image is from the Lucky Scent website.

The Vetiver Dance

Andy Tauer returns to grace us with his presence at the Scent Bar this October. The Saturday, October 4th event is full, however the Friday October 17th slot still has a few openings. Click here to RSVP.

The latest from Tauer Perfumes is "Vetiver Dance", a unisex fragrance focused on Vetiver essential oil. At the event Andy will take us on a tour of how the fragrance manifested, including some of his early rendition.

Andy is a very warm, friendly and entertaining. Check out our journal entry from his presentation last Spring and you will notice how big our smiles are. This is a great opportunity to meet one of the great independent, niche perfumers working today.

Scent Bar
Andy Tauer
Vetiver Dance Review on Perfume Shrine

Roxana Illuminated Perfume™

Image above is from the Lucky Scent website.

Visual and Aromatic Arts

The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place;
from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper,
from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.
~ Pablo Picasso

Yesterday I was filmed here in the studio for an upcoming conference for "solpreneurs" happening this summer. Once I get more details I will post here, it sounds fabulous. I was asked questions regarding what business challenges I face. It's interesting that as a botanical perfumer and visual artist the challenges are quite similar. The main difference is that for an aromatic artist the health of ones sense of smell is paramount to your ability to work. Lately my olfactory sense has been a bit compromised by allergies. It's so frustrating! I can duplicate perfumes which have already been transcribed, however, creating new accords and perfumes can be a challenge. Interestingly enough, sometimes, when I sit down to work my sinuses and breathing clears. I attribute this to the healing powers of the essential oils, focus and working blissfully.

At the moment I continue to work on several custom perfume portraits, new accords, perfumes and the special fragrance I am creating for the Heather Ettlinger Perfume in a Poem Project. Have you been following the project? It's so fascinating to read each perfume artists interpretation of the Ezra Pound poem. Check it out, it's really inspiring. Fellow perfumer and colleague Ayala Moriel was featured yesterday.

Perfume in a Poem Project
Ayala Moriel
Roxana Illuminated Perfume™
Greg Spalenka
The School of Visual Arts

"Butterfly Lady" © Greg Spalenka is an original mixed media painting created for the School of Visual Arts in New York City. The original hangs at school in New York. If you lived in NYC in the eighties and rode the subways you might remember seeing it plastered on the walls.

Jean-Claude Ellena

The cover of yesterdays "Image" section of the Sunday LA Times features an article on minimalist, French, perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena. An interesting read on the fragrance poet and his mode of creating perfume. Chandler Burr, the New York Times perfume critic, did a much more complex portrait in the March 2005 issue of The New Yorker Magazine.
LA Times Article
New Yorker Article
Chandler Burr

Canada: Sensorium, Scent

"Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived." ~ Helen Keller

The sense of smell has been critical to the survival of human beings. Early in our evolution, when we were on all fours, our smell sense was vital to our survival. As we became upright, olfaction was no longer the dominant system. We still depended on it for locating our food, mating, and hunting however the other sense systems began to play a much larger role.

Some interesting smell facts:
* The sense of smell is 10,000 times stronger than any other sense. * Every person experiences the same exact odor differently. * We have a keener sense of smell later in our day. * Woman have a more acute sense of smell than men. * Olfactory nerves can renew themselves. * Each of us has an individual odor thumb print. * The right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for odor recognition. * Smells fall into the following catagories:
minty, floral, ethereal, musky, resinous, foul and acrid.

Smell Idioms:
To win by a nose. The sweet smell of success. I smell a rat. Everything is coming up roses. Smelling like a rose. Nosy. The nose knows. Something smells fishy.
Wake up and smell the coffee!

The word for smell in Spanish and French is "sentir" which means to feel / to smell.

When I heard we were going to Vancouver the first thing I did was to e-mail fellow botanical / natural perfumer Ayala Moriel. Ayala and I have known each other and participated in a few perfume groups and exchanges, but we had never had the opportunity to meet in person. Having arrived in Vancouver late in the afternoon, Greg suggested we go on a walk. As we toured the city by foot he mentioned that the following morning we would be shown an apartment as a potential live space during his stint at Rainmaker Studios. When he told me the address, I looked at him in disbelief. It was the same building that Ayala lived! What synchonisity.
My first visit with Ayala was fun, insightful and inspiring. Like illustrators, niche perfumers spend much time in solitude, cloistered in their ol'factories. It is a delight to meet
other artists working in the same medium, and a double treat when given the opportunity to see how they work. The arena of Natural/Botanical perfume often resembles Gladiatorial contests of ancient Rome. Ayala and I choose not to be part of the adversarial games and see the benefits of an inclusive perfume community.
Upon my arrival I was treated to a custom blended tea made specifically for her perfume Tizrah, meaning linden in Hebrew. In addition to the delicious tea she brought out fresh dates and Ethiopian tahini, as well as chocolate truffles. What an unforgettable and wonderous combination of flavors. I was enchanted with the fresh date and tahini pairing.
Ayala took me up to the studio and introduced me to her consultation process which was followed by experiencing her perfumes and witnessing a bit of her working methodology. She is very warm and willing to share glimpses into her scented realm, including some fragrances still in progress, soon to be released. My favorite of the perfumes I experienced and have samples of include Tamya: a cheerful floral, Caberet: a warm, rosy fragrance and Espionage: a deep, leathery perfume which dries down with a lovely soft and sweet powder note.
Ayala has just debuted her new, very expansive and informative website where you can read more about her and get samples. Additionally you can view a feature of her on CBC TV creating a custom perfume.

The Sense of Smell Institute
Smell Idioms
Ayala Moriel
Ayalas blog

Canada Intro

I've just returned home from a very nurturing, fun, educational and exciting adventure in the British Columbia area of Canada. I feel restored with much to share after such a beauty filled journey.
The trip was a semi-vacation, due to Greg working on a CG (computer generated) animated film at Rainmaker Studios. My daughter, Eve, and I flew up to take in the sights and spend time with Greg while he was in Vancouver. I looked forward to new adventures to feed my inner artist while spending time with both Eve and Greg and getting away from home.
My one strong intention was to connect with a fellow, niche perfumer I have known for several years but never met in person. There is nothing like connecting, one on one, with another artist working in the same medium. This was my chance! Stay tuned as I share the full sensorium from the trip in the next series of blog entries.