The philosophy of perfume making -

DESIGN YOUR OWN PERFUMES

The philosophy

kodo

There are different ways to start the work of composing perfumes, but the spirit of it should be one: “Kodo“, the Way of Scent, the zen of perfume.

In the Hebrew mysticism all senses bring pleasure to the body except the sense of smell which gives pleasure to the soul.

In the sufi way each “state” is associated with a fragrance, and in semitic languages the word “nice smelling” (Tayyib) is a synonym for the word “good”.

For this reason a would be perfumer should learn his base notes wearing them first of all and, if they are natural, learning their properties in olfactory psychology and aromatherapy.

For many people the encounter with pure essential oils and aromatic raw materials is a shock, because they are used to smell diluted fragrances. Observing this I designed this kit as a first step for the very beginners who have only known commercial diluted perfumes.

They can use each base note singly as a perfume to wear, learning it’s effects on their own soul and observing it’s impact on others.

The kit of diluted essences also allows to know and work with notes whose price would be prohibitive if they were pure, such as Iris absolute or Tuberose, and others who are also difficult to find “undoctored”, at the best of their quality.

The spray bottles of this kit are designed to allow their use as a perfume, in the same way as a usual one, and allows to compose fragrances in a very quick way. Each spraying is a little more than a drop, the scents blend immediately in the vial and you have a fair idea of the final product you would obtain producing an alcoholic base perfume.

I myself use this system to check the result of accords with expensive or rare products, for example I can smell the result of an accord containing Tuberose or Iris or Sandalwood without wasting precious drops of the pure material.
If I like the accord, I shall work on it with pure absolutes and essences.
Moreover I can check accords with material which do not exist as absolutes or E.O., such as Ambergris or some other tincture I make myself.

Obviously the more advance steps are first, using pure raw materials as personal perfume and second, working with them for composing, but the kit of the apprentice perfumer is just an introduction to the art, even if it turns useful to a professional composer.