As you may have noticed, I love perfume. So much so, that I started a blog about it, even though I never went to perfumery school, and learned everything I know from my own extensive research. As I'm sure you can all guess, a dream of mine would be to create my own personalized perfume, and thanks to Covid-19, and the amazing Maison Galimard, I was able to do this from home.
Firstly, I ordered the Galimard Élève Parfumeur creation kit, containing 18 pre-concentrated essences directly from Grasse, a graduated cylinder, a pipette, several mouillettes, which are special paper strips for perfume sampling, and a 100mL bottle where I mixed and placed my final creation. Once my very anticipated package arrived in Montreal from Grasse, I coordinated with a nose from Galimard, named Deimante, and we met virtually at 7am EST on April 6th 2021.
The course started off with Deimante explaining some of the basic perfumery notions, like what an essence is, how perfume duration depends on the concentration of essence and she explained the different types of notes, however, I had already acquired all this knowledge from my extensive research on the topic.
We then proceeded to discover the different pre-concentrated essences, meaning that they were already mixed with alcohol, so that I did not have to do so. Deimante explained that perfume creation always starts with the base notes, as these scents are going to influence the rest of the fragrance, as it gets more complicated, and will last the longest. After sampling my six choices, my favourites ended up being Ambre Oriental, Praline, Bois Tonka and Accord Musc. Going into this class, I already knew that my favorite perfume family is floral, and I tend to enjoy soft floral the most. Although three of these scents, Bois Tonka, Praline and Accord Musc, which I used 1.5mL of each, are often used in floral perfumes, I surprisingly also enjoyed the Ambre Oriental essence, which leans more towards the woody oriental family. By adding 0.5mL of this essence, I ended up with 5mL out of my 10mL perfume as base notes. Before adding each separate note or accord, I would use the mouillettes to sample my perfume, and would also sample different base notes with my creation so far to see how they would blend together, and if I enjoyed different notes once they were put together.
I used the same process to sample the heart notes and add them to my perfume. This time, even Deimante noticed how much I love floral fragrances. I opted for middle notes of Pivoine, Fleur de Grenadier, Jasmin Musqué and Bambou with a total of 3mL. Last came the head notes, where I preferred Lichee, Rose Fruitée and Thé Vert. This was an interesting choice for me, because none of the notes are floral. Lichee and Rose Fruitée are both fruity notes, which are considered part of the fresh fragrance family, and Lichee and Thé Vert, are both soft Oriental notes. Deimante explained that certain notes, such as Lichee, can belong to multiple fragrance families depending on what other notes they are used in conjunction with.
After the informational and enjoyable process of actually creating a perfume, Deimante clarified that I must leave the fragrance sit for a minimum of two weeks before applying it. Similarly to wine, perfumes also need to undergo an aging process, usually in a dark and cool place. This will allow all of the various essences to blend together nicely and the overall fragrance will be more coherent and “round”, as Deimante said. After the course, I ended up making an even larger quantity of perfume, since the small 10mL quantity I made with Deimante was simply not enough for me!
All in all, this was a truly incredible experience. I enjoyed the creative and scientific process of making a perfume, like experimenting with essences, and I was glad to share it with the world on my blog (www.leaudoreebydanae.com) and instagram (@leaudoreebydanae)!
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