Naturals and synthetics

Heather asked in her comment to an earlier post about where I use naturals and synthetics and how an all natural perfume would compare. So, two or three words about this issue here (and this post won’t be the last on this topic, for sure)
I started with all natural perfumery, aiming for purity and cleanliness and the true, undisturbed pleasure of natural perfumes. Part of it, because I was tired of many modern perfumes which I found disturbingly similar and unfinished. Funny enough, I am a chemist, thus, I have no negative inclination to man made compounds, but I enjoyed working with naturals which are complex and can be developed in so many directions.
Then I met Vero, now a very lovely friend of mine, a mentor of mine, and a perfumer. And she showed my how to use synthetics to set accents and to bring colours to shine, without destroying the charm and uniqueness of the naturals. And this is how I employ synthetic compounds now: I use individual man made compounds (which mostly are molecules that have been isolated from natural sources, such as linalool from lavender) to work around limitations that I found in work with naturals. For instance Le Maroc pour elle. There I use rose absolute and jasmine absolute from Morocco as the middle flower chord. The absolutes are of finest quality, very expensive and I use lots of it. But I also use Phenylethylalcohol (a compound isolated originally from rose absolue) together with linalool to extend the rose, to give it a different quality, to make it less soapy and greener, fitting better with the fresh head note of mandarin and lavender.
Synthetics opened for me the opportunities to come closer to my vision of a scent, to fine tune a composition, to control it so to say. But at the very heart, my compositions are always based on naturals, which cannot be replaced by man made compounds adequately.
How do all natural perfumes and mine compare? They are different… but judge for yourself. (Heather….I will add a sample of Le Maroc pour elle and of the L’air du desert marocain to the promised orange flower absolute.)