Lies and betrayal

Reading again Guy Robert (les sens du parfum). «La première chose à réaliser pour un futur parfumeur, est de composer sa palette.« The first thing to get done for a future perfumer is to compose his set of tools. In the context, he also mentions that all perfumers have a preferred set of scents to work with and on the other hand certain perfumers did not touch a couple of scents at all. Jean Charles, creator of Shoking, Ma Griffe,…) almost never used clary sage stating that “ce produit m’a toujours déçu”, “this product has always deceived me” .

I also have scents that mislead me time over time again. Angelica seeds being one of them. It is a wonderful scent, smelling like dry, ripe nuts, colourful musk tonality behind a slightly harsh cumin-woody entry note, lasting and very present. It is on the strip, a clear liquid, promising wonderful accords with rose and citrus, empowering vetiver and bringing in additional depth. So I sit there and combine paper strips in front of my nose, listening to charming promises. A picture of a musky rose appears and guided by my strips I start composing. The promised land in sight. But what a betrayal! Angelica never does the things it promises, in my bottles at least. I sit there with a yellow-orange liquid in front of me, full of individual delights, yet the arrangement does not work. It all ends up in a grey, disturbingly old smelling, unbalanced mess. Angelica seed is a mystery to me. Is it a liar? Or….do I not speak Angelica seed language yet?