Scentzilla and jungle mixes

Today, there are many notes browsing within the 1 kg grey matter sitting on top of my shoulders. First this one: Thank you Katrina for your kind e-mail and thank you for sharing your thoughts on perfumes on your scentzilla blog within the nervous network of this planet (a picture for the www that I have seen on Luca Turin’s blog. I like this formulation, it is perfect). Yesterday, there was time to do some reading in Katrina’s pink weblog on perfumes and I came across the issue of outside temperature on the development of a perfume, exemplified for Floris’s Pink Grapefruit. Staying power on the skin being one issue (which will be a topic on this blog, soon) and overall unfolding of the scent palette being another. Et voila: Yet another challenge for the perfumer to foresee and control. Floris is brave in this sense as the challenge is linked with simplicity and reduction. Having just a few colours and still create an oeuvre which is rich, full-bodied, and holding together is very difficult and leaves no room for errors. You can just draw a few lines and each of it must be exactly right otherwise things will fall apart. Maybe I personally wouldn’t go that far to combine grapefruit and sandalwood in a single line, but reduction is always an issue. And a fight with yourself as there are so many wonderful scents that might fit within a fragrance you are creating. It is always an act of will not to add just a little bit of Corriander or Lavender or Rose or a hint of vanilla or……. the danger of the jungle mix looming around the corner. Suddenly, you find yourself within a green, flowery, vanilla, orchid and woody labyrinth with Godzilla roaming close by.