May 5th, 2011, Cincinnati, OH
Hi Mandy,
I tested all four of my trials yesterday and felt they would benefit from a greater dilution, so I added 1/3 more alcohol to each blend. Will give them a couple of days and re-test.
My biggest issue with these, however, is not the galbanum but the ylang. I will give a more detailed assessment when I try them again.
Liz
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May 7th, 2011, Berkeley, CA
Dear Liz,
I think I may have turned a corner with this perfume. I made a version tonight that I really like. It’s a variation of number six — which is definitely the best so far.
I’m hoping it will retain (or even augment) its beauty overnight, and I will be checking up on it first thing tomorrow.
Mandy
*Later*
Dear Liz
While waiting for that last version (number six) to jump the shark (or not), I decided to pursue another angle.
I began thinking of the galbanum as a green thorn, so my attention naturally gravitated toward rose. I realized that I was partly there already with the vetiver and galbanum, and I was curious what my very rounded and intense rose absolute would do when dancing with the galbanum and ylang.
I also added some blood orange and anise hyssop to the top. I love anise hyssop — I’ve always grown it in my garden where it’s sometimes referred to as licorice mint. I managed to buy a good amount of it from a grower in Oregon and then he disappeared — and it’s just one of those things that I can never get again.
I was hoping that the rich raspberriness of the blood orange would take some of the edge off the thorny galbanum, and that the anise hyssop would add some sweet greenness to the top end.
I had an idea that the richness of these essences could smooth out the edges of the galbanum, and that’s exactly what it did! I think that the perfume, while quite pretty, has lost most of its sharp edge.
Mandy
Galbanum gets its sharp edges filed — photograph by Aftelier
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June 1st, 2011, Berkeley, CA
Dear Liz,
I think I’ve made a perfume that I can say I’m happy with. The final version is suggestive of opposites — warm and cool — but not hot and cold. I just need to come up with a suitable name.
For a long time, I felt deeply that the middle and base were “right” but that the top was slippery and, although it smelled good right after I made it, as the days progressed it began to smell worse and worse in the bottle.
I’ve held onto the idea of a very simple base of vetiver and vanilla. The vanilla that I use is somewhat (but not very) sweet with a lot of complexity and depth. My middle notes are comprised of a very beautiful clary sage with honeysuckle and ylang extra.
For the top, I got rid of the blood orange and found that wild sweet orange was a good match for the sharpness of the galbanum. In earlier versions, I tried to take the edge
off the galbanum with other “more friendly” notes, but then it occurred to me to just stare down the galbanum and go head-to-head with it.
The wild sweet orange is the most intense citrus I’ve ever worked with. It has a high register, is very intense and earthy. It knocked the galbanum back a few paces, which is exactly where it needed it to stand. I also added a little lime and ylang co2 to the top, but what brought the entire perfume into focus was the natural isolate, ethyl
phenyl acetate, which has so many beautiful facets it smells like a bouquet of flowers.
This gorgeous floral, full-bodied with intense honey, rose and ripe fruit notes has a long drydown that is slightly animalic, and I found that it worked to bring everything together at the table.
Warmly,
Mandy
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June 6th, 2011, Cincinnati, OH
Hi Mandy,
Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you.
Here is my final adjustment to the formula. I’ve batched it out and am now adjusting the concentration as it settles. It should be ready to decant in a few days, as my initial percentage of top note was insufficient, so I’m increasing it until I reach the perfect balance.
Again, I made a few changes before coming to the final formulation. I’d used the Givaudan Ylang Ylang key accord, along with Ylang Extra and a Ylang concrete diluted in alcohol, in my Galbanum/Ylang perfume, but found the key accord made the top go all soapy, so I decided to break it down to the components from the accord, that I could use with more efficiency.
Including: Cinnamon in place of benzyl cinnamate/cinnamyl acetate; Geranium Rose in place of geranyl acetate and methyl dianthis; Benzyl Salicylate as itself; Linalyl Acetate instead of linalool; and just a hint of the Toscanol to add character.
I left out the benzyl acetate because I used Jasmine in the form of the absolute and the key accord in dilution. There was no need to amp up this note any more. I also used a dilution of styralyl acetate — or gardenol, as it’s sometimes called — in the opening accord. It offers that distinctive green note in gardenia accords. I also used my Persian Lilac accord in a smaller amount to round out the floral bouquet.
I also opted to use Safraleine in a trace amount, to add a nuance of saffron/leather to the heart of the composition. I tried natural saffron, but it didn’t give me what I was looking for in this blend. The toscanol also has a touch of saffron in its makeup, so the presence of this note is evident as the top notes begin to fade.
My objective was to maintain a green, edgy feel in the opening. By adding the saffron note to the heart, I was also able to add more interest to what would have been just another hum drum floral accord.
Ylang Ylang in an all natural accord can hold it’s own, but when used in a mixed media scent, it can get lost, so I was careful to keep the more powerful materials to a minimum, and yet at the same time, enough to add points of interest along the evolution.
The base is warm and earthy, with an animalic (slightly) musk. Natural benzoin and my house amber accord of labdanum, peru balsam, agarwood and tolu are also included. I really worked not to go too heavy on the base to prevent the bolder materials from weighing down the delicacy of the heart.
I started out with a mid range eau de parfum concentration. My most recent adjustments have the concentration now at 16.5% — adding the top, heart and base accords individually, allows me to make adjustments without having to continuously tweak the overall formula.
I’ll get back to you later in the week, and will be sending both you and Nathan a sample of the perfume.
Best, Liz
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June 10th, 2011, Cincinnati, OH
Hi Mandy,
It’s finished! I’ve come to the end of my long and winding Galbanum/Ylang journey and will be decanting and sending the finished scent to you and Nathan soon.
I’m calling it “Resolve”, as in many ways, it isn’t a perfume at all but rather a strange state of mind that results from having had a tough time surmounting a particular obstacle.
And it’s not so much that I’ve resolved anything specifically, but by working with these materials that I don’t usually think about exploring, my own personal resolve has strengthened. The experience also put several other (back-shelf) materials on the radar for future exploration.
After all my fussing about the top notes, I opted to go big on the opening. Something that I tend to do a lot anyway (why change now?!). After making several adjustments to the top, I kept thinking, “Just a bit more, Lizzie”, until I had a nice little tightly-controlled explosion of green.
Best,
Liz
A controlled explosion of green — photograph by Aftelier
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June 12th, 2011, Berkeley, CA
Dear Liz,
I thoroughly understand the name “Resolve”, and that you call it a strange state of mind. This is a psychological space I’m certainly very familiar with myself.
I’ve always been struck by how much of my life is mirrored in the processes I go through while creating a perfume.
My own Galbanum/Ylang composition will be an EDP, and the name was suggested by Nathan. I remarked that I was having some trouble coming up with something suitable, and he instant messaged me the perfect name later that day: Haute Claire.
It translates to “high” and “clear”, and was also the name of a a famous fictional sword.
*Note from Nathan: the sword is Hauteclaire (aka Hauteclere), the sword of a character in the French epic “The Song of Roland“. It’s described as “being of burnished steel, with a crystal embedded in a golden hilt”.
I felt this name covered the “green razor” aspect of galbanum, as well as the cool and warm duality of the perfume itself.
Thank you, Nathan!
Mandy
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June 13th, 2011, Cincinnati, OH
Hi Mandy,
My perfume is also an EDP formulation, and I do like your name as well. I had a client a few years ago who came up with the coolest names for the scents that I created for her. I was tempted to hire her to name some of mine.
Haute Claire is a name that I would have chosen myself. I usually have a name floating around in my head before I start a scent, as this is part of the profile for me. With this one we’ve been working towards together, I didn’t, not until the very end when I was arm-wrestling the top accord into a kind of submission, though not wanting to tame it or bend it against its nature — just to create a bridge for it to meet on equal footing with the rest of the blend.
But I’ll likely think twice the next time I say something like, “I know — lets make a perfume out of things we hate!” . . . or maybe not.
The bottles I made for you and Nathan are in the mail.
Best
Liz
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June 14th, 2011, Berkeley, OH
Dear Liz,
Interesting that you kick around a name in your head before you start. I almost always name a perfume after I’ve created it, with the creation usually going one of two ways –- very easy, with the name beckoning for me to follow, or it’s nothing but false starts and blind alleys.
False starts and blind alleys was how it was with this one. I couldn’t stop laughing in complete agreement when I read your words: “I’ll likely think twice the next time I say something like, lets make a perfume out of things we hate!”
This was a very difficult perfume for me to complete, as well!
I’m looking forward to receiving the sample bottle of your perfume.
Warmly,
Mandy
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June 28th, 2011, Auckland, NZ
Hello all.
I apologize that it’s been so long between Ep. 3 and Ep. 4 of this letters series between Mandy and Liz, but Liz wasn’t kidding when she said she was having a difficult time getting her galbanum/ylang combo to play nicely with others, and a lot of time passed between letters being written and samples sent out.
I have Mandy’s sample sitting here next to me as I type this, but as is common with international deliveries, Liz’s sample is stuck somewhere in parcel limbo. I might get it tomorrow, or six months from now. There’s no guarantee.
Despite the difficulties both of them faced while working on this particular combination of materials, I’m glad they chose to challenge themselves this way, as the end result (well, at least with the one I have from Mandy at hand) is well worth it. Her Haute Claire is truly a high and clear scent, with a burnished glint and a brilliant crystal flashing.
I’ve been happy with Mandy’s latest forays into lighter, fresher interpretations of natural perfume. All-natural perfumes have had a bad rep for years as muddled and overly complex, yet with her recent Honey Blossom release, and now the sweetly crisp Haute Claire, Mandy’s actively turning that stereotype on its head.
I hope she decides to eventually offer Haute Claire for sale on her website, and I also hope that Liz Zorn’s sample bottle arrives in my mailbox safely . . . and soon!
Nathan
UPDATE:
I should probably add a little more for those curious about Mandy’s Haute Claire scent: it has the sharp, green and near smoky quality of galbanum, while also bringing up the sweet, creamy floral of ylang right alongside. It’s an expert balance of the two — never teetering too much over into blade sharp or creamy sweet — and it carries this balance nearly all the way to the end, only progressively (yet subtly) growing earthier and a bit muskier as it winds on down.
While I greatly admire Mandy’s Honey Blossom fragrance, I consider it quite feminine and pretty, which isn’t really my thing. Haute Claire, however, I’ll purchase and wear the h*ll out of when/if it becomes available.
***This is a continuation of a series. You can find the previous letters between Mandy Aftel and Liz Zorn at the link below:
#1) Mandy Aftel & Liz Zorn: Letters to a Fellow Perfumer (ep. 1)
#2) Mandy Aftel & Liz Zorn: Letters to a Fellow Perfumer (ep. 2)
#3: Mandy Aftel & Liz Zorn: Letters to a Fellow Perfumer (ep. 3)
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