October 23rd, 2011 / Berkeley, CA
Dear Dawn,
I love anything with oakmoss, and I love where it sounds like you’re going with your perfume. The tuberose, leather, florals, plum and oakmoss sounds like a very rich composition, and just right for this time of the year.
I’m happy with my perfume now. It’s actually been melding and mellowing for a couple of weeks, largely due to the presence of both civet and castoreum musks. I find that animal essences have an alchemical effect on a perfume, subtly changing everything (for the better), and that it takes a while for them to fully develop in formulae.
Here are the final notes that went into the perfume, which I’m calling “Secret Garden” — a name that was suggested to me by Nathan.
Top: bergamot, bois de rose, geraniol, blood orange
Middle: jasmine sambac, raspberry, Turkish rose, blue lotus
Base: civet, castoreum, vanilla, deer-tongue, benzoin, aged patchouli
*Note from Nathan: The name “Secret Garden” was a result of Mandy writing to Dawn in Letters #3 that “I feel as though this perfume I’m working toward is a secret room, and I’m locked out — I keep trying different keys”, which made me think of the early 1900s novel ‘Secret Garden‘ by Frances Hodgson Burnett, about a young girl who couldn’t find her place in the world until she’d unlocked the door to a hidden, neglected garden and brought it back to life.
Finding the key to unlock the door — photo by Aftelier Perfumes
I always learn so much when I create a new perfume, and that was particularly true this time around: now I know that when the creation of a formula is giving me an enormous amount of difficulty, it means that, at the root, I’m doing something that’s wrong for me.
This doesn’t mean that making perfumes comes easily to me most of the time, as often I’ve struggled and struggled over the process of creating a new perfume, but there is an anchoring aspect to a composition that needs to feel right, creatively, for me.
Some artistic struggles are worth engaging and others are best let go. I was surprised that there was something to the aromatic connection of osmanthus with tuberose that was an obstacle to me –– that the aesthetic problem didn’t draw me toward it in any inspiring way, even though I initially assumed it might when we first agreed on the pairing.
After breaking free from the osmanthus + tuberose limitation, one of the most exciting elements for me in creating “Secret Garden” became the addition of a raspberry compounded isolate. The second I smelled this lush, slightly violet raspberry aroma, I felt it was nearly begging me to mix it with jasmine sambac. I almost always follow these intuitive leads, if only just to see where they take me.
Another aspect of this perfume that intrigued me ties into its title, “Secret Garden” — and that was the challenge of creating a sense of illusion, a hidden space inside the perfume itself that would act as an intimate, sheltered alcove at the end of a twisting path.
I felt the best way to accomplish this was to create a spice note that wasn’t actually a spice — a phantom spice resulting from the marriage of the jasmine sambac with the raspberry that was like a beautiful path in a lush garden suddenly opening onto a blind alley, and there I was.
The end of my journey and a sublime place to rest.
I would love to exchange samples with you and will be sending mine out to you tomorrow. I haven’t had the chance to smell any of your perfumes before, and after hearing so many wonderful things about your work, it will be a treat to finally smell something you’ve made.
Warmly,
Mandy
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November 3rd, 2011 / Boulder, CO
Dear, Mandy~
You know, now that you mention it, I haven’t had the pleasure of smelling any of your creations before, either. How odd that seems. So this will be a real treat for me, and I hope for you as well.
I’m really looking forward to experiencing your work in general, and especially “Secret Garden” with that fabulous sounding raspberry compound and deer-tongue absolute.
I also noticed that you do indeed keep to a very edited dynamic between your ‘player’ notes, judging by your list. I think that you’ll be surprised (or maybe not) by my own notes list. I generally employ a very multi-faceted approach, especially when working with a grand floral bouquet perfume — or what this perfume has morphed into for me: a fruity-floriental-chypre.
So, while I have finally completed my perfume, I haven’t settled on a name yet. This isn’t unusual for me, though. Sometime the creative ‘words’ show up first and the perfume is an expression of those words but many times the perfume emerges and then I get to figure out what the name is.
Although I kept with the original concept of osmanthus and tuberose, it did go to a very different place. My original ‘brief’ doesn’t really work anymore. I think that I will need a little more time to figure out just exactly what the vibe and therefore the name really is.
Figuring out the vibe — photos by DSH Perfumes
I have to say that this experience of design via our letters has been extremely interesting. I have never worked this way before and can only imagine how many beautiful perfumes you have made and will make through this process. Thank you so much, for you and Nathan, for creating this venue and process. It’s been a wonderful journey together; one that I will miss.
I will send you a sample of my design “Untitled” (for now) as well as some others for fun. I hope that you will love them.
All my best,
Dawn
P.S. — I nearly forgot to mention the final note list! Here it is:
Top: botanical spiced plum accord, bergamot, orange blossom absolute and broom absolute
Heart: osmanthus absolute, grandiflorum, sambac and juhi jasmine absolutes, rose damask, centifolia rose, tuberose absolute, tuberosa accord, ylang ylang and french beeswax
Base: orris concrete, benzoin, labdanum, Australian sandalwood, East Indian patchouli, green oakmoss, leather, vanilla absolute, castoreum and civet
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November 6th, 2011 / Auckland, New Zealand
Hello Mandy and Dawn:
I’m working on getting the Letter #5 ready to publish, but realized I had a couple of questions.
Dawn, I just wanted to clarify about your perfume — it’s mixed-media, correct? You had mentioned working with a mix of botanical and synthetic materials in Letter #4, but didn’t mention in this last letter as to what the final result was, and I know readers are going to be wondering how that turned out for you.
If you’re doing a mixed-media scent, would you be willing to post a full ingredients list instead of a notes list?
I assume you’re not using genuine civet and castoreum, or are you? What is it you put together to achieve your “leather” note? You had mentioned in Letter #4 that you were planning on using a tuberose accord that incorporated a synthetic ingredient. Would you be interested in explaining to the readers what you used to achieve that?
And how did you arrive at a spiced-plum accord? You mentioned in Letter #3 about creating one, but didn’t talk about what went into it. Is this information that you’d be willing to share?
And to Mandy: is your “notes” list for “Secret Garden” a comprehensive ingredients list? Since you’re working strictly natural, your notes list is often assumed by readers (and by myself, as well) to be the full ingredients list, but I wanted to be certain of that before I made any comment of the sort. Did you list the full composition, or only the main players?
Best,
Nathan
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November 6th, 2011 / Berkeley, CA
Dear Nathan,
Yes, that list of essences that I sent to you is complete and lists all the essences I used to create the perfume, including the civet and castoreum musks.
I actually have never bought new civet. I have civet that is a hundred years old and civet that is of an indeterminate age. I bought both of them — at different times — from two different perfumers’ collections. A man called me up and told me that he had many absolutes that were a part of an estate that he bought. He had wonderful oils that I think were at least 25 years old, maybe much older: honey, broom, mastic, castoreum, orange flower and civet. This is the civet that I used for Secret Garden.
The hundred year old civet came from a collection of mostly synthetic oils that I bought on eBay many years ago. The majority of the bottles arrived at my studio broken, and they were truly dreadful. The air in my studio was polluted for days. But tucked in among the foul smelling stuff were two old bottles of civet — they were honeyed, mellow and absolutely gorgeous.
I haven’t ever used them in a perfume but I do love smelling the bottles. They’re a part of my collection of antique essences that I keep on hand for my own pleasure, and also as instructional tools. The process of aging can dramatically impact various natural essences — some, like patchouli and civet, for the better.
The castoreum tincture in “Secret Garden” is one I made myself from actual beaver castor. I had the aged castoreum that I got in the same lot with the civet, but I’d never smelled actual castoreum tincture and I was eager to see what it smelled like. I cut the castor up into small pieces — the inside of the sacks were filled with an ochre-colored paste which I covered with 200 proof alcohol, then I heated and stirred the tincture for 6 hours.
I aged it for a month afterward and then filtered it. It turned into this rich brown liquid that smelled slightly roasted, leathery and sweet.
Warmly,
Mandy
A bottle of the soon-to-be-released “Secret Garden” – photo by Nathan Branch
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November 6th, 2011 / Boulder, CO
Hi, Nathan~
Yes, indeed my perfume is mixed media. I haven’t crunched the numbers just yet to get the exact figure but I expect it to be approx 90% naturals and 10% synthetics. I really felt that my design needed the extra support that the synthetics offer (and when I say support, I mean it quite literally, like supports in architecture that hold the structure up and give it a stronger shape).
I don’t disclose the structure within a mixed media or synthetic accord specifically (trade secrets and all) but the castoreum was real (a 5% solution) and the civet was a standard civet synthetic.
The spiced plum accord is a careful balancing act of the elements. It is a matter of coaxing out the fruity/ jammy notes of the osmanthus, davana, cassis bud and labdanum to balance with the spices and the vanilla / patchouli (which gives the element of ‘skin’ to the design). The rose de mai is a much needed heart and adds a subtle spice and overall ‘rich redness’ to the aroma character. The vanilla adds some sweetness and thickness, but you must be very careful with it — it’s very easy to add too much and you’ve lost the fruity character.
The leather note I referred to is an “implied” note, not a direct “I added a leather note” kind of thing. What I mean is that by adding certain elements of the perfume, they can interact to work on multiple layers of the structure; for instance, the labdanum is used in the plum note and the leather note. Different facets of the labdanum work in brighter and deeper note levels simultaneously.
I work to teach my apprentices and interns about ‘implied notes’ so that they think about designing within the perfume structure itself ways to make it seem as though there are notes occurring that are not actually added. The oakmoss, labdanum, cedarwood, styrax and castoreum, along with elements of the osmanthus absolute, serve to ‘imply’ a leather note, although I didn’t actually add one.
So below is the more detailed notes list:
Spiced plum accord — botanical* (allspice, clove bud, cinnamon bark, bois de rose, osmanthus absolute, cassis bud, davana, rose de mai, vanilla absolute, labdanum, patchouli and castoreum), galbanum, broom absolute, bergamot, orange blossom absolute – Moroccan, osmanthus absolute, tuberose absolute, tuberose accord* (synthetic tuberose and tuberose absolute), damask rose absolute – Turkish, rose de mai, grandiflorum jasmine – Egyptian, juhi jasmine absolute – India, sambac jasmine absolute – India, beeswax absolute, ylang ylang, orris concrete, labdanum, atlas cedarwood, Australian sandalwood, benzoin, vanilla absolute, green oakmoss, patchouli, styrax, synthetic civet and implied leather.
And we finally came up with the name for this perfume — Mirabella.
Best,
Dawn
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ADDENDUM: November 8th, 2011
*Note from Nathan: I emailed Dawn again to ask what she means by “standard civet synthetic” — is there only one synthetic civet on the market? If there’s more than one, where did she get hers and why did she choose it (and any other synthetic materials she uses) above others that are available? Her reply is below:
Hello Nathan –
The synthetic notes I chose to use were tuberose and civet. As I mentioned in my last email, I felt that the structural integrity of the perfume overall needed to be strengthened, so I chose to add some synthetics to support the plum accord above the rich woody / animalic base. The tuberose synthetic expands the tuberose note in general, and I chose a more spicy / textural tuberose that hooks into the spices in the plum note and the woody notes in the base.
There are many synthetic compounds to choose from for various notes to build or expand upon. For instance, tuberose synthetics can be more waxy / creamy and somewhat jasmine or orange blossom oriented, or they can be more earthy / spicy / textural. And believe it or not even the civet synthetics can vary from slightly woody / patchouli-like to very, very urine-like and almost putrid. Synthetics can be as varied and interesting as naturals in this way.
When choosing synthetic materials to purchase, I tend to look for variation, meaning that I collect multiples in the same way that I would have rose absolute Maroc as well as Turkish, Indian and Bulgarian. At this point, for example, I have 9 variations of synthetic ambergris. I wish to have the perfect note on hand that will exactly fit my need in the design for aroma and structure.
So, to complete this thought about the choices I made with my 10% synthetics in this design, I chose my textural, rich tuberose note (that I had mixed with tuberose absolute to complete the accord) and a very dilute ‘strong’ civet that, when diluted, displays a nuance of animalic honey. I find this particular civet activates other honey nuances in the floral absolutes in the heart bouquet while fixing and enriching the base note.
All my best,
Dawn
***This is the conclusion of the Mandy Aftel & Dawn Spencer Hurwitz series. You can find the previous letters between Mandy and Dawn at the links below:
Letters to a Fellow Perfumer: Mandy Aftel & Dawn Spencer Hurwitz (ep. 1)
Letters to a Fellow Perfumer: Mandy Aftel & Dawn Spencer Hurwitz (ep. 2)
Letters to a Fellow Perfumer: Mandy Aftel & Dawn Spencer Hurwitz (ep. 3)
Letters to a Fellow Perfumer: Mandy Aftel & Dawn Spencer Hurwitz (ep. 4)
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