Ask the Perfumer – Sunday, January 22, 2012 – until 10 PM EST
I slept in really late today, until 10 a.m. Must be the joy still spilling over into my dreamland that kept me from wanting to wake up, a "hangover" from the wonderful "Joy in January" project. If you missed it, the kickoff was Monday here.
Any questions for me this warm and beautiful day in Miami. I hope to get some gardening in this afternoon, after I bottle up the boronia absolute that arrived last week in the yearly Guild group buy. It's especially gorgeous this year, soft and spicy, sparkling and golden with the freesia-like topnotes. Yummy!
Hi Anya – I am a budding perfumer. I love using labdanum but have difficulties working with a resin. I appreciate jojoba-based perfumes, not so much those in an alcohol base. What I recently did to break down a resin thickness was the addition of, drop by drop, perfumer’s alcohol to the pea-sized dab of until it reached a mixable consistancy, then I succssfiully dded the remainder off the essences. The blend mixed well in the jojoba oil. Do you have any suggestions or working with resins?
Hi Mary,
Not Anya, but maybe I can offer a bit of help. Labdanum absolute will dilute in fractionated coconut oil without a problem and gentle heating the bottle carefully in a water bath. I make oil based perfumes and have about 8 oz. of labdanum absolute diluted to a 10% concentration in fractionated coconut oil right now. This is plenty strong and you could even go down to 5% if you wanted. Gentle heat and mixing well should do the trick. I have no problem with mine. Other resins can be problematic in oils and settle at the bottom. They all act differently and it’s a matter of trial and error with oils. If this is the case when you try this method with other resins in oil, the other option is to do as I do and let it sit and age. What happens is that the carrier oil FCO or jojoba will pick up (infuse) the scent of the material you are infusing over time. I do this with cocoa absolute for example. Once it has developed to your liking, simply use a pipette to draw the clear oil off the top without disturbing the heavy resin at the bottom. My cocoa absolute has been aging for about 2 years and the infused FCO result is FABULOUS! Happy perfuming and good luck, Trace
Hi Mary:
Why don’t you switch to labdanum absolute? Resins tend to be sticky and difficult to work with. I save mine for making incense. Eden Botanicals has an absolute called clear absolute made from the oleoresin, and it’s easy to work with. Not sure of how it works with oil, but it’s a dream in alcohol.
HTH,
Anya
Tracy, thanks for stepping in with a comprehensive post. I think we were both typing at the same time!
I hope you didn’t mind, Anya. 😉
Trace
Hi Anya,
My question is about how to chose unobtrusive heart notes for a perfume that is base heavy, say a wood one, or anything else that is highlighting the base notes.
Best,
HI Fallah:
Sorry for the late reply, I got sidetracked. Most perfumes are built around heartnotes. If you want a base-heavy perfume, please remember that and don’t discount making the heart notes a player, too. I would suggest you look for low-intensity heart notes. Make sure the base notes aren’t too high-intensity to overpower them. Perhaps if you could reword your query, and include some more information next week, I can give you a clearer answer.
HTH,
Anya
No, that was fine, Tracy. 😉