just some random
written on 2023-01-25thinking about vocabulary, new vocabulary for things. molecular vocabulary, mineral vocabulary. a vocabulary of compounds. i like poetic computation because it's wordplay. same with astrology too.....
a romance of molecules!
on my drive down to class today i was thinking about how my mom made me memorize the entire periodic table when i was 12. i wrote 103 slides, one for each element, including key facts about each, over the course of one summer. most of them don't mean anything to me now...i mean i think the noble gases are pretty cool but that's about it. nevertheless, i was thinking about how one of the delightful things about a new study or practice is becoming fluent in that new vocabulary. slip, score, slab, pinch, i like how the language of clay sounds like the feeling of touching it. i like the word flux, i like the word pyrometric, i like the word grog. you can stretch the clay, push, pull, wedge, throw. i love all the names of minerals (silica, feldspar, whiting, kaolin, nepheline syenite, and especially spodumene! zircopax! which don't even sound like real words). i'm thinking about vocabulary that operates in its own plane of understanding...a vocabulary of elements, of compounds. words that are richer and varied because they can't be collapsed...many different disciplined dialects
i was thinking of this after talking to my dear friend about perfumes. a vocabulary of molecules, accords, notes. oils, pheromones, skin and flush...it's just another discipline of intuition, of our bodies and things we encounter? some excerpts from notes taken during a perfume class i took in 2020
indole (indul?) -- old book smell, mothballs one of the components of jasmine synthetics?
perfumes in the industry/perfumers are overwhelmed, the industry is saturated w the same materials and scents
bourmond? sweet perfumes? angel thierry mugler
perfume is a purposeful reminder you place on your body - you place an idea into a perfume
a scent that reminds you of someone
marissa puts bergamont in everything ---
bergamont -- top note, citrusy, warm, zest, an old raw material, citrus fruit that looks like a giant lemon, oil comes from the rind
ylang complete -- heart note, in between top and base, floral, camphor, wintergreen altoids, cough syrup!
taking a break -- it's more psychological, going outside, smell your clothes, smelling better in the morning
marissa would wake up at 5 am to blind smell scents
smells change over time!!!
peru basalm -- vanilla-y
lavender -- top note, soapy
oak moss is a base note -- stays for a while, chocolate, manure. ASS
perfume is very intuitive!!!
conifer/pine
lime -- functional products, sour candy
chypre -- "feminine" fragance with oak moss
all herbal notes are top notes
vetiver -- of the earth, nutty,
green leaf -- like a green leaf/aquatic
patchouli -- woody, smoky, tea
tonka bean -- cherry, tobacco
white musk key -- clean, a strong base note (will stay for a week), a structure at the base of the perfume, softer, cleaner,
cologne key -- lime, green leaf, cologne-y,
accord -- short formula, 3-15 raw materials (perfumes are 15+)
find one or two raw materials that you are drawn towards, work with them, find ways to focus on one or two and amplify assets of it
what's this perfume for? howare u using it ? is it for someone else? how do you want it to be?
perfume matriarchy -- perfume lineages
friends w the same perfume perfume connects people in ways that are intimate, but its hard
folklore,
three things -- feeling that you want the perfume to evoke, notes or smells you want in it, descriptor words (color, texture), what occasion you're envisioning the perfume
- morning
- feeling in the dark
- ray of light, dust
- steam from the rice cooker, a scent that rolls gently (isn't sharp)
- returning, seeing the lights on when you return home
- occasion, umm something you'd wear through a day of traveling a lot, like while you're commuting, a specific way that you'll be commuting home
- having to be close to smell it, a very personal smell
- combine oak moss (dark , thick, potent) with something really bright like bergamont, or orange bitter, or even cologne key
- room something, disturbing perfume
- geosmin
- tarragon
- musk base, rounds raw materials in all together, cleanliness
- add oak moss, dark earth
- 1 gram musk base, 0.1 oak moss, 0.06 of vetiver + 1 drop muguet + 10 drops vanilla bean + 20 drops rose key
-- marissa says throw everything out and try using jasmine instead of rose, less than what you did with the rose; jasmine is easier to use in a more artful way;
--
-- i added some muguet key (like one drop),
-- try to lower it to 0.3 and potentially add some green notes, such as 0.3 vetiver,
-- add up to half the amount of musk (0.3) gram of vanilla bean
-- however much, up to 0.2g bergamont as a top note
- rose key -- dewy, heainess
-- missing a heart note (any florals, or pear, cologne key accord)
-- the vetiver note
-- jasmine and vetiver go well
-- 0.6-0.8 of the floral
-- formula written out, email to marissa, write a blurb about it, a story, marketing blurb
-- marine + ozonic -- calone fine chemical? created in the 90s + early 2000s, issey miyake + ck1, still used in mens fragrances, sharp freshness, ocean, salty and fishy
- recently learned how to use it -- goes well with jasmine + fresh perfumes
- it's very strong! experiment with it
- recommend jasmine over the rose as a heart note
- it's a base, callone note
one drop is usually 0.03gram
- puddle evaporating
- day after it rains
- clear, or yellow and blue
- changing over time
white musk, cologne, ylang and bergamont,
- athlete, jock
- something that mixes with sweat,
- it's ultramarine blue
- doesn't smell like victory, it feels like bitter work
- no animalic notes
wear two raw materials, every day, see what you like, don't like, take notes
about half the bottle, the rest is carrier oil (be aware of dilution)
nkima: 0.06 peru basalm (two drops); 1 gram vanilla bean; potentially tonka, (one drop)
"top which is the same as head"
- cologne key -- top and heart (bergamont, neroli)
- bergamont
- orange
- green leaf
- lavender -- can be heart, depending on its use, eg: vanilla and lavender is lavender heart
- clary sage
- tarragon
- lime
- white grapefruit
"heart which is the same as body"
- geranium oil -- technically this is a heart, it's a floral note, floral notes are generally heart
- tonka bean absolute -- could also be a base
- gardenia
- pear
- marine/ozonic
- rose key accord
- ylang ylang
- jasmine
- muguet
- rosewood -- camphoracious
"base"
- vetiver -- a base, often marked as a heart
- patchouli
- cedarwood
- vanilla bean key
- oakmoss -- also often heart
- white musk -- tends to be in everything but not listed
- peru balsalm
- amber key
la violette
playing with base notes will dry down a scent at a differnet speed, alters the way it evaporates off skin, more top notes will evaporate differently, alter the base notes to change the fundamental smell; evaporation times
eccentric molecules
iso-e?
perfumersapprentice.comuse this for more raw materials of what you already have
perfumersapprentice.com
perfumersworld.com
Amber fleuressence
Perfumerssupplyhouse.com -- apricot and pear
Or maybe they did exist with you, passing through the same trail in a parallel universe, a margin you can only dream about crossing.
i found it really difficult to bridge language and smell -- i feel like my understanding of this is rly obtuse or unclear. Like the best i could do is like a word cloud or something like that.
I kind of built a routine around this perfume -- i would wear it every night after showering and go to sleep wearing it rather than wearing it in the day, and it would last 6-8 hours -- on waking the moss, wet mud smell went away and it was mostly rose and vanilla. recently i realized this smells like someone i have a grudge against, so it was really weird.
you are realizing the coming closer is actually a moving away
dam. a perfume is literally just a playlist
i turned around and it was snowing in the night. see you in the morning!