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Part One: An Introduction to Natural Perfumery
By Rohanna Goodwin Smith
Published in Aromascents Journal, Summer 2007
“A spiritual process as well as an aesthetic one, the art of perfumery is at once holy and
carnal, spiritual and material, arcane and modern, tangible and intangible, profound and superficial.”
Mandy Aftel, Essence and Alchemy
The stunning beauty of essential oils captured my olfactory imagination and lured me into the study of aromatherapy. The miraculous healing benefits of these same essences continued to inspire me in my thirteen year practice as an aroma therapist. Now, for me, it seems a natural progression to express my passion for these natural essences in creating natural perfumes.
A doorway of discovery to natural perfumery has been opened primarily by the tremendous success of aromatherapy around the world, continually providing us with a more diverse and bountiful aromatic palette of raw materials.
The term "natural perfumer" has come into existence only within the last six to seven years. As Aromatherapists, each time we create a blend, we are dabbling in natural perfumery, particularly when working with the beautiful floral absolutes that are "the heart" of most perfumes. Popular books such as Valerie Worwood's The Fragrant Mind, Christie Wildwood's Create Your Own Aromatherapy Perfumes, or Personalized Perfumes by Gail Duff have inspired many amateur perfumers whether or not they have aromatherapy training. The blends in these books are simple 3-6 ingredients in oil creations, unlike the more complicated perfume in alcohol blends that are possible with further training and practice.
Profoundly influencing this movement and quite possibly moving us into a "golden age" of natural perfumery is natural perfumer, author and educator, Mandy Aftel. Her book Essence and Alchemy (North Point Press, 2001) has captured the hearts and imaginations of countless readers and aspiring natural perfumers. Originally entranced by the beauty of the naturals, Mandy immersed herself in the study of the perfume masters of previous centuries and in exploration of the raw materials. Then she proceeded to create her perfumes. Mandy considers herself "a custodian" of this lost art form. Annete Green, President of the Fragrance Foundation wrote of Essence and Alchemy, "Rarely has the glory of the sense of smell reached such emotional heights as in the imaginative mind of sensory superstar, Mandy Aftel".
For the past three years I have had the privilege of studying with Mandy, two of these years in her studio in Berkeley California. My first day in class, standing in front of Mandy's majestic "perfume organ", I was like a kid in a candy shop. Hundreds of bottles lured me forward for exploration; precious, gorgeous, quirky, agrestic perfume raw materials. Row upon row of essential oils, absolutes, resins, balsams, concretes, animal essences-from the mouth-watering top note of wild sweet orange, to the heavenly floral middle note of boronia absolute, to the rich earthy base note depths of cepes absolute (mushroom). It was the first time I had been introduced to many of these essences essential to perfumery but not traditionally used in aromatherapy due to such elements as their viscosity, odor intensity, expense or not having a history of therapeutic benefit.
The advantage of having an aromatherapy background may be that it provides a familiarity with the natural materials as well as knowledge of the chemistry of the oils, safety and contraindications of use. That being said, my personal experience is that my many years preparing blends as an aroma therapist did not automatically guarantee me success as an artisan natural perfumer.
Along with my nine classmates, our first assignment was to compose a perfume in alcohol using between 9-12 ingredients. The blend was to consist of 60 drops—20 top, 20 middle and 20 base notes. With my thirteen years experience as an aroma therapist I felt this shouldn't be too daunting. I proceeded to develop my perfume choosing difficult essences like hay and violet and black spruce absolutes. Essences that I wasn't particularly familiar with but wanted to experiment with. Sniffing as I blended, drop by drop, I built my blend from base chord through middle chord to top chord.
Throughout the process I felt the pressure (self imposed) to produce something beautiful in the one hour time frame allotted. After all, this was a perfume I was creating. I was quickly humbled. By the time I was adding the top notes nothing could save my blend. As Mandy explained, a perfume can be ruined in the base, but I was quite determined to "fix it" on the way to the top. Impossible, I realized. After class critiquing, it was back to the perfume organ, again and again in attempts to reconstruct our perfumes. Mandy never encouraged perfection; rather, she encouraged experimentation. Discovering how each essence affects the others around it.
Natural perfumery is not an easy art. It necessitates the same time, study, patience, practice and intuition required by any artisan craft. I learned to be willing to take risks and to be daring in my striving for the beautiful. To be willing to make huge mistakes resulting in disappointing results. While humbling, the process is joyful and transforming. With so many new and exquisite raw materials becoming available to us, natural perfumery is a new paradigm in the world. And we are all privileged pioneers.
