Reflecting on Scent: Creating a Scent Lab

Recently I have been collecting and reading books about the history of perfume and making perfume. As part of this effort, I was able to locate a used book seller who had a copy of The Diary of a Nose: A Year in the Life of a Parfumeur by Jean-Claude Ellena. He is the creator of Bulgari’s Eau Parfumee au The’ Vert  (Green Tea) perfume and is now the exclusive parfumeur for Hermes, maker of luxury goods since 1837.

The book is a collection of his thoughts and philosophy on living with scent and the intensity with which he lives and creates scents. I literally could not put it down. Early in the diary, Jean-Claude Ellena writes of having a frustrating day and deciding to take the afternoon off. He visits a market in Italy, a short drive from Grasse, France where he lives and works. While there he sees and smells some winter pears. He writes, “The smell is huge and obvious, and I’m suddenly startingly aware that it could be useful to me. I experience such happiness, stealing the smell like this, that I note down how I feel, the names of raw materials, the beginnings of a formula…I forget how tired I am and instantly feel light and free” (2013, P. 8)

Jean-Claude Ellena’s words clearly demonstrate the importance of living in each moment and documenting feelings, insights, and developing thoughts about scent or any other aspect of our lives. I’ve included a close-up photo here of Iceberg roses grown in planters in a walled garden outside one of our rooms. This is the only rose I have been able to grow successfully. It’s the only one I need now and it’s scent is a faint, sweet honey. Looking at the photo reminds me of the gift they bring and how I love to put my nose deep inside the bloom and feel the softness of the petals on my face!

As I continued to read, I contemplated a space within our home where we could experience scent making. I have a small laundry room near the kitchen. I have never had an entire room for the laundry and find I really enjoy working in here. (More about this in another post). I put some bookcases we had in a previous home in here and there are cabinets and a drawer I can clear out a bit. In her book, Scents and Sensibilities, Mandy Aftel generously provides clear information about what is needed to create solid scents as well as other scents. I am most interested in the solid scent. I imagine it as something to be drizzled into a fascinating container to be held in your hand and opened occasionally or even left open to waft into a space.

I made a list of what I would need and searched online and/or looked around the house for the equipment. Many of the things were available through vendors on Amazon.com. Others came from companies selling scientific equipment for labs. These are glass bottles from a laboratory supply company, As the materials were delivered, we began to call the laundry room “the scent lab”.

I poked holes in the top of an old powder box I painted to hold the metal scent strip clips. I can also hold several strips in my hand and wave them back and forth past my nose to get a sense of how the essential oils I have chosen to work with complement one another. 

I had some old etched glasses I bought at an antique shop on Post Office street in Galveston. They make beautiful containers for the scent strips, stirring sticks, and glass droppers!

Melted beeswax is mixed with essential oils and jojoba oil to create a solid perfume. The block of wax smells lovely and I was able to use a box grater to grate a jar full. We found an electric melting plate and a ceramic melting pot online. They are compact and efficient. We tested a bit of beeswax and it started melting at approximately 145 degrees Fahrenheit/63 degrees Celsius. This happened rather quickly, so I will need to have the essential oils I want to use and the jojoba oil pre-mixed in one of the small beakers.

We created labels on the computer and included lettering to clarify; B for base note, M for middle or heart note, and T for top note. My readings indicate it is best to have a combination of notes. I found information on the scent notes in Mandy Aftel’s book with additional information online.

I collected tiny boxes I already had and then went to vintage shops in Boerne and Comfort searching for tiny and intriguing containers. I have always been fascinated by glass inkwells and some of them are quite small enough to hold solid perfume in the center. This will be perfect to open and release into the room. I love the tiny ivory colored dresser jars with a blue monogram on top. They have a glass insert and are so small they must have been used for lip or cheek coloring. I was told the round wooden box with a lid once held a set of miniature screw drivers.

I captured this photo of a painting of a woman with what looks like a pomander ball around her neck after reading people wore solid scents around their necks. I have an old silver tea ball on a stem. You can open the ball like a locket and put tea leaves inside and then swirl it around in your cup of hot water to make tea. I haven’t used it often and so I tied it to a long ribbon thinking I might fill it with a solid perfume I’ve made and wear it as a pomander ball necklace of sorts.

Just as I thought, most of the supplies fit neatly inside a drawer under the counter space where I can work. I got a heat resistant silicon mat to use as a work surface and protect the counter top. It is a bit larger than a place mat and folds up in the drawer when not in use!

The bottles of essential oils and some of the tools fit nicely on the shelves of the bookcase along one wall of the laundry room/scent lab!

In an article titled “The evolution of fragrance” in Harper’s Bazaar UK, Becci Vallis notes, “…we’re entering a new era of perfume history…be it via layering or choosing a scent to tell a story or convey an emotion.”

Everything is in place, and I am eager to begin. When I was a little girl my sister and I gathered flowers from the oleander bushes in our backyard and put them in the water-filled corner post of the chain link fence between our yard and the next-door neighbor’s house. As the blossoms heated up in the summer sun a lovely, earthy scent emanated from the fence post. From this time in early childhood and a later moment when I entered Hove Parfumeur in New Orleans and bought my first bottle of their Heliotrope cologne I have been fascinated by scents. This is an art beginning in ancient times and I look forward to understanding more as I attempt to create personal solid perfumes with natural ingredients.