Artisan Perfumery
A rather uncommon hobby, I admit. It all started back in freshman year in college, when one of my friends was really into cologne. At that point, I didn't know much about it (nor did I think or care much about it), but slowly, the idea grew on me. Eventually, I bought my first two scents: Boss Soul and Tommy by Tommy Hilfiger, both of which I still love to this day.
As you've probably noticed by now, I'm really into making the things that I originally only enjoyed as a consumer. So that got me thinking about how I could make scents, which started me down on a long road to olfactory discovery.
The last push I needed was a trip to Grasse when I was in France for an exchange program. There, I got to see industrial perfumery at its best, and I came home with many little treasures. In fact, Galimard is my favorite fragrance house.
The next few years, I started sampling more scents from niche perfumers all over the world, while seeing the limitations of the mainstream offerings. Now, I'm not saying that all mainstream scents are bad; that's not true at all--some mainstream scents are glorious--but most leave something to be desired.
At some point, I discovered the Basenotes community, which only heightened my interest in perfumery. I'm not active anymore these days, but I used to follow the forums quite religiously. From there, I learned about Mandy Aftel's book Perfume, which sent me down the road of natural perfumery.
Natural perfumery is an interesting pursuit because it is very strongly against using synthetic scents, and I generally agree, but I can't get over the fact that there is no good natural raspberry scent. My ideal female fragrance would have a caress of raspberry in the top note, but I can't get that without going synthetic. Gah, I love raspberry! Anyway, that's probably why I prefer the term "Artisan Perfumery" over "Natural Perfumery"--I think the latter has a strong connotation in the perfume community that I don't ascribe to one hundred percent.
I've invested in a lot of essential oils (they're really expensive, mind you) and time into making something tolerable, but I've never produced anything that I'd be proud to wear. I have olfactory visions of the ideal scents that I want, but they're mostly just glimmers and don't materialize. I realized that I need to spend more time and gain more experience with smell before I can just imagine something fully made and realize it. After all these years of careful vision through painting and drawing am I only marginally able to come up with things in my imagination that I can render on paper. Our olfactory capabilities are much more stunted.
I think a good stepping stone will be making house scents, which aren't quite as demanding when it comes to balance and delicacy. In the winter months when I don't have as much to do outside anymore, I'll probably make a more legitimate attempt at producing something to warm up the apartment. Until then, I'm keeping this hobby in an atomizer in a dark closet.
