R Tramble, perfumer

I'm moving this blog over to rtramble.blogspot.com. Vox is just too unwieldy.

'Verbillgt" on the left, normal on the right

What the heck do I have here?

I usually use "trinkalcohol" or "feinsprit" (ethanol) for my perfumes. But when I went yesterday to buy "trinkalcohol" from the pharmacy the apothekerin  recommended "Aro-alcohol" to me.

The bottle says "Feinsprit vebilligt ARO" or something like that. She said that it was cheaper than the trinkalcohol and could be used for perfumemaking. I tried asking her exactly what this was (the conversation was in German). She told me that *this* was ethanol. I asked the INCI name and she said that there wasn't one, that it was just "ethanol."

I'm confused because the bottle said "verbilligt," which I think means "cut" or "diluted."  So what is this cut with?

I posed the question to the man whose life I want to live, Andy Tauer of Tauer Perfumes. He recommended that I just get my alcohol from the alcohol board here, which I will most likely do.

But until then, would anyone know what this "Aro-alcohol" is?  Is it perfumer's alcohol? 

Image: fabdebaz/flickr

Even though I haven't posted in a while, I've still been dilly-dallying in making stuff.

Last night I brewed up a big, fat, funky fail.

I'm still working on my cream and getting all the ingredients to play together.  But one thing bugged me: There seemed to be a lingering odor of hmmm.. a "human waste-type something" smell.

Last night I made the cream again, but I wanted it a little more fluid so I upped the amount of Rosenblütenwasser (rosewater), emptying the bottle.  I mixed it with the emulsifying wax and oils and stirred. That fecal scent became more pronounced. I poured the mixture in a jar, put it in the fridge, then went to bed. Note: I left the empty rosewater bottle on the kitchen cabinet.

When I got up this morning, the scent was really strong. I tracked it down and it was coming from the bottle. Roses have a hint of a fecal smell anyway, at least to me, but in this particular instance it was really, really strong.

I know that certain flowers have that type of scent due to indole, but this just took the cake.

Is it me? Or, is it that the blossoms used for the rosewater just happened to be really, uh, "ripe"?

Image: fabdebaz/flickr

The composer of Chosen Perfume say that it's “the world’s first scent of confidence perfume.” Valerie Green of South Carolina has just launched her perfume and her site, where you can purchase it.

The blend is said to give women confidence, which is fine. But my big issue is with the description, or lack thereof, of the scent.

"The fragrance is both enticing and memorable in its unique natural blend of flowers, fruits that contains no harmful chemicals, yet arousing a woman’s sensuality while evoking a feeling of confidence."

Selling a perfume off of a website is hard. Descriptions of the types of flowers and fruits would help. Also, the "contains no harmful chemicals" claim should be backed up on the site.

Come on, give us a scentual picture of Chosen!

Quick note before I drop into the sack:

"A team of Franciscan archaeologists digging in the biblical town of Magdala in what is now Israel say they have unearthed vials of perfume similar to those that may have been used by the woman said to have washed Jesus' feet."

Full story here

Success! I think. I tried the rose and almond cream again; this time substituting olive oil for sweet almond oil (I've run out of sweet almond), and using a REAL emulsifier instead of the cetylalcohol.

Here's the result:

And here's the emulsifier I used:

It's called "Tegomuls HT."  I wasn't familiar with this, but the owner of the shop I get some of my ingredients from recommended this for the cream.

But with a success comes a failure. I tweaked Mandy Aftel's formula for her Cepes and Tuberose perfume that she has in "Aroma: The magic of essential oils in food an fragrance."  I didn't have any pink grapefruit essential oil, which is called for in the recipe. So I tried bitter orange. BLECH! The top note orange gives off a "grandpa peed in his pants, sat out on the porch during a heat wave and let it dry" type of scent. The dry down is powdery, but it doesn't make up for that first whiff.



In the blend: cepes, sandalwood, benzoin, tuberose, rose bulgarian, bois de rose, bitter orange, black pepper.