"Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in your mind" David G Allen
This certainly is true in perfumery! I have been working on the 3rd perfume for the Zoe Brown Artisan Range for many weeks. After a few delays, I started to feel impatient because I wanted to get my test samples ready to send out.
While blending and building the tester blend, I had a sense that the colour was slightly adrift. As I continued to bring each oil into the mix, so the scent was subtly different. I persuaded myself that it would be fine, but by the following morning, I realised that the calculations had not been accurate due to my perfumer's scales malfunctioning part way through the process! My intricate measuring had not aligned, so quite aside from the slight variance to the smell of the blend, I did not have accurate calculations recorded for that specific pour!
Very careful digital measuring and accuracy are critical when making perfume, to ensure that one batch of perfume, however small, is identical to another. While we can try and work in drops and measuring beakers, these are not as accurate as weighing in 01g. Designing a scent is the first challenge, and scaling it up becomes the second challenge for an artisan perfumer, and this is why developing a perfume to scale up and sell takes time!
While I wait for my new perfume scales, I have experimented with some different materials, including Bamboo, a light, clean and versatile fragrance, with a quiet hint of oriental and a pop of citrus. It discreetly merits its seat alongside many other aromas, gently enhancing and nudging. So too, have I enjoyed learning more about some of the interesting scent-scape possibilities offered by Pomegranite, Plum and Pink Pepper.
I am further behind on the testing process of Scent No 3, however, I am further forward in building a library of accords for my bespoke perfume and room scent service.
Happily, the 'failed' tester blend has been diluted and bottled, and is being used here at home in Latimer as a pretty citrus daytime room scent - no drop of oil is ever wasted.
Patience is a virtue, and one I am slowly learning!
Sending perfume wishes, with samples to follow soon.
Love
Deborah at Zoe B X