Christmas Eve Fragrance

[Jan Johnson]

When I was young, at Christmas time, my mother used to wear a fragrance called Nuit de Noel. Lovely, romantic floral heart notes of rose, jasmine and ylang ylang accented with cinnamon and cloves. Base notes of oakmoss intertwining with sandalwood and vetiver. Legend has it that Ernest Daltroff created it for his lover who was entranced by the sounds and scents of Christmas Eve. Using this as a model, I'd like to blend a fragrance that also has citrus top notes. A true floral chypres.
My plan is that I blend each section of the fragrance separately. Top notes, heart notes and base. Hopefully getting them right before blending them together. I bought as many eos as I could afford...but rose and sandalwood will have to be fos.Well, what do you think... could this work? I haven't started to work with them yet, (kinda shaking in my boots) but I'm really excited about finally trying out my wings.

 

[honor435]

did you buy jasmine? that is spendy too, but with the spendy ones, a little goes a long way? anandaapothacary has sample size vials that you could get? tell me how it goes. I have many eos, but scared to waste in it soap, if it didnt turn out. Ive lav and peppermint and rose(real eo, very strong), no one liked rose, except my Mom.

 

[Jan Johnson]

honor,
I've been buying one or two eos a week for this project. For the expensive ones, I bought the small half ounce sizes. When I make a small batch of soap (30oz. oils) I usually use about 1.5 tablespoons of fo depending on the fragrance. I thought that it would be about the same for the eos. Then I read the post that carebear and IanT wrote about the amount of eos being 5%, 7% or even 9% depending. Let's say 7%...that would be 2.1oz or about 4 tablespoons. You are so right...I don't want to mess this up! I'll let you know when I get the fragrance made...then we'll talk about how to use it. Thanks, Jan

 

[krissy]

i use EO's all the time in soap and i use less than what i would for an FO. esp on the strong floral scents. i use about a teaspoon for my small batches (about 20 oz) and they stay strong for me a tablespoon at the most for the others. i do CPHP though, so maybe that it why?

 

[honor435]

Krissy
Is cphp crockpot hp? i forget. I do use less in hp, its nice, less exp.

 

[Jan Johnson]

thanks krissy...I had to look up cphp method...interesting...is the advantage of using this process, a lot less cure time? well...you're being able to use less eos certainly gives me hope...and like honor says, it makes sense that if eos are stronger then we should be able to use less. Cool. Thanks, Jan

 

[Bubbles Galore]

It sounds wonderful and I hope it turns out well for you. I've recently tried blending EOs with FOs and I am happy with the result. :wink:

 

[Jan Johnson]

Hi...thanks for the good wishes. I've been working on this fragrance for quite a while. I had 20 different fragrances to work with. Each part has about 4 different eos or fos. Blending the sections separately was a good idea. Much more manageable. I tried to get each of the 4 fragrances to balance adding more of the weak ones and less of the strong ones. This took a really long time. The problem was nose fatigue. After about 15 minutes my head was spinning and after 30 minutes I couldn't make any dependable decisions. If I tried to stay with it too long...in the morning it had to be done over.
It's finished! I guess the questions are, can you really detect all of the different fragrances...and is the level of complexity really worth it? You can definitely pick out the citrus top, floral middle, and mossy base with the spice accents. But you probably couldn't find every scent that went into each section. It was pretty cool..but I'm not sure that I'd ever do it again. Maybe something with only 10 fragrances! I ended up wtih two versions..one with a little more citrus, floral and one with a little more masculine mossy, spicy notes. Altogether I made 6 oz. Of course I love it..and it's kinda neat having your own fragrance. I'm planning on putting some of it in my soap tomorrow. If I blend this with a carrier oil...could I wear this as perfume?
Jan

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Yes, you can blend it with a carrier oil and wear it as perfume but read about the qualities and warnings about each essential oil first. Some you shouldn't wear out in the sun, some may cause an allergic reaction ... and so on.

Well done for completing it! I know what you mean about nose fatigue.

I keep going back to blends I made weeks/months ago because they change over time.

 

[Jan Johnson]

Thanks Jenny. If you don't mind me asking, what are you working on?
Jan

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I've just blended a few simple ones, nothing as complex as what you did. Here is a link to the thread I started on one blend I made the other day which is a mix of EOs and FOs.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15518

 

[Jan Johnson]

Oh wow...Jenny that sounds wonderful! I particularly love the oakmoss, amber, and sandalwood base notes...sexy and very Arabian nights. Thanks for sharing it.
Jan

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Let me know what you think Jan. It could probably do with a bit more work (why am I never satisfied? LOL) so I'll be interested in what you do with it, should you decide to play. :wink:

 

[Jan Johnson]

I'd love to work with it but, I think it seems pretty terrific just as you've formulated it. I know it's hard to ever be totally satisfied with something you've created...it seems natural to keep trying to improve it. If you have the time, check out a site called basenotes...
http://www.basenotes.net/ The fragrance directory has a searchable datebase of most manufactured perfumes...and basically what's in them. Pretty interesting...Jan

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Thanks for the link Jan. I'll check it out. :wink: