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Thursday, June 3, 2010

Making Musk Perfume . . . the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I am participating in a musk perfume project with my fellow natural perfumers.  Myself and eleven other professional perfumers from the Natural Perfumers Guild are participating.  Our fragrances will be reviewed by perfume critics worldwide.  I am nervous.  I am excited.  I am musk.  Literally my hands smell of musk from constantly blending and tweaking musky perfume samples in the quest to create the perfect musk scent.  One thing is certain, musk is tenacious.  Despite my careful nature while blending perfumes --droppers, scales, caps twisted tightly-- a halo of musk clings to me.  On certain days when I hug my children they wrinkle their noses and tell me I smell funny.  I am so immersed in my project I no longer notice the faint ghostly notes of musky botanicals clinging to my body.

Over the past few weeks I have created numerous musk based perfumes.  Some good, some bad and hard to classify as they seem to be changing.  The confounding thing about natural perfume is the aging process.  Natural perfumes are similar to fine wines in that they need to age someplace dark and dry to mature.  Sometimes I will blend a fantastic perfume, only to pull it carefully from it's dark closet months later only to find it now smells  . . . less than fantastic.  Luckily the opposite alchemy can occur and a perfume I recorded as "so-so" in my notes, is now spectacular.  The burning question is:  Which version should I submit for review to perfume critics, bloggers and my fellow perfumers?  The pressure is on!  

I am a wee bit terrified that my "musk" perfume may receive a very public unfavorable review, or perhaps worse, no review at all.  What if my musk is too pedestrian?  Wholly unoriginal?  I can't think of anything worse.

The Mystery of Musk project has me beyond excited to sample my fellow perfumers fragrances.  And so the blending goes, a drop more oud, a drop less black currant bud.  More to come on Musk.  Tune in next week.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Charna ~ I can imagine how exciting and anxiety provoking this project is...especially under public scrutiny with a tight timeline!

But what a great challenge project. Eager to read the reviews.

Had to smile over your kids' wrinkly noses...

Cynthe

www.EssentialOilsForHealing.com/weblog

Lisa Abdul-Quddus said...

Charna, if it's any consolation I was chosen as an evaluator and I'm pretty nervous about it myself lol.

Lisa A

Paul Kiler said...

Don't Worry, I won't throw any stones at you in my review...But, sometimes I wish I had a grain of musk to throw...

Pueblo

Tracy said...

Charna,

I look forward to hearing about the project and have been following on the NP list! I know it's much easier said, than done, but try to relax and enjoy the process! :D

Tracy
www.myskinsoapstudio.com

Shauna Rudd said...

Congrats on being selected to participate! This is sure to be an amazing experience, whatever the outcome.

I know "zero" about musk (which is why I didn't put my name in the hat to be an evaluator). So, all I can do is offer one general bit of advice: relax, trust yourself, and let your musk flow naturally...

I know, way easier said than done ;-D

Bellatrix said...

We all have different taste :) Good luck!

Ambrosia said...

Don't worry hon', your Musk Nouveau is lovely!!

(Stated by your competition and a true perfume snob, grin!)