Using A Computer To (Help) Design Your New Perfume

    I've been working with the new, Mac/Windows version of The Perfumer's Workbook. this is a computer program that both records formulas and assists in the design of new perfumes and the fine tuning of your existing formulas. This "fine tuning" can include adjusting your formula for balance, or complexity, or cost (by suggesting less expensive or more expensive aroma materials that will yield pretty much the same odor result.)

    I'm a strong believer in the nose as the ultimate tool for creating perfume. But here's the problem. A full-time, professional perfumer spends a lot of time smelling until he or she is intimately familiar with hundreds of aroma materials. It's like a doctor's ability to reel off the names of health conditions and  medications that the patient can't pronounce.

    So the full-time professional perfumer is a bit ahead of most of us in his or her knowledge of aroma materials. But this does not mean that others of us cannot have good noses -- we can. And it does not mean that the rest of us cannot produce some wonderfully beautiful perfumes -- we can. But when, as a part-time perfumer, you have a chance to get a leg up, to bridge part of the gap between your knowledge of aroma materials and the knowledge of full-time professionals, why pass it up? That's why I am such an enthusiastic endorser of The Perfumer's Workbook, created by (full-time) perfumer Steve Dowthwaite.

    Working now to explore the latest version of this software, which can be purchased for immediate download, I'm writing articles on the various features of this fragrance creation tool and posting them on my own website. I'm also posting a series of articles here, at this blog, which summarize some of the features of this software.

    This tool was created for both beginners and advanced amateurs and, even in this "student" version (the professional version is more complex ... and a good deal more expensive!) the software has been used on more than one occasion by industry professionals.

    These articles are an introduction. If you have an older computer you can explore this software by downloading an older (free) version from PerfumersWorld.