A database of aroma materials

    I've started to write a number of web pages concerning The Perfumer's Workbook fragrance creation software and, if you're actively creating perfume, you should know about this software whether or not it's something you decide to use to assist your own creative process.

    If you are just getting started with perfume creation, the Workbook makes you aware of the many aroma materials that exist out there that are being used daily by professional perfumers.

    If you've been working with perfume for some time, you might be more interested in the tools available to you in the Workbook -- tools that suggest tweaks for your perfumes, to give them more balance, or more complexity, or greater tenacity.

    So far on my website I've just touched on the installed database of over 600 aroma materials. The database can be edited and updated by you, the user, and, if you keep it up to date, the tools offered in the Workbook give you some fascinating visual pictures of what you have created, how others might view (or smell) it and -- one of the most interesting features (which I have not yet written about ), how your perfume changes its aroma characteristics while it is slowly (or quickly) evaporating. If you've ever had trouble with your perfume failing to "last," this tools can help you understand why. And using it can give you insight into what you might do the next time around to get better results.


   

Beeswax, Brown for Toxic

    When I mentioned to a friend I needed some beeswax to make a line of solid perfumes, he gave me several pounds of golden colored beeswax -- and a few pounds of dark brown beeswax, all from his own hives.

    When bees make wax, it's for their own purposes. They known and care nothing of the fragrance and cosmetics industry. So beeswax, straight from the hive, contains a small amount of what, to us, are impurities. Thus, for us, before it can go into our products, we have to do a bit of cleanup.

    There are a few chemical treatments you can give beeswax to make it look nicer, lighter, more uniform. But for my solid perfumes I just melt it and run it through a wire mesh kitchen strainer, double lined with (food grade) cheesecloth.

    Naturally I started my solid perfume line using the beautiful golden colored wax. But when I came to Toxic, a man's fragrance, it occurred to me that this might be a good time to test the dark brown beeswax.

    Authorities on beeswax relegate the dark brown wax, generally older than the light, golden, to industrial use, as a lubricant. But, after a cleanup, the wax itself looked fine, differing from the other only in color and, perhaps, having somewhat less of a honey aroma to it -- and for perfume, a base with no aroma is good.

    So my Toxic Solid Perfume for men -- Whoops! Men! (Let's not call it "perfume.") Start again. My Toxic Solid Fragrance for men was made using dark brown -- all natural -- beeswax. There you have it.

PS -- For "Toxic," the typical men's fragrance description, "cologne," just doesn't seem to fit.

The Perfumer's Workbook, Screen Shots

The Perfumer's Workbook is a fragrance creation computer program that has many of the features you might expect to find at a major F&F house with the difference being a very affordable price for the work alone, independent perfumer. Thanks to an arrangement with PerfumersWorld, we are now offering the latest version of this software (32 & 64-bit Windows and Mac) at our Bio-Byte.com website.

But whether or not this is something you might buy, if you are a designer of perfume, a perfumer, a composer, it is well worth your while to study the features of this software as, in the long run, its modest cost could save you a good deal of time and energy ... and save you from wasting valuable (costly) aroma materials.

So I've started a series of articles on The Perfumer's Workbook demonstrating its screens and features. Today I posted a (second) screen shot of the installed database. The featured aroma material on this screen shot was Aldehyde C-10, a material many are already familiar with, at least in name. The screen shot shown (I call it "View 1") gives some information on Aldehyde C-10, its common uses, and materials that it blends well with. Also there is a usage range, the amounts of Aldehyde C-10 that might typically go into a fine fragrance (although this is subject to revising by the use of your own nose.)