Several Years back I got into making my own perfumes. I was introduced to them at an early age, but it wasn't until about 6-7 years ago that I actually explored the subject more consciously. Doing so I was fascinated by its origins and also disappointed in what I thought were quality perfumes that I had been wearing.
Did you know that with a modern commercial perfume, as found in most big brand perfumery stores, you are not paying such a high price for the ingredients composing a perfume since most are composed of cheap synthetic chemical substitutes, also known as aromachemicals, but that 80-90% of the price goes merely into the bottle and its design.
Originally perfumes were composed of actual naturally sourced raw ingredients of high quality. Essential oils of flowers, spices, resins and plants. Solvent extractions of precious floral absolutes, which contain a broad spectrum of the plant constituents, much deeper in scent and true to the original material than just the essential oil. Then we have time-consuming enfleurage method, which extracts the flowers by laying them on fat, letting the scent infuse the fat, removing the old spent flowers and replacing them with fresh ones, yielding extractions from flowers such as violets which can't be distilled to obtain their scent.
As I explored perfume and read about all of these natural complex ingredients, I wanted to smell them for myself, so I decided to build a collection of perfume material, I gathered essential oils, sourced rare rose, jasmine absolutes, went on a search for high grade resins, such as frankincense. The more materials I discovered and got to experience, the more I was enchanted by the complexity and depth of these scents. They had deeper dimensionality to them than those synthetic scents I had grown up with.
I not only remained satisfied with just crafting perfume, but also began exploring crafting my own raw ingredients to work with, so I invested in a copper distillation still, a glass steam- distillation still, and a soxhlet extractor. So I began creating my own artisanal produced small scale batches of essential oils.
This summer for example I distilled a unique essential oil, which had frankincense co-distilled with lavender. The resin was some of the finest frankincense I've so far acquired and lavender which I sourced from my own garden and friends who had some to spare. This allows me to craft perfumes which are absolutely unique. Playing around with tinctures made from whiskey-infused coffee beans, tonka bean or vanilla, or using other unconventional herbs and flowers.
I have been sharing the art with my beloved and together we have started to make small batches of perfumes which we sell on Etsy, these are crafted using only the most luxurious of ingredients. We do not use synthetic aromachemicals, but only use essential oils, flower absolutes, tinctures, spices, resins etc.
This brings with it due to the rarity of the materials I work with which are beyond precious, a higher price. A 30ml Eau de Parfum, contains 6ml of concentrated perfume mix(Undiluted Essential Oils, Absolutes). A 3ml of pure rose absolute starts at about 50euro rising in price with rarity. For example my creation "Oud Royal" contains actual Oud Essential Oil in high quantities. 1ml of qood quality unadulterated oud essential oil will start at 100Eur for a lower grade from cultivated trees, rising to ++1000Eur for oil derived from wild ancient trees.
These are scents which have depth, dimension and complexity using ingredients which are only to be found in ultra high-end luxury perfumes at best.
If you wish to find out more about our pursuit of perfumery and also its connections to alchemy, then consider exploring our website "Catharsiopa" or if you would like to experience a real perfume our "Etsy Shop"
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