What are your biggest past misconceptions?

[hemmett]

3. Prejudicially avoided florals because, “they certainly can not exist in men’s cologne”.

😂

Totally me! Now I am delighted having found out about (the effects of) so many floral materials. One of my fav’s is the (lift) effect a bit of Mayol can have on a dominantly woody composition.

The misconception turned into a love for the process of studying materials.

 

[mnitabach]

😂

Totally me! Now I am delighted having found out about (the effects of) so many floral materials. One of my fav’s is the (lift) effect a bit of Mayol can have on a dominantly woody composition.

The misconception turned into a love for the process of studying materials.

If you like that mayol effect, I highly recommend you try some Beyond Lilyflore (which is mostly florol, mayol, lilyflore). It confers awesome floral volume in various contexts & works great with slight touches of olibanol.

 

[mnitabach]

I guess one of my misconceptions was that what everyone said on Basenotes DIY was accurate. I quickly realized some knew a lot, but others had no idea what they were talking about. Luckily, I came to perfumery after 25 years of working with Aromatherapy and had some knowledge of what I was doing and quickly figured out what was what in terms of information.

My second misconception was that aroma-chemicals would function like Essential oils. In a way, I was happy they did not, which is why I love perfumery. I can create with much less limitations using naturals AND synthetics.

My third misconception was that people working with perfumery would be less egotistical (and nicer) than those in the music industry, in which I worked for 20 years. BOY was I wrong -- as one post in this thread confirms (thankfully there is an 'ignore' button). Working with music one learns that musicians compose in various and unique ways, much as perfumers create in various ways. Some perfumers use more materials, others less. And some like Ellena, went from more to less. But for someone to say, "Unless you do it this way, you're wrong," is something that irks me to no end. I can't tell you how many times I heard some say, "Unless you read and write music you cannot be a successful musician." Well, I do not read or write music and went all the way to a Grammy nomination, and my royalties are hefty so that at 54, I am retired and happy.

This is so cool & one of the things I love about perfumery is that there are so many different angles from which to approach it. You come from music; I'm a scientist. I find it especially interesting that you neither read nor write music! I think in a lot of ways perfumery is like music without notation or theory, because in the case of perfumery, there literally exists no theory that can predict how individual aromamaterials combine to form accords. Perfumery is totally empirical & case-by-case.

 

[hemmett]

If you like that mayol effect, I highly recommend you try some Beyond Lilyflore (which is mostly florol, mayol, lilyflore). It confers awesome floral volume in various contexts & works great with slight touches of olibanol.

Thanks for the recommendation, that sounds rather interesting. I read about Beyond Lilyflore on this forum before. Unfortunately my local supplier doesn’t sell it, but they do sell Florosa (Giv) which is the same as Florol and currently on my next order’s list

 

[mnitabach]

Thanks for the recommendation, that sounds rather interesting. I read about Beyond Lilyflore on this forum before. Unfortunately my local supplier doesn’t sell it, but they do sell Florosa (Giv) which is the same as Florol and currently on my next order’s list

You can get most of the Beyond Lilyflore effect with 3:2:1 florol:mayol:lilyflore.

 

[sibie]

This is so cool & one of the things I love about perfumery is that there are so many different angles from which to approach it. You come from music; I'm a scientist. I find it especially interesting that you neither read nor write music! I think in a lot of ways perfumery is like music without notation or theory, because in the case of perfumery, there literally exists no theory that can predict how individual aromamaterials combine to form accords. Perfumery is totally empirical & case-by-case.

It makes sense. Although I think a chemist could say that, on a molecular level, aroma-chemicals behave as expected when one specific molecule blends with a specific other to offer always the same result. Which is how we can reproduce a formula over and over again. I guess in that sense there is indeed 'theory.' But, as with not reading and writing music, I am no chemist and, in fact, flunked chemistry (and math and physics) in High School. lol.

 

[sibie]

To add to another early misconception.... That not all aroma-chemicals TGSC lumps together with various names are all the same. Sometimes yes, sometimes not. There is sometimes enough odor variation between some that are lumped together in the TGSC database as to make a difference in your finished formula. It can be confusing. It can also be tempting to look at a listing of a material on TGSC and say, "Oh, I cannot find this one, but I can find that one and I will use that instead since they are the same." David Ruskin (he does not post anymore ) used to be wonderful at pointing out some of those differences.

 

[sibie]

Thanks for the recommendation, that sounds rather interesting. I read about Beyond Lilyflore on this forum before. Unfortunately my local supplier doesn’t sell it, but they do sell Florosa (Giv) which is the same as Florol and currently on my next order’s list

Beyond Lyliflore is a Firmenich base, which also contains captives. Christine, at Perfumer Supply House, sells it if you're interested:

Beyond Lilyflore

 

[mnitabach]

Beyond Lyliflore is a Firmenich base, which also contains captives. Christine, at Perfumer Supply House, sells it if you're interested:

Beyond Lilyflore

It obviously might have other stuff in it too, but the MSDS lists floral, mayol, lilyflore, and a presumably captive aldehyde. My experimentation suggests that you can get most of the beautiful big floral volume effect of beyond lilyflore with a 3:2:1 ratio of floral:mayol:lilyflore.

 

[sibie]

It obviously might have other stuff in it too, but the MSDS lists floral, mayol, lilyflore, and a presumably captive aldehyde. My experimentation suggests that you can get most of the beautiful big floral volume effect of beyond lilyflore with a 3:2:1 ratio of floral:mayol:lilyflore.

Oh, I am pretty sure you can. I only mentioned because they were looking for the actual stuff as they said they were, but could not find it.