How to Best Preserve your Perfume (Professional Tips by Perfumer Guy Robert)

"When someone offers you a perfume, may you be lucky enough to receive a true parfum (instead of an eau) in a beautiful, large bottle. Chances are you will fall in love with it, and that you will want to replace it at some point. A valuable advice, in that case, is to purchase the smaller size. Depending on your perfume habits, a "half ounce" or "one ounce" will suffice. Larger volumes will obviously take many more months to finish; but while a well-made perfume can stand the test of time, age doesn't give it any interesting qualities either.

via lusciouslife pin

Once you have opened the bottle, a light oxidation process takes place inside. If you forget to close the bottle after you have used the perfume, this will only speed up the process. The fresh, fleeting top notes of the fragrance will tend to "calm down" a bit; it's true that this will not completely ruin the fragrance, but it will change the initial impression you get from your perfume.

When the natural ingredients are derived from such noble raw materials as jasmine, orange blossom, jonquil, and rose, the color will become slightly browner. Depending on the composition of the perfume, it can develop into a brownish-red within a few years. If it has a green tint, that green may become darker. This is normal, and it does not necessarily mean that the fragrance is deteriorated.

However, when you purchase a new bottle of the same perfume, you may get the impression that they sold you a lighter, more fleeting fragrance. This phenomenon causes many customers to take their new bottle back to the store, claiming it is not the same; hence, manufacturers are asked on a regular basis to analyze and check recently purchased bottles in their laboratories.

The aging process is increased when you add light and heat. Don't keep your perfume on the bathroom shelve, which is often located near a radiator: your interior decorator may say it looks fabulous, but it's really the wrong place for perfumes. If, on top of that, you expose the bottle to direct sunlight, you have done all you can to kill the fragrance. Remember that the sun is a perfume's greatest enemy."

The above fragrance advice "how to" comes from a free translation of legendary perfumer's Guy Robert's "Le Sens du Parfum" French book (out of print now) courtesy of SoCalWoman/MUA. Robert is responsible for lots of fragrance classics, such as Madame Rochas, Dior Dioressence, Equipage,Caleche and Doblis by Hermes, Amouage Gold etc.

 If you're new to perfume and want more practical "how to" guides on fragrances, please refer to our "HOW TO GUIDES" articles on the right hand column (scroll) of the Home Page. If you want the most popular questions answered, please refer to the relevant frequent questions on perfumes link. If you want to submit a new question which may appear on the blog and get answered by me to the best of my ability, please email me using Contact.

Two Stories for Mom

You probably read the winning story for Mom's Day contest that Tijon fragrance boutique and lab organized the other day (if you haven't check it out). Today, in anticipation of tomorrow, I'm posting the two other winning mom stories for your enjoyment. And please share your own in the comments!

Immersive Journey into the Outer Reaches of Scent: Fragrance Lab at Selfridges

On the ground floor of Selfridges, participants enter a futuristic laboratory-like space peopled by scientific-looking assistants in white lab coats. Guests are given an iPad and asked to take a personality test that consists of multiple-choice questions and pictures.

via psfk.com

After filling that out, visitors don a pair of white headphones and make their way through an audio-guided tour of spaces filled with various objects and scents. They might, for example, open a mystery drawer, selecting an object that speaks to them in some way and identifying the smells that rouse them most.

These choices help determine their personal fragrance, concocted by perfumer Givaudan and presented to them at the end of the tour in a private, silver-colored room. Along with the bottle, they get an "about you" description

Read the whole article following this link and learn more on this link.

Back to Marrakech: Perfume Inspiration

Back to the origins of perfume:
MARRAKECH

"Up until the late 1960s, I had no interest in perfume whatsoever. It was during a trip to Morocco in 1968 that it took hold of my senses and reawakened my past.

Over there, I saw women armed with long poles, hitting the orange trees to bring down the blossoms, which they collected in large white sheets laid out on the ground like a blanket of snow.

"Marrakesh Pink" - Royal Theatre in The Rose City/The Pink City/The Red City; 

Names for the Jewel of Morocco ~ Photography by Edwin de Johgh via pinterest

My walks through the medina of Marrakech completed this rediscovery of the fifth sense. There I felt the voluptuousness and sweetness of different woods – a mingling of air, sun, dust and the scent of animals, diffused by that confection of woods: cedar being carved in the tiny carpenters’ workshops I passed.

These impressions became so firmly implanted in my mind that, in the early 1990s, I set about creating Féminité du Bois, which made its mark in the perfumery world. A few years later, I reaffirmed my interest in perfume by creating Ambre Sultan, which began as a small piece of amber, which I also found in the souks and had kept in a small thuja wood box. The scent that was released when I opened it was exactly as I remembered it."

Serge Lutens

Tijon Mother's Day winners & the winning, touching Mother's Day Story

Jovan van Drielle has sent me the announcement of the winners for her grand prize for Tijon Mother's Day Contest and it's my pleasure and honor to share the names of the 3 winners (yes, Jovan is that generous she decided to hand out 3 prizes) as well as the winning story for you to enjoy.

1st prize - $1000. value package - Cynthia Nielsen
2nd prize will receive a $700.00 value package -  Hollan McBride
3rd prize - $500.00 value package - Cindie Roeder Leonard

And below, please read the winning story.
What is YOUR mother's day story/reminiscence/etc?