For everyone who has been following my blog or knows me, it is more than clear I am obsessed with smell and the psychological connection it forges between us and memories, places, and fellow humans. Olfactory recollection speaks louder than any photo, visual memory, and, fascinatingly, it works on such a subconscious level that it always catches us off-guard. So I decided to set on my own adventure of exploring the science of perfume, and create my own magical scent.
It was a cloudy day in Marrakech, Morocco, so we had breakfast in the common room of our riad, which was absolutely gorgeous: old colonial Moroccan style with photographs, lush inner architecture and furnishing, and delicious food.
After breakfast, we headed straight to the perfume museum, where I had been the day prior, marveling the scents, researching and taking photos of every essence I liked. I had already arranged with Amina, the alchemist, to come in and make my perfume with a fresh nose.
Although it is a known fact that perfumers have a very strict diet and refrain from smoking and scent overstimulation, doing this is impossible in a place like Marrakech: the literal embodyment of olfactory overload, and the capital of shisha, spices and flavorsome cuisine.
Despite this, we braved into the quiet riad of the museum and began our exploration. I quietly thanked myself for having photographed the essences I liked the day prior, as to be able to soberly choose my preferred notes on the spot. I started with five scents, which is the general rule when selecting notes for a rich and layered perfume. I picked Mimosa, Vetiver, Saffron, Small Green, and Fig, my absolute favorite. There was another decision to make, though: one to have in mind also when shopping for perfume: eau de toilette, or eau de perfume?. Since my fragrance was rather light, and I love long-lasting scents, the obvious choice was eau de perfume. For the perfume, one needs to mix 20% concentrate with 80% alcohol. In contrast, eu de toilette would entail 10% perfume and 90% alcohol. Amina then showed me how to create ratios on the basis of the note I liked best.
In general, the easiest way to understand the layering of scent in a perfume is through the pyramid. The crown are the top notes, which create the first impression and last up to two hours from spraying the fragrance. After this, the core notes settle in: those last up to six hours, and characterize the perfume in general. They are also most commonly used when defining a name or deciding on scents. And lastly, the base surfaces. It is the reason we connect to memories and loved ones, and so light and unintrusive, that our bodies mistake it for pheromones. The base is also what we smell on our favorite person’s clothes and pillowcase, as it lasts for days and even weeks after spraying.
Having in mind how the layering works, I ended up with 2% vetiver for the base, 1% mimosa, 2% saffron and 3.5% fig for the core, and 1.5% small green for the top notes. While mixing all of them, Amina told me the story of monsieur Benchaâbane, the creator of this experience and founder of a perfume brand, where she’d been an alchemist for the past 20 years.
He started his career as a botanist for fashion pioneer Yves Saint Laurent, who had a house and often resided in Marrakech, a city which served him as an inspiration and a getaway for decades. Based on his merits and natural sense of smell, monsieur Benchaâbane then went on to become YSL’s personal perfumer. Yves Saint Laurent was so impressed by his skills that he advised him to launch his own perfume brand, Benchaâbane, named after the creator. Monsieur Benchaâbane, however, had another plan. He wanted to spread the knowledge of scents and the love for perfume beyond the reach of luxury fashion houses’ perfumers, so he created this olfactory experience, which I was thoroughly enjoying for about 40 minutes now.
Each precious minute was saturated with beautiful scents, maturing before my very nose, and with decisions to make. Not only is there an infinite variety of notes and ways to combine them, but also countless approaches to naming the fragrance.
I personally struggled with reducing the experience of my scent down to one or two cliché words. And while my imagination was running wild with all the things this perfume was about, I couldn’t quite put it into words. Ferocity, youth, familiarity, yet novelty, exploration and ingenuity. Finally, it was clear.
I walked out with the biggest smile and the most precious bottle of Jungle Utopia!