Filling Vials









Here is a pictorial of the process used to fill vials for the NNAPA perfume course evaluation kits. The first time I did this, there were twice the number of evaluation materials, somewhere in the neighborhood of 104 different essences. This time it was pared down to the most useful for a beginning perfumer, and some rare little gems that for reasons of cost a beginner might not have the opportunity to study right away. Like that gorgeous tuberose . . . this kit contains 57 essences from 12 categories; floral, rose floral, orange floral, citrus, woods, animalic, mint, herbal, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. It took about 10 days of 4 to 6 hour sessions to finish up that earlier vial filling escapade -- so far, it's taken only two days -- two-and-a-half days, really -- to fill this batch, in part because I followed Marge Clark's advice on how to fill a lot'a vials at once without getting a blister on thethumb and getting through it in a timely manner. Drill a bunch of little holes into a piece of wood, make sure they're just a titch bigger than the vials and deep enough that about 3/4ths of the vial is in wood, fill them up, set the closures on top and use another piece of wood (or in my case, the bottom of a bottle) to push the closures into the vials. I drilled holes into my unfinished perfumer's organ, which I was thinking of tossing but now have reconsidered and may turn it into a shelf and use for when students come to the studio. And then there is the next session of vial filling that needs consideration . . . anyway, this time around the filling went off without a hitch (thanks Marge!) and it's fairly well on its way to being done. Enjoy the process.

Comments

  1. And time consuming! But it's also like mini evaluations of 57 different essences! I started with the florals and nearly fainted with delight; ended with the animalics and miscellaneous scents -- choyas and cananga and nagarmotha -- a strange combination of smoky burnt leathery-ness and creamy florals. As much time as it takes to fulfill this task, I cannot hate it. It's inspiring.

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