Not Trouble

That last post was pretty cryptic, and I apologize for wasting your time like that. I had actually written a whole thing, but my better judgment took over and so the post was greatly abbreviated. It's better that way. However, I can say something about some of what was in the original (deleted) post -- health issues are plaguing my family, from the top down, some mental, some -- well, actually, those are mental as well but manifesting physically. It's just not a good time health-wise for me and my babies. 

Again, I'm on the reading kick. I've shifted my focus from fiction to non-fiction; witchy stuff, life-changing stuff, get-back-your-power stuff, but nothing airy or overly, well, occult-y. These stories are more like reminders of things that you knew soul-deep in your childhood, but life just knocked it out of you until everything became tainted with self-doubt and regret. Yeah, like that. I had 'it' back in 2018, but something about traveling to Brazil did me in. I won't go into it, but I have some idea of what happened. Just working my way back is all.

We kicked off the new course yesterday to the tiny tinkling bells of quietude. Lots of retake students gathered there to get a real diploma in Natural Perfumery, and we got a number of volunteer mentors to sign up to help with individual mentorships. Ruth brought up to me yesterday, after it dawned on her, that what we're offering is big-big. An actual diploma course, automatic enrollment into a spiritually focused Kyphi course, lifetime membership to NPA in case students want to brush up or learn something new (usually without additional fees), automatic enrollment into the advanced course (the APWs), mentoring by experienced mentors (former, graduated students of NPA), tailored forums, and loads of individual attention (like, remote apprenticeships). If you look at the course like this, you begin to realize how special it is. We love that. We're trying to build a community here, where people feel safe and heard, and learn in an environment of kindness and respect. Anyway, enough about me . . . ha!

So, how about a formulation? Or a formulation starting point? How about I talk about the complexity of fixatives? I like that idea. Let's do that.

When we think about fixatives, a lot of us don't think about fixative accords, instead, we're thinking about the mundane stuff, like fixing alcohol with a pod of vanilla, or a kernel of benzoin, or using a tincture of something as our perfume base, wood usually, or we add vegetable glycerin (which isn't optimal). You have to expand that idea -- create fixatives that complement a formula, rather than just help extend its scent-life. If you're creating an amber perfume, adding vanilla to the alcohol isn't going to do it as ambers are typically already loaded with vanilla (and, if we're being straight here, ambers don't need fixing). But an accord of slightly juxtaposed materials that maybe include vanilla could work (lots of doubt in that statement, eh?) Something like ambrette, clary, rose otto, benzoin, a pinch of vanilla, all at 1% or a little more, 2%. It may not seem like much, but a nicely aged fixative accord can work wonders on a perfume composition. The problem is a lack of patience. Not many of us take the time and resources to make these fixative accords, so some rarely experience those benefits first-hand. So I will tell you what I tell all of my students:

Make accords. Lots and lots of accords!