Importance of Evals

When first learning to create a natural perfume that wasn't aromatherapy and more like, well, real perfume, the answer to my questions (nearly all of my questions) was the same -- evaluate. I say this constantly to my students. Do you want to learn to make natural perfume? Buy as many essential oils, absolutes, and plant waxes as you can afford, and pick them each apart olfactoraly -- bit by bit, day by day, the same 30 or 40 smells over and over again. And. Write. That. Stuff. Down! Whip out the thesaurus to find appropriate smell words to describe what you're smelling (create a monograph for each one that YOU understand). If you say, "Wow, this smells kind of waxy," -- thesaurus that thing:

Waxy = greasy, slippery, unctuous (good word!), lubricious (another!), oleaginous (oh, they're just pouring in now!), butyraceous (c'mon!!). 

Do any of these words work better than 'waxy' does in describing what you smelled that was waxy? Use it. 

And do this over and over and over, and more when you purchase and receive new raw materials, until you know them intimately, and then revisit them again and again. Your brain will do the rest.