Thursday, November 10, 2011

You Smell Real Purdy.....

Whilst at the soap making workshop through the Backporch Soap company, I learned that they were going to have a two night workshop on natural perfume making taught by a natural perfumer named Charna Ethier, the lovely creator of the delicious perfume line Providence Perfume Co.. As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, I have been obsessed with "potions" and since I was a little girl and LOVE perfume, although I knew very little about natural perfume other than I like the idea of "natural" but am afraid of patchouli and hacky-sak. To be perfectly frank my choices in perfume are totally "old lady"- heavy, cloyingly sweet, musky, scandalous and slightly suspicious scents like Opium, Musc Ravageur, Musc Nomade, and wait for it...yes, Jimmy Choo. What all this says about me??? Intense, immature, nostalgic, and down for a tryst in pre-war Paris maybe? But back to being perfectly Jeanine again....I signed up for the class and it was definitely worth the small investment!

The class is perfectly suited for beginners wanting to know the fundamentals of how to get started- from materials needed to strategies for starting to mix. Although you do get to take a stab at creating your own perfume, the class is really more focused on teaching you how to approach mixing and familiarizing yourself with the ingredients, how the work together and the process as a total, which I felt was really great. Charna shared as many samples of rare scents with her students as possible, as well as share tips on ingredient suppliers, and her own experiences in starting her own business. Charna is a great advocate for the natural perfume movement. It is pretty sad that most of the beautiful perfumes of the past have been so modified by chemical replacements of their original natural ingredients that they are at best vaguely reminiscent of their predecessors, not to mention can sometimes be toxic. I may not be able to put down the bottle of Musc Ravageur any time soon, but in the mean time I will be having fun trying to create my own natural perfume that smells great, is uniquely mine, and is healthy and natural!

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