By the Flip Flop Perfumer
“Fragrance is like magic, a whiff of mystery that stays with you forever.” ~Anonymous
Happy New Year! May the new year bring you health, prosperity and good scents.
Fragrance can alter our emotion and mood. There is a growing body of evidence that fragrant botanicals contain active ingredients that can alter mood and emotional state. The mechanisms involved seem to be both psychological and physical. Similarly, odours can have physical effect such as stimulating hunger and is also a powerful stimulus for memory.
Perfume history: Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, in an effort to seduce Mark Antony and unite with the Roman Empires, set sail in a ship made of cedar wood with sails soaked in cyprinum, her favourite perfume made from henna flowers. Antony had to wade knee-deep through petals to reach her bed.
Our sense of smell: Studies show that women are attracted to the scent of a dominant male when she is ovulating.
Fragrance fact: The difference between perfume, eau de perfume and eau de cologne is historically a matter of the amount or concentration of oils in the fragrance. However, today cologne is more of a marketing term and often has the same concentration as an eau de perfume.
Fragrance tip: Always try a fragrance on your own skin. The same fragrance can smell remarkably different on two different people due to the chemistry of our skin.
Trends: Businesswomen and brunettes tend to prefer warmer tones that include vanilla. The two most popular in this category at Tijon are Eclectique and Sandalwood-Vanilla.
Oil spotlight: Sandalwood offers a warm, woodsy aroma that is used as a base note in over half of all women’s perfumes and in one third of men’s perfumes. The original sandalwood has been overharvested, and there are now 19 varieties of sandalwood trees. If buying pure sandalwood essential oil, be sure to compare oils and vendors.
Classic fragrances: Youth Dew, a bath oil that doubles as a perfume, was the first fragrance Estee Lauder introduced in 1953. In its first year, Youth Dew sold 50,000; by 1984, the figure had jumped to 150 million.
Question: What is “Sillage?” Pronounced see-yazh, it is a French term used to describe a scented trail left by the fragrance wearer. Sillage has nothing to do with the richness of the composition, but rather with the diffusive nature of the materials. The opposite term for a fragrance would be “intimate.”
Perfume descriptions: Why do we describe perfumes? Because our nose is second only to our brain in receiving and perceiving scents. Here are some descriptions by class perfumers at Tijon:
Lori from Chicago described her “Bubbling Brown Sugar” perfume as “a jaw dropping sexual attraction scent.”
Lenor described her “Raven” perfume as “freshness in a bottle, walking in the night; the wind blows and a whiff of vanilla, musk and tea captures the evening.”
Josephine described her “Midnight Rider” perfume as “an aphrodisiac centring your sexual urges along your juices flowing through your whole entire body leaving you sensually endowed.”
A new study claims those who drink three cups of coffee a day are less likely to develop skin cancer. Did anyone think that if you’re drinking coffee, you’re probably not sitting in the sun?
The author of “A Beach Less Traveled” and a contributing author to publications world-wide, John Berglund, the “Flip Flop Perfumer,” owns and operates the Tijon Parfumerie in Grand Case where they offer 22 signature perfumes and a lab where guests can create their own fragrance.
