Miscellany of the day

[mobyus]

Lupus & Vega - Botanical Remembrance

One thing I love about L & V is that I get to try new things that cross scent boundaries. I got 5 samples (some I’ve had before). In addition to what I ordered.

Botanical Remembrance opens with balsamic notes and cola. Kind of similar to patchouli but not quite the same. The sandalwood is really beautiful in this. It’s different than the other sandalwoods I’ve tried. It’s like it’s been grilled or charred. Really lovely different scent to come home to. Makes the olfactory senses turn on for sure. Great creation @Joe !

 

[Joe]

Lupus & Vega - Botanical Remembrance

One thing I love about L & V is that I get to try new things that cross scent boundaries. I got 5 samples (some I’ve had before). In addition to what I ordered.

Botanical Remembrance opens with balsamic notes and cola. Kind of similar to patchouli but not quite the same. The sandalwood is really beautiful in this. It’s different than the other sandalwoods I’ve tried. It’s like it’s been grilled or charred. Really lovely different scent to come home to. Makes the olfactory senses turn on for sure. Great creation @Joe !

Thank you, sir. That charred note is probably from the agarwood. I didn’t add any Cade which is what some people use for smoky effects.

 

[Mr.P]

There is an American variant of Szechuan pepper known as prickly ash. there is a stand of it near me, but the plants are all males so there are no peppercorns. The leaves however are fragrant and have enough oil for it to show on the surface as a kind of sheen like a miniature oil slick. I've got to get out there and gather up some before the plant drops them all, seems like something worth extracting.

I also have some really fragrant green Szechuan pepper that I got in a bulk pack from the market where I sell my perfumes. They actually have three different types of Szechuan pepper in these packs - of course I want to get enough to run through the extractor but the economics don't work out because it's priced pretty high on the shelf.

There's no way they're going to sell all of that Szechuan pepper in this little one-horse town, so I'm hoping it will be worth it to them to get rid of it in one go by cutting the price down a bit.

Otherwise I guess they had better get cooking because they have pounds of the stuff and I'm guessing the number of households making Chinese food or even owning a pepper grinder around here could be counted on your fingers and toes 😂

 

[Mr.P]

I just biked up to the "pepper patch". I looked pretty thoroughly, once again all I am finding are male plants. There is another patch across the street but that's too close to somebody's house I don't feel comfortable poking around in there without permission.

I retrieved a shoulder bag full of leaves and I'm laying these out to dry, they are very pungent so I am hopeful that the pepper aroma will be able to compete against the dried leaf scent.

 

[Mr.P]

found these giant puff balls on a hike yesterday… This year seems to be a good one for these strange mushrooms because I've seen many of them. I connected with a local retired scientist who has some interest in some of this madness and he is wanting me to extract dehydrated puffball mushrooms - he says they develop a really unusually rich classic porcini type aroma.

He also says they go through a really horrible stage (in terms of their aroma) part of the way through drying so I think I'm going to let him do the dehydrating and I'll do the extracting once they are fully dried and no longer rank ha ha

some mushrooms become incredibly intense in aroma when they are dehydrated, porcini are one example. Very very mild when picked and cooked fresh but incredibly savory when dried. I collected a bunch this year and I'm looking forward to cooking with them… Not enough to extract.

If you look closely you will see there's a salamander that was resting in the shade under one of these. I did my best to put things back the way they were... it seems that some of the local wildlife had been enjoying nibbling on these mushrooms. Beautiful consistency and extremely delicate texture. Apparently these are excellent sliced and grilled

 

[Amberbreens]

So I made an awesome blend from white Ambergris and Vanilla Planifolia - both completely self macerated in jojoba from the pure and original raw products.

I know Ambergris of all sorts already works as a fixative, but can you recommend other things that work as fixative, mainly for the white ambergris? The blend already smells perfect, but the longevity and sillage could be better.

I read of Patchouli, but that might be too strong and change the amber-vanilla profile too much.

Or do you have other ideas of where I can go with this?

Thanks already
Breens

 

[MaxFromHolland]

So I made an awesome blend from white Ambergris and Vanilla Planifolia - both completely self macerated in jojoba from the pure and original raw products.

I know Ambergris of all sorts already works as a fixative, but can you recommend other things that work as fixative, mainly for the white ambergris? The blend already smells perfect, but the longevity and sillage could be better.

I read of Patchouli, but that might be too strong and change the amber-vanilla profile too much.

Or do you have other ideas of where I can go with this?

Thanks already
Breens

You could test Copaiba balm, it has a mild profile, slightly woody and resinous.

 

[Mr.P]

here are some suggestions but they would all need to be used at just the right dose or else they would of course change the presence of your blend significantly:

Some other sweet fixatives with balsamic scent:

benzoin siam
balsam Peru
balsam Tolu
styrax

Some fixatives with ambergris-adjacent scent:

clary sage absolute (not essential oil)
labdanum absolute
cistus oil
cypress

 

[Shiningrobes]

I would second the balsams because they can also have a bit of a vanilla profile just skewed slightly. Maybe more than one? Benzoin and Peru are the only ones I have real experience with. Minuscule amounts of patchouli might work, same for vetiver since both tend to hang around on my skin the longest. I often wonder what Labdanum and ambergis would do togethe, but I don’t have any labdanum on hand that isn’t thinned out in FCO and I am steering away from using carrier oils.

 

[Amberbreens]

here are some suggestions but they would all need to be used at just the right dose or else they would of course change the presence of your blend significantly:

Some other sweet fixatives with balsamic scent:

benzoin siam
balsam Peru
balsam Tolu
styrax

Some fixatives with ambergris-adjacent scent:

clary sage absolute (not essential oil)
labdanum absolute
cistus oil
cypress

Cool thanks, I have most of that here. Only the cistus and styrax I don't really dare to use, as I find them soooo strong with very sharp notes, I mean - I want to try them at some point, but really don't know how - anything precious like my pure ambergris-vanilla-blend I don't want to try it with.

The same counts for the clary sage, it's just soooo strong, but it's an eo not an absolute as you recommend, so I'll try to get that as well.

Also another question has come up as I just received Dan's current grey-white ambergris, which is the best I've had so far (for my taste) - I love it SO much:

Which oil are you usually using for macerating ambergris aside from sandalwood? I want the ambergris scent purely so no other fragrance - what you think is best? Jojoba, fractionated coconut? Almond?
Tincturing somehow doesn't work for me, the liquid reduces so much and I always find the alcohol scent to strong and other things don't blend well with it.

Since I'm not rich, I usually do small amounts of macerations - 3 to 6 ml, filtering is also not that easy then - didn't dare to filter yet, only the vanilla oil. What filter materials are you using?

Thanks a lot for your help! Much appreciated!

My wool absolue arrived and it's absolutely stunning, I guess it could make for a good fixative as well.

 

[Mr.P]

Yes clary absolute is very different from clary EO. And each of these things has some different concentration where it's tolerable, so diluting and experimenting with materials at 10% or 5% is pretty important in order to understand what they contribute to a perfume

Cistus is a beast, very toppy. not something that can be used in place of labdanum. clear / light labdanum absolutes are quite sweet and almost oud-like. Have you tried one of those?

For both of these materials, the distilled oil has a completely different role from the absolute in perfume making (as you will see).

As far as ambergris goes, I would tincture it or dissolve in sandalwood which you are not keen to do, so maybe someone else can give you better advice.

I would not macerate it with any vegetable oil or any fixed oil or wax like jojoba etc. as those things seem to ruin whatever is mixed with them..

The closest thing to an odorless volatile natural carrier oil might be one of those low-intensity carbon dioxide extracts of kinam. To me the kinam aroma is very compatible with the ambergris and gentle enough not to dominate. Due to the viscosity of the kinam this would take patience I think (and a little heat).

 

[Mr.P]

Surely my local rural market is not going to sell this much szechuan pepper at $16-18 a bag before it goes bad? I tried to convince the shop owner to sell me some of these bags at a discount so I can extract the oil.

 

[Shiningrobes]

🦌🦌🦌Transferring sandalwood soaked musk grains into other materials last night.💎💎💎
I don’t have a scoop small enough to fit in a 1/4 tola bottle so I had to fashion a tool out of a bent paper clip. Downside is that it was messy. Upside is that my fingers were permeated with musk and I cleaned the paper clip in my hair. I smelled like golden creamy suede and still have traces on my arms.

 

[Shiningrobes]

One of the oils I added musk to in my last post was Oud Safeer from An Najwa. If you’re not familiar with it, it is a Hindi he had available that always smelt hot and dry to me. It has complexity and accessory notes that it wanders through but always came back to a sunbaked, searing, midday quality for me. Like being out on bare dirt with no shade in sight. One set of those accessory notes had a distinctly crassna aspect (pick your subregion) as well as lactic, milky, country air then straight back to the smell of adding wood chips to a garden bed at noon in the dryest part of summer.

After two days with grains in it now comes on hard like some Golden Triangle fantasia. Lipstick, vinyl notes easing into leather that could feel fruity in a new gen Thai oil, but with a charred wood undertone. Even a bit of incense. It seems like it might eventually turn into full on leather once mature and it even gives hints of the cereal milk floral musk that is my favorite part of his Ghaliya Banu Hashim.
Im always afraid to mess with ouds that I love for fear of ruining them, but really how could I go wrong with a smidge of deer musk in an Indian malaccensis? I’m sure you’ll all get a play by play with this maceration as it develops because I can’t see myself leaving it alone. I’m sure this will get a dot of rose eventually but I need to see how it develops before I decide on which rose if any at all.

 

[AlHind Oud]

Very interesting technique with Musk tincture. Never seen before.

Vivace Perfumes on Instagram‎: "Guess what? Taha Sayed & Islamov bring you the next chapter of fragrance! Before the perfume reaches you… the journey begins here، Three exclusive Vivace fragrances will be revealed soon at Beautyworld Dubai 2025. Joi

1,852 likes, 90 comments - vivace.perfumez on October 23, 2025‎: "Guess what? Taha Sayed & Islamov bring you the next chapter of fragrance! Before the perfume reaches you… the journey begins here، Three exclusive Vivace fragrances will be revealed soon at Beautyworld Dubai 2025. Join us October...

www.instagram.com

 

[Mr.P]

I think burial is a traditional way to regulate temperature… Isn't neriko typically aged in buried ceramic pots?

 

[Joe]

Very interesting technique with Musk tincture. Never seen before.

Vivace Perfumes on Instagram‎: "Guess what? Taha Sayed & Islamov bring you the next chapter of fragrance! Before the perfume reaches you… the journey begins here، Three exclusive Vivace fragrances will be revealed soon at Beautyworld Dubai 2025. Joi

1,852 likes, 90 comments - vivace.perfumez on October 23, 2025‎: "Guess what? Taha Sayed & Islamov bring you the next chapter of fragrance! Before the perfume reaches you… the journey begins here، Three exclusive Vivace fragrances will be revealed soon at Beautyworld Dubai 2025. Join us October...

www.instagram.com

Gross! I prefer mine tintured already!

 

[Mr.P]

some old pieces of sandalwood, this part of my collection I don't worry about keeping stored airtight. This is for visual and tactile enjoyment. The Ganesh a friend of mine picked up in India in the 90s, the large circular trunk piece and two small slices all come from the same large larger log, supposedly mysore. Two pieces on the right that are not circular and cross-section are Australian sandalwood I picked up in the late 90s. I use that large cylindrical piece as a surface to split wood chips on. 🙂

 

[AlHind Oud]

some old pieces of sandalwood, this part of my collection I don't worry about keeping stored airtight. This is for visual and tactile enjoyment. The Ganesh a friend of mine picked up in India in the 90s, the large circular trunk piece and two small slices all come from the same large larger log, supposedly mysore. Two pieces on the right that are not circular and cross-section are Australian sandalwood I picked up in the late 90s. I use that large cylindrical piece as a surface to split wood chips on. 🙂



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Let's cook them. 😄

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

some old pieces of sandalwood, this part of my collection I don't worry about keeping stored airtight. This is for visual and tactile enjoyment. The Ganesh a friend of mine picked up in India in the 90s, the large circular trunk piece and two small slices all come from the same large larger log, supposedly mysore. Two pieces on the right that are not circular and cross-section are Australian sandalwood I picked up in the late 90s. I use that large cylindrical piece as a surface to split wood chips on. 🙂



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Beautiful! Lol..you know @AlHind Oud is being half serious don't you?