Mr.P
oud<3er
do I need a restraining order? 🙂
Miscellany of the day
- Thread starter Mr.P
- Start date
Mr.P
oud<3er
OK here's one for the real hard-core fragrance nerds out there: stinkhorn fungi. This one kind of challenged my conceptions of what is and is not something tolerable to pursue in the line of investigating fragrance.
I met a local character who is a retired paleontologist, generally interested in all kinds of things related to biology and the sciences and (thank goodness) able to be interested in and understand the fascination with the fragrance extraction and production side of things. Will likely be a good collaborator over the next couple of years in fact - he showed me where the American Szechuan pepper grows, we have collaborated on foraging and selling "ramps" in the spring etc.
He returned from a trip excavating fossils in Montana with a bunch of dehydrated stink horn mushroom and spores. Turns out they are edible and the god-awful stench they produce when fresh converts into a kind of sweet chocolatey (spore mass) and mushroom malt (stem/stipe tissue) aroma when dried. Very rich and saturated in scent and clearly an excellent target for extraction if somebody were looking for that aroma.
I don't think I have it in me to collect and extract these things, they're just way too nasty when fresh, literally nauseating for me. Amazing how much it transforms when dried however, and so here is a rare true pungent aroma coming from the fungi for anybody who is DIY oriented.
I met a local character who is a retired paleontologist, generally interested in all kinds of things related to biology and the sciences and (thank goodness) able to be interested in and understand the fascination with the fragrance extraction and production side of things. Will likely be a good collaborator over the next couple of years in fact - he showed me where the American Szechuan pepper grows, we have collaborated on foraging and selling "ramps" in the spring etc.
He returned from a trip excavating fossils in Montana with a bunch of dehydrated stink horn mushroom and spores. Turns out they are edible and the god-awful stench they produce when fresh converts into a kind of sweet chocolatey (spore mass) and mushroom malt (stem/stipe tissue) aroma when dried. Very rich and saturated in scent and clearly an excellent target for extraction if somebody were looking for that aroma.
I don't think I have it in me to collect and extract these things, they're just way too nasty when fresh, literally nauseating for me. Amazing how much it transforms when dried however, and so here is a rare true pungent aroma coming from the fungi for anybody who is DIY oriented.
Mr.P
oud<3er
two miscellaneous extractions getting my attention today:
Boronia absolute from Hermitage smelling like a combination of delicate flowers and plastic bags. Very delightful and delicate floral aspect with a strange plastic backdrop
Oak moss absolute has also gotten my attention in a funny way. I put on a sweater which I haven't worn for a week, and I was wearing that sweater when I applied a couple of swipes of 10% oakmoss on my wrists as part of a layering experiment. When I put that sweater on today I was surrounded by this rich cologne like atmosphere - oak moss almost feels like cheating in the sense that it creates this convincing sense of a structured perfume when just traces of it combine with other things. I can't think of any other materials like that. Part of me feels like it's the complexity of the material but on another level I assume this is just through years of past association in my childhood. I existed in spaces with adults wearing fragrances that contained oakmoss, and now when I smell it it's like a direct trigger of the "I'm smelling perfume" sense.
if I wanted to be controversial I would say it's cliché. It's like a phrase you hear over and over and over and it loses its meaning and simultaneously it takes on a new meaning reflecting its common use.
Boronia absolute from Hermitage smelling like a combination of delicate flowers and plastic bags. Very delightful and delicate floral aspect with a strange plastic backdrop
Oak moss absolute has also gotten my attention in a funny way. I put on a sweater which I haven't worn for a week, and I was wearing that sweater when I applied a couple of swipes of 10% oakmoss on my wrists as part of a layering experiment. When I put that sweater on today I was surrounded by this rich cologne like atmosphere - oak moss almost feels like cheating in the sense that it creates this convincing sense of a structured perfume when just traces of it combine with other things. I can't think of any other materials like that. Part of me feels like it's the complexity of the material but on another level I assume this is just through years of past association in my childhood. I existed in spaces with adults wearing fragrances that contained oakmoss, and now when I smell it it's like a direct trigger of the "I'm smelling perfume" sense.
if I wanted to be controversial I would say it's cliché. It's like a phrase you hear over and over and over and it loses its meaning and simultaneously it takes on a new meaning reflecting its common use.
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Mr.P
oud<3er
Today I discovered there's a large dawn redwood growing with its roots in the runoff from the thermal springs up above my house. The blue structure in the background is the springhouse and the runoff flows towards the camera. These are deciduous evergreens that actually shed their needles every year. I dragged home a branch that had fallen that has a fair amount of red heartwood. This one is an endangered species, originally from China, the shortest of the redwoods. I imagine it should have an interesting aroma! Couldn't really tell today because the broken face of the branch had been exposed to the air for too long.
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Mr.P
oud<3er
I had the geography all wrong, these are from one particular location in China. I also just found out this is one of those "living fossils", the last remaining representative of a group of trees that basically went extinct and was thought to have been extinct until a stand of these was discovered in China. Apparently it's unchanged morphologically compared to the form that was leaving fossils in the late cretaceous. So here's an opportunity to extract a truly rare and ancient aroma, assuming there's one to be extracted!
![[Ouddict.com] Miscellany of the day](https://data.ouddict.com/attachments/50/50609-07fbf4242c6ef5e8446dbe2bcea67b95.jpg?hash=nVX0c8Z7gk)
Mr.P
oud<3er
these may be well dried and aged. Is Nepal musk something of a rarity these days? Could this be vintage material?
mobyus
True Ouddict
After taking many people’s point of view on ratios for macerating musk. I’m macerating 1g Nepalese musk in 1/4 tola oud/taif rose mix and 1/4 tola of Sandalwood for 6 months. The person whose view I add more weight to said macerate 1g of musk to 4gm of liquid (total 5gm) (could be sandalwood, rose, oud).
So I’m doing something in the middle. Let’s see how it goes. Total volume is 10ml. Don’t know how it came to that. Should be 1+3+3 =7 ml approximately. Maybe the tola sandalwood bottle is holding more volume.
But it’s 10ml so I’m not adding anything else.
If anyone wants to weigh in (no pun intended) I’m all ears.
So I’m doing something in the middle. Let’s see how it goes. Total volume is 10ml. Don’t know how it came to that. Should be 1+3+3 =7 ml approximately. Maybe the tola sandalwood bottle is holding more volume.
But it’s 10ml so I’m not adding anything else.
If anyone wants to weigh in (no pun intended) I’m all ears.
Attachments
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Joe
Resident Artisan
You're becoming a perfumer now! That's great!
Mr.P
oud<3er
looks good - can't go wrong with that combination! Volume measurements on things like beakers and flasks that are not specifically intended for making measurement are always approximate and have a large margin of error possibly something like 20% or more. Combine that with the variation in the inexpensive mass produced glass bottles and it's a little hard to know how much you've got. This is one reason for using a scale, you know exactly the weight of what you've put in there (if that's particularly important, which it may not be in this case).
SophMarie
True Ouddict
Malt and chocolate, hm? Is he a beer brewer?
Mr.P
oud<3er
He is not as far as I know, relatively new acquaintance, but he is a natural historian and interested in the natural world in a broad sense. Great guy to go foraging with. 🙂
Alamande
True Ouddict
ASAQ First Rate Bridal Ta’if Rose
Or “sectarian toast to the bride” as the various ASAQ websites mistranslate it 🙃
Credit where credit is due, this is very pleasant, although it’s not pure distilled oil. It has a nice, sharp, lemony profile. No green notes. Not excessively powdery or pink. It just about solidifies in the fridge.
I have a couple of Cambodi oud oils with me here. This rose plays very nicely with those, lending them a really fun bubblegum character.
Or “sectarian toast to the bride” as the various ASAQ websites mistranslate it 🙃
Credit where credit is due, this is very pleasant, although it’s not pure distilled oil. It has a nice, sharp, lemony profile. No green notes. Not excessively powdery or pink. It just about solidifies in the fridge.
I have a couple of Cambodi oud oils with me here. This rose plays very nicely with those, lending them a really fun bubblegum character.
Ahmaoud
True Ouddict
I don't follow Alamande, it's not entirely a distilled rose oil, then what else is it, and also why would they name it "First Rate Bridal" ?
Edit: Ahhhh it's a blend I see!
A deep red Cambodi plays wonders with rose, I have a bottle I made with one of my most precious Cambodis and the scent is divine, not explainable in words, though I went a bit overboard with 5 drops! Also that laughing emoji was directed at the mistranslation you mentioned, not at the content of your post!
Alamande
True Ouddict
Yeah, I had the impression that it is a large dose of Ta’if rose jazzed up with a few ‘performance enhancers’. But with typical ASAQ fashion the explanation seems to be vague. Really enjoyable though.
And yes I surprised myself with this Cambodi-rose combo last night (wasn’t aware how well they would go together). Combined with some Vietnamese swipes and frankincense-myrrh pieces on the subitism it was quite the Friday night at home.
Mr.P
oud<3er
I've tried a couple times here to see if anybody else has a "EDC" when it comes to attars. part of the reality of natural fragrances is it's often necessary to reapply them throughout the day so I've always just carried the things with me that I wanted to smell like.
I generally have a small pouch with a couple of things in it including daily wear oils that land in a sweet spot in my collection: a "quadruple point" where reasonable interest, affordability, quality, and odor intensity/type intersect. Generally something relatively fresh in my collection, and thus still of interest, usually pretty affordable so that it's not a catastrophe if I drop it during the course of the day, generally has to be high-quality in one way or another, and generally things with milder presence and aromas less likely to offend conventional western palates. The fact that I can wear them with abandon adds a layer of pleasure and enjoyment and connection that I'm not able to get with the things that I can't really afford to lose or spill. This makes them in some ways the most valuable parts of my collection, not in terms of monetary value but personal value.
my "budget daily lineup" for study/personal scent:
studying: kyarashrine green kinam oil vs. Broadlink green CK distillate
enjoying: Margon loss bar Aceh sandalwood and Wabisabi green CK resinoid
I also have one or two things which are like my current obsession or focus of study, usually these are a little higher risk items to carry with me but are irresistible for one reason or another, or variations on scents that I've been working on that I'm trying to understand better. For me that's the One Tree oil I recently acquired from @AlHind Oud . I am kind of taken by a couple of facets to this one, in part because it reminds me of some older hydro oils in my collection. It has an interesting intersection of the fresh distillation notes which are sort of sappy and green with the soft warm maple and fenugreek aspects... this will be an interesting one to watch age so I'm just trying to really wrap my head around it now while it's fresh so I've been wearing this one a lot.
I generally have a small pouch with a couple of things in it including daily wear oils that land in a sweet spot in my collection: a "quadruple point" where reasonable interest, affordability, quality, and odor intensity/type intersect. Generally something relatively fresh in my collection, and thus still of interest, usually pretty affordable so that it's not a catastrophe if I drop it during the course of the day, generally has to be high-quality in one way or another, and generally things with milder presence and aromas less likely to offend conventional western palates. The fact that I can wear them with abandon adds a layer of pleasure and enjoyment and connection that I'm not able to get with the things that I can't really afford to lose or spill. This makes them in some ways the most valuable parts of my collection, not in terms of monetary value but personal value.
my "budget daily lineup" for study/personal scent:
studying: kyarashrine green kinam oil vs. Broadlink green CK distillate
enjoying: Margon loss bar Aceh sandalwood and Wabisabi green CK resinoid
I also have one or two things which are like my current obsession or focus of study, usually these are a little higher risk items to carry with me but are irresistible for one reason or another, or variations on scents that I've been working on that I'm trying to understand better. For me that's the One Tree oil I recently acquired from @AlHind Oud . I am kind of taken by a couple of facets to this one, in part because it reminds me of some older hydro oils in my collection. It has an interesting intersection of the fresh distillation notes which are sort of sappy and green with the soft warm maple and fenugreek aspects... this will be an interesting one to watch age so I'm just trying to really wrap my head around it now while it's fresh so I've been wearing this one a lot.
Mr.P
oud<3er
I present to you the most overpriced alcohol on the planet. Or maybe not - maybe there are other businesses with a similar model. like a fool I actually paid more for this than I would've paid for the equivalent quantity of food grade alcohol, yet this is nothing other than denatured ethanol. (FYI "Vetiver Aromatics" is the brand name).
Denatured alcohol is intended to be a fraction of the price of food grade alcohol, "perfumery alcohol" is no exception. The whole idea is that if it's specially denatured for perfume use, you don't have to pay the vice tax which is most of the cost of a gallon of ethyl alcohol licensed for consumption. I'm embarrassed that I own this bottle, I purchased it when I was a little bit confused about regulations for perfume formulation. The markup on this stuff must be something like 3000%, they are making bank at the expense of naive hobbyists.
Denatured alcohol is intended to be a fraction of the price of food grade alcohol, "perfumery alcohol" is no exception. The whole idea is that if it's specially denatured for perfume use, you don't have to pay the vice tax which is most of the cost of a gallon of ethyl alcohol licensed for consumption. I'm embarrassed that I own this bottle, I purchased it when I was a little bit confused about regulations for perfume formulation. The markup on this stuff must be something like 3000%, they are making bank at the expense of naive hobbyists.
Alamande
True Ouddict
Not sure whether to file this one under ‘mukhallat’ or ‘miscellany’.
Oudique Zabad Al Qamar
Recently, one of the more respected forum members, when asked to describe the aroma of civet, described it as something resembling ‘sweaty, unwashed ass, but in a good way’. That vibe certainly comes across here, but the blend is so skillfuly done that it’s far from a one-trick pony. There is an effervescent, almost fruity top note to start, then a cocoa-powder note comes out to play before it dries down to expectedly animalic, earthy, raunchy/fecal. Unwashed bum isn’t far off, to be fair. I’m glad I got a small amount to try - currently hoping the animalic side calms down a little before I arrive at the airport. 😅
Oudique Zabad Al Qamar
Recently, one of the more respected forum members, when asked to describe the aroma of civet, described it as something resembling ‘sweaty, unwashed ass, but in a good way’. That vibe certainly comes across here, but the blend is so skillfuly done that it’s far from a one-trick pony. There is an effervescent, almost fruity top note to start, then a cocoa-powder note comes out to play before it dries down to expectedly animalic, earthy, raunchy/fecal. Unwashed bum isn’t far off, to be fair. I’m glad I got a small amount to try - currently hoping the animalic side calms down a little before I arrive at the airport. 😅
Mr.P
oud<3er
A tiny little dot of valerian resinoid making everything smell funky. I wonder about this stuff, it's a powerhouse, it's utterly raunchy but also extremely sweet and sugary. Green spikenard's funky notes taken to another level. seems like it would be a useful tool to add a little bit of punch if kept at a near subliminal level. I have been trying layering experiments with this, some very interesting things resulted but nothing I felt compelled to try to mix up.
![[Ouddict.com] Miscellany of the day](https://www.ouddict.com/attachments/img_4227-webp.51819/ "[Ouddict.com] Miscellany of the day")
