What DIY project did you tinker with today?

[Mr.P]

How about a "DIY project of the day" thread? I'm imagining projects related to incense or perfume making but I suppose any DIY will do!

Today I was checking on my five second year Clary sage plants, they will flower this year and I'm going to make an extract - very excited about this one. There's nothing like good fresh clary.

just a couple of days ago I extracted some cannabis resinoid from flower I grew a couple of years ago. This has a nice aromatic pungency, smells a bit like hash but with a variety of other notes as well.

what have you all been up to?

 

[Mr.P]

This all had to be bundled up and insulated but here's what it looked like without any wrapping around it. Black and red elder flower. Aroma emerging is sweet tart tangy and fruity. I have much better luck with the copper still than these glass stills but this belongs to a friend of mine and we wanted to try it out. The traditional copper alembic still is a highly evolved design, very functional. This type of glass still is a contrivance for apparent convenience and compactness, on the surface a reasonable set up for distilling essential oils but in practice something you end up having to modify or move on from very quickly.


after a very long warm-up time I am just beginning to get some condensate now, the very first drops coming through are actually pretty charming. The low temperatures on the graph reflect the fact that this is distillation over alcohol not water and the thermometer was measuring off the surface of the glassware not in the stream itself. My expectations were not high based on the smell of the bagged flowers but the strange multifaceted richness of this is intriguing..

 

[roflwaffle]

With materials incoming for various projects, I worked a bit on my 'yolo' attar. I like to think I'm not the only one with this.. rather than planning far ahead, researching percents, doing small bench trials, i have a 'yolo' attar. This is done by guesses, and over time. As it ages, and with new materials, I think 'hmm, maybe this could use a drop of aged vetiver, and a drop of birch tar for smokey BBQ'

Sometimes, it gets better, other times, ehhhh, not so much. It's main point is I think to learn the materials. Its amateurish, non scientific, and changed very slowly over time. I do wish i had kept a better log of notes, its fairly sparse, but its mostly a cross between a wash tub, and a trial vat. When its full, i'll prob start another one afresh, better notes. It has been interesting to add a drop of something over days/week and figure out when it becomes 'strong'

Is it an amazing attar? no... not currently. It's interesting, and makes my brain think about 'what does this need to correct its flaws', and the flaws are ever changing 😀 so i treat it like an evolving puzzle

More scientifically, I'm very interested in esterification and other passive reactions... so I have... far too many small 1-2ml samples of natural alcohols and acids in blends for aging and note keeping to see if i can smell the difference vs a 'fresh' blend. Figure this is a year+ project, so all sorts of stuff blended with ethanol, santalol, pachouli and other common alcohols with other stuff to just educate myself on the changes with aging. got about 30 little bottles at this point of things that... i mean should make notable changes over a year, but fun to see it first hand.

 

[Mr.P]

With materials incoming for various projects, I worked a bit on my 'yolo' attar. I like to think I'm not the only one with this.. rather than planning far ahead, researching percents, doing small bench trials, i have a 'yolo' attar. This is done by guesses, and over time. As it ages, and with new materials, I think 'hmm, maybe this could use a drop of aged vetiver, and a drop of birch tar for smokey BBQ'

Sometimes, it gets better, other times, ehhhh, not so much. It's main point is I think to learn the materials. Its amateurish, non scientific, and changed very slowly over time. I do wish i had kept a better log of notes, its fairly sparse, but its mostly a cross between a wash tub, and a trial vat. When its full, i'll prob start another one afresh, better notes. It has been interesting to add a drop of something over days/week and figure out when it becomes 'strong'

Is it an amazing attar? no... not currently. It's interesting, and makes my brain think about 'what does this need to correct its flaws', and the flaws are ever changing 😀 so i treat it like an evolving puzzle

More scientifically, I'm very interested in esterification and other passive reactions... so I have... far too many small 1-2ml samples of natural alcohols and acids in blends for aging and note keeping to see if i can smell the difference vs a 'fresh' blend. Figure this is a year+ project, so all sorts of stuff blended with ethanol, santalol, pachouli and other common alcohols with other stuff to just educate myself on the changes with aging. got about 30 little bottles at this point of things that... i mean should make notable changes over a year, but fun to see it first hand.

One interesting thing about having a set of dilutions of stock is that many of them go through distinct changes as they age and interact with alcohol so you get a sense for how each oil would change on its own just in the presence of alcohol over time. In some cases is not significant in others it is pretty major (patchouli for example).

I like the way you describe making those cumulative fragrances as a kind of mental exercise. Seems like a great context for playing around with and refining one's understanding of aromatic cause-and-effect in a playful way that doesn't require a whole huge investment of time every time you make a change. I don't work that way at this point - it would drive me crazy because at this point I'm trying to really work on fundamentals and I like the reversibility of mixing up separate small test batches for each change tested.

 

[roflwaffle]

One interesting thing about having a set of dilutions of stock is that many of them go through distinct changes as they age and interact with alcohol so you get a sense for how each oil would change on its own just in the presence of alcohol over time. In some cases is not significant in others it is pretty major (patchouli for example).

Yea, exactly! I'm hoping to ID or understand the changes from one material in ethanol, or in sandalwood, or in patchouli over the long haul. and i am pretty sure the chemical reactions happen faster when just left in their own rather than more diluted in a mixture, so its kinda 'pre-aging'. we'll see how it works out 😀

"I don't work that way at this point - it would drive me crazy "
Yea, it feels a bit like a crutch or bad habit even at this point in my adventure, but, it does relieve stress, requires a lot less planning, and 'feels' adventurous. Most of my other projects are hours and hours and hours of planning and micro adjusting ratios, running parallel batches and ... waiting, forever waiting for things to settle. this is the opposite of that, and feels more off the cuff and interactive. what value it actually is, we'll see, but i think its at least learning the 'intuition' portion of it, even if the results are subpar. (I currently find it quite difficult to find a good way to 'learn' a new material)

I do realize this falls more into the realm of 'perfumery by accord' type of mindset, which is generally understood to be an antipattern, however, its tough to find real world micro adjusting. Other option i've considered is to take a bunch of my 'meh' perfumes, and just attempt to augment to improve alliquots for funsies, since its essentially free material as i dont really wear any of em. low bar to entry, low material cost, and all ends up down the drain anyway. still noodling on that though.

 

[Mr.P]

Yea, exactly! I'm hoping to ID or understand the changes from one material in ethanol, or in sandalwood, or in patchouli over the long haul. and i am pretty sure the chemical reactions happen faster when just left in their own rather than more diluted in a mixture, so its kinda 'pre-aging'. we'll see how it works out 😀

"I don't work that way at this point - it would drive me crazy "
Yea, it feels a bit like a crutch or bad habit even at this point in my adventure, but, it does relieve stress, requires a lot less planning, and 'feels' adventurous. Most of my other projects are hours and hours and hours of planning and micro adjusting ratios, running parallel batches and ... waiting, forever waiting for things to settle. this is the opposite of that, and feels more off the cuff and interactive. what value it actually is, we'll see, but i think its at least learning the 'intuition' portion of it, even if the results are subpar. (I currently find it quite difficult to find a good way to 'learn' a new material)

Makes sense, I think it's not unusual for artists to have a variety of exercises that they engage in, often experiment with different ways of approaching things to keep from getting stuck in a single approach or way of looking at things.

One exercise I like to do is take all of the spent pipette tips after I've been working for a month or two on something and rinse them all out with alcohol and then reflect on that mix. I have produced some things that way that met goals that I failed to achieve step-wise (giving me hope if not useful information on how exactly to achieve it). But usually by the end of working on something I've come to see the oils a little differently and so those random mishmashes from the pipette tips can be super interesting in light of all of the deliberate blends that came before it.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

With materials incoming for various projects, I worked a bit on my 'yolo' attar. I like to think I'm not the only one with this.. rather than planning far ahead, researching percents, doing small bench trials, i have a 'yolo' attar. This is done by guesses, and over time. As it ages, and with new materials, I think 'hmm, maybe this could use a drop of aged vetiver, and a drop of birch tar for smokey BBQ'

Sometimes, it gets better, other times, ehhhh, not so much. It's main point is I think to learn the materials. Its amateurish, non scientific, and changed very slowly over time. I do wish i had kept a better log of notes, its fairly sparse, but its mostly a cross between a wash tub, and a trial vat. When its full, i'll prob start another one afresh, better notes. It has been interesting to add a drop of something over days/week and figure out when it becomes 'strong'

Is it an amazing attar? no... not currently. It's interesting, and makes my brain think about 'what does this need to correct its flaws', and the flaws are ever changing 😀 so i treat it like an evolving puzzle

More scientifically, I'm very interested in esterification and other passive reactions... so I have... far too many small 1-2ml samples of natural alcohols and acids in blends for aging and note keeping to see if i can smell the difference vs a 'fresh' blend. Figure this is a year+ project, so all sorts of stuff blended with ethanol, santalol, pachouli and other common alcohols with other stuff to just educate myself on the changes with aging. got about 30 little bottles at this point of things that... i mean should make notable changes over a year, but fun to see it first hand.

Play is a great educator. It trains the brain to think outside the box, plus it creates opportunities for serendipity.
Yolo attars. Pipette tip rinsing. Using rubbish-in-a-bottle as accord for something new. All good play.

 

[Mr.P]

Play is a great educator. It trains the brain to think outside the box, plus it creates opportunities for serendipity.
Yolo attars. Pipette tip rinsing. Using rubbish-in-a-bottle as accord for something new. All good play.

layering experiments are another venue for playful and unstructured experimentation. I have samples of all of my relevant stock diluted to an appropriate percentage, usually 10% and I can splash a little bit of any combination at a moment's notice: individual oils with one another or layering some of the ingredients with past creations. This is where my exploration really happens and this is the main playful side of it for me.

on a certain level many perfumes I've made are my attempts to capture in a bottle some fleeting interactions that I discovered when layering. I actually prefer layering as a way of applying fragrance in general, as opposed to applying spritzes or swipes of a premixed blend.

 

[Mr.P]

Just a heads up that if you're interested in detailed information about projects that I'm doing, I will be posting those on Instagram moving forward. Sharing these long DIY posts in a general interest forum growingly feels narcissistic and weird (though it's nice seeing there are a couple of other folks who occasionally do so as well). It made a little more sense when I was trying to promote my brand but that is a thing of the past at this point.

I'm happy to discuss stuff if there's an interest but random detailed "here's what I'm up to" posts will be over there on Instagram where they belong... in the meanwhile I am sure there will be plenty to discuss here about the various attars and ouds circulating out there!

I can never tell if my signature works on this site or not because I never see anybody else's signatures even though I've set my preferences to allow me to view them. As it probably says right down there in my signature, the Instagram account is @wabisabikouki

 

[roflwaffle]

Bummer. I'll miss your posts (insta is not for me as it devalues text in favor of throwing random stuff into feed/doom scroll).

 

[Mr.P]

Bummer. I'll miss your posts (insta is not for me as it devalues text in favor of throwing random stuff into feed/doom scroll).

Yeah Instagram sucks but at least you're not pushing stuff out to people who aren't interested. It's the only social media I've used, I set it up literally just to support my local perfume sales a couple of years ago but now it's where I'm connecting with people who share my enthusiasm for the most part. i'll still put brief posts here but the long detailed stuff with the photos just feels weird at this point. I was also mirroring some of this over at base notes which also feels pointless and narcissistic

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Just a heads up that if you're interested in detailed information about projects that I'm doing, I will be posting those on Instagram moving forward. Sharing these long DIY posts in a general interest forum growingly feels narcissistic and weird (though it's nice seeing there are a couple of other folks who occasionally do so as well). It made a little more sense when I was trying to promote my brand but that is a thing of the past at this point.

I'm happy to discuss stuff if there's an interest but random "here's what I'm up to" posts will be over there on Instagram where they belong... in the meanwhile I am sure there will be plenty to discuss here about the various attars and ouds circulating out there!

Pitty. I liked the posts here☹️

 

[Shiningrobes]

I’ve had a little less than 1 ml of Agarwood CO2 kicking around for the last few years. It’s the one that Eden Botanicals used to sell. It had a nice smell but was very background. It wasn’t bad just kind of lackluster. I used to add things to it trying to give it some projection. I thought of it as a carrier oil and added at least one other oud and some florals I think based on the way it smells. I never kept notes because I knew I couldn’t get more and didn’t care if I ‘ruined’ it.
Opened it today after I don’t know how long and found it was basically as thick as myrrh eo. I meant to put in a tiny bit of Fraterworks Mysore to loosen it up but ended up putting a full ml. It took about five minutes of shaking and a little bit of stirring to get the two to incorporate. It has an insanely familiar smell. Spicy sweet, woody… actually it kind of smells like sandalwood incense or soap. That kind of perfuminess. I’m curious to see what it turns into. It might just ended up being a sandalwood accord. Or maybe the CO2 and whatever is in it will assert itself. I’m sure it will end up in a blend somewhere if it doesn’t pick up more character. It’s always been very nuanced, but it’s also been all nuance and no hero notes. If I remember right the CO 2 had decent fixative powers so that’s always good to have in reserve.

 

[Shiningrobes]

Pitty. I liked the posts here☹️

I like those type of posts. Especially if they have pics and are step by step and have updates. Goodness Nose always has interesting ones about his gardens and other projects.

 

[Mr.P]

I like those type of posts. Especially if they have pics and are step by step and have updates. Goodness Nose always has interesting ones about his gardens and other projects.

Pitty. I liked the posts here☹️

Thanks I'm not going anywhere... I just don't feel comfortable posting the long unsolicited narratives here.

I agree goodness nose posts interesting stuff! 🙂

 

[Mr.P]

I’ve had a little less than 1 ml of Agarwood CO2 kicking around for the last few years. It’s the one that Eden Botanicals used to sell. It had a nice smell but was very background. It wasn’t bad just kind of lackluster. I used to add things to it trying to give it some projection. I thought of it as a carrier oil and added at least one other oud and some florals I think based on the way it smells. I never kept notes because I knew I couldn’t get more and didn’t care if I ‘ruined’ it.
Opened it today after I don’t know how long and found it was basically as thick as myrrh eo. I meant to put in a tiny bit of Fraterworks Mysore to loosen it up but ended up putting a full ml. It took about five minutes of shaking and a little bit of stirring to get the two to incorporate. It has an insanely familiar smell. Spicy sweet, woody… actually it kind of smells like sandalwood incense or soap. That kind of perfuminess. I’m curious to see what it turns into. It might just ended up being a sandalwood accord. Or maybe the CO2 and whatever is in it will assert itself. I’m sure it will end up in a blend somewhere if it doesn’t pick up more character. It’s always been very nuanced, but it’s also been all nuance and no hero notes. If I remember right the CO 2 had decent fixative powers so that’s always good to have in reserve.

I have some of that old agarwood co2 paste as well, I had some from liberty and some that I got from Eden. Very interesting dry dignified woody profile and I see what you mean about calling to sandalwood in some ways. Definitely a good fixative

 

[roflwaffle]

I have some of that old agarwood co2 paste as well, I had some from liberty and some that I got from Eden. Very interesting dry dignified woody profile and I see what you mean about calling to sandalwood in some ways. Definitely a good fixative

I was just playing with some 20 year old liberty stuff. It's def gone thick, and is less awesome than i expected it to be for the age. It does smell interesting though. I think poor storage has affected mine for the worse though unfortunately.

 

[Shiningrobes]

To be honest I added the sandalwood because I had a lot of it. And because it’s the classic carrier for good reason. I had two tolas of that and two of Santalea from Al hind. The Mysore plays more calmly with other materials while the Indonesian is a little hyper at first. Actually, considering the way that Mysore smells after adding ambergris and musk to a portion of it I don’t what to think about Indonesian vs Indian sandal. The NTTs I have on hand in any kind of volume are from Mesoud and Al hind and that Mysore with animalics has the best of both. High woodiness, florals, some high octane volatiles, really pronounced projection; plus the added bonus of the creamy depth and soft spice of Mysore. Just deeper now and spicier. And kind of insane longevity.

I thought I had made some unbalanced blends over the last year with the Santalea since it’s so assertive. The two I’ve checked on recently though have surpassed my hopes. The volatiles ere throwing off my judgement but as it’s melded and blended it works swimmingly in a blend. I guess my point, if I have one, is that a workhorse Indian santalum album can smell like an artisinal Indonesian S.A. with the addition of some animalics.

 

[Mr.P]

I was just playing with some 20 year old liberty stuff. It's def gone thick, and is less awesome than i expected it to be for the age. It does smell interesting though. I think poor storage has affected mine for the worse though unfortunately.

if it's the same stuff i have, it was quite dull from the get go, as a CO2 total of what is likely plantation wood. This would be a big disappointment to somebody expecting something like a typical distilled oil that's for sure. smelling my bottle of liberty stuff right now and it's pretty nice in its own way. Currently reminded a little bit of the warm spicy woodiness of nagarmotha though you'd never confuse one for the other.

smell is more more or less less unchanged, it's probably 20 years old as well if not older. cool dry resinous wood not a lot of volatility, a little bit stuffy smelling.

 

[Mr.P]

tobacco flower absolute from enfleurage, concentrated this evening.

 

[Mr.P]

i'm riding high on the success from the tobacco flower, I think I'll use that energy to see if I can distill and float enough clary sage oil to collect. Much to my surprise my plants keep pumping out new flowers - I thought the boom would be over a month ago. Very strong aroma with significant chemical overlap with lavender so I am hoping for a similarly large yield.