the * blue-violet-grey hue
Today is a special day… not just because it is 9-11 or my birthday (yep: really) but even better, I am here to tell you a little about a most exciting project: carrie merediths’s bespoke perfume. For those of you who missed my 1 year blog-iversary drawing, I offered up a bespoke perfume to the winner to commemorate the day. Carrie meredith (from the fabulous “eyelineronacat” blog won he random draw, but I have to say from the start, I felt her vision as she described it in her winning post: “…I have many ideas for bespoke perfumes, but I’ll settle on this one for now, since it’s where I’m at in my creative head space: Iris, violet, milk, powdered sugar, ozonic note, bitter almond, anise, civet. The goal is a dreamy gourmand with a musky quality.” That enigmatic vision has (nearly) become a reality at this point but we are still making minor changes to get it ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.
Being a synesthete, I had a palpable reaction to her description in my mind. I saw a lovely swath of silk charmeuse in a blue-violet-grey color moving gently in a breeze. The weight of the fabric and it’s lushness balanced perfectly with it’s hue and value. This is what I have worked from when interpreting Carrie’s concept. Of course, I have also worked from her note list and a sense of incorporating “classic Guerlain” sensibilities and a modern gourmand aesthetic to make her ‘holy grail’ perfume. She mentioned that she is a huge classic Guerlain fan (who isn’t?) and also her love of the iris/gourmand. All I could say is YUM. So, the first run of samples was just to get the structure down. It occurred to me when starting on Carrie’s perfume that I had had an idea in the back of my mind for some time which was to create a classic accord, a base really, that was a touch dry, a little creamy wood and warm in an orris/ iris mode. So, I started with that. It’s actually called: “blue violet grey accord”. That is the center heart note of Carrie’s perfume. I then worked my way out from there. Here’s what we have so far:
bergamot, bitter almond, ozone note, violet leaf, aniseed, lemon, powdered violet, rose otto, *blue-violet-grey orris accord, sandalwood, honey beeswax, cocoa butter, cocoa bean, heliotrope, tonka bean, virginia cedarwood, vanilla absolute, green oakmoss, vetiver, civet.
"This one is just right!"
And I have to say that it is, so far, unlike anything else I have made. How incredible! 🙂 I just love this process… the bespoke is always completely unique and each perfume is full of idiosyncrasy; a very special beauty. That is not to say that this perfume would only appeal to one person… no. It is lovely, warm and inviting as well as chic and a little mischievous. (Remind you of anyone you know? I’m looking at you CM…:) ) I think it has real appeal and it is thrilling for me to work on this design with such a creative mind as Carrie’s. What fun it’s been and it’s not over yet. There are a few more mods as I mentioned before and then the big reveal: the name. (Yes, we have a name but I’m not telling just yet. I think the perfume needs to finished before we know for sure that this is a match of concept, name and essence. But I’m sure we’re going to get it , as Goldilocks says, “just right”.
ps: * this color, the blue-violet-grey hue I saw in my head is aptly called “perfume” from a super fun color /design website just type in this code to see it: B7A2D8
** image credit: goldilocks image found here
DSH notebook 