Nathan reviewed Fig Tree in his midweek quick hits column yesterday. And Fig Tree was also reviewed today on Another Perfume Blog. Also today, Champagne de Bois was reviewed on Olfactoria’s Travels. It was a big day! Thanks Nathan, Natalie, and Birgit! 🙂
I’m working on the vintage-inspired scent to try to introduce a stronger green note. It has the IFRA maximum level of oakmoss already, so I’m looking for other ingredients. Today I’ve been comparing violet leaf with heather absolute because they have some things in common — green notes plus leathery notes. I already added some of my new mimosa absolute to this, and the leathery aspect of these two green materials goes well with the mimosa. The heather seems gentler and maybe not as long lasting, but this is the first time I’ve played with my sample so I need to test more. I started this scent formula over a year ago and really want to finish it soon.
4 comments
Would love to see what the heather adds to this scent. Spent 5 years in NE Scotland, and heather and broom scents bring back such wonderful memories of my time there.
The heather is a really pretty ingredient. It is green and a little leathery too the way violet leaf is, but more gentle. That must have been a wonderful experience to live in Scotland!
I would not want to discourage your creative approach, but I was curious if you felt there would be negative consequences to ignoring the IFRA guidelines and adding as much oakmoss as you felt the formula warrented.
Hi Kyra! That’s a good question that I’ve asked myself too. Perfumers who don’t belong to IFRA don’t have to follow IFRA rules, but most of us do anyway because we need product liability insurance. The insurance companies expect us to adhere to the accepted standards for our industry, so our liability insurance would most likely not protect us if we ignored IFRA. My general feeling has been that I should follow IFRA for scents I release to the public, but that I can go above IFRA limits in private custom blends, as long as the client understands the issues.
I’m hoping to get a good result in this scent without adding more moss. I really like the violet leaf in it. I just decreased the sandalwood last week and realized I had to re-balance some of the other ingredients after that. I’ve been working on it yesterday and today and am getting there — I have something pretty now but am worried about lasting power, so I’m still testing.