[HN Gopher] A Master Perfumer's Reflections on Patchouli and Vet...
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A Master Perfumer's Reflections on Patchouli and Vetiver
Author : axiomdata316
Score : 69 points
Date : 2022-07-30 15:51 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (thereader.mitpress.mit.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (thereader.mitpress.mit.edu)
| vivegi wrote:
| Vetiver is a Tamil word. Ver literally means root.
|
| https://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=ta&text=vetiver&op=...
| (You can listen to the pronunciation of the English version and
| the Tamil version in the Google Translate link above).
|
| I remember my childhood days when the vetiver roots were used to
| add fragrance to bath water and fragrance & taste to summer
| drinks.
| mrspuratic wrote:
| I (re)discovered an interest in natural scents earlier this year
| when I tried eliminating petrochemical skin products. Coconut oil
| and aloe vera (about 80:20), olive oil liquid soap, and essential
| oils - including patchouli, cedar, oak moss, lavender, vetiver,
| (European) bay, tea tree, melissa. My best effort so far is a
| rosemary/eucalyptus/bay aftershave balm.
| zasdffaa wrote:
| I guess a word to the wise, or others who may not have your
| experience, be careful about assuming natural stuff is safe.
| Some essential oils are irritating, and some can be bad for you
| unless carefully handled (eg jasmine oil should be well diluted
| into a carrier oil before it touches your skin).
| spapas82 wrote:
| The author, JC Ellena is now retired and was the house perfurmer
| of Hermes for many years. He is definitely one of the most
| important perfurmers of all time having created many many
| problems including two of the most iconic perfumes of all time:
| Cartier Declaration and Terre d'Hermes.
|
| I recommend everybody not familiar with perfumery to go to a
| Sephora or similar store and try these two masterpieces. They are
| so iconic (and popular) that you ll get memories of people
| wearing them in your past; the memory of smell is really strong.
|
| This was a revelation to me when I did that before some years and
| made me really love perfumes after that!
| serf wrote:
| writing so interesting that it makes me wish I was into perfume.
|
| I knew that historically perfumers took their job very seriously,
| but I was unaware that kind of artisanal appreciation was still
| around; I thought it was mostly a corporate laboratory kind of
| thing now.
| ovao wrote:
| There are both aspects in commercial perfumery, which makes it
| a pretty interesting industry. It's true that there's a
| definite laboratory slant when a fragrance needs to be
| validated and modified to meet regulatory standards for sale
| (which vary widely by region), and of course during mass
| production, but many big labels still tap independent perfumers
| who often work in pretty simple, bohemian digs, where a digital
| scale is about the most advanced gear in use. And there are
| legitimately thousands of independent perfumeries producing
| commercial fragrances at relatively small scale.
|
| Many perfumers are trained chemists, but it's definitely not a
| prerequisite.
| [deleted]
| Wistar wrote:
| You may enjoy the 2003 book, "The Emperor of Scent." The
| primary subject of the book, research scientist Luca Turin,
| theorizes that the human identification of scent is done
| through receptors that instantly identify the bonds -- quantum
| vibrations -- of a given molecule. Turin himself is an
| interesting character, and I thought the book a great read (at
| the time, anyway).
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