Hi there Perfumistas!!
Last Saturday saw a crew of us doing a One Day Fragrant Masterclass with the amazing Karen Gilbert. To say I learned a lot is a complete understatement, Karen is so knowledgeable, has the most incredibly diverse history within the fragrance industry and has the gift of making everything seem so simple and gives clear and concise instructions. I work best under those conditions and it seemed that everyone was drinking in the knowledge and we had a super fun time.
Karen Gilbert: 1 Day Masterclass : Photo Essay
Topics Covered In The Class:
- The History of Perfumery
- The Sense of Smell and What it Means To Us
- The Beginners Guide to Training your Nose
- Classifying Fragrances
- Top, Middle and Base notes and Why They Are Important
- Creating Accords
- Practical Blending Techniques
- Naturals Vs Synthetics
The first part of the day was meeting us, giving us some theory, history, insider gossip and news, information that has taken me a few days to percolate because it was completely jam packed. We broke for lunch, which was Sydney pub fare and that gave us a moment to really connect with each other and bond.
Then we went back to the classroom and started meeting accords, molecules, notes and learned a very basic how to for fragrance creation. Karen had brought both natural and synthetics for us to learn about, which was a total bonus. We were able to smell 3 different aldehydes, a bunch of fragrant fillers and smoothers and some that could increase diffusion and volume. It was engrossing stuff and we had so many questions. Each question led to 10 others so we were getting knowledge that only the rarest few are privy to. I cannot tell you enough what an excellent experience the day was or how giving and nurturing Karen Gilbert is. To be honest, I don’t know how Karen supplied so much stuff for the ridiculously small amount of $295 for the day. It was overwhelming how much choice we had when it came to creating our personal fragrances.
Mine ended up being these accords/notes:
Top: Coriander, lemon, Virginian cedar
Heart: Ylang ylang, orange blossom absolute, listea cubeba (May chang), P.E.A.
Base: Labdanum, galbanum, oakmoss
PEA is a synthetic aromachemical that gives lift and brightness to the naturals. Often used in perfumery apparently to add volume and enable diffusion. I used 4 drops and the difference to heart of the frag was astonishing.
Photo Donated Ainslie Walker
I have been spritzing my fragrance quite a bit and am so happy with the outcome. As I said on Facebook: Perhaps Malle, YSL or Hermes will never be knocking on my door asking for recipes but I think it’s a rather lovely, simple fragrance.
From a one day class I wasn’t expecting to learn so much. I think it will help enormously with my own purchasing in the future and definitely gives me some insights that I will put towards my blogging. I would take the class again in a heartbeat, I know that I will learn even more next time.
Portia xx