Perfume Workshop

Seattle based indie perfumer Particle Goods put on a very interesting “Gourmand” perfume workshop in April. My friend Emily sells their roll-on perfumes and scented candles at her shop, Make Apothecary. A couple months ago, I bought the “STORM” scent which is very clean and fresh with notes of pine, hinoki cedar and eucalyptus. 0% surprised that I liked this combination of smells. Then I started following these guys on instagram and that’s how I learned about their perfume workshops.

Gourmand here means culinary aromatics. My inspo was cardamom and pink peppercorn. I tried to make star anise or clove or cinnamon leaf work in my blend but they seemed overpowering. I learned about Iso E Super which is said to be the most successful synthetic fragrance ever ?! People describe it like MSG for cooking, it amplifies and makes harmonious the other aromatics? On its own it is considered “transparent” I thought it was vaguely woodsy? Of course, I used it in my blend.

I also added vanilla, a beeswax extract and some olibanum which I learned is frankincense. I ended up making a perfume that smells kind of like off-brand root beer and palo santo? It is syrupy and spicy, sort of resinous. There are worse things? I look forward to learning more about perfume and describing different interesting smells.