New, for Spring 2025: Yuzu Delight, A Citrus Elixir Fragrance

 

As I’ve been working on refining the bottled version of Eau Pigeonoid, a newer fragrance, which I detail, here, on this blog (the fragrance smells great “neat,” or, applied directly to the skin, although translating that olfactory experience in to a bottled spray product proves challenging), I’m noticing some nice fragrance notes that are coming out of the woodwork, as I work to simplify the formula. Notes like “orange delight,” one of my favorite childhood treats, which I now encounter as a citron/lemon variant (it’s essentially a thickened, sweet jelly of citrus in a bite size, chocolate-covered bar).

It reminded me of a former, although recent attempt at composing a fragrance, one which took on a rich theme: a citrus elixir, with a bouquet of citrus ingredients, headed by yuzu essential oil, following with grapefruit and mandarin, with light floral effects of magnolia, over a base of Tonka bean and cocoa, with some black pepper, for spice, and blackcurrant bud, to enliven and freshen the scent’s mood and profile.

The original conception of iPigeon.institute’s “citrus elixir.”

In my latest purchase, I revisit the citrus elixir theme, as a reconstitution, and, as a refinement. For example, this time around, I have a much more well-resourced set of ingredients. I’m using yellow champaca absolute instead of magnolia, so I’m excited to see how this take on a citrus elixir “Yuzu Delight” will turn out, with much of the skeleton of the fragrance, otherwise, remaining the same.

An Autumn Equinox Eve Hydrosol Elixir (Fragrance Recipe)

 

An Autumn Equinox Eve's Hydrosol Elixir 

This composition is for a 2 fl. oz. spritzer.

The starter oil was a bottom-of-the-bottle ring of leftover oil from a trefle magnolia citrus hydrosol. It had an impression of a fresh shampoo.

I added, to begin with:

2 drops of patchouli oil

This shifted the composition to heavily woodsy. I wanted to make a light, feminine, playful floral citrus fragrance, out of it, with a touch of spice:

6 mL IPM

50 mL water

14 drops magnolia

¼ mL Calibrian Bergamot BF

½ mL 10% Tonka bean absolute in IPM

¾ mL 10% Cocoa absolute in IPM

⅛ mL 10% blackcurrant Bud Absolute in IPM

5 drops Rose Otto

2 drops Carnation essential oil

7 drops cashmeran

⅓ mL coniferan

¼ gram Ambroxan 

¼ gram Exaltone

⅓ mL Limetol

¼ mL Fixateur

4 drops Anther

⅛ mL Canthoxal

1 slight drip vetiver oil

2 drops Cinnamon Flavor (maybe try 1; I used 2, and it's a bit prominent)

½ drip Black Hemlock Absolute

⅙ mL Rhubofix

2 drops 10:1 Water to Lavandin mailette Absolute Oil

⅒ gram Prismantol

⅓ mL Coumarex DB

This composition was fairly satisfactory and nice smelling, perhaps a mellis fragrance, citrus fresh, with rich, sweet, and sensuous floral effects to it. I found that spraying it a sensible amount didn't quite feel like enough, so maybe it has some stimulating and addictive features to it.

After carrying the fragrance around for a couple of hours, the fragrance oil, which had grown from ¼-⅓ band of oil on top of water, in to the ⅔ band of milky emulsified lipophilic layer, in water, as pictured.

If you get around to creating this fragrance, yourself, enjoy!

The iPigeon.institute fragrances collection - Winter / Spring 2024 Composition - an agricultural archaeology set of finds! (Stub, updating)

 This composition was conceived of, as perhaps my most near-to-my-heartfelt reminisces of aroma ingredients that I'd previously owned, and lost, or used up, to entirety. The primary component that I was fawning over, conceivably, as for a shot at a new fragrance composition - perhaps a bit fierce and pissy (cat pee, for that matter), ends up being Blackcurrant Bud Absolute. 

This composition came on the heels of having done a couple months' spree of owning retail Dior men's fragrances - Sauvage Elixir, and then, Homme Sport (2021, I believe), which was nice, for me - the confidence and cleanliness factors being my primary concerns, as I was living out and about, in the wild, so to speak, with no indoors shelter for myself, going on extended periods of months, with this being the case. In this instance, with this new composition I had in mind, I wanted a powerful, synthetic, perhaps, citrus fragrance component, so I chose Dimethyl Octenone, perhaps as a result of having had a wild stroke of success, in one of my former compositions involving a specialized full-scale vanilla bean extraction, at home. This ingredient is almost noxious, in its petrochemical odor component, yet it blends quite effectively, in the case of this particular stub fragrance that I wore, for a month, with the addition of Cashmeran, for a rich and fully featured musk (sort of) woodsy effect, and, in this instance, a very long-lasting fragrance base - a dual-edged sword, in some sense, which would be whittled down, of the benefits and burdens of such a thing to consider, for a nearly all-hours, and several settings to accommodate, in smelling appropriate, such as living in a group home situation, as well as being out in the metropolitan parts of town, and on transit vehicles, for example. Too much, or something inappropriate, and offensive, to a sensible palate, would perhaps construe unexpectedly heavy-handed consequences for me to face, as I hadn't planned on changing my daily routine, of feeding the birds, around town.

The initial stub composition:

80 mL isopropyl alcohol (70%)

3/4 gram Blackcurrant Bud Absolute

13 drops Dimethyl Octenone

1 mL Cashmeran

This fragrance composition served fairly well, as it was a bit raucous and fresh, in some sense, yet it definitely would come off as stub, as far as fragrance compositions go, yet - that was last month. I got by, regardless of anything - they are professional grade fragrance ingredients; I felt that isopropyl alcohol could be sufficient enough to get by on, as far as alcohol content went, on account of that I feel that people could be forgiving enough - I'm by and large, not completely wrecked, as far as my personal and outward behaviors, amongst others, and, on top of that, I was now housed at a semi-permanent location, and the people there are mostly chill. I felt that, as always, fragrance could be, somewhat - my signature imprint upon people's impressions upon me, given that I was healing up from chronic pains, and I had to keep to myself, primarily, for rest, and for recovery, and I feel like I'd made sufficient progress on that note, in to the current month. 

This month, the ingredients I'd purchased are, as follows:

Yuzu essential oil - 4 mL

Sandalwood Mysore essential oil - 4 mL

Cocoa Absolute - 5 grams

Black Pepper essential oil - 4 mL

Lavandin Grosso (Oregon) essential oil - 8 mL

Tonka Bean Absolute 30% in ethyl alcohol

... I think that that's all, for that order. 

Oh, and I found a perfectly suited vanilla component, in the food aisle - vanilla bourbon - I'll have to update more on this, at some point; maybe just a quick note - the initial three ingredients, along with some manually-dabbed on vanilla bourbon - created a nearly impeccable true frankincense fragrance - just those four components. I guess that it would be more impactful to encounter that notion and slight composition discovery, in person - seeing the ingredients mixed together, having some reference material at hand, and, in realizing the historical significance of coming to such a discovery - I felt that it was significant. Along the way, in mixing this new fragrance composition, which I'll detail fully, soon - I also happened upon Jo Malone's Tonka and Myrrh - at least, the fair rendition, thereof; at least, of what I could remember, of it, for having had some buyer desires for that product, at some point, in the recent past.

On top of all of this, I felt that the fragrance was lacking in fullness and diversity in fragrance components, in the citrus department - I'd previously owned fragrances such as Hermes' fruits-inspired eaus, which are generally light, simple - perhaps deceptively so; perhaps elegant, would be the proper term, on second thought. I wanted to do something similar, yet not be tossed off, in to the "cheap" fragrance-making guy, who failed the ingredients, and my potential, I felt - so I went for some local buys on Bergamot, Tangerine, and Grapefruit essential oils. It came out great - although I did impart a spritz of one thing, and another, for some unattainable effects and ingredient components - I felt that perhaps corporate would not stomp on me, for being a true fragrance enthusiast, researcher, and scholar.

Oh, yeah. I also forgot the Carnation Essential oil, that I tried to include, in my second order.

I feel that it came out pretty nice, although people still aren't speaking to me, much, ha. Isopropyl alcohol is a bit of a challenge, and against the grain, as far as fine fragrance is concerned, but I had a much more topically-applied, medicinal slant to my composition's initial intentions and inspirations that I wanted to bring to life.

Product Review: Liberty Natural - Licorice “anise” Air Freshener.

 Recently, I’ve been having a significant hankering for the scent of licorice, and for designing fragrances around a licorice fragrance. That being the case, and being that licorice, in and of itself, is not all that much thought, per se, in perfumery - I came up against some challenges, during the course of my inquiries in to what “stuff” available there could possibly be, on the internet, as far as licorice extracts, etc., of various sorts, for example. I was searching for a licorice absolute, which apparently had been made available, at some point, in the past, at a very small number of suppliers, I’d discovered, after fairly rigorous extents made, of “search,” as it were. At this point, however, I did not discover any supplier for a licorice absolute. 

After discovering Liberty Naturals’ Licorice “anise” Air Freshener, I’d put a small amount of thought into it, and I figured, “hey; they do fragrance extract products fairly well, I’d suppose that this product is fairly well enough, if they say it is an air freshener.” On one hand, that was a fairly well enough thing to suppose, as it turns out, since I purchased the bottle, and it says that it contains 100% essential oil. In some sense, on the matter, getting one or another fragrance extraction, per specimen or per species of plant, will give the creator of a fragrance ingredient, isolate, or extraction product - various options, on one hand, various outcomes, on the other, with variable desirability, with cases in which a particular “this or that” sort of solution that works for one type of plant, winds up not being desirable or ideal, for a different type of plant. In this instance, perhaps a licorice absolute isn’t quite desirable, in industry-informed “types,” such that there could be, upon the topic of licorice, as a fragrance. 

LibertyNatural.com’s product, Licorice “anise” Air Freshener.

I get it. A person finds themselves significantly hooked - fetishistically, even, in a sense, when it comes to some sort of purist decree, or something like that, on a licorice search, of all things. Sure, there’s star anise, fennel, and maybe one or two other things (in short), that smell “like” licorice, and on the other hand, this product ☝🏼 “is” fairly much licorice, and it says that it is licorice essential oil, for that matter. I suppose that star anise and fennel might be slightly distinct, but perhaps not. I’ll have to look in to that matter, at some point in the future. 

The company isn’t quite the quickest to ship things, but they are, as a basis, a farm, as a business, and I’d suppose that the people who work and manage the operation make a slim taking, on a sale, and that much of the time and attentions paid to things, of their business dailies, for example, end up being tending to the farm. But if you end up purchasing from them, please don’t give them a hassle about anything - they do ship their stuff they have listed, and it’s standardized and pure as any other decent supplier. They do also offer other licorice-like fragrance products, in their online offerings. Perhaps I’ll look in to experiencing those, as well, at some point, and I’ll report back on this topic. 

Just buy it from the site I told you to purchase it from, not some other place - you’re reading this, and I know how it is - having that feeling as though good enough isn’t good enough, when it comes to a licorice fragrance. This one is perfectly good and fine licorice fragrance, and perhaps there couldn’t be better, for that matter.