Golden hour at Pershing Square (photography).

 I was out at the library, doing some remote work on the computer consoles, for a gig that I had just started, recently, and the daylight was ideal for photography at the time I left the library, for dinner. On my way home, I captured some endearing moments of the pigeons at Pershing Square, in bright and vivid colors of Springtime. 

I love how the bright florets of bougainvillea frame this pigeon’s disposition, at Pershing Square Metro Stztion. 

A family of rats munches on some mud, to get a drink of water, after maintenance hosed the place down. 

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.

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.

A cute noodling | nesting materials-preparation pigeon. (Photoblog)

 As it's springtime in Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) | South | Central Los Angeles, and neighboring urban locales, it's time for the seasonal reawakening of life, from out of many concerns and troubles over survivability of the young, given that they are featherless, save for some scant downy fuzz feathers. Many types of birds whom have not been farmed nearly as much, to a standard, as chickens, for example, have chicks that emerge from the egg, bearing feathers. Perhaps in the future, we could work towards a project goal of seeing the birds lay babies that emerge from the egg: feathered; for being more well nourished, over generations. 

Here, I spotted a cute one; this pigeon is showing off it's interests in the things laying around, of interest. 

A squirrel's lark's call is one of the fun heralds of spring.

Being taken for one's goods by a playful lark, though costly, is part of the process in caring for wild animals and birds. While staying over in Santa Monica, CA, this past week, I observed a family of squirrels, as I stopped on a bench at Palisades Park to feed the pigeons.

The call of a squirrel lark is similar to that of a bird, with a beacon effect. I was unable to capture photos of the family of squirrels because I had no batteries for my phone. 

Today, though, back over at Garfield Park, in South Pasadena, I caught some examples of a similarly playful lark of a squirrel.