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Sunday, October 27

Pigeon-watching hotspots to see around town #10: Figueroa at 4th St. Underpass flock.

This flock is a delight to visit (for me, at least, because I'm training them). They are currently (October 2024) becoming trained on the clicker, for "come." One of the birds swooped down in front of me, just earlier, today, as I arrived. I was positioned in an unfamiliar place, for feeding's sake, so it was especially flattering that the bird recognized me by the clicker. 

Some of the pigeon flock at Figueroa at 4th St. Underpass. 
This flock is particularly charming for its resilience in the face of challenges. Several of the birds (much more than by averages of other flocks) have visible battle scars, in the form of deformed and swollen feet, from having string tied around their feet, by former trappers that frequented the area, although they're here no longer, I seem to notice. I'm not well-versed in trapping the pigeons, to save them from their plight, at this time. I just show up and feed them. You can check out some of their quaint and isolated behaviors (although fairly common fare, for pigeons; I just felt that they could be a control flock, eventually, in psychological terms, with their progress and development in mind, on account of their isolation) in some video footage I captured while socializing my deceased pigeon friend that I brought along, and wrote an article on, a couple of weeks ago, below. 

Here, you can see my pigeon friend is being investigated by one of the males in the Figueroa at 4th St. Underpass flock's regular members.

Regardless of being new to the place, my pigeon friend felt right at home with the new birds, and he took to some sharing of the same meal as the other birds, while we visited. 

This bird, (unnamed, so far) is one of the more charming of the flock. He had a broken leg happen to him, several months ago, and it hasn't quite healed properly, but he could potentially heal up and be just fine, some day. 

The location is fairly quiet, lately, and, as I noted, isolated, but it's ideal if you happen to show up with food for the birds, and you can spot them roosting on the light poles. They'll swoop down and accept food, if they spot you tossing some out, in many cases. If you have a clicker, that's even better, because they're becoming trained on clicker noises. 
 

Saturday, October 26

I just recently saw a former friend in porn + some back story surfaced.

 As that I'm single, right now, I'm still drawn to pornography, at age 42. It's been a rough set of years in dating, as a schizophrenic, with several bad breakups preceding my schizophrenia onset, as the backdrop to a row of horrors that ensued. This particular incident dates back to the beginning of my dating years, which was back in college and university. There, I was with one girl throughout my college career. I hear that she hangs out with the guy whom I saw in the porn video; a mutual friend. After I realized that the guy is, potentially, recognizably, the same person that I was friends with, back in university times, some melodrama unfolded. I hear that the purpose of me hearing it was that I'd been done a number on, so to speak. 

According to the allegory, my ex-girlfriend and ex-fiancee had moved back to my college home town, of back then, and had been settling in, with friends, there, meanwhile, I'd heard nothing of it. I'm not all that much attached, any more, and there's a lot of sore feelings that go along with processing this sort of thing, which, usually, lately, I'd not give much credence to, yet I found that the story satisfyingly enough fulfilled a dark hole portion of my mind's memories, coming up to the present day. She was upset that I never came back out to try to find my way in life, with her running around town, but I guess that that's where things get fanciful, in believing the story. I have to maintain some restraint, since the girl remains distant to me. 

There were a bunch of short tales of misdeeds leading up to ruin, in their own lives, likewise, as I'd experienced. It was like a lucid dream, that I'd had, in hearing this stuff out, while I'm trying to get to sleep. I'd been ailing over the notion of becoming old, as a single person, lately, since I find it hard to socialize, and all of my former relationships, whether they be guys or girls, are largely all broken ones, so it's a bit awkward, starting over again. I just have to keep faith and persevere through this; I've been through a rotten bunch of years, but when things are good, they're good times to be had, for sure. I'll just have to wait things out. I don't get very far, in contacting people, from long ago. It tends to exacerbate my symptoms. In general, though, I've been on a good path towards rehabilitation, and I've been feeling better, and more on top of things, in my life. The pigeons help keep me stable, because they show affections towards me when I show up to feed them. 

Update: Now, a couple of hours or so after writing this article, I have new voices in my head, feigning possibilities about the pigeons' fate, should I ever choose to leave town, which, I figure, could be plausible, being that there's a train that runs out to Riverside, from Downtown Los Angeles (I went to UC Riverside). They're saying that they could keep the pigeons fed, in my absence. Perhaps I'll be able to figure something out that works with the schedules and needs of all included, within this issue, daydreaming aside; I still would like to finish up my Master's Degree in Music Composition, being that I've had plenty of years on me, at this point, and I have, as well, some cool compositions that I've worked on, over the years.

Saturday, October 12

I found my own personal pigeon friend.

 Yesterday, when I was out feeding the pigeons, I noticed that one of the pigeons stayed behind, while the other birds left, after their meal. He was puffy feathered, which indicated that he might be under the weather. I tried picking him up, and, surprisingly, he let me pick him up. 

I'm not sure why he's not flying away, but I took him to another pigeon-feeding spot, and I let him wander around, with the new pigeons, and, after their meal, he let me pick him up, again, so I took him home. 





He's an adorable puffy pigeon. He slept next to my bed, and I gave him a water dish and some cookie crumbs, while I'm out, for the day. 


I'm not sure if I'm going to keep him, for the long term, just yet. I have to figure out if his condition is temporary, or not, and see if he stops letting me pick him up, after a few days, or so. He seems fairly healthy, aside from the puffy feathers, and he might make a good housed pigeon, for me to keep. 

Update: the pigeon succumbed to whatever was ailing him, and he passed away, 2 nights ago. I had one day with him, which was nice :)

Some fond memories of my adorable little black puffy pigeon:






If you're interested in adopting (purchasing) your own personal pigeon friend, yourself, I recommend Farid's Pet Shop, at the corner of 6th at Maple in Skid Row, Downtown Los Angeles. He has a variety of pigeons, from time to time, and he currently has some pigeons (Late October, 2024) in stock, I saw them just yesterday. It's a good start to establishing your own small pigeons and avian pet friends hobby, with hand-feeding the young, as the next step in having a tame bird as a pet. As you can see, pigeons are adorable birds!

Friday, October 4

The new and updated Sticker Time October 2024 complete series (48 pieces).

 These are all images that have previously been shown and published, here on iPigeon.institute, and elsewhere; it's just that I set out to do as complete a collection as I felt would be appropriate, considering the recent art work in imagery I've done, as well as examples and images from my earlier years in image, photography, and illustration creation.

My latest, most complete Sticker Time set yet - I decided to do a small run of prints for nearly all of my Sticker Time images.

The Sticker Time Collection is a (currently) small novelty art, Generative Artificial Intelligence imagery, and photography series, which is in ongoing development, for the sake of popularizing and reawakening the connections we have, as humans, with birds; a colloquy which brings some of the cute things about birds, and our imagination and bond that people have, with regards to the human endeavor, in exploring the potential that we have: a life enriched, when we have an inclusion of bird friends amongst us, captured in the miniature form and artistic medium of 2-inch stickers, which, individually, portray some small aspect of birds, brought to light.

The project is still in it's early stages, as my artistic aspirations and hopes for this collection are expansive, with regards to differing mediums, with which to present the art, as well as that I'd like to explore more themes in creating numerous amounts more stickers. 


Friday, September 27

Pigeon-watching hotspots to see around town #9: DTLA Flower at 9th Street Flock, at Starbucks

 This flock has been developing ever since the 7-11 moved in to town, just up the street. Although the birds perch and hang out in various small nooks along Flower, and sometimes, in front of Ralph's, today I observed the birds hanging out at the side of the Starbucks cafe, and I felt like this was the perfect location to start establishing a regular visiting spot, for the birds to come and congregate, for a meal. 

The 9th at Flower locale pigeon flock, in the spot that I fancy, next to the Starbucks cafe.

Another view of the pigeons, with the Starbucks in view. 


Recipe: chocolate clove (mint) flavored cigarettes.

 With the battering that the flavored tobacco industry took, in California, it's prudent to begin flavoring cigarettes on your own.


On one hand, the industry was very youthful, with hundreds of flavor startups vying for a market share in the smokeless tobacco industry.


Cigarettes just "feel" better (when smoked), with natural and organic flavors added to them.


Vaporizers, while nice, just have a bit of something lacking to them, compared to the enjoyment found in a nice cigarette, especially a flavored one.


USP nicotine is a strongly toxic chemical to wield around, and to entrust someone else, in a youthful industry, to manage appropriately, in vaporizer solutions.


Chocolate clove (mint) flavored cigarettes have a mild, relaxing hit to them, with a pleasurable flavor and experience, throughout. Simply order some simple ingredients online, and prepare your tobacco, upon settling in, for the night, after purchasing a pack - this project does take some foresight. 


Flavor concentrates versus fragrance components:

- some flavor concentrates are dissolved in a solution of propylene glycol, which is favorable for adding to both nicotine salts solution concentrate (vaporizer) mixtures and directly on to cigarettes, alike, although, when working with tobacco, in this case, the residues from the unevaporated propylene glycol, which is a food grade antifreeze, and which imparts the effect of "smoke," when used in a vaporizer, just might be additional fluff, so to speak; unnecessary, in other words, in a tobacco smoking setting. Fragrance ingredients are nearly all mostly volatile compounds - their volatility is actually intertwined with their worth, hence, the fleeting and transient nature of fine fragrance, whereas a lingering scent becomes a headache, in many cases. 

- fragrance ingredient extractions are time-worn and standardized procedures, with some manufacturers and supply chains practicing stringent, internationally and historically recognized, traditional chemistry procedures. Not that this isn't the case with flavor ingredients, as well, it's just that we don't "smoke" inhale our food; food is eaten, drinks are drunk, and tasted, whereas there is a fragrant aspect to smoking which could come in to consideration, in this context.


The Cocoa absolute, being a somewhat scarcely found product, is well-to-do, to be ordered from Liberty Natural. Their ¼ oz. size comes in a good, deep-well container, to which solvent may be added, to make concentrations varying from 50% to 10%, depending on the virginity of the solvent solution. I chose isopropyl myristate for my solvent, which is, essentially (or nearly) a fragrance-free version of isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. In addition, IPM is fully volatile, and it will evaporate completely, while also dissolving a good portion of the fragrant and flavorful components of this Cocoa absolute. Just note that the solution is a fully liquid thing, so dampening your cigarettes, with some slaked-on droplets of solution will make the cigarettes fragile. I recommend doing this project when you're calm and settled down, for some long stretch of time, given a day or more, of productivity, by comparison.


The clove bud oil, which I like, as a throwback to Djarum "cigarettes," (they're actually labeled as cigars), gives a nice, mild and satisfying smoke, when directly applied to a cigarette (white paper portion).


A pack of Djarums.


The oil does not need to dry, before lighting up, but if you add the Cocoa absolute with IPM, I would strongly recommend fully drying out the cigarettes, in front of a fan, or under gentle heat, as inhaling isopropanol-type compounds, acutely, can cause temporary blindness, an unpleasant and hazardous condition to bear. For my choice of supplier: in this case, I went with Whole Foods' Aura Cacia Organic Clove Bud Oil, which came out to around $8.50 or $9.00, or so, after a 28% Amazon Prime member sale discount, from around $11.00-$12.00, or so. Just one or two droplets will do - no need to overdo it, and try to make a saucy, soaking cigarette, here. The flavor and fragrance components, here, are well concentrated, on their own merits.


That's it! As far as a mint flavoring - it would be nice, but I just haven't implemented it, in my flavoring outsets, just yet, so I won't jump the gun and write on it, for now. 


Update: some time had passed, and there was some discussion on the topic of mint, such as:


"I know you know what the best mint is, ... what is it?"


It took a while for me to recall the name of this special mint oil, but I knew that it was something good. Rich, fresh, smooth, and cooling. Then, I remembered that I was particularly fond of cornmint, which I had ordered from Perfumer's World, a couple of years back, or so. I believe that Liberty Natural stocks cornmint oil. Yet, even so, someone had commented that an oil of mint isn't all that agreeable, and that menthol crystals themselves ought to be used. This brought up the discussion of flavoring tobacco to a more primary sense, and someone mentioned cigarette filter crush balls, which are akin to the formerly stocked crush cigarettes, which, in southern California, were mainly Marlboro NXT and Camel Crush. I've tried this configuration, recently, in a cigarette butt that i picked up, to smoke, and it came out tasting just like the original crush ball cigarettes. I don't quite recall where I saw the crush ball flavoring pods online, maybe it was Amazon or eBay, or something, but I'm also not sure if the pods can be ordered and sent to a California address, due to the legislation that banned flavored tobacco products such as crush cigarettes.


Update: I traced back my previous browsing find, regarding end-user, DIY cigarette filter flavor pods. I found this machine on eBay for $10, that will insert the flavor capsules in to the cigarette filter, so that the cigarette can be flavored. There is also a link for 2,000 flavor pod capsules, priced at $40.00. I'll definitely try out this product solution, at some point soon, and I'll keep people updated as to how it works out.


The eBay listing page for the cigarette filter flavor pod / capsules installer machine, which has a link to another listing for the flavor pods themselves, as well.



Enjoy!


Some lightly dampened Cocoa and clove cigarettes, drying out, in front of a portable waist fan - an essential step, especially if you're in a hurry.




Sunday, September 22

Announcement: Pigeon Learning Knowledgebase, via Pigeon Journal Article of the Day Threaded Serials. № 1 - Identification and Difference in the Pigeon's Perception and Psychological Experience. (Updating)

  The pigeon, from it's heritage as a partner in our nation's (and our British allies; pre-dating us) armed forces, to more recent roles in surveillance and intelligence, to more urbane task-bearing notable uses, for the bird, such as in the messenger pigeon - all are fine, rich contexts for animal intelligence studies and modeling of psychological experiments in our hometowns and neighborhoods, internationally, whether the settings be urban, suburban, or rural in nature, whether the birds begin, as study subjects, as wild flocks, farmed, fancy, or domestic, the pigeon is a mark and a symbol of the pigeon fancier's pride and skill, in display arts depicting the successes of interaction and cooperation between species: us, being humans, and pigeons, which fulfill our ages-old fascination with flying; what could be learned from a betterment of our understanding and experiences with pigeons, being the core and fundamental basis of this learning series.

The blog article series starts off with an anecdotal experience and observations  of behaviors in the local pigeon flocks that I work with and feed, on a daily basis (as best I can) - behaviors that recently (re)surfaced in some of the birds, in the context of that they could demonstrate that they could identify me, as well as modify their individual and collective behaviors, thereby influencing the socialization profile of the larger unit of the flock, based on embedded conditioning that had been established through my routine interactions with the birds, in feeding them. 

The article I reference, to begin this study series, dates back nearly 50 years, in the Science publication:

Saturday, September 21

Pigeon Journal Article / Thread of the Day № 2: Clicker Training.

 The first  entry in this set of serial / threaded entries, intended as an aide to the academic study (or abstract review, at minimum) of pigeons, or, perhaps broader contexts, such as poultry, or avians, as a whole. The sets of serial entries are gathered and examined for the sake of extending the knowledge base and references / resources available for the sake of bettering the flocks and understanding their progress, potential, and current status in behavior, learning, sensory experience, genetics, and other pertinent subject areas, as the threads and series sets procure added and new material for review and study. 

On this day, I brought out my animal training clicker (I have two), and I signalled to the bird flock outside the local public library, where the birds have become accustomed to being fed, when I show up and haunch myself up on the ledge, in front of their lofty perch, above. Subsequently, the birds have developed identification and discriminatory perceptive capabilities, and they have routinely adjusted their behavioral customs, progressing from observing and waiting for food to be thrown out, to predicting that food will be thrown out (by me), and, thus, they now demonstrate a more pro-sociable behavioral custom, in flying down, around me, in anticipation of being fed. Identification and discrimination (which will be my second entry, or "zero" entry, since I'll be referencing a past article and related practical study, dating back one day. I'm simply starting the series with the second day's thread) was the initial (first) thread, which I haven't written (yet), but, chronologically, that subject was first examined, for the sake of reference and documentation purposes, for this series on my blog. 

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!

Tuesday, September 17

The psychology of babying the pigeon flock(s).

 Recently, on one of my grocery shopping trips, my jaunt was that I was set on making the ultimate milkshake, and I purchased some various component ingredients for this task to be seen through, to satisfactory completion. I can't recall all of the ingredients; perhaps it was a caramel milkshake that I had made purchases for. In any case, I made a scarcely ventured trip in to the world of corn syrup - in sodas, it's practically synonymous a concept to imagine, yet I found it rare to actually handle corn syrup, on it's own, in a bottle. So, I came out of the grocery store, and I fixed myself up, quick - a milkshake that would nearly do me in, as I quickly became sedate and somewhat faint, for havíng not much experience with how much corn syrup translates in to a reference amount of sugar. I just wanted to make the ultimate milkshake, as my outset perspective for this culinary journey and experiment with this new (to me) sugar product. I recall feeling a powerful nostalgia for the flavor of corn, and I imagined the marvels of modern agriculture, in manufacturing items such as corn oil - the oil of corn, itself, as well as corn syrup - the sugars of corn, with corn being at such a premium to purchase individually, over in my locale (ears of corn had been priced at 4/$3.00, for some time). Somehow, somebody, somewhere, had such an abundant, seemingly luxuriant amount of corn on hand, that products such as these ones noted, here, would wind up being modestly priced goods, considering the manufacture and product of corn, itself - the oil costing more than the syrup, being more scarce and difficult to extract (corn oil is, compared with other cooking oils, a more costly product, for those unfamiliar with these grocery items, on a personal level).


Nearly falling faint, from consuming such a rich amount of sugar, in such short order, in soluble form, was quite an experience. I'd already been familiarized, due to my medication regimen, with some transient and marginal comatose states of being, due to consuming sweet foods, which becomes so much more enticing, at times, in correlation with being tired. Consuming sweet pastries, or other snack-type items would do me in, during these times, for an unexpected and unscheduled day of rest, thus being a burly condition to try to conquer, being that my attitudes had shifted, in this recent phase of my life, hygienically speaking, from being upright and decent, in to slothful and lazy 🦥. This being the case, I would neglect to brush my teeth, giving my immune system and metabolism a strange and fateful set of contradictions and debacles, with such rich resources of calories and rewarding sweetness, in combination with an unconditioned signal for me, being that I, like many other young children, had been hyperactive on sweets, which were used as a reward mechanism, as well.


It had been some time, in my life, that this condition had been going on. I ended up losing some of my teeth, due to overly acidic conditions in my bloodstream and bruxism, and, at some point, I decided to switch the birds over to a similar diet, being that I'm positioned against stimuating the birds with drugs - I find it ostensibly confusing for the affected birds, who would lose sense of the discipline of the flock's daily and customary habits and routines. Yet, given this,I considered that the birds, both young and old, spend much of their days just "sitting around," so to speak, perched somewhere close to human foot traffic. In downtown Los Angeles, where I live, and care for these flocks, nearly any street corner and sidewalk is fair game for pigeons and sparrows to do their thing: showing up and "asking" for food (showing up, for city birds, ostensibly directly corresponds to seeking food from people). I decided to model the birds' diet on the ultimate milkshake experience, as a daily curated experience.


Sweet pastries potentially slightly sedate, yet also stimulate the birds' physiognomy, while providing a relaxing and tired affect of the birds. This diet has shown proven affections from the flocks, as the central library pigeons, whom had recently seen the flock's numbers practically double, now come down to greet me upon my arrival, as opposed to when I toss out food for them, which was their former state; these "states of tameness" are delicate and potentially transient shifts in the flock's behavior, if some alternate or inconsistent form of conditioning is applied, or if the flock is neglected. In any case, this current condition of the flock's sociability factor is a promising sign, on the road to hand-tameness. The flock had demonstrated this behavior in the past, as well


Pigeons are ideal subjects to impose an archetypal babying paradigm on, given that they're birds, and birds such as pigeons have a generally short attention span, except for their mating partners and baby pigeon chicks. As far as psychology is concerned, I like to develop a lot of "out front" (the temporal lobe)

Saturday, September 7

Pigeon-watching hotspots to see around town #7: Universal City / Studio city Metro Station and Bus Hub.

 

The Universal City / Studio City Metro Station flock of pigeons is an extra-special flock to see, along the Metro Red Line (B Line).

Wow, what an exciting flock of birds! For years, now, I'd been coming to visit the Universal City / Studio City flock of pigeons, here and there, and the birds never let me down, in offering an amusing and interactive birdwatching and bird-feeding session. Today, right before the beginning of summer, was no different. 

This time, I came with Hawaiian burger buns, since I was making burgers, later on, as well as pastries. For refreshments, I brought Sparkling Ice brand flavored water.

A sprawl of pigeons, amidst the street surface level of the Universal City / Studio City Metro Station and Bus Hub.

A baby pigeon seeks out some food, in the planters at the Metro Station. 

An adult pigeon follows the baby pigeon around, in the planter.

The adult pigeon chases the baby pigeon around, in an effort to socialize the baby pigeon, appropriately. 
Here, we have a flock of birds at its best - the birds are away from the civic center of Los Angeles, and there's fewer criminals who try to catch the birds. Hence, the birds are much more comfortable, and in their element, and they're more willing to interact with their human caregivers. On this day, the birds had a bountiful feast of Hawaiian buns and pastries.

The pigeons, here, at the Universal City / Studio City Metro Station, often congregate off to the side, nearby the planters.

I made sure to offer the birds a dish of cold water, since it was a hot day. They took to it, just fine!

The birds started to get wise, as to where the food was, and they raided my large pastry that I brought for them. 

Soon afterwards, more pigeons began to flock to the pastry, and they ate the whole thing.

A delicious meal, for these birds. 
I recommend this spot, for bird-loving tourists, for an optimal bird-feeding experience (they're much more lively and friendly, once they're fed). 


Update: September 7th, 2024

I showed up to feed the Universal City / Studio City flock, yesterday afternoon, and I encountered a great discovery - the flock is hand-tame. I got the birds to eat out of my hand. It was a great experience.

Video of the birds eating out  of my hand at the Universal City / Studio City Metro Station.








Friday, September 6

The iPigeon.institute 2024 Halloween Sticker Time Collection and Marketing Materials.

This year's Halloween is gearing up to be one of the funnest and most spooky yet.

 For those of us who loom around the cutting edge of retail and e-commerce merchandising seasons, we'd have surely encountered early Halloween, Christmas, even next year's Easter's marketing materials, gadgets, and gags, alike. I felt that, in the spirit of Google Labs launching their Image 3 ImageFX engine, that I ought to try it out on some quirky and cute pigeon Halloween costume ideas. Here it is: a set of 6 new Sticker Time Stickers, known as the first in a series of Halloween and seasonal Sticker Time Collection stickers.

A Google ImageFX rendering of a cartoon pigeon wearing a pirate costume, for Halloween.
Pirate gear is classic garb for Halloween, on this pigeon.

A cartoon image of a pigeon wearing a Halloween ghost costume
This cute pigeon wears a ghost costume.

This pigeon sports a pumpkin head piece, as a costume.
A spooky pumpkin-headed pigeon.

A pigeon wearing an inflatable Halloween Ghost costume.
This inflatable T-Rex costume is one of the most fun costumes to wear, at Halloween.

A pigeon wearing a 4-eyed alien headpiece costume.
This pigeon wears goofy alien head gear attire, for a costume.

A pigeon wearing a skeleton cloak with cat ears.
A creepy skeleton cloak, with cat ears, for this pigeon.


Product Review: September 2024 Perfumer's Apprentice Haul.

 Since around October of last year, I decided to make good on an inkling I'd had, with regards to that fragrances would work out well for balancing my mood, so I began purchasing retail designer fragrances by Dior, and alternately, I also began purchasing individual aroma chemicals and natural fragrance products from suppliers such as Liberty Natural and The Perfumer's Apprentice, whom both have delightful catalogs of fine and natural, as well as synthetic (Perfumer's Apprentice) fragrance components. My use case scenario ranged from trying my hand at making a complete fragrance composition from scratch, to developing simpler layers to add, on top of my designer bottles of fragrance. In the past, I've also purchased fragrances such as Spicebomb, by Viktor and Rolf, for such purposes. 


My workflow in fragrance, lately, has been based on developing a fragrance from scratch, stemming from a purchase haul I made two months ago, which was, conceptually, a women's fragrance which had Anise (Licorice) and hyacinth as the feature ingredients, for which I purchased small amounts of over 20 ingredients, in order to create it. The results were moderately amusing, yet I found myself tending towards trying to wear the fragrance, myself, (being a male), so, as the weeks of the month wore on, in that month, I gradually developed the fragrance, staring from a confectionary licorice aroma, initially, to an overpowering floral hyacinth earthy aroma eau de parfum hydrosol, with strong remnants of the Anise and licorice theme still remaining - it was too strong to wear when going out, so I resolved to have it as a room spray. 


Image of hyacinth bulbs in bloom, by Artur Pawlak from Pixabay


I felt determined to not have wasted my investment money, for the month, in purchasing the ingredients for the composition, so I ended up setting it aside, and I made plans, for the next month, to renew my aspirations to create a reasonably wearable female's fragrance, with natural ingredients, from Liberty Natural. I purchased Rose Otto, for a sizable and costly dose of fresh petals and natural floral bloom, and the effect turned out nicely - the scent of Rose, in this case, ends up being a scent modulator, of sorts, and the effect of Rose Otto, rather than as much, the scent and smell, itself, of Rose, served to give the composition a twist, which I could be satisfied with, so I bottled up the oil layer of the composition in to small containers, for preservation and documentation of the creation. Prior to this, I had also given the fragrance a sizable helping of grapefruit essential oil, to brighten up the overpowering effect that the hydrosol composition had. I also added absolutes of Tonka bean and Cocoa, for a sweetened culinary gourmand effect, overall, since the fragrance had a confectionary theme to it, at its outset, with Anise and licorice fragrance at the core of the composition, for which I decided to try Canthoxal, a synthetic component, and it worked nicely. I also added Carnation absolute, for additional fresh petals and spice, being that the scent of Carnation blooms contains a high amount of eugenol, for which, the smell of Clove would be the best reference material (actually, carnation blooms, naturally, would seem to have nearly no scent, at all, so I am referring, here, to the extracted oil, or the absolute). Lastly, from Liberty Natural, which was last month's purchase, I added Champaca CO², for its anti-inflammatory therapeutic effect, rather than that it would seem to be a floral component, being that the scent of this particular extraction of Champaca blooms might best be liked to the exotic spices of Indian (subcontinent) culinary fare, with lightly fragrant hints of cardamom, fennel seed, and cumin to it. Comparatively, the essential oils and absolutes of the Champaca flower have, in increasing magnitude, respectively, much more floral and lovely aromas to them. 


I decided, initially, in creating this Hyacinth and Anise fragrance composition, to complement the natural fragrance components with synthetic ingredients. This might range, in meaning, from that the aroma chemical is a standardized formula, of the manufacturer's own design, or, alternately, that the entire ingredient, itself, is manufactured from sparse chemical raw material resources, through means, perhaps, such as additive or subtractive chemistry processes. For example, for the initial carnation flower effect, I had Carnation essential oil, to begin with, yet, according to my reading studies, and practical, hands-on experience, in recent and former outsets of creating fragrance compositions, essential oils, themselves, sometimes tend towards decomposing (oxidizing) in the fragrance composition, giving the creator (me, in this case),  temporarily false sense of what the fragrance would end up smelling like, being that some of the rarer fractions of scents, in cases where the ingredient is a delicate one; here, the carnation flower scent would have its soft, fresh petals character subdued, or disappeared, as the fragrance sits out, as time goes on. After all, the fragrance composition ought to be stable, over weeks, months, or years, depending on the production stage and packaging materials. In this case, I'm still in the early to mid-stage development process, so I use temporary, reusable plastic spray bottles, for example. In addition, synthetic ingredients also have the added benefit, at times, of being lightly colored, or clear and colorless, which is helpful during The marketing stages of producing a professional designer fine fragrance. The synthetic ingredient aroma compound for Carnation that I employed for this composition was Methyl Diantilis, which is reputed to be a more stable synthetic component. I wanted to experiment with the potential for the synthetic ingredients to have a "stabilizing" effect, as well, in terms overall course of things, given that I'm using a host of natural fragrance extracts, here - synthetic ingredients are relatively cheap ingredients, by comparison, and they tend to be lacking, in various ways, compared to natural fragrance extracts.


This month, I received a surprise fragrance endowment, care of my Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health Peer Support and Caseworkers; in particular, from one of them, named Matt (thanks, Matt), who gifted me with a 3.4 fl. oz. bottle of Dior Sauvage, Eau de Parfum version (there are 5 different versions of Sauvage, for men; I typically like the Sauvage Elixir one, especially during the fall and winter seasons, and I haven't yet smelled the newly released Sauvage eau Forte hydrosol), which gave me a new and unexpected fragrance project to work on, being that I'm mostly unfamiliar with the Eau de Parfum version of Dior's Sauvage line of products. The reason I favor the Elixir variant is that it is lush and heavy; perfect for colder weather, whereas I find that the Eau de Perfume version is pungent and literally perfumey - not so much a problem, however, and Mark, my Department of Mental Health nurse, assured me that the scent is masculine enough. Still, I like an over-the-top good smelling fragrance profile, so, this month, I stocked up on some old favorite ingredients, which I'd run out of, such as Benzoin Oliffac, Ambroxan and Exaltone, two musks, which I'd lost, during the course of a former, unexpected eviction, some new-to-me samples of fragrance profiles that I'd been favoring, such as Siam Benzoin Resin in Benzyl Benzoate, Black Hemlock Absolute, for which I'm sampling as a complement, or as a woodsy, smoky-sweet alternative to Blackcurrant Bud Absolute, and related compounds, such as Labienoxime, and Rhubofix, in the vein of earthy and mailette ingredients I'd initially purchased to create my perfume-from-scratch, such as Terrasol and Sarriete Base. Lastly, I venture off, this month, in to incorporating flavor ingredients in my fragrance compositions, with cinnamon and hibiscus flavor concentrated, being that I'd mostly not found a powerful and pungent-enough cinnamon, for my spice olfactory profile; here, hearkening back to my love of Spicebomb - I felt that i could create a reasonably-distanced and unique take on Spicebomb with my Anise / Licorice / 🪻 Hyacinth fragrance, and I also needed a flavor to fill up a Geek Bar Pulse nicotine vaporizer, which I found I found I could refill, so I chose Hibiscus for the flavor, and it worked out great with my flavorless 50 mg nicotine salts that I purchased locally, from Broadway Smoke Shop. The Hibiscus 🌺 flavor concentrate worked out great, since it has propylene glycol in it, which is a food grade antifreeze that vaporizes (it's in fog juice) in an e-cigarette inhaler, such as the Geek Bar Pulse.


I felt that the fragrances I was wearing (Dior Homme Sport), working with (Dior Sauvage Eau de Perfume), or creating (the Anise / Hyacinth spice fragrance), lacked a certain degree of Amber and Musk, so Ambroxan and Exaltone became two iconic favorites that I could implement in to layers of fragrance that I could apply, as separate perfuming sprays in different spray bottles. They both smell great, at different price points ($15.00 and $72.00, respectively), and, in the case of this purchase haul, the both of them smell a bit more powdery and less base-y than I'd recalled, off-hand, yet they work well, for my situation, since the low end of the fragrance spectrum I'm working with, and fragrance profile I'm trying to fill out, such as with the Sauvage Eau de Perfume, is reputably satiated by the addition of the Black Hemlock Absolute, which has a rich woodsy, syrupy, sweet, and smoky fragrance to it that I'd been looking for, all in one ingredient. Rhubofix is a nice, spicy, earthy fragrance ingredient - a bit pungent, so I only incorporated several drops, as opposed to a few squirts that I put in, when it came to Benzoin Oliffac and Calibrian Bergamot (I'd forgotten, during the course of writing this blog, about needing to refill my Bergamot supply, and the Calibrian Bergaptene-free Bergamot from Perfumer's Apprentice is far more delightful than a standard Bergamot oil, with a bright and sweet citrus aroma to it. It's just great, as far as that slice of citrus fragrance profile is concerned.


September's haul of fragrance ingredients.

In diffusion, this little stub fragrance layer, in combination with the Sauvage Eau de Perfume, ends up giving off the impression of bubblegum anaesthesic, in my opinion. On the skin, the combination smells like a powerfully artificial cinnamon feature, dressed up in the fanciest of decolletage, with what I consider to be the feminity of the Dior fragrance feeling subdued; perhaps veiled, in that it might still be inferred.

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