A New Era in Designer Fragrance Aesthetics - Trading Luxury for Good Health.

 On the surface, a hobby involving fragrance ingredients, for the purpose of creating cologne, perfume, or room sprays, might seem superficially indulgent. 

Plants at Grand Park, in Downtown Los Angeles, CA, 90012, USA.

My take on the subject, being a fragrance-making enthusiast, myself, is that the hobby, itself, embodies some of the finest things we have, in society, as far as considering things from the botanical perspective. Perfumery is a vast and diverse field, whereas, the common person could not conceivably rise to the achievement of well-established and well-educated fine perfumers who come up with fragrances for designer labels. It's a pursuit that is steeped in industry standards of intellectual property and secrets, necessary to maintain integrity and sustainability for their enterprise. 

Fair enough. So what can the modern day and typical layperson enthusiast of fragrance manufacturing, as a hobby, aspire to, of a respectable and redeemable outcome of having this hobby? 

A look in to the subject, with some insight in to the field, going on my third month, now, in which I had been occupied with fulfilling an ingredients collection, is that the products themselves, simple, or complex, that they might be - « could » lend themselves well enough, for the layperson, in establishing a wellness and therapeutic practice, of a sort, along the lines of a homeopathic and natural products, designed for healing - as a primary goal, of what the fragrance hobby has, of something of meaning, and merit, as for a justification for what might otherwise be considered indulgent and foolish about having a hobby based in aesthetics, such that a fragrance ingredients hobby could be, whereas a sound and grounded mind ought to win out, for the enthusiast. 

Indeed, fragrance components, of the natural end of the spectrum, given the expanse of choices, from essential oils, absolutes, and extracts, on one hand, to synthetic ingredients on the other side of the spectrum, which are used to reconstitute and imitate naturally-derived fragrance components, or extracts, using chemistry techniques, to mimic the originally-desired substance, as closely as possible. Attaining mastery over such a premise is largely out of the reach of the layperson. The good news is that natural ingredients are, by no means, inferior to synthetic ingredients; rather, they are typically easier to work with; the disposition of that lab-made ingredients ought be used, in perfumery, is based on a demand which arises from cost considerations, rather than technique and aesthetic of the composition of fragrances, in general, being at stake. 

Fine fragrance extracts are of primary importance, as the central subject at hand, first of all. In this day and age, in homeopathic medicines that are produced, in my experience, simply contain plant matter, with perhaps a menial extraction that had been done on the product, whereas fragrance absolutes and essential oils are far more powerful and superior; in many cases, the simple act of spraying the fragrance composition on to the body is enough to provide therapeutic relief, to the wearer. It is important to not overdo things, though, and to not sacrifice organic manufacture for cheaper products, in many cases, as the composition may decrease in quality or integrity, for having a wild chemical component thrown in to the mix. 

Given that, the topic of botany, in being the basis of what constitutes the perfume-making industry, is a rich science that imbues the student of plant life with the knowledge of the therapeutic components that make up the fragrance ingredients that are available to individuals. Some of these components are found in relatively micro-amounts, in unprocessed plant material, whereas the extractions involved, in obtaining essential oils and absolutes, are sufficient to produce true therapeutic effect in the user, with the added benefit of potentially smelling good, as well, if the composition is made properly, and in good balance.

We live in an era in which perfumery ingredients can sometimes be had for a bargain, relatively, and with global competition for our consumer dollars at stake, for ingredients suppliers. I'll follow up, at some point, in regards to specific online suppliers and buyers' deals that companies offer, for the retail buyer of fragrance ingredients. In the meantime, please feel free to message me, or leave a comment, detailing your questions or issues pertaining to establishing a collection of ingredients of your own.  

Here are a few articles I pulled up via Google Scholar that go in to the scientific detail, basis, and study of specific natural perfume and aroma ingredients, along the lines of their innate healing and therapeutic potential.

Bibliography and reference:

Essential Oils and Bioactive Components against Arthritis: A Novel Perspective on Their Therapeutic Potential

Mariangela Marrelli, Valentina Amodeo, Maria Rosaria Perri, Filomena Conforti, Giancarlo Statti

Plants 9 (10), 1252, 2020

Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/9/10/1252/pdf

Phytochemical and Pharmacological activity of Genus Plumeria: An updated review

Manjusha Choudhary, V Kumar, S Singh

International Journal of Biomedical and Advance Research 5 (6), 266-271, 2014

Online: https://www.academia.edu/download/34597640/pLumeria_generos.pdf

Indole as a core anti-inflammatory agent-a mini review

K Hemalatha, G Madhumitha, Selvaraj Mohana Roopan

Chem. Sci. Rev. Lett 2 (1), 287-292, 2013

Online: https://www.academia.edu/download/34996040/2013-chemical_science_reviews_and_letters.pdf

I have borderline people in my head, back at home.

 People who know me, of my recent mockup self, know that I toe a contentious line about my narcissism, being that there are a couple, or so, variants of narcissism, and even at that, given "whatever," about this guy, or that, and we're all sufferers of the same ailment, to some degree; yet each of us would prefer our own brand, of things, when it comes to who's personality traits, and ideations, etc. end up being the more fruitful and attractive persona in society. 

The textbook Narcissism spectrum is a 5-step set of distinctions in depravity, or misfortune, as it were, pinioned about the topic spectre of Narcissism (to reiterate) at issue. It begins with ...

Well, I don't remember. But there's grandiosity, delusions of grandeur, borderline personality disorder, as the middle trait, then psychopathy, and lastly, paranoid schizophrenia, as the final trait that defined the narcissist, and their inevitable outcome, with the psychiatric industry. 

No? This is a poor topic, for some, or, in some regards. Yet, I constantly deal and cope with a reality of having to accommodate people who destroy any semblance of a proper relationship that had been established, whereas those moments seem to have lost importance, for the person. People had been working overtime, and at all hours, trying to offer in a therapeutic approach, to no avail. Heartbreaking attitudes, sadistic fantasies, and many various sorts of care to abuse people, from a networked and arbitrarily tangential outlook and outset, from the core identity of a single victim; finding casualties in innocent bystanders, friends, relatives, etc. 

That's all I'll say; just my input, as to acknowledge that it's still going on, on this day. 

The iPigeon.institute online store (preview launch).

 I'm launching a private preview to my new online store, which will be offering essential oil and fragrance absolute personal misting bottle aromatherapy and personal care products, such as natural soaps, and other toiletry products, to come, in the near future. 

Here is the temporary (private) link to preview the online launch of my e-commerce store:

https://ipigeoninstitute.mybigcommerce.com/?guestTkn=8cihzrus4z

The store aims to provide direct-to-consumer deals on personal and home aesthetics and care products, with iPigeon.institute-unique flair and artisan | boutique exclusivity. Consumers benefit from my constant efforts in sourcing quality ingredients and from my dedications to research and online publishing, in which I discover online resources which have led me to be able to provide affordable luxury products, with all-natural ingredients, of high quality and purity, hand-made with care and with attention to the utmost standards in manufacturing.

A review, for inclusiveness, here - The Rigorous Honesty of the 12 Steps.

As I consider this article's context, I'm fraught with a significant backdrop of an allegorical account of life's experiences, at my [forget <_<, rather] foray. One of my teen years' best friends had grown distant from me, over the years, and his attitudes in communicating sorrow over this loss are inelegant and cruel. I'd come to see him as this new person, made up of cruelty, rather than that I could see him as a friend. It's "all in my head," as the old saying goes. 

On one hand, I don't like doing old things. A timeless thing, on the other hand, is a different story and distinction. People, lately, simply forget what's really being spoken about, and people have been fumbling about, failing at simply acknowledging the present moment, in life. Little obsessions over the small details of former failures is an unfortunate circumstance, to be sure, although we all have moments like that, in life - hopefully only formerly so, though. In therapy, we release these sorts of frustrations and anxieties through speaking candidly with a trusted individual, who is bound to professional ethics not to reveal the details of the conversations that transpire between they, themselves, and the client. Even so, various types of people will simply fail to trust the therapist, having been a victim of abused trust in life which had never been nurtured back to health. I'm by no means very well traveled in sociable acquisitions of a vast number of strangers that I've befriended, so I couldn't quite say, at what point, in life, people's trust in others had been violated. For me, it was quite early on. I was physically abused, by my father, for things that I had about myself, that I didn't quite understand, or I didn't have the thought about myself, in life, such as to avoid the consequence of being abused. On one hand, who ever does know the appropriate course of actions to take, such as to avert an abusive and hurtful consequence for ourselves? For me, it's a significantly adult thing; I'm 39 now, and it was well in to my mid-30's, or so, as to when I had "Scientology cleared" my mind of all shortcomings and admissions necessary, in life, for having become a spiritually competent individual in life, who could answer for things that would have otherwise separated me from others, earlier on, in life, and which had prevented me from being accepted, or included, in people's lives and common affections, absent from barriers to achieving that manner of relationship. 

 

The At-Home Parfumerie - How to mix like a semi-pro.

 After procuring a shelf-rack, or so, of fragrance ingredients of your choice and specialty, it’s time to employ “interval-mixing” in to the creative and manufacturing process.

The iPigeon.institute slight return shelf rack of perfumer’s ingredients, essential oils, and aroma molecules.

Making a simple “natural” smelling fragrance is not difficult - just purchase expensive and high-quality ingredients. But, in order to attain the scent profile of a higher-end cologne for men, for example, it requires some ingenuity in the logistics of “what’s going on | in” the fragrance. 

My mixing palette | my working process. I tried out what I would call “interval mixing,” which capitalizes on the notions of the deeper underlying chemistry behind the individual ingredients.

On one hand, the fragrance ought never quite completely fall out, from the bottom, itself, in to a poor-smelling thing. If you’d done this, don’t dump it - it’s largely against the law, internationally, and it’s poor morals. Instead, just save the fragmented artifact of manufacture, as a token partial that could be returned to, that might slightly fulfill some future need, even it it’s just drops of the stuff.

On my most current excursion and creation, however, I managed to deftly control the flow of creating a fragrance, with a collection number of ingredients totaling about 100, or so, give or take, without having created a poor-smelling product, which had been how many of my attempts to create a distinctly masculine-smelling fragrance product had turned out. I’d been getting some tips, through nightly searches about the facets and characteristics of ingredients, their expected percentage fill, of the entirety of a composition (fragrance or parfum base - which, in and of itself, take up perhaps 15-30% of the bottle, and the rest is water and alcohol (40-50%) and perhaps the rest of the fill is made up of quick notes, nuances, clean-ups, and touch-ups with essential oils, terpenes, crystals, musks, colors, etc.).

I wanted to do a men’s fragrance that was light-feeling, syrupy sweet, yet rich in savory background, such as that it would entice the olfactory sense’s relationship with the visceral and primal urges of hunger, upon encountering it. Easily gourmand, yet imagining a rich and eloquent debouter of enterprise and establishment to follow - picture a starving population, for example; yet many people refuse to eat, when offered food, or when found asking for charity. What could spark and inspire their neglected self-care better than a timely happenstance passersby encounter, on the street? What better disposition could there be, alongside the context being well-fed, in the American way? (or French, in nature, as I sometimes refer to). 

The secret to my creative process, in this instance, was to come up with a decent enough floral base - I chose Narcissus, in this instance, with 3-4 or so full and generous squirts from the dropper, although just 1, to begin with, in a pool of perfumer’s alcohol, in the bottle. 

Then I started to work my way around the fragrance’s underlying inspiration, which would be a light, crisp, and refreshing citrus assertion, for which I used some terpene ingredients, such as Limonene D. There was kumquat oil, as well. After this stage, I went back to tradition and rounded off the composition, as it was, with Lavandin Grosso. Then I grabbed my powders and crystals, to musky up the scent, and ground it, with concentrated force. I employed Ambroxan to ground out this first stage. 

The next phase I went in to was to add the primary natural characteristics that would shape the quality facets and natural appeal factor of the fragrance, using primarily essential oils, at this stage. I used Ginger CO2 (don’t ever get a ginger that’s not at least a CO2 extraction - my lesson learned), myrrh oil, tonka bean absolute (lots), jasmine tea perfume extract, citron oil, ylang ylang, cedarwood (atlas), and teak (just a little). Here, in this stage, I found that I wasn’t ruining the fragrance, by this point, so I decided to test out employing my crystals, which smell good, in and of themselves, but I’d read up on their common usage recommendations in a fragrance composition, and it’s typically at the 1%, or 0.1% or less. I have Exaltone, by Firmenich, and Ambrocenide, by Symrise, which I used, in this stage. 

Then, my inner animal 🦔 perhaps, started to perk up, and I thought about the ingredients, and their place in fragrance-making, which is largely based on descriptions of the properties, chemical name, and organoleptic properties of the material. I thought about ketones, which I’d read, are sometimes characterizable as metabolite products of the body. (Wikipedia). Oh, yeah. And just prior, I’d put some stuff in to the mix, like anisaldehyde and oud base, one of which had been touted as “the smell of the bathroom, toilet included” sort of thing. I figured, “well, these things have some basis in how they are created, as by-products of microbial, fungal, or plant life (even animals, in the past mostly), 

but, continuing forward, though, given that the ingredients had an appeal, on top of that I was creating this composition, as my main aspiration, and meanwhile, the fragrance base hadn’t turned bad on me, just yet, I figured that it was time for me to try and encapsulate the essence as it was, in this stage, so I added some musk ketone powder, for the sake of the fact that it (ketones) affect biological processes; I imagined that the oud base, or the dimethyl anthranilate, or pyralone (it was all of these, perhaps, in the end, to be honest; a modest amount of each of them) - these components, and the bacterial sorts of processes of interaction, reaction, or metabolism, of the energy products available, based on the richness of the ingredients, in and of themselves, much different, and more natural-smelling, since I was employing essential oils, mostly, at this stage, (some farnesol, also), and I’d formerly tried to employ these ingredients, of the [toilette] - means to an end (like, eau de toilette), and the mixture would end up getting worse and worse, the more I added to it, from here. 

Now, I didn’t actually add orange flower absolute, but I did do an ad-hoc Schiffs base, although I added the hydroxycitronellol in an equal amount to the iso butyl quinoline (pyralone), because I wanted to emphasize the citrusy character of the composition, and because the source and main composition was so rich in material, to begin with. All in all, at this phase, I threw in a small (mini) scoop spoon’s worth of musk ketone, in to the mix, because I figured that the ketone element, added in to the composition, would detract any ongoing (and eventual) free-radical occurrences from proliferating, and, in turn, I end up with a garbage composition. The musk ketones would keep the developing energetic processes distracted, and meanwhile, I have the buffer of these expensive crystals as the basis of what the mixture [could] eventually smell like, if needed; although it still hadn’t turned bad on me, which is important. 

Then I threw in some Iso E Super, after gently gyroscope-rotating the mixture around, and making sure that the crystals became well-incorporated in to the existing mix - 

Oh yeah! I forgot, at first, I started out with some very primary facet components of many to any type of fragrance composition - rose petals, jasmine sambac absolute, neroli oil, from Morocco, (at some point, in the composition; perhaps later on), and santalol, in modest amounts, each of them, yet somewhat only at the time being, of how small my beginnings were, in creating this mixture, and these ingredients, for having been expensive. (They still are expensive, for that matter, yet they’re quite essential in a fragrance composition, for how the smell’s purpose and character become modulated in to a new olfactory experience, at the command of the hand of the perfumer.

Some small vials of expensive essential oils and rich absolutes.

Having taken on this new, and progressively (intervals-bounded) methodology in manufacturing a fragrance composition, which I’d found somewhat difficult to do, for men’s sorts of fragrances, in the past, I now felt more at ease, in applying more ingredients, such as gurjun balsam, rhodinol, lauryl acetate C-12, para cresyl isobutyrate, nectaryl (to peach sweeten things up), beeswax absolute (for even more, and long-lasting sweetness), as well as two scoops of ethyl vanillin (with the small flat scoop).

Every invested gourmand would understand, as well, the fascinating combination and compelling novel effect (which I called “mooshy-moo”) that black pepper oil has upon a richly-established vanilla, as the “latest thing.” It’s a quite comforting and warming sensory experience. 

I didn’t want to leave any trails unmapped, so to speak. In intervals, I had planned to do the dump of crystals, such as Nerolin bromelia, as last-stand additions to the mix, yet I ended up tossing some in, a bit before I finished, since the perfumer’s alcohol works fast, yet I gyroscope-rotate the mixture, at this stage, to speed the musk ketone reactions up.

Then I thought, 

Hey, I have some celery ketone, as well! How about that, for the gourmand floral fragrant citrus (petitgrain got it’s own intervallic development ketone-assisted cycle in on it).

That’s about all, for now. 

Except for the onion skeet skeet - just 4 drops, (not of pure onion oil - significantly diluted, a few drops to 2 or so fl. oz.) - for the acrylates (thanks, Calvin Klein, for that tip off [context]).

Oh, yeah, there was Cetalox, as well. Benzyl Benzoate, and I topped off the composition, once I was fairly satisfied with it, with benzyl alcohol, to have a solvent base to incorporate the insoluble oils and water (also added at the end) together in to a miscible solution. I put some Yellow (Lake) and Basic Fuschia (2 drops), for color. There was trans-2 decanol, a tiny bit of humulene, and several drops of cinnamon bark oil. I put a drop of Geosmin into it, as well.

A mid-week's N.A. 9th Step Meeting - Making amends to others (in the age of the Internet).

 As I'm tasked with the prospect of otherwise getting off of a misdemeanor drug possession charge, for smoking a cigarette, as it began, out in Hermosa Beach, I have to somehow make time and set aside a place for a series of N.A. meetings. Here, in this meeting, I'm focusing on the 9th Step.

I'm confronted with the notion of that I had done wrong to someone, while I was on the job, and installing software, back in the day. I had a rich amount of socialization and opportunities abound, during that time, and although my offenses were just several, in general (aside from overt drug use, being late commonly, that sort of thing), there were some offenses that I had not made amends for, which are brought up for my consideration, here and there. I think that this is the last one. 

I had made a crude joke, as a stalking victim, myself, asking the guy if he usually has this much traffic going about outside his place. It was a total pokemon joke, and I was abusing privileged information. Aside from that, the emotional maturity of it mirrored my preteen years, when I had bullied a guy about his racial heritage, while I had partially similar heritage, myself. It was a completely indulgent and thoughtless thing, where I caught myself susceptible to suggestibility. Being suggestible is most commonly a route in to becoming someone, embodying a persona, if you would, whom we would not choose to, at some point. "For seeking, I find; eventually, as it goes." I've found seeking to be a finder's proposition, but a person pays the price of being a curious pigeon. 

That being said, I enjoy treating the seekers with what they search for, if they happen to be humble and present in God's good graces, such that the birds around town are, for food's sake. 

In this day and age, we have the opportunity to do proper and equitable amends unto others, through means such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or perhaps some other means, such as a Google search. Just try it, and it'll free you, and the one you had harmed: message them, and make amends. I'd done it for all others I'd offended most surely, except for this one guy, I had done this one slight towards, for novel amusement, as a hapless schizophrenic, and I believe I was homeless, as well. 

My apologies. It was a thoughtless and mentally ill thing of me to do. I've had the problem of doing impulsively thoughtless things to others, here and there, as a childhood problem. I'm not quite sure why I felt compelled to say such a thing, when I was fraught with some sort of similar situation, on my own part. 

The iPigeon.institute logo, and some 2020-2021 Pandemic Era Masks, as artifacts of the iPigeon.institute slight home exhibition of art and cultural effects. 

 

The Santa Monica Morning Pigeon-Feeders - an ad hoc N.A. Meeting.

 As some people would know, I was taken in for a quick processing and cite out for drug possession in Hermosa Beach, a few months back, or so. They don’t allow smoking cigarettes in public there, and I was spotted by a police officer while I was having a smoke break, by The Strand. As a result, I had to go to court. They ordered N.A. meetings for me. 

The Santa Monica Morning Pigeons Feeding meeting is sparsely attended, but it’s a reliably good sober group that reminds us of commitments, which is part of the progress in attainment that sobriety aspires to, for the fellowship and individuals attending 12-Step meetings.