Perfume is enjoyed by millions to create a lovely smell that pleases the senses of others. Most commercial brands of fragrance are kept secret. The special blend of ingredients uncovers a wide variety of emotions. The combination of oils, compounds, fixatives, and solvents merge within a decorative bottle. Inside that bottle, making the harmonious chord of scent, are three specific notes.
The main note is refereed to as the top note. This is the scent produced from the first application onto the skin. Forming an initial impression is the main selling point in the perfume industry. The top note is usually described as "fresh", "assertive", "sharp", or having a citrus appeal. Lasting only five to ten minutes, this note evaporates quickly, the overall impression of this aromatic quality is crucial. Examples of commonly used oils are: basil, orange, bergamot, lemon, pine, peppermint, and eucalyptus.
Notes of the middle, or heart notes, are the ones smelled after the top has dissipated. Being the center of attention this scent is full bodied and pleasant. Warming the skin, the true scent is about to emerge. Being strong, lasting and potent the middle note is a nice transition after the shock of the first. Appearing from two minutes to an hour this note is the one most often smelled as you navigate through the day. Typical oils used are lavender, rose, chamomile, fennel, nutmeg, juniper, and tea tree.
The final note in the structure of perfume is known as the base note. The combination of the middle and base notes develops the main theme of the fragrance. Adding depth and solidity, to the composition, the base note is used to give rise to boldness and strength. Rich and deep this note is usually not perceived until thirty minutes after the application. Aimalic notes are known to last as much as twenty-four hours. Base notes include: wood oils (cedar wood, gaiac, linaloe wood, sandalwood, etc.), resin oils (frankincense, myrrh, etc), laburnum, oak moss absolute, patchouli, vanilla, and vetiver.
There are plant, animal, natural, and synthetic sources available, besides oils, to use as your three notes. Plants are the most popular used compounds in the manufacturing of perfume. Honey and musk are derived from animals that have been used in creating widely used scents. Natural sources might include oak moss, tree moss, or seaweed. Modern fragrances are established by means of synthetic sources. Linalool and coumarin are both naturally occurring compounds that can be cheaply synthesized from terpense.
Perfume contains a variety of ingredients which are often organized into four groups. The primary scents are used as a base like rose or cola. Then, a modifier is added like honey or cherry to give the base some character. Next, a blender is added to the mix, which can be a multitude of ingredients, like linalool and hydroxycitronellol. Finally, a fixative is mixed in to support the primary scent. Common fixatives are wood and amber which blend well with many other scents. The top, middle, and base notes of a fragrance may have separate primary scents and supporting ingredients. Leaving room for ultimate creativity the expression of your own scent is priceless.
A sample recipe:
Ingredients:
2 cup of water
1 cup fresh chopped flower blossoms
Directions:
In a bowl place a cheesecloth where the edges are hanging over the bowl. Fill with 1 cup of flower blossoms of your choice. Pour water over the flowers until they are completely covered. Let the mixture sit overnight. The next day using the edges of cheesecloth pull it out of the bowl and gently squeeze the scented water into a small pot. Simmer the water until about 1 teaspoon is left. Cool and place into a small bottle. Making perfume this way has a shelf life of about one month. Other suggestions for flowers: Lavender, Lilac, Orange Blossoms or even Honeysuckle. Anything that is highly fragrant works best.
The sixth episode of the first season of 90210 aired on September 30th, 2008. The episode is titledModel Behavior. The episode revolves around a modeling runway show and the after party. Warning: my episode review contains plot spoilers.
Model Behavior opens with Adrianna and her mom Constance in a meeting with Principal Wilson, Kelly, Brenda, and Matt. Again Adrianna denies drug abuse and even insults Brenda when she tries to give her advice. The meeting ends with Constance threatening a lawsuit. As they leave the meeting, Adrianna bumps into Annie and insults her even more, implying she only got the play role because she is the principal's daughter.
Debbie gets a great job opportunity with Antonio when he agrees to let her takes photos at a photo shoot since he is short one photographer. Antonio is impressed with Debbie's photo's and makes her his protégée. She will be helping him at a major runway show. Annie, Dixon, and Silver are invited to assist Debbie at the photoshoot and runway show as a school project. With Ryan's prodding Annie invites Adrianna. While at the photoshoot, Annie bumps into a producer who remembers her from the school play. She invites Annie to audition for a roll in a low budget slasher movie. Adrianna is standing next to Annie but the producer pretty much ignores her until Annie introduces her and goes on about how talented she is. The producer then invites Adrianna to the audition, which makes Adrianna surprised and happy.
Meanwhile, Naomi is scheming to get her parents back together. She invites Charles and his mistress to dinner and acts all nice in the beginning but then lets it slip to Andrea that Charles and Tracy are still sleeping together which of course results in Andrea storming off. Naomi also invites her mom to the runway show and tries to figure out how to get her dad there too.
During the photoshoot, an agent names Tom Marino flatters Silver and insists she could be a model. Of course Silver just blows him off because she has no interest in modeling but his flattery does create the seed of what if.
Kelly, Brenda, and Ryan are making plans when Dylan Mckay calls Brenda and asks to speak to Kelly. Ryan later asks Kelly why Dylan called Brenda's cellphone instead of Kelly's. Kelly is perturbed and later confronts Brenda. Brenda insists there is nothing going on between her and Dylan. She said she recently got back into contact with him through Brandon and Dylan just asked about Kelly. This could be a lie to spare Kelly's feelings because Brenda later deletes Dylan's phone number from her cell phone address book. Anyway, Kelly was quite rude to Brenda but Brenda didn't take the bait and tries to smooth things over.
Brenda does take Ryan to the runway show and they hit it off. Perhaps Brenda is still alittle resentful of Kelly because she makes a comment to Ryan that he sure dodged the bullet on that one; meaning he is lucky that Kelly decided not to pursue a relationship with Ryan. Kelly takes a two week leave of absence from work and leaves town with Sammie to go visit Dylan. Kelly doesn't plan on getting back together with Dylan, she just wants some closure in her life.
At the runway after-party, Navid is picked up by 2 models her are impressed that he is Persian. Navid has a small part throughout this episode, mainly with him complaining about being the third wheel in Dixon and Silver's relationship.
Adrianna is very thankful to Annie for getting her an audition and comes clean about not sleeping with Ty. Instead of Annie being thankful for the truth, Annie is quite mad at Adrianna and goes off on a rant to Ryan and Brenda. Adiranna overhears and accuses Annie of being a narc and spy for her dad. This puts Adiranna over the edge and she leaves the party in search of drugs. At the end of the episode, Adrianna meets with a new drug dealer who gives her the "hard stuff" cocaine. I guess that means she has only abused prescription drugs in the past and now she is moving up the chain of illegal drugs.
Tom Marino flatters Silver again but then ruins the moment by asking her to come back to his house. Silver turns him down so he insults her and grabs her arm. Dixon comes to her rescue. When Debbie sees this, she rushes over and Tom insults her too. Dixon then punches Tom and a fight insues. Tom fires Antonio and storms off mad.
After the party settles down, Antonio doesn't fire Debbie, he is still impressed with her work. Ty finds out about Adrianna's lie and comes to find Annie. They apologize to each other and decide to be friends. Naomi's plan to reunite her parents doesn't work and actually just makes the situation worse with Charlie being quite mad at Naomi. Naomi also breaks up with Ethan because he can't say he loves her anymore.
I was very impressed with this episode. I started to feel bad for Adrianna. She tried to make things right but it didn't work out and now she is spiraling downhill even more. I found it interesting that Brenda actually seemed like a very good friend to Kelly but Kelly wasn't seeing it because she is too preoccupied with her confusing relationship with Dylan. Kelly is a great counsler but not a very good friend, apparently she still holds resentment towards Brenda over their high school love triangle with Dylan. I was glad to see that finally Debbie had a bigger part. Now if only they would give Harry a bigger part. Hopefully they will have an episode soon about his adult son. Overall, the episode was one of the better ones with lots of character development.
What Makes Beyonce Rich: Japanese Water, Perfume That Looks Like Lube
In a single hour, Macy's sold 72,000 bottles of Beyonce's new perfume yesterday. If you think that's impressive, check out all the other stuff she uses her famous face to sell. A portrait of the artist as a commodity.
Click to view on one page.
The Great Idiot Perfume Heist
A third NYPD officer has been arrested for his role in last month's heist of a New Jersey perfume factory. Or, as we prefer to call it, "The Worst Fucking Heist Ever." Don't rogue cops even watch movies?
It went down like this: Richard LeBlanca and Brian Checo, two real NYPD officers, ran into In Style USA's New Jersey warehouse on Feb. 9 at 6:20 p.m., shouting "NYPD! Hands up!" They bound the hands of the dozen warehouse workers with plastic cuffs. Then, the 16 day laborers they had hired helped them load up the five trucks they'd rented with $1 million in perfume. Then they left.
Among the easily identified problems with the heist: the fact that they were really NYPD officers, and that they claimed to be NYPD officers, on the assumption that nothing would seem suspicious about NYPD officers making off with $1 million in perfume; the fact they hired 16 fucking day laborers for the task, on the assumption that none of them would snitch; and this entire final paragraph from the NYT's account of the story:
But things went awry when one of the victims managed to call 911, Mr. Gramiccioni said. When the police arrived, two of the rental trucks were at the scene. Officials traced those to a rental agency and found that Officer LeBlanca had paid $205.79 for one of the trucks with a Visa debit card, which was subscribed and billed to his home in Manhattan, the court papers said. He and Officer Checo had also provided information from their driver's licenses, the court papers said
Send an email to Hamilton Nolan, the author of this post, at Hamilton@gawker.com.
Julian Rouas ParisJulian RouasJulian Rouas Fragrances
