Scent Experimentation

I really enjoyed the Skype interview we did with Robert's mom and learning about the different notes in perfumes. I was intrigued by the way I experience smelling perfume and particularly not waiting to get to the real, lingering scent of it. I do catch myself smelling my wrists later in the day to see if the scent of the perfume (Flower Bomb) I wear is still there. I looked up the base note and was surprised to see that it was Patchouli.

When experimenting with making my own scents, I tried to use scents that reminded me of my family or ones that I enjoy. I have never really tried to make a smell but I do have the habit of smelling spices a lot, especially the ones I love. These are the ones that I made during class and what my reaction to them were.

Smell for a person: I chose my Mother. I used jasmine, gardenia and rosemary. These are particular scents that she enjoys so I wanted to see how they blended together and realized that the smell resembled Vicks Vapor Rub. 

Smell evoking an emotion: Vanilla, imitation butter, imitation banana. I don't know why I chose these scents, maybe I was craving some cookies. But I think the smell of baked goods makes me happy and vanilla especially is one ingredient I use when I bake. However, by using imitation ingredients it was a rather gross smell and very overwhelming.

Smell of childhood: Lemon, grapefruit, orange. All of these citrus fruits remind me of my childhood because I would eat them all the time. Grapefruit was always around in my childhood because it was the fruit of Texas and my mother always had it at home. I would eat it with a spoon with sprinkled sugar on top. All these sour tastes were mixed with different chili powders to add a kick to them and I've loved them every since. The sour tinge of the smell was a bit overwhelming.

Smell of a place: rose, tea tree, lime. These ingredients all reminded me of my mother's garden growing up and her habit of taking myself and my sisters along with us. She would love giving us things to smell, especially flowers. The scent of lime was always in my home because it was often used. I think the place I wanted to evoke was my old childhood home. The smell itself wasn't very good though.

Smell of hunger: lemon, ginger, peppermint. This mix of smells was powerful because all three together were very potent. I like all three of these and especially add lemon and ginger to my dishes at home. Peppermint was added to the mix to switch it up but it was not very good.