I had been wanting to do one of
these days for almost a year but for various reasons I wasn’t able to book it
until recently. The day that I booked
was themed as Fougeres and Chypres – all the perfume making days have different
themes and to be honest this was probably not the theme I would have chosen as
my preference lies with gourmands and orientals - however this was the day that I could do and I
didn’t want to wait any longer. On
arrival I finally met Sarah McCartney the head of 4160 Tuesdays and great
sorceress of some of the quirkiest scents out there. We had previously exchanged messages over
social media and Sarah had seen some of my youtube reviews of her fragrances so
it was really great to finally meet in person.
I in turn had stalked Sarah a little and read and watched most of her
interviews/blogs etc. We had a really
nice relaxed group discussion to start with whilst Sarah’s assistant Aisha
(glamorous, slightly clumsy, perfume lover) made us all drinks. It was a little like” getting to know you”
but with fragrance at the heart, instead of talking about where we are from and
what jobs we do, we spoke about what kind of fragrances we like and what we
hope to make. The group were a good mix
of people who were there because they love fragrances. Some had professional interest whilst others
were hobbyists or simply enjoy fragrances and wanted to play around at making
their own. All were great company.
Sarah then went on to explain
what is a fougere and what is a chypre, I simply can’t remember all the details
and this info is readily available online so I’ll leave that out, however what
was interesting is that it’s believed to be a myth that Chypre comes from the
word Cyprus – Sarah was informed by Christophe Laudemiel that it actually means
oak in Sardinan dialect.
Sarah then let us have a sniff of
classic examples from the scent groups, including vintage and modern
variations. We smelt some vintage
Mitsouko along with others that again I can’t remember as I didn’t take
notes! (Durr!) The subject matter wasn’t rigid though, we
all were able to interject at any time, ask questions etc and go off piste, it
was just like a really fun relaxed conversation amongst people with a common
love of fragrance, just that we had an expert on hand and a whole tonne of
amazing vintage and modern fragrances to sniff.
We were able to smell oak moss on
its own along with other essential ingredients and discuss their
properties. I recall the oud as the most
unpleasant, or was that the civet? Both were
pretty damn gross on their own but Sarah explained how in small doses they can
add depth and background. More
pleasantly we also got to smell one of the new Crimes of Passion range –
Midnight in the Palace Garden, which has already been bought by a King no less!
The conversation was so
engrossing that no one really wanted to break for lunch, despite being quite
hungry but of course we did go for lunch and went along to a noodle and
breakfast café that Sarah recommended.
It was strange to see only cooked English breakfast or Thai food chalked
up on the board as options, but I went for the Spicy chicken and rice option
and wow it was pretty damn tasty.
So then we headed back to start
on making our own perfumes! So exciting. There are sooo many fragrances available to
use, natural and synthetic, all of which are diluted and ready to use. We were allowed to make anything we wanted
and did not have to stick to the theme for which I was so happy. My idea was to create a violet and chocolate
combo, perhaps with rose or orange…..or maybe coffee, or tobacco …or….well the
list goes on because there are so many notes that I love but I was also scared
of overdoing the amount of ingredients and ending up with a hot mess as they
say over the water. Anyway I ended up
using cocoa absolute, hazelnut, ionones A and B (violet sythetics) some
vanilla, musk and iso E Super with just a touch of some synthetic orris. I have to say I was pretty pleased with my
finished fragrance and it was so nice when Sarah bottled it up into one of her
proper perfume bottles for me to take home.
Apparently you must leave the bottle in a dark cupboard for 2 weeks for
all the ingredients to get to know each other and settle in. I haven’t been able to leave it alone though
I’m afraid. It was my scent of the day
yesterday, and my scent of the night. Oh
and it’s my scent of the day again today!!
Not that it’s that amazing,
but I keep analysing how I would make minor tweaks to it. I want more violet, slightly less cocoa and
more musk.
The process of making our own
fragrances was so creative and fun, the group really interacted, smelled each
others potions at their varying stages and offered thoughts and opinions. Everyone made something completely different. There was an all natural creation that
literally had everything in it but the kitchen sink, there was a fruity floral
that wasn’t supposed to be a fruity floral that was actually not bad at
all. There was a tomato leaf herbal
concoction that was really interesting , which
Sarah helped rescue from becoming too salady. I feel that I played it quite safe with my
fragrance and would love to go back and be a bit bolder.
Sarah also let us all pick a 30ml
bottle of our favourite fragrance or 7 mini bottles from her range. I had spotted a bottle of something labelled “Get
Lippie” which I had also seen a photo of on Facebook before and had been very
intrigued, so I put on a pleading face and asked if I could have some of that
instead. (I’d had a sneaky sniff earlier
on and loved it). Sarah explained that it was for a charity
called 5th Sense which is a charity for taste and smell disorder
sufferers. Sarah created the fragrance
for her friend who has a disorder that means everything smells of poo to her Sarah has managed to create a fragrance that
doesn’t smell of poo to her friend and this will be launched to support the
charity. The fragrance is as yet unnamed
but I urge you to check out the 4160 Tuesdays site http://www.4160tuesdays.com and site http://www.fifthsense.org.uk/about/
if you like that violetty/rose make up
type scent, it’s really beautiful and I feel truly spoiled to own a bottle.
Sarah was such a great host and I
could listen to her insider stories for hours on end. I was interested to hear her views on Roja
Dove whom she met and bought a bottle of perfume from in Dickens and Jones in
1990. He picked out a perfume for her that she still loves to this day, Roja was
born with the name Roger but he changed it when he was younger. There was me
thinking he must be from some really exotic background, I was always changing
the way I thought it should be pronounced in my head, in future I’ll just
pronounce it Roger.
If you’re into perfume and can
get to London I cannot recommend this day enough. It has made me even more enthusiastic about
fragrance which I really didn’t think was possible. I learned so much and have a fragrance made
by my own fair hands to always remind me of that fantastic experience. The day costs £125 and you get to take away
your own bottle of perfume plus one made by the expert herself so I think its
amazing value. Oh and I forgot to
mention the biccies, lots of lovely choccie biccies were available to be
devoured throughout the day, if that’s not reason enough to book then I don’t know
what is!!
