Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, May 16, and I did a perfume-making workshop in London this week with Sarah McCartney of 4160 Tuesdays! It was held in her studio in Hammersmith, in a very appealing neighborhood.

It was so much fun. Sarah focused the workshop on sustainability in perfumery and did an excellent job explaining to the group how each ingredient she had chosen for the workshop relates to that theme. As a lover of rose scents, my favorite was the rose absolute derived from upcycled rose petals. As a gardener, my favorite was the vetiver, which was harvested via a different method that leaves half the plant and, importantly, its whole root system to prevent erosion.

Sarah also did an outstanding job explaining how perfumery is a mix of math and chemistry, as she taught us to combine different substances in different ratios on filter paper, which we would then try to translate into the proportions we would use in our final creations.

The book you see on the left is the full weeklong program for London Craft Week, which has been this week. Sarah’s workshop was part of that.

I used Sarah’s base of “Soft Musks” for my own creation. I can’t describe it any better than she can, so here’s the info.

Made from readily biodegradable materials. These molecules enhance the aromas of natural materials, and extend a fragrance’s longevity, to make a more wearable longer lasting fragrance. They take the place of components lost during the process of extracting natural materials. Historically animal materials, like musk, ambergris and civet, were used for these effects.

To that base, I added compounds based on rose, lily, orange, raspberry.

Sarah also has an important collection of perfumes, many of which she used in writing her book with Samantha Scriven, “The Perfume Companion”, which I highly recommend if you can get a copy (I think it’s still available on Kindle if you can’t find a hard copy).

I had a fabulous time and I learned so much! Sustainability is important, and it’s wonderful to know of the progress in this area.

Do you have any thoughts or insights about sustainability in perfumery?