A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Workshop
One of the things I loved about my 18 months of training with my teacher, Clémentine, was the way the matières premières, the raw materials, were always the main attraction. I mean, in a sense this is self-evident: perfume is made from raw materials, so how could the raw materials be anything other than the central focus? But in fact, there’s an enormous amount to learn about perfume: making perfume, how perfume is created, the perfume industry and the perfume market and the economics of perfume; the list goes on. In spite of the deep and seemingly endless complexities of perfume-making, Clémentine kept things squarely focused on the raw materials and, in turn, she imparted to her students a deep and enduring love for these materials, which hasn’t ebbed in the slightest.
I carry this passion with me everywhere. Right now, for example, Bordeaux is at peak olfactory beauty; everywhere I walk is redolent with the fragrance of jasmine. At some point in the last ten years, everyone in Bordeaux decided to plant jasmine in front of their doorways. It must have started with a few houses, a couple of buildings, maybe a specific neighborhood. But now? Now it is everywhere, and I really do mean everywhere! All the streets — the little back streets and the main avenues; the tiny impasses with no outlet, the big boulevards. And the result is that May in Bordeaux is now infused with the fragrance of jasmine.
As we walk over to the first LVEN workshop at Café Eriu, Alaina, LVEN’s business development director, and I turn onto rue Malleret, right around the corner from my house. Instantly we are surrounded by the fragrance of jasmine; I smell clove and vanilla, and my brain instinctively translates this into eugenol and vanillin; these are the raw materials which give clove its distinctive warm and spicy fragrance, and vanilla its sweet and creamy aroma. A day earlier I’d walked up rue Lafaurie de Monbadon with my friend, AS, and as we passed one doorway after another, framed by immense bowers of jasmine, I said « I smell vanilla and clove! Do you smell that? » and she said « I smell jasmine! » I tend to deconstruct fragrances — like the smell of jasmine flooding Bordeaux right now — into their constituent raw materials. What AS smells is something akin to magic — nature is the world’s greatest perfumer, blending the raw materials with the perfect balance of everything!
The entire inspiration for LVEN workshops derives from this magic, the wonder and allure of all of these raw materials. In the workshop I ran the other day, I started by dipping a handful of mouillettes, the narrow paper strips found in perfume shops (and perfume laboratories) all over the world, into a small bottle of … I didn’t tell the group what they were smelling. That’s part of the magic! Instead, I encouraged them to come up with words to describe what they smelled. I said « You can use texture words, or color words. You can use taste words, or sound words. You can use any words that describe, for you, what you’re smelling. » They said « Yellow! Bright! Juicy! Fruity! Green! Rough! This smells like lavender! [it wasn’t, but this is noteworthy!]» Developing a lexicon that will yoke each material to a set of descriptors is the way to memorize different materials. This is the process that locks these smells in our minds. It was only after we’d come up with a series of words that I told them the name of the material we were smelling — bergamot essence, or yuzu essence, or petitgrain bigarade. What’s noteworthy about something that isn’t lavender smelling like lavender? The material that smelled like lavender but wasn’t, was bergamot. And bergamot and lavender both have a high amount of a material called linalyl acetate. It’s no accident that they share some olfactory facets!
As we made our way through the collection of materials, the group warmed up to this exercise and more and more words were noted. We picked up our earlier mouillettes and explored whether the odor was still discernible or whether the top note materials had already faded (they had!). We found surprising intersections between basil and clove (do you know what links these two materials?). We had a wonderful time!
Interested, or know someone interested, LVEN now has gift cards!
Give the gift of scent. A La Vie en Nose gift card opens the door to an immersive world of fragrance, guided by expert perfumer Rachel in the heart of Bordeaux. Choose the experience that speaks to you — all gift cards are valid for one year from the date of purchase, and redemption details are sent by email.
Select your experience:
€85 — Group Olfaction Workshop: Redeemable for either an Awakening to Olfaction workshop or any of our deep-dive specialty olfaction workshops held throughout the year. Simply choose from the available dates regularly updated on the website.
€170 — Two Group Olfaction Workshops: Double the discovery — two group sessions to deepen your olfactory journey. Simply choose from the available dates regularly updated on the website.
€200 — Private Olfactory Workshop: A private 1-to 2-person session with Rachel for a personalised, intimate olfactory workshop experience. Choose from available dates on the website or schedule directly with Rachel to find a time that suits you.
€400 — Bespoke Private Label Perfume: The ultimate gift — a fully tailor-made fragrance portrait, from consultation to finished bottle.