Prunes and massoya: home-made spirits have replaced craft beer in Russia

Better soullessly, but qualitatively

There are many ways to create perfume – it seems that you can even watch a video tutorial and mix your perfect perfume at home, everything is so simple … it seems that it is simple. It seems that everyone knows that perfumes are created from fragrant substances – so, maybe it can be created at home too? Okay, let’s say, rubbing ourselves with grapefruit peels is too much, but there are already ready-made essential oils. They are sold in any perfume shop, they are inexpensive, only 50-100 rubles. For every taste: eucalyptus, juniper, lemon, orange, lavender.

How to make a perfume out of them? In all cases, you first need to familiarize yourself with popular notes: top, middle and base. Jojoba, sweet almond and grape seed oils are usually used as a base, they do not have a strong smell, so they are well suited for the base, where various flavors (essential oils) can be added later. Today, at the peak of popularity, seemingly simple perfumes with a laconic pyramid – for example, lemon, grass, mint. It seems nothing complicated. Perfumers recommend a ratio of 30% top notes, 50% middle notes and 20% base notes. After that, the resulting oil mixture is diluted with alcohol or high-quality vodka. That’s just the result you, most likely, will not please. Most likely, something unknown will come out of this amateur performance – and it is not surprising: an inexperienced person is unlikely to immediately achieve the desired result, but they learn from their mistakes.

Why didn’t it work? As Matvey Yudov, a chemist and specialist in the field of fragrant substances, explained in an interview with an MK correspondent, the process seems simple only technically.

— Perfumery is a discipline that relies heavily on school and experience. That’s why all artisanal perfumery is similar to each other? Because, not knowing the basics, they all step on the same rake and get the same results. Perfumery is at the intersection of creativity and technology. Perfumes are often compared to music. But a musician can take a guitar and learn how to play it from video lessons. This will not work with perfumery, it is something like a ballet, you have to be a creator, an artist, but at the same time plow every day. If you have not gained these hours of experience, nothing good will come of it. Of course, every person who has bought individual ingredients and mixes something can call himself a perfumer, but this is equivalent to the fact that a person has acquired a scalpel and calls himself a surgeon. Of course, it’s great when it’s done with a soul, but sometimes you want it to be done soullessly, but with high quality. As one good friend of mine said: “Now many people call themselves perfumers, but there are fewer real perfumers than astronauts.”

Perfume discontinued? It doesn’t matter – a copy will be made for 1500 rubles!

The situation may seem like a stalemate: your favorite perfume has risen wildly in price, disappeared from Russia or is completely discontinued, handicraft experiments at home will not end in anything good … what to do? There is an answer – to turn to those who have turned the creation of replicas into their craft. So, for example, one of the users of the social network posted on her page a note that any perfume can recreate. From the person who addresses her, only a photograph of the bottle and the full name of the perfume are needed.

She explains the essence of the process in detail: they say, her task is to make a request to other countries in order to find the necessary components, then she waits for delivery, after which she creates the fragrance and lets it brew for about one month in a dark place. The cost is fixed, does not depend on the components of the product. Some perfumers for 10 milliliters can take only one and a half thousand rubles. The benefit sometimes reaches 80% (compared to the current market price, and even more so with the resellers’ prices).

However, as Matvey Yudov notes, it is unlikely that it will be possible to make a reliable copy “from a photograph” – a sample is needed.

– Theoretically, now instrumental analysis has reached such a level that approximately 99% can recreate the formula, if half a milliliter of your favorite perfume is left, then this is not a problem. For example, if I want to restore or copy some formula, I can always do it accurately enough. There is no need for creativity, super-smelling – starting from the 90s, this is only a matter of technique. For the price, it may be more profitable than buying the original.

Perfume that makes you stand out from the crowd

Recently, handmade perfumes are really gaining popularity. A perfumer can create a fragrance specifically for you according to personal requests, which makes a person stand out from the crowd. You can try and do this craft yourself, but it’s not a fact that everything will work out simply and quickly. It is possible that longing for well-known brands will pass by itself. The development of perfumery in Russia is gaining momentum.

“Craft perfumery is something that is produced not by a huge enterprise, but semi-handicraft, artisanal,” says Matvey Yudov. – That is, a person can create either at home, literally in the kitchen, or in his small workshop, with his own hands, without involving any “big guys” in this. All good well-known brands do it differently. There, everyone does their own thing: some develop a concept, others give exact requests to perfumers – in a word, many people are involved in the process. With artisanal perfumery, you are your own director – you do what you want, everything by yourself.

People who have ever ordered craft perfumes recommend it on their social media pages. Bad reviews are really hard to find. They look forward to the arrival of new perfumers who will offer them even more choices.

“In addition, I would like to note the brightness of the fragrances, since I often take perfumes in different workshops and in different formats, there is something to compare with,” notes Evgenia from Tyumen.

People recommend that those who are just starting to get acquainted with craft, first order samples. An important clarification: probes also cost money! Moreover, they offer to order a tasting tube of 2 ml for 1480 rubles.

This is one of the pitfalls: when we come to the store for “ordinary” perfumes, any fragrance can be tried on ourselves using a tester. Craft perfumers don’t allow such luxury – only online sales, only a pig in a poke! Let’s take a look at the site of one of these masters: a huge number of perfumes with a short description, for example: “Notes: lemon, blackcurrant, pink pepper, hazelnut.” Well, I know the smell of lemon, I can remember the smell of blackcurrant from my grandmother’s garden … but pink pepper is more difficult to figure out! Is it the same as black pepper in the kitchen? Or not?

We read further: prunes and some kind of massoya are promised. Who is this (or what is this?). Okay, let’s ask the Internet: it turns out that the evergreen massoya tree grows in the rainforests of New Guinea, and its bark is valued for its unusually delicate and sweet aroma, in which nuances of coconut milk, almonds and exotic fruits are heard. That’s it! And how would an unprepared buyer know about this? And how to imagine the combination of these notes. How will it feel on the body? What if I order this and smell like garbage?

The only way to figure this out is through trial and error (and expense!). Even reviews won’t help much: what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work well for you.

There are other ideas – for example, on one of the sites they offer to take a test to determine which fragrance suits you. The first question is, “What’s your favorite drink at dinner?” I wonder how it is to determine the fragrance that suits me? As a test to determine the psychotype, honestly. Well, let’s say I love wine, but there is no such option, so my ideal perfume cannot be found? Okay, let’s take water with lemon – win-win. The next question is: “Your perfect morning,” this is easier, I choose the option “Road to the airport” and move on to the next one. What do my friends think of me? I don’t know, you have to ask them! I quickly answer the other four questions, I can’t wait to find out which perfume the test on the Internet will recommend to me.

The Internet said that my ideal perfume with notes of bergamot, grapefruit, mandarin, lime, magnolia, mint, vetiver. I didn’t make much, but there are some questions about the latter – I have no idea what vetiver is, what it is eaten with. But the smell of grapefruit repels me terribly, so this test does not recognize me so well. However, for someone he really guessed – or it seems to people that he guessed right.

“Thank you! Found my perfect perfume. I recommend that everyone first order a sampler, because what fits me well does not mean that it fits you well, ”Maria from Moscow left a review.

Craft perfume can be not only in liquid form, but also in solid form. This perfume is a compact jar of fragrant wax. Recently, they can be seen in the price list of many craft perfumers. A distinctive feature of such spirits can be called phenomenal persistence and richness.

“I think dry perfume is perfect for me. Firstly, they do not give a train, which I really do not like. Secondly, I am allergic to liquid perfumes, ”said Margarita from Orenburg.

The dream of many women is their own unique perfume, which no one else will have. According to Matvey Yudov, it’s quite possible to create such ones, but the task will be a little more complicated than just “I want a floral perfume with notes of exactly the same rose as my grandmother’s in the country” or even “Let it smell exactly the same as on my first date in May 2006 in Kolomenskoye.

— If you ask two hundred perfumers to make a perfume with the smell of a rose, they will make you two hundred different fragrances, because here, just like in music, everyone has their own style and handwriting. Of course, the author communicates with a person, gets to know him better: what he breathes, how he lives, they discuss what they like and what they don’t. According to his preferences, a new fragrance is created. This is all real, but the personality of the creator is also important. After all, perfumers work like that, collect some preferences and create a fragrance, and it doesn’t matter whether the result will be used by one person or the perfume will be released in a large circulation. There are very serious perfumers who deal with individual orders.

— Are there certain fragrances that are more in demand on the Russian market?

— Of course, each market has its own set, our preferences are very different from European, American and Asian ones. Everyone has their own sympathies and associations from childhood. In our country, for example, lavender does not work very well, because it is associated with moth remedies. In France, they will laugh at this, because they have this plant around there. Americans don’t really perceive lemon, because for them it immediately smells like a “toilet duck”. We often take fresh flavors: lemon, herbs. You also need to take into account the climate: the fragrance that was created for the hot Mediterranean summer may sound bad in the Russian off-season. Humidity, air temperature, wind – everything affects!

Perfume Dictionary “MK”

Perfume composition – a mixture of various aromatic ingredients, such as essential oils, synthetic aromatic substances, which are combined in certain proportions to create a unique fragrance.

Pyramid is a structure used to describe and classify a fragrance. It consists of three main notes: top, middle and base.

top note – This is the first aromatic impression after applying perfume. Usually felt within the first few minutes. Top notes often consist of light fruity or citrus notes.

middle note is the “heart” of the fragrance, it develops within minutes to several hours after applying the perfume. Usually it is the aroma of spices or flowers, they give the aroma a deeper and richer character.

base notes – this long-lasting aromatic impression, which appears after the evaporation of the top and middle notes, is the most persistent note. Base notes usually consist of woody, musky, vanilla or balsamic accords.

Artisanal perfumery is a hand-crafted production of perfumes, made by small independent brands or by one person.