The Swamp

Searching for Ormonde Jayne

21 Oct 2010 2 Comments

by essielou in Hobbies/Interests Tags: anomsia, essential oils, fragrance, fragrance oils, Ormonde Jayne, perfume, soap

Let me preface this with I have a moderate genetic Anosmia meaning my sense of smell is limited. Not totally lacking, I’ve discovered, just like a black and white movie. Scents do record as being present but not all of them and often not in detail.

Some do register is ‘good’ and I can place them either with a food (vanilla, citrus, green) or ‘flower’ smell. Others register, but not as good or bad. It’s like looking at a black and white picture, except with scents. So while others can smell a fragrance and pick out various notes, I can pick out one basic theme of citrus, or sweet, floral or sometimes ‘dark, odd, off’. BTW, my sense of taste is almost hypersensitive, so my eating has never been affected.

I’ve also learned that my sense of smell improves in the bathroom, hence my fascination with soap. Maybe it’s the combination of warm moist air, an enclosed environment, cleared sinuses and being encompassed in a fragrance. Even moreso was that often there was a name to go with that fragrance and I could cognizantly train myself that “this is what ____ smells like.”

I’ve been doing this for years, discovering much to my joy that fragrances like “Angel” or L’Occitane’s “Citrus Verbenna” I could pick up on without reading the label. I can smell the vanilla in “Shalimar” and the roses in “Fantasia de Fleurs”.

It has taken effort though but it’s been worth it.

And probably my biggest reason for entering into soap making: So I could have soap, bubble bath, even shampoo that smelled like my favorite scents and expensive perfumes in the volume and combinations I wanted. However, without paying the ridiculous prices that everything I liked seemed to cost. Plus being able to put into them the things I could smell.

So I began researching fragrances, first finding sites like Basenotes and Fragrantica to expand my understanding. This was more fun than a trip to Disney; the process of learning all the components of a fragrance and perfume making. Why some are considered world class and others as trash. What combinations work and what are horrendous.

This is the process that taught me there are two ways to scent a product: Essential oils or absolutes- which are extracted or derived from the source itself. Or fragrance oils which are created/synthetic versions of the fragrance.

The pros and cons I worked out over time. Obviously, essential oils are more expensive. However, for some, there is no viable substitution. They’re best suited for perfumes and toilettes and so forth, where there is direct skin contact and pure fragrance is important. Most of the time, essential oils need to be diluted by a % with a carrier oil to be used directly on the skin. Some swear by them for aromatherapy.

Fragrance oils (in my opinion) are well suited for items where there is secondary transfer as in soap, lotion or shampoo or they’re used in a non-body manner (berger or oil lamps, linen sprays etc). They are much less expensive and can handle the chemical reactions that can occur in mixing.

Lye is notorious for morphing fragrances and colors in cold process soaping. The thought of dropping $50 a gram Attar of Roses in lye with a ph of 13 makes my palms sweat. Not so much ethanol or perfumer’s alcohol. Maybe it’s because I know I can drink the alcohol and survive. Not so much the lye.

Same for my poor Rose Absolute.

Even many of the ‘created for soap and candle making’ fragrance oils do change and morph during saponification, some changes mild, some drastic enough to render the finished soap nothing like the original intent.

Better to face that tragedy having only spent $5 in fragrance oil than $50 in essentials.

I’ve also learned that in the land of fragrance, there is a lot of smoke and mirrors. A lot of hype.

That a lot of it is mystique and showmanship. As with Ormonde Jayne’s “Woman”, the scent that put her and her shop in Mayfair (UK) on the map. That story of the perfume alone hooked me.

Reviewers described the fragrance as being like a walk in the woods with the smells of the trees, grass and flowers enveloping you. As a woman who lives in the woods, who loves taking walks through the trees, a chord was struck. The components are not amazing or unusual. Cardamom, coriander, grass, violet, jasmine, vetiver, cedar wood, amber and sandalwood. Oh! And one surprise element: Black hemlock. Not the little scrubby plant used as poison, but instead, as I discovered, it is a tree, a mountain hemlock or Tsuga Mertensiana.

Now talk about your showmanship. Linda Pilkington (the nose of the company) admitted she was looking for unique scents and the name intrigued her. The end product has become legend of sorts in perfumery.

Out of curiosity, I tried to find the components and all were easy finds. EXCEPT for the Tsuga Mertensiana. I found a black spruce that left my end product reminding people, oh so cheerfully, of laundry detergent.

So far, the closest I’ve come is in a spruce of sorts, a Tsuga canadansis essential oil that has gotten good reviews from friends as smelling ‘almost there’ to the Ormonde Jayne perfume.

Not that I want to duplicate her perfume. I just want to make a soap that smells like that bottle of wonderful stuff I finally got my hands on!

I’m working on building and filling out my essential and fragrance oil collection. I’m still trying to hone my Ormonde soap recipe, hoping to get something that smells as good as the perfume. Other things I’ve found in the fragrance oil and used in soap with good results: Tom Ford’s Black Orchid, Paloma Picasso, Lolita Lempicka, Angel, Jickey, Bulgari Black to name a few.

With vendors, there are advantages and hard to find items with each. So far,
Majestic Mountain Sage, Sweet Cakes , Save On Scents, Snowdrift Farm , Day Star , Coastal Scents ,
Camden Grey ,
Brambleberry and of course, EBay have been wonderful sources for fragrance as well as other soaping supplies.

I’ll keep you guys posted if I come across any others.