THE PERFUMER'S ART 125 errors have been committed. It is true that many persons do not have a correct sense of smell. Certain people are afflicted with a kind of odor-blindness or astigmatism and make errors in odor values. Others are sensitive only to certain odors others yet suffering from a sort of olfactory myopia have a very limited sense of smell. In our own pro- fession we are not immune to certain temporary deficiencies, caused by colds, fatigue, a temporary physical indisposition or even by the climate or the surroundings in which we hap- pen to be. But the knowledge that we have of our nose, the training of our sense of smell, the numerous daily checkups we make, and finally our custom of relying strictly on comparisons, enable us to have a certain assurance in our judgment. Unfortunately, it is very often that we meet people such as the ones I have just mentioned. They are the ones who generally claim that perfumes are not lasting, whereas the contrary may have been defi- nitely proved by test made by technicians having a trained sense of smell. The danger is that in order to comply with these requests for extreme lasting qualities we run the risk of sacrificing other qualities of the perfume. This is a serious error and it is our duty as tech- nicians to avoid it. Nevertheless, it remains true that a good perfume must be lasting and in order to obtain that result it is generally advised to use fixatives. Fixatives have received the at- tention of the most authoritative technicians and I don't want to discuss this point in detail, their respective value nor, the way they retain the perfume either by their porosity or in lowering the boiling point of the blend. There are various opinions about fixatives but I feel that we must not depend entirely on them to increase, to a great exten.t, the value of a per- fume if the latter has been poorly constructed. In many cases if an odor remains perceptible longer it Js that of the fixative and not the characteristic odor of the perfume. However, the most efficient fixa- tives are the natural tinctures of Musk, Ambergris, Civet, etc. These products, aside from their fixative action, act as the binder of the various elements of the perfume and give it life. These tinctures are always used after being ma- tured. Certain technicians use artificial and rapid aging, whereas others prefer natural aging for several years because they hesitate to stop using a process which has consistently proved satisfactory to them. In passing, let us note that aging is also used for some oils like patch- ouli, vetiver, Bulgarian rose, whereas other oils must be t•sed in their highest state of freshness. Tenacity is also dependent on the chemical stability of the perfume. As you know, the raw materials used must be free from chlorine for instance, since this may alter the perfume. But it is also necessary to avoid other impurities which,

126 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS although hardly perceptible, when we smell the pure raw material, will act on the final compound and form secondary accords which will create in the perfume an unpleasant condition of confusion. I will not insist on the necessity of selecting raw materials in keeping with the medium in which the perfume is to be utilized. All of. you know how different the products must be when they are to be mixed with an oil, powder, or soap. CREATION OF A PERFUME Once we have selected an accord or a combination of accords, pleas- ant and original, on which we de- cide to create our perfume, our first preoccupation will be to perfect carefully a good base taken from these accords. Next we wil! have a lifting open- ing note to precede this base and we will prolong the effect of the base by means of a lasting background note. In other words, we may say, that we will have to develop three perfumes since the beginning and the back- ground must harmonize with the principal no{e, the opening being made of volatile products, and the background, of very tenacious prod- ucts. To illustrate what I have just said I have selected a concrete and simple examplema violet: I will add that although it. ap- pears to be simple, this perfume is on_e of the most difficult to make satisfactorily. In the first place this subject has so often been treated already that it may seem difficult to arrive at something original. Sec- ondly, the odor of the violet flower is so delicate and so light that it is just as difficult to make a strong perfume of violet as it would be in the realm of colors to make a loud tone of pastel. We will avoid this difficulty by building our perfume around the prindipal note of violet, for what attracts us in a perfume of a copsage of violets is not only the imper- ceptible odor of the flower, but also that of the leaves, of the forest, and of the soil that the flower carries. There is another obstacle: This perfume is so vegetal that it will be difficult to find an animal transition which will harmonize with the hu- man body wearing it. This transition is nevertheless indispensable because we must never forget that per- fumes must be worn by women and not smelled on testing blotters alone. We will begin our formula by setting up its principal accord, based on an excellent Ionone Alpha mixed with Methyl 17Ieptine Car- bonate. Once the proportions of this compound have been well de- fined we will be able to perfect it by eventually adding Ionone Beta or Methyl Ionone Gamma, Delta, or Omega. Finally agood Rhodinol judiciously proportioned, will sup- ply the necessary contrast to rein- force the basic note and make it stand our. We will increase the richness of this base by adding Absolutes or Lavages de Pomades of natural Violet, Violet leaves, Cassie, to which we will give a flowery note by