A perfume in search of a theme

    In the process of trying to create one new perfume I came out with formulas for two new perfumes -- but neither was right for the fragrance I was trying to create.

    The first "extra" formula is about to become my "Confusion II" as the scent fits the theme perfectly. The project involves a multimedia presentation of music, sculpture, and fragrance and the elements are coming together. But "Confusion II" is a spin off of my work on a formula for a perfume which for now I'll call, "Tokyo."

    Actually the final version of "Confusion II," now in the process of being scaled up from a few drops to about 500 ml, emerged from about 15 trials, all in a search for "Tokyo." One jumped out for "confusion II." But there was another success, a really nice fragrance that was neither right for "Tokyo" nor for "Confusion II." So what do I do with that?

    The answer is simple. I hold it. I'll make up a small batch, I'll make sure I hive the formula down both in my bound notebooks and, digitally, in The Perfumer's Workbook, but I won't offer it to the public. Not now. And the reason is simple. I don't have a story to go with it.

    Before I launch a new fragrance I want to have a story to go with it, one that can be illustrated visually or musically and that will target a particular audience. This new, beautiful, unnamed fragrance doesn't have that ... yet.

    So I wait. From time to time I'll give it a sniff. I'll give a bottle to my wife and perhaps a few friends. I'll see how my thinking about it evolves over the coming months -- or perhaps years -- and perhaps, one day, inspiration will hit me and suddenly this fragrance will match up with an urgent theme -- which will produce a story which I can tell, to sell, this perfume.

    But until that happens I'll just store it away in my library of formulas that could, some day, become marketable perfumes.