I had a talk with Tania yesterday, so a few things:
Bluntly, you won’t be able to create a fragrance from raw materials in the time that you have.
Instead, consider creating a set of small samples, using essential oils and perfumers alcohol (if you can find it) or jojoba oil.
As a note, Western (french style) perfume tends to be alcohol based. Arabic perfumes, or attars, are oil based.
I have this book by Many Aftel, which does have a few essential oil recipes:
We talked about the narrative or the story behind the fragrance. Paris house Serge Lutens exemplifies this practice, often in quite personal and quirky way.
This description is from his site, introducing La vierge de ver (Iron Maiden)
The religion of iron needed a Virgin, and the Virgin, a lily.
“Have you smelt it?”
“Yes, I have.”
“And how is it?”
“As striking as the fleur-de-lis seal on the arm of a criminal.”
“Never?!”
“And deep down, as itchy as a hair shirt on the skin. In fact, a sublime torture!”
That may be a little poetic, but it does set the scene. On that note (ha!) I personally have no problem with direction, in terms of describing what you might expect from a fragrance. After all, knowing that a film is a horror or a rom-com already puts you in a particular frame of mind; we do it all the time.
You can also do this visually. New York / Mexican niche house Arquiste does this nicely with photographic tableaux for each of their fragrances, such as this one for Flor y Canto:
You see the ingredients, but the high chiaroscuro of the image, the skull and the incense also start to tell a particular story.
Are your luxury consumers also expected to be tourists or travellers? I was thinking about a small series that might celebrate both the New Zealand landscape as well as the seasons. This would also let you cover some basic perfume genres. So, with a few notes and reference examples:
Spring, in Canterbury, with the daffodils - Floral Green: fresh, narcissus, hyacinth, aldehydes, violet leaf, bergamot...
Summer, Northland and the Hokianga - Floral Wood Musk: bergamot, rose, magnolia...
Autumn, Central Otago - Chypre Floral: apricot, heliotrope, musk…
Winter, Mt Hutt or Tongariro - Oriental: incense, myrrh, labdanum, sandalwood...
Any questions, let me know…
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