my hands smell very strange at the moment.
i've been working since noon on preparing a few absolutes. these often arrive rock hard and need to be melted down and mixed with solvent before i can use them. so i've been very carefully boiling cistus, vanilla and honey for a few hours now - the honey is particularly tricky. together these absolutes make a very nice smell - very warm and rich and the air in the studio is full of them. and of course i inevitably wind up with traces of resin on my fingers. no matter how neat i try to be, it seems impossible not to get at least a tiny bit of whatever i'm dissolving on my hands somehow.
and a few moments ago as i was waiting for the absolutes to finish the final stage in their preparation, i checked the vial of the ocean archetype that i've been working on for the past few days and is now sitting on my desk downstairs in the workroom. i was pleased to find that it's almost done - i'm going to raise the smell of the sea just a bit this afternoon, let the perfume rest until tomorrow and check it again. but i think it's just about what it should be. if all goes well tomorrow, i can compound the perfume and it should be ready the week after next.
i've decided to name the ocean archetype after one of my favorite films written by jean cocteau - the eternal return. strangely one of the earlier versions of this perfume began with the scent of pine trees growing on the shore which gradually faded away revealing the fresh scent of the sea - the perfume was a departure.
but now this final version is just the reverse - it starts with the smell of salt air and hours later, ends with the smell of the trees - it's an arrival. there's something captivating to me about the idea of leaving (possibly because i am at the moment totally over new york) but i've decided to let "eternal return" stand as it is now. it really does capture the idea of sailing home across the ocean. and it fits with the nietzchian (and is that spelled correctly i wonder?) idea of the eternal return - we come back to where we began, the same stories unfold again and again, things are different and yet essentially the same...
for me this is what the ocean is all about.
i noticed though a few minutes ago that i managed to get a bit of "eternal return" on my fingers as well. how that happened i can't think as i don't generally slop vials around when i open and close them. still, beside the dark smoky scents of the cistus and vanilla absolutes was the clear smell of salt water.
individually these are all beautiful smells but frankly put together it's not a combination i'd recommend...