Pæretre i juli
A pear tree in July
Erika's perfume started with a chat with Joy, the AI chatbot on this site, to describe what she wanted – something light, floral, for a woman, with a hint of cucumber and jasmine. Joy suggested adding orange blossom, or perhaps lily of the valley, and green tea for a leafy freshness. They settled on a refreshing, slightly green composition.
This presented a problem to me. Cucumber and green tea don't exist as natural extracts I had at hand, and lily of the valley doesn't exist as a natural extract at all – its scent in commercial perfumery is always reconstructed from other materials.
At the time of that draft, Joy was good at painting an evocative picture, less good at staying inside the boundaries of what's actually possible in natural perfumery.
But when I tried the different variants of Jasmine that I had, I discovered that Jasmine sambac already smelled quite a bit like cucumber, and together with Neroli in jojoba oil, I got pretty close to the impression of cucumber. A very simple composition, but good enough given the brief.
And Erika actually liked it. Some time later she came back and said she'd like some pear in it. I tried that and was surprised: I really liked that. She liked it too.
Later I also made her a whipped mango butter using the same scent.
Now I am considering an alcohol-based spray perfume where the Oolong tincture could come in as a quiet supporting note.