Terry Sterling's lovely Lilac Accord

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Dear Members:

It's springtime, and for those of you living in temperate regions, you are

enjoying the lovely scent of lilacs blooming. Lilacs flowers resist

distillation, enfleurage, well, most extraction methods, therefore we have

no raw material to work with in creating a lilac scent. I will follow this

post with a generously-shared technique from aromatherapy and natural

perfumery maven Jeanne Rose for tincturing lilacs, but this post is for

those, like myself, who do not have access to lilac blossoms.

In 2004, shortly after joining the group, Terry Sterling, a talented

perfumer of Dragonfly Aromatics, shared his formula for a Lilac Flower

Accord. A famous perfume critic was fooled by this accord, and accused

Terry of using a synthetic lilac fragrance oil. No so, and it's sad to see

that this critic is still making this allegation (and others, based on his

refusal to listen when we speak to him of lilac, and violet flower

accords.) Too bad, because creativity will win out in the end, and the

critic will be shamed for repeating his libel. It's a new age of perfumery,

and we need more of us to experiment and go out there and prove the

dinosaurs wrong ;-)

I encourage all of you to play with this formula. The scent is fleeting, so

a competition might be held to see who can come up with the perfect

fixative that marries well with the scent. Thank you, Terry, and all other

talented perfumers who share so graciously, so that we may all move

further, faster, along the path of our modern revival of natural perfumery.

Here is Terry's post:

Lots of wonderful dialog and info in the message archive- what a

wonderful resource! I would like to get my feet wet by offering

this formulation (does anyone like lilac?): I blended this accord

this last spring after a pleasant encounter with some lilac

blossoms. I'm not aware of any lilac absolute in present production

so this accord may prove useful. The only drawback is the

ingredients are pricey.

1-Violet Leaf abs (10% dil.)

1-Blue Lotus abs

1-Ylang Extra

3-Jasmine Grand. abs

3-Linden Bossom abs

1-Tuberose abs

This is a vibrant floral accord and makes a wonderful perfume or it

can be used in a more complex composition. One might add more

violet leaf or other greens to approximate the stemmy/leafy quality

of the true fragrance.

I'm pleased to finally be corresponding with other perfumers. Peace

everyone.

Terry

Anya

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