New member introduction

[Guest guest]

Greetings everyone,

Wow - what a great, and very active, list! My thanks to the moderators

for allowing me to join. Before I begin asking questions, I wanted to

introduce myself. My name is Carl Neal and I'm an incense maker.

I've been interested in perfumery for a long time, since it has an

obvious connection to incense. I've read some about it (I read the

Pybus book on the chemistry of fragrance, which is mostly about

perfumery, and loved it) but I am really pretty ignorant on the topic.

Let's see...I've been an incense maker since 1995. I've done it both

for fun and professionally. I still do some retail, but primarily at

events (no web site or store any longer). I'm a Pagan, so I mostly

sell and lecture to the Pagan crowd. I think that's about all of

interest about me.

I'm gradually plowing through the archives, but haven't run into an

answer to this yet, so I will ask now. If the info is in the archives

(and I bet it is), hopefully someone can point me to the right general

area.

The thing that most interests me about perfumery, so far, is the

language. In the incense world, there is a lot of difficulty

describing scent. The perfume world seems to have a much better knack

for it. Can anyone recommend a good place to start learning your

system for describing scent?

Beyond that, I am interested in the whole language used in perfumery.

I have a basic (I think) understanding of terms like " top note " , but

I'd like a really good grounding in your terms. Can anyone recommend a

good resource for the " language of perfume " ?

I will have many more questions as I read more of the archives, but

that's my prime interest right now. It seems like perfumery is less

shrouded in secrecy than the incense world (which is something I've

been working to change for a long time), but I think we need a few

hundred years to catch up!

Thanks everyone - I can't wait to start learning about this art!!

-Carl