Re: TOTD 083008: alcohol

[Guest guest]

Andrine and All,

You are a riot!!! I laughed so hard when I read your post about

trying the grain alcohol!!! Too funny!!!! I'm making some Lemoncello

now, but it is only 90 proof!!!!! It's like a giant vat of lemon

ticture, with vanilla beans, one lime's zest to snap it up a notch, it

smells fantastic!!!!! I hope it does not burn a hole in my tongue,

LOL!!!!

It was a really good idea about dividing up the alcohol into

smaller containers and de-naturing each with a different fixative. I had

a question? I was reading in Aftel's book about the perfumers of years

ago fixing their blending alcohol with things like civet to give it a

fixative quality. Aparently they added the civet or other animalic

fixative to the alcohol, and let it sit for a month. At that time the

alcohol did not smell of the civet, or whatever, but the alchol had a

great effect on the tenacity of the fragrances made with it.

If you were going to add something like this to your blending

alcohol, how much of the fixative do you put into it? If you had a

gallon of alcohol how much would you use? You spoke of using HYRACEUM?

But I would not like it to smell like the elephant house, LOL!!!!! I

just wondered if you knew? I would not necessarily want the alcohol to

smell like the fixative if I let it sit for a month (unless of course it

was lavender or something nice smelling)??? Thanks so much!!!!

Rich

[Guest guest]

> I laughed so hard when I read your post about trying the grain

> alcohol!!! Too funny!!!! I'm making some Lemoncello

> now, but it is only 90 proof!!!!! It's like a giant vat of lemon

> ticture, with vanilla beans, one lime's zest to snap it up a notch,

> it smells fantastic!!!!! I hope it does not burn a hole in my

> tongue,LOL!!!!

>

> I was reading in Aftel's book about the perfumers of years

> ago fixing their blending alcohol with things like civet to give it

> a fixative quality.

> If you were going to add something like this to your blending

> alcohol, how much of the fixative do you put into it? If you had a

> gallon of alcohol how much would you use? You spoke of using

> HYRACEUM? But I would not like it to smell like the elephant house.

> I just wondered if you knew? I would not necessarily want the

> alcohol to smell like the fixative if I let it sit for a month

> (unless of course it was lavender or something nice smelling)???

Hi Rich,

Glad you got a chuckle. : ) And your Lemoncello sounds yummy! As for

pre-fixing your alcohol, it depends on what you're using to fix it.

There are sections of some perfume books that deal with what and how

much and how long to leave it sit. I think we've discussed it here

too, so it should be in the archives...

I'm a little too tired now to go diggin' around for it all... And I

was going a little overboard there with the hyraceum. I'd not use

enough so that the alcohol was reeking. But just knowing there was

hyraceum (petrified rodent doo) in a bottle of alcohol might be enough

to deter any curious folk from drinking it... : ) Or not... >%0

Cheers!

Andrine

[Guest guest]

On Sep 1, 2008, at 8:16 PM, chirichie2004 wrote:

> If you were going to add something like this to your blending

> alcohol, how much of the fixative do you put into it? If you had a

> gallon of alcohol how much would you use? You spoke of using HYRACEUM?

> But I would not like it to smell like the elephant house, LOL!!!!! I

> just wondered if you knew? I would not necessarily want the alcohol to

> smell like the fixative if I let it sit for a month (unless of

> course it

> was lavender or something nice smelling)??? Thanks so much!!!!

Of all the animal ingredients I only use ambergris. I use a drop per

15ml alcohol, sometimes two, but rarely. In my experience, every

perfume smells 20 times better (or at least closer to its true self)

after sitting for a month.