Natural Perfumers Guild Associate Dr. Avery Gilbert Interviewed in Sniffapalooza Magazine

Guild member Dr. Avery Gilbert is interviewed in the Octoer 18 issue of Sniffapalooza magazine. The issue includes excerpts from his book What the Nose Knows and a review of the book. Dr. Gilbert's website contains information on his curriculum vita, his speaking engagements and more. He recently launched a blog, First Nerve.

Natural Perfumers Guild member Mandy Aftel Announces Advanced Natural Perfume Workbooks

Our Advanced Natural Perfume Workbook is a comprehensive self-guided tutorial in natural perfume creation for advanced students.

The 400 page Advanced Workbook is divided into two volumes which are purchased as a set. The purpose of doing the exercises in this workbook is to familiarize yourself with the different blending capacities of essences that are similar to one another. You will work with the Aftelier Natural Perfume Wheel (included), studying families of scents and learning to distinguish between the essences within each family. The exercises in the Advanced Workbook guide you to determine the odor profile, evolution, and intensity of each of the 114 essences on the Aftelier Natural Perfume Wheel.

Then you compare the essences within each family, preparing yourself to understand the complicated processes of "locking" and "burying" in perfume formulas.

Completing the exercises in this workbook will help you develop your capacity to make more aesthetically pleasing choices when creating a formula, and to know why you are choosing one essence instead of another. This knowledge is the beginning of a long process of understanding how individual essences interact in a formula, preparing you to both predict and correct these interactions.

Understanding the commonalities and differences between similar essences will let you work with their unique qualities in a conscious way. To be a skilled perfumer, you need to make informed choices. The more knowledge and control you have over your materials, the better your fragrances will be. For example, if you want to add something spicy to a fragrance formula, you need to ask yourself which spice in particular makes sense in combination with everything else in your blend

Please note: You do not need to have every one of the essences mentioned in this workbook to successfully complete it. It is extremely difficult - if not impossible - to find a few of them. However, with diligence you should be able to find most of them.

To order the set of two workbooks click here.
The price is $375 for the set which also included the Aftelier Natural Perfume Wheel

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 Can Hurt Your Small Business

Vote Down H.R. 3997, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

If you own a small business - and I know this blog is read by a lot of small business owners in the cosmetics and beauty industries - please be aware that the "bailout" bill being proposed by our government can harm your businesses.

Donna Maria Coles Johnson of the Indie Beauty Network has blogged about this situation here and I encourage you to go to her site, read the article, and send the letter to your senators and congressional representatives. I have had trouble reaching my representative via email because the site keeps crashing due to high volume, so I called his local and his D.C. office to register my vote against the bill.

Act now - this is a very time-sensitive and business-sensitive matter!