I would be interested to know how you got into DIY perfumery, or how you became a professional perfumer? Was it more of a spontaneous decision or was it already apparent in your early years that you were interested in this field?
I have always been interested in scents and smells. I was such a child that I had to smell all the flowers. And even now I can’t walk past a flower without smelling it.
I have always enjoyed watching documentaries on perfumery on television. In school I found it quite interesting when we made fruit esters in chemistry class. I think the one we made smelled like pear. After school I first studied chemistry and was most interested in organic chemistry, because almost everything there smells like something (not always good). During my studies I was often in the library. There I found an article in the magazine “Chemie in unserer Zeit” (Chemistry in our time), which I found totally exciting. It was about the scents of flowers and how such substances are used for perfumery. This article is still available here (in german language): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/1521-3781(200101)35:1<8::AID-CIUZ8>3.0.CO;2-F
Unfortunately, in the digital version the feature of smelling samples does not work. I don’t know what this technique is called, but in the article there are some little perfume bottles on the pages. In the print edition, you could rub it and then smell a perfume that was described in the article.
I then bought books on natural product chemistry and terpenes because I wanted to know how these substances are formed in plants. I then changed from chemistry to biology in my studies, also because I wanted to know more about plants and their synthesis pathways. I don’t know when it was, but during my studies I saw a totally exciting documentary on the subject of perfume on television, which is still available here on youtube (in german language): I remember that I tried to read what was written on each bottle. Because I really wanted to know how all these “secret” substances are called with which one makes perfumes. To be honest, I still can’t believe that I now not only know what these perfume substances are called, but that I now have many of them at home to experiment with.
For the final oral exam in the biology course in human physiology, everyone was allowed to choose a sense (sensory physiology) at the beginning that they would like to be asked about. I chose the sense of smell. My professor was very surprised and said that no one had chosen that before, almost everyone else had chosen the sense of sight or hearing. After my studies I wanted to do a doctorate with Prof. Hanns Hatt, who is the most famous olfactory researcher in Germany (I would say). Unfortunately, there was no position available at that time and I applied somewhere else.
My first own perfume substance was then sandalore. That was during the lockdown in 2020. And also just by accident. I had actually only bought it because my brother asked me if I knew of something non-toxic for hair loss. And research then led me to sandalore. I then found that there were even more perfume substances in this store and ordered even more to make my own perfume with it. On the one hand, because I always wanted to do this and did not know that it is easy to buy everything you need on the Internet and on the other hand, because I was a bit bored in lockdown. Fortunately, I then discovered this forum, which has helped me decisively to get on with this new hobby (and helped me to find out, that I nearly did everything wrong before). So, big thanks to all of you.
I have always been interested in scents and smells. I was such a child that I had to smell all the flowers. And even now I can’t walk past a flower without smelling it.
I have always enjoyed watching documentaries on perfumery on television. In school I found it quite interesting when we made fruit esters in chemistry class. I think the one we made smelled like pear. After school I first studied chemistry and was most interested in organic chemistry, because almost everything there smells like something (not always good). During my studies I was often in the library. There I found an article in the magazine “Chemie in unserer Zeit” (Chemistry in our time), which I found totally exciting. It was about the scents of flowers and how such substances are used for perfumery. This article is still available here (in german language): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/1521-3781(200101)35:1<8::AID-CIUZ8>3.0.CO;2-F
Unfortunately, in the digital version the feature of smelling samples does not work. I don’t know what this technique is called, but in the article there are some little perfume bottles on the pages. In the print edition, you could rub it and then smell a perfume that was described in the article.
I then bought books on natural product chemistry and terpenes because I wanted to know how these substances are formed in plants. I then changed from chemistry to biology in my studies, also because I wanted to know more about plants and their synthesis pathways. I don’t know when it was, but during my studies I saw a totally exciting documentary on the subject of perfume on television, which is still available here on youtube (in german language): I remember that I tried to read what was written on each bottle. Because I really wanted to know how all these “secret” substances are called with which one makes perfumes. To be honest, I still can’t believe that I now not only know what these perfume substances are called, but that I now have many of them at home to experiment with.
For the final oral exam in the biology course in human physiology, everyone was allowed to choose a sense (sensory physiology) at the beginning that they would like to be asked about. I chose the sense of smell. My professor was very surprised and said that no one had chosen that before, almost everyone else had chosen the sense of sight or hearing. After my studies I wanted to do a doctorate with Prof. Hanns Hatt, who is the most famous olfactory researcher in Germany (I would say). Unfortunately, there was no position available at that time and I applied somewhere else.
My first own perfume substance was then sandalore. That was during the lockdown in 2020. And also just by accident. I had actually only bought it because my brother asked me if I knew of something non-toxic for hair loss. And research then led me to sandalore. I then found that there were even more perfume substances in this store and ordered even more to make my own perfume with it. On the one hand, because I always wanted to do this and did not know that it is easy to buy everything you need on the Internet and on the other hand, because I was a bit bored in lockdown. Fortunately, I then discovered this forum, which has helped me decisively to get on with this new hobby (and helped me to find out, that I nearly did everything wrong before). So, big thanks to all of you.
