TOTD 090908: formulating blends

[Guest guest]

From Andrine:

* How do you formulate your blends?

* Do you start mixing different ingredients to see what they do?

* Do you have a vision that just comes to you and that you act on?

(Sounds like that's how you work a lot, Adam)

* Do you work it out on paper or some other way before you begin to

blend?

* Or is there some other way that you work?

_____

Andrine's answer:

Generally, I get an idea for a blend, and then I work it out on paper

before I ever take the top off from an ingredient. Now and then, I

might smell this or that to see if it's really what I'm looking for in

the blend, but in general it's all on paper first. I work out the

ratios of each ingredient according to its odor index and how

prominent I feel it should be. Then I'll put a drop of each

ingredient on scent strips and see how I like the separate scents

together. If something seems too prominent, I move it farther down

the pile of scent strips so it's not as close to my nose. Of course,

then the stuff does its own magic when it all gets together in the

same bathtub (er, bottle). But I usually end up with something that

smells close to what I'm looking for.

I did have clary sage loom up and take control over my most recent

blend, even though I thought I'd planned around that factor. It turns

out I didn't get it quite low enough. The result I got was really

nice, but it wasn't the specific desired effect I'd been working for.

I re-did the recipe and it all came out smelling as I'd planned it to.