The Perfume Making Podcast

<p>It’s easy to believe that the secret to creating great fragrances lies in having more materials - more naturals, more synthetics, more obscure aroma chemicals. But as Karen explains in this episode, the opposite is...

<p>“You’ve made soup!” is a phrase French perfume teachers often say to their students. In the world of fragrance, soup refers to a perfume that smells muddy, flat, or undefined. But what causes a scent to turn into...

<p>Karen recently went to the cinema, something she doesn’t do very often. However, on this one-off trip to see the new Bruce Springsteen film, something resonated with her. We often chase perfection, either from our...

<p>Following on from last week's show on the history of Musk, Karen is here to tell you all about the synthetic musks. First developed by accident in the 1930s, synthetic musks have evolved through many different...

<p>This week, Karen is introducing the first in a two-part series on musk. Musk started life as one of the most prestigious materials in the world of perfumery and was often associated with nobility and power. However...

<p>After last week’s episode on Chanel No. 5 and its revolutionary use of aldehydes, Karen is going to delve deeper into this fragrance family and its role in the world of perfume. Whilst most people associate aldehydes...

<p>Over the years, Karen has received countless questions about one fragrance family in particular: aldehydes. They often leave people puzzled about what they are and how they’re used in perfumery. In this episode...

<p>Last week, in one of Karen’s classes, a student was surprised to learn that some information she had received from ChatGPT was inaccurate. With AI becoming increasingly common in perfume making - from formulations to...

<p>Karen often hears from people who work exclusively with natural materials in their fragrances but are beginning to notice the limitations, whether it’s their blends smelling too much like aromatherapy products or...

<p>This week, Karen is tackling a question she's asked all the time, especially by those transitioning from aromatherapy to natural perfumery: “What’s the deal with concentration levels for leave-on and rinse-off...

<p>After a well-deserved break, which was extended by a week, Karen is back. During her time off she took part in ‘Hampshire Open Studios’, a scheme where artists across Hampshire open up their workshops to the public...

<p>After 110 episodes, week in, week out, on top of 3 ongoing courses, authoring her latest book, a family trip to France, and a family wedding in Spain, Karen has decided to take a well-earned break over August. That’s...

<p>This week Karen is addressing a question she gets asked all the time regarding the use of tinctures in perfumery. The short answer to this question is that tinctures don’t work. But, with so many people using this...

<p>This week on the show, Karen is finally addressing an issue that has been annoying her for years - the obsession with extreme longevity of a fragrance. There is a theory that the longer a perfume lasts, the more...

<p>Karen has a new live course coming up, on the 7th of July, and in this episode she wants to explore two things that link into that live course - Floral Fragrances and Structure. Working with florals, without...