Vintage & Antique Oil Collecting

Vintage & Antique Oil Collecting 

Acquiring vintage and antique raw materials for perfumery is often just a one-click bid away. Many Natural Botanical Perfumers spend a great deal of time and money obtaining rare vintage and antique raw materials through sources such as Ebay, through private collections, at flea markets, auctions and estate sales, and less often at garage and yard sales. A great deal of these vintage and antique bottles sold on Ebay are acquired by the seller through auctions of lots of materials from old turn-of-the-century pharmacies.

The demand for vintage oil collecting has increased as the number of Natural Botanical Perfumers has increased, and bidding for the most rare oils can be extremely competitive. Horror stories pop up on occasion about unethical collectors and sellers making surreptitious deals, bargaining off individual bottles from auction lots without the current bidders of the items being aware. Only when the parcel arrives does the bidder realize that they have been ripped off. One such story in circulation relates this very situation. Several years ago a cooperative of buyers won a large lot of vintage and antique oils for which they paid a premium price, with one oil in the lot of particular interest -- the single bottle of oil for which the cooperative was formed and the reason bidding went so high. When their parcel arrived, the rare bottle was missing, and after a short investigation, it was discovered in the collection of another NBP. In these cases there is often little recourse. Buyer, or rather bidder, beware!

There are also stories of happy fortune as well, as one perfumer recounts her experience with purchasing a lot of antique oils for which she paid a very reasonable price. Excited about the prospect of receiving the oils, her joy was amplified when she discovered a nearly full one ounce bottle of vintage sandalwood tucked in the parcel, a freebie the seller slipped in, clearly unaware of its value. When conducting a search of vintage and antique oils, a few of the more popular perfumery and essential oil manufacturers and suppliers names to look for are: Fritzsche Brothers, Dodge & Olcott, Magnus, Maybee & Reynard, Givaudan

Less popular are:Field & Company (Aromatics) Archer-Daniels Midland Co., Ltd.,
Plaimar Limited, Schimmel, W.J. Bush &Co., Ltd., Antoine Chiris Ltd., Mallagh &Co., C.W. Field Ltd., Payan & Bertrand, Robertet, Albert & Laloue Camilli, Charabot & Co., C.A. Charpentier, Bruno Court, Pierre Dhumez, Flora Aromatics Co., Ltd., W.H. Hobbs & Co., Ltd., Lautier Fils, Ltd., Victor Mane Fils, Old Strand Chemical & Drug Co., A.W. Munns & Co., Natural & Synthetic Perfumery Essence Company, Stanley Nicholas & Co., Roure Bertrand Fils, P. Samuelson & Co., Schmoller & Bompard, Tombarel Freres, Alfred Paul White,Wilson & Mansfield, Ltd.

Why would anyone wish to collect old oils? Because without a scent history, without a tangible piece of our Natural Botanical Perfume past, we have few points of reference.  As important and helpful as Steffan Arctander's book "Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin" is, it is not a replacement for physically smelling a 65-year-old Mysore sandalwood, or a perfectly preserved 40-year-old cassia. Most perfumers who collect these old oils don't use them in formulation. They save the contents in a scent library or in a focused personal museum collection as a form of preservation.

Some perfumers decant the contents into a more appropriate and safe bottle, send a few samples off to friends, and display the empty bottle as a museum piece. Though in rare instances, as with oils of resins, woods, grasses, and patchouli, using these old oils in perfume formulation is an exhilarating experience, and can also be a selling point in marketing a perfume.

Anyone can collect rare and vintage oils. There isn't a trick to it, just a matter of research, investigation and investment.Happy Hunting.

by: Editors

Reprint from LPR website 2010

NBP Education ~ Natures Nexus Academy of Perfuming Arts

The Natural Perfume Academy was first established in 2008 to provide education to aspiring natural and botanical perfumers, natural perfume enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs interested in creating and marketing natural and botanical perfumes.

Distance Learning with Natural Perfumery Academy Course provides the total professional development needed by those entering into or progressing in the natural perfumery industry. Ms Justine Crane is the academy teacher with Ms. Shelly Waddington as auxiliary tutor. The Academy uses Moodle, a powerful learning platform used by major colleges around the world. It is administered at all times by fully trained technical staff. 

The Natural Perfume Academy has made use of the original perfumery course material devised by such authorities on the subject as Septimus Piesse, creator of the Odophone, a scale denoting parts of a perfume (head, heart, base), published in 1857 by Edward Sagarin in his book The Art of Perfumery and the Methods of Obtaining the Odours of Plants, and from the works of Jean Carles, Perfumer, published as reprinted articles ((1961, 1962 & 1963) from the French magazine "Recherches" into William Kaufman's coffee table tome "Perfume", published 1974.

We have found that the need for adaptable facilities for natural perfumery training is growing due to the fact that in the increasingly restrictive environment, independent natural perfumers need tailor-made training geared towards regulatory compliance and safety. It is also the case that apprenticeships in perfumery involving the sole use of natural materials are difficult if not impossible to secure. Traveling long distances to attend courses is highly impractical, and these days, unnecessary. Furthermore in light of the worldwide expansion of the natural botanical perfume industry, there are increasing demands that natural perfumers be capable and highly trained.

Natural Perfume Academy Course structure in detail

Unit 1 History of Natural Botanical Perfumery
The history of Natural Botanical Perfumery spans millennia, with records going back some 4000 years or more. This is a brief, though somewhat dubious, history of perfume, which includes "modern perfumery" and its inclusion of synthetically produced raw materials.

Unit 2 Safety, regulatory and environmental issues
This unit will provide students with the necessary theory to understand and apply selected key safety assessments (e.g. compliance with IFRA guidelines), familiarise students with selected key regulatory frameworks (e.g. EU cosmetics directive).

Unit 3 Chemistry of Natural Fragrance
A brief overview of chemicals within natural raw materials which produce the scents with which we, as Natural Botanical Perfumers, are so familiar.

Unit 4 Perfumers Studio & Resources
This portion of the course focuses on the tools necessary for a perfumery student to formulate basic compositions and compounds. The tools are fairly standard and can be purchased online or at a department or drug store.

Unit 5 The Natural Perfumers Palette
The raw materials available to today’s natural & botanical perfumer are far more numerous than they were for our predecessors. Where their palettes were restricted to a few dozen or so essences, ours has been greatly expanded to include hundreds of materials.

Unit 6 Evaluating Natural Perfumery Materials
All raw materials must be evaluated by the perfumer prior to their use in a perfume. The perfumer needs to become familiar with the note category or categories, character and safe usage levels of each material.

Unit 7 Journaling & Creating a Perfume
You will reach a point in your perfume making studies when you will require knowledge of advanced tools and techniques to create larger volumes of perfume. It is important that you study diligently all the information and materials provided by the course in the earlier lessons in order to successfully move onto the advanced stage of instruction.

Unit 8 Base Building, Conceptualizing Perfume
Perfume begins on paper. Before you open a bottle or waft a scent strip, the first order of building a perfume begins with the inspiration, and the ideas are written down in detail.

Unit 9 Natural Isolates
Upon completion of this unit, the student will have a basic understanding of natural isolates and will be ready to begin blending using these fragrance materials.

Unit 10 Marketing & Financial Management
A module introducing the basic principals of marketing in the natural botanical perfume industry and financial background for natural perfumery management. The focus is on financial management and costings.

Unit 11 Essay & Creative Proposal
With guidance from the tutor the student will propose the creative assignment and essay for the end of year perfume submission.

Unit 12 Essay & Perfume Submission
Student finalises and submits the end of the year essay along with the creative assignment perfume submission for tutor evaluation. Student recieves evaluations and end of year certificates.

 

NBP Education ~ Natural Perfumery & Exotics by Jeanne Rose

Natural Perfumery & Exotics by Jeanne Rose

MARCH 11-13, 2011 NATURAL PERFUMERY & EXOTICS, PART 1 San Francisco, CA.	$475
Make perfumery skills with a systematic and logical progression from the basics of measurement to the sophistication of complex perfumery. Learn myriad techniques, skills and uses of equipment for making solid and liquid perfumes. Learn the three ways of verbalizing a blend or single scent. Learn the nuances and olfactory texture of 150 exotic essential oils, absolutes, waxes, concretes, alcohols and carrier oils. This class is for perfumery or for making your own products. It will help give inspiration and give direction for those deciding where to go with their aromatherapy studies. The workshop combines the academic and scientific with the magically subjective and overall shows that there is art, craft and science to blending Essential oils for perfumes. Work hands-on to go beyond formulas in books and expand personal expertise and repertoire. $475 PIF [Enrollment limited to 8-10]
MARCH 26-27, 2011 NATURAL BOTANICAL PERFUMERY PART II - BASES AND ACCORDS San Francisco, CA.	$475
Continue your Perfumery class with part II. We will make bases and accords, and talk more about tinctures, absolutes, concretes and other perfume ingredients. This is a continuation class and is devoted individually to persons truly interested in the complexity of natural perfumery and ingredients. Includes your supplies. Enrollment limited to 8 – and you must have taken the Part I Natural Perfumery course within the last 3 years.
APRIL 09-10, 2011 NATURAL BOTANICAL PERFUMERY … PART III ADVANCED - TINCTURES, ALCOHOLS, BASES CARRIERS San Francisco, CA.	$450
Fixing your scent and more bases and accords. Expand your perfume repertoire and make perfect perfume. Jeanne Rose is a distiller of many years experience and can teach you the whys of alcohol, what they are and how to use carriers. $450 PIF ••  You must have taken the Part I & Part II Natural Perfumery course within the last 3 years.

NBP Education ~ Foundation of Natural Perfumery Course by Ayala Sender

Foundation of Natural Perfumery Course by Ayala Sender of Ayala Moriel Perfumes

Photo: Ayala Moriel Perfumes Foundation of Natural

Perfumery Course

Ayala Moriel currently offers a Foundation of Natural Perfumery Course. This is a 4-year program, broken down into  8 terms or "intensive weeks". The program is followed by an optional 1 year internship program at Ayala Moriel Parfums Studio, offered to qualified students only, who completed the program's requirements and were found suitable for the internship program.

In this program, you will learn the fundamentals of natural perfumery, and will lay the foundation to develop your own style as a natural perfumer later on. We recommend the course for those interested in pursuing a career in natural perfumery, although students with personal interest and development and no professional aspirations in the field are also welcome.

The week-long intensive sessions take place twice a year at Ayala Moriel Parfums studio, where you will get to interact with rare essences and learn from Ayala’s first hand experience in the industry. Each student also receives one-on-one personal sessions in the lab that will focus on each student’s individual needs and development as natural perfumer, to prepare you for working in the field.
The program's current module allows for more flexibility for students from out of town or from other countries. Sine most of my students in the past 3 years of teachign the program had to travel a great distance to attend the sessions, I have switched from a monthly session module to a bi-annual module that gives students the opportunity to focus on perfumery and learn a great deal of theory and apply their knowledge in the lab session during a condensed period of 5 days.
Each week will be dedicated to a particular fragrance family (so there are 8 weeks in total to choose from - Eau de Cologne, Oriental, Fougere, Chypre, Citrus, Floral, Leather and Soliflore), and also offers a featured workshop to expand your skills beyond perfume making alone. Featured workshop may be taught by Ayala Moriel or another teacher. Some fo the featured workshops: incense making, truffle workshop, candlemaking, potpourri, tincturing, solid perfume making, scented body products, etc.   
While it is not mandatory that you experience all featured workshops, it is crucial for the completion of the course that you cover all the following topics to which each week will be dedicated. You can take them at your own pace, depending on your schedule and resources.
The cost is $1,450 for each week for early birds, $1,600 for late registration, and include materials used during the classes.

You will get a certificate of completion for each week you've done, and will get your diploma for the program once you have completed all 8 weeks and covered all the fragrance families.
It is up to you how fast or slow you'd like to proceed in the course. You can take them at your own pace, depending on your schedule and resources.

Important Dates:

Fall 2010 Registration Deadline

August 20th - by this date, all students applying should have paid their course fees in full.

Fall 2010 Intensive Week: ORIENTALS & INCENSE

September 20-24

Spring 2011 Registration Deadline

January 15th - Early Bird registration

Spring 2011 Intensive Week: FLORALS 

April or May - exact dates TBA Class schedule: Monday-Friday 9am-3pm

Fall 2011 Registration Deadline

June 30th, 2011
Course fees per each week long course:

$1,450 for all students applying in time for Early Bird registration fee
$1600 for all applying after June 30th (for fall session) or after January 15th (for spring session). 

The course fees includes:
- Course handbook
- Materials and equipment needed for all lab sessions during the intensive week. 
- 1 one-on-one personal session with each student during the intensive week
- Evaluation and feedback of assignments and exercises during lab sessions

Depending on demand, a Natural Essences Kit of 25 different notes will be offered at an additional cost of $150 - $350 (several different kits for different levels). Purchasing the kit will enable you to further your studies and creative perfumery experiments on your own time between session. 
In order to complete the program,
The following is a summary of the ongoing curriculum for this course, in addition to the theme of each week.
Part 1: PREPARATION
- including how to prepare your workspace, tools, equipment and materials

Part 2: METHODOLOGY & RECORDING
- this section will cover topics such as: importance of recording, how to record a formula throughout its development (including keeping track of modifications in the process); maintaining a perfumer’s journal, and how to observe materials and perfumes through their evolution

Part 3: AN OLFACTORY JOURNEY: EXPLORING THE BUILDING BLOCKS
- Sniffing techniques, developing an olfactory vocabulary, expanding your olfactory repertoire, and systematically observing the various building blocks we’ll be using.

Part 4: ODOUR CLASSIFICATION AND CATEGORIZATION
- categorization of building blocks, understanding the different roles of notes, and fragrance families

Part 5: APPROACHES TO BLENDING
- In this part you will learn about the different approaches that can assist you when creating a perfume. We’ll discuss approaches such as the architectural approach (using horizontal and verticalblending), exploratory blending, working from a brief, and other approaches to perfume design.

Part 6: FORMULATION
- This section will explain in much detail the technicalities of developing a perfume formula, and the differences between formulating alcohol based, oil based and solid perfumes. You will learn how to create a standardized formula (which is the industry standard),and also learn about the concentration required for an effective performance of natural perfumes (i.e.: sillage and longevity).

How to apply?

As class size is extremely limited (only 6 students per course), we have a screening process in place. Please contact us with your CV and a cover letter explaining why you want to study natural perfumery at Ayala Moriel's studio. You may also send sample of your work if you have created any perfume, blend, aromatherapy synergy, soap, scented potpourri etc. (only ONE sample please).
Your application will be followed by a phone interview and if you are accepted into the program, a $290 non-refundable deposit is required to reserve your spot for the next program (starting September 2010).  
To pay for this course, click here.

Table of contents for the book accompanying the course:

PREFACE
1.0. PREPARATION: SPACE, TOOLS & MATERIALS

2. METHODOLOGY AND RECORDING
2.1 The Importance of Recording
2.2 Observing the Materials
2.2.1. Fragrance Note Study Guide
2.3 Recording Formulas
2.4 Keeping Track of Modifications
2.5 The Formula Book
2.6 The Perfumer’s Journal

3. OLFACTORY JOURNEY: EXPLORING THE BUILDING BLOCKS
3.1. Unveiling the Mystery of Aromatic Extraction
3.2. Sniffing Techniques
3.3. Developing an Olfactory Vocabulary
3.4. Expanding your Olfactory Repertoire and Olfactory Literacy
3.5. Building Blocks Observation

4. ODOR CLASSIFICATION and CATEGORIZATION
4.1. Perfume Notes and The Fragrance Pyramid
4.2. The Different Roles of Notes
4.3. Odour Classification by Odour Type

5. INTRODUCTION to FRAGRANCE FAMILIES
5.1. Oriental
5.2. Floral
5.3. Chypre
5.4. Citrus
5.5. Fougère

6. APPROACHES TO BLENDING
6.1. The Architectural Approach
6.1.2. Horizontal Blending
6.1.3. Vertical Accords
6.1.4. Integrating Horizontal and Vertical Blending
6.2.1. Central Theme
6.3.1. Intuitive or Exploratory Blending
6.4.1. Abstract Concepts
6.5.1. Vision to Perfume: Working From Briefs

7. FORMULATION
7.1 Units and Measurements
7.2 Standardized Formulas
7.3 Concentrations
7.3.1. Formulating for alcohol base
7.3.2. Formulating for oil base
7.3.3. Formulating for solid perfume base

Appendixes:
8. THE HISTORY OF PERFUME
9.  DEFINITIONS
10. FORMULAS & RECIPES
11. PROBLEM SOLVING & TROUBLESHOOTING
12. SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS
13. SUPPLIERS AND RESOURCES
14. BIBLIOGRAPHY & RECOMMENDED READING

Students' Testimonials:

“Ayala's teaching style is one of demanding patience. She is incredibly
good at encouraging students to get the basics down then build knowledge and experience on to that strong foundation. The mix of theoretical and practical exercises really helped me get a firm grounding inperfumery - knowledge that I could not have acquired on my own. I highly recommend Ayala”.

- Monique Trottier, Perfumery Student, Internet Marketing Consultant (Boxcar Marketing)

“It is just a matter of WHEN not IF this talented young perfumer is celebrated for the skills and enthusiasm she brings to natural perfumery. She is a wonderful and sincere teacher on the cutting edge of a very exciting new field”.

- Anita Kalnay - Perfumery student, Registered Aromatherapist

“Ayala Moriel (...) creates some of the most beautiful natural perfumes available. Her perfumery course is comprehensive and highly organized. The classes are unique in that she bridges both her artistic talents and the foundational principles of natural perfumery.

I have had the opportunity to study with other well-known and published natural perfumers and I find Ayala’s classes to be professional and to have a spirit of openness, community and integrity. Ayala Moriel is a teacher’s teacher and we are fortunate to have such a wonderfully gifted and gentle mentor”.

- Lucy Miller, Perfumery Student, Anesthetics Nurse, Certified Aromatherapist