I am a big fan of natural care: over the years I have acquired an impressive collection of essential oils, and in my daily beauty routine I often use shea butter, as well as coconut and almond oils. And it's not just the effectiveness of these products, but also my passion for natural scents. Even as a child, when my parents and I traveled to the Black Sea, I was delighted with a popular local souvenir - a set of essential oils. Not having the slightest idea how to use them, I could spend hours just sorting through the cones, enjoying the outlandish aromas.
There were attempts to use essential oils as a perfume, but the compositions (if this word is generally appropriate here) turned out to be harsh and even suffocating. At some point I despaired and abandoned these experiments, but life is full of happy surprises: I had the opportunity to create a fragrance based on essential oils under the guidance of a professional. An individual master class from perfumer Veronica Brukhovetskaya became an unforgettable experience for me, which I am eager to share with you.
Something about Veronica
Burning with impatience, I rushed to the Aromaobraz studio on Novinsky Boulevard and found myself in a real wonderland! In the interior of the living room in the French style, everything is thought out to the smallest detail: a gramophone, twisted backs of chairs, retro Teddy bears, vintage vases with flowers … Having hardly looked up from these treasures, I finally sat down at a huge work table and began to ask Veronica about how she took up perfumery.
Veronica is a psychologist by education. Faced in her practice with difficult cases, she began to look for additional ways to help a person cope with problems without medication. The elixir against the blues was found pretty quickly - it was a mixture of essential oils. Gradually, home experiments grew into a hobby, and then into their own business.
Veronica studied perfumery for seven years in France (in Grasse itself!) And in Russia, successfully treated patients with essential oils, and eventually founded the Aromaobraz workshop, where she creates personal fragrances and teaches the intricacies of perfumery art. In addition, in the studio you can order an aroma design for any event (49,000 rubles), for example, a wedding, birthday, and even an official meeting!
Interesting Facts
“It is no coincidence that we choose these or those aromas,” says Veronica. - Up to seven years a person learns to recognize up to 10,000 different smells! This set serves as a kind of foundation on which the perception of aromas in adulthood is built. " You've probably noticed that a random smell that you catch on the street can cheer you up or, conversely, make you feel sad. Vivid childhood memories evoke strong emotions that change the current state of a person. This phenomenon has long been used by marketers: in many retail outlets, you can smell the aroma of baked goods or sweets, making the buyer relax and make rash purchases.
"Surprising fact: the emergence of Chanel # 5 aldehyde scent has sparked a splash of divorce."
“Modern man is used to pleasant aromas that come literally from everywhere, but the original purpose of our noses is completely different,” says the perfumer. - The parts of the brain associated with the perception of smell were formed much earlier than those responsible for sight and hearing. The fact is that the sense of smell is primarily a security system. For example, you may not see smoke or fire, but you will smell the burning and take steps to avoid the danger."
By the way, essential oils are ideal for creating perfume compositions and aromatherapy also because they do not cause rejection in a person, as happens with synthetic notes. “At the beginning of the 20th century, a study was conducted on the effect of perfume on people,” says Veronika. - It turned out that with the advent of the cult aldehyde fragrance Chanel No. 5, the number of divorces increased dramatically. It is easy to explain: perfumes with artificial ingredients completely block out the natural body odor, so women began to broadcast false information about themselves. " Smell is a basic characteristic of a person, therefore, on a subconscious level, a man felt that the lady of the heart was not at all what she was before the wedding. But she just stopped wearing the perfume she used on dates!
Process
After an exciting lecture, we moved on to the long-awaited practice. Usually, creating a personal perfume (from 8,499 rubles) takes two whole months. First, the client tells about his preferences and favorite fragrances, describes how he sees the future perfume, and then undergoes aroma testing, where you need to choose from a great variety of essential oils 20-40 favorites. After that Veronica makes five test samples, which are sent to the client "for fitting". Each fragrance should be worn constantly, lived with it, to know how it unfolds and feels throughout the day. The customer chooses the option they like and Veronica creates a full-size version.
Two months is a long time, so we decided to focus on the format of an individual master class. Knowing about Veronica's solid experience, I asked if she could guess which scents I like. The perfumer suggested that I most often choose oriental-woody compositions, and got to the point: just such a perfume can be found on my shelf! Whatever one may say, but the skills of a psychologist are important in any business.
"Essential oils that are used in perfumery smell different from their pharmaceutical counterparts."
Veronica gave me a list of essential oils so that it was convenient to mark the ones I liked. The perfumer took turns handing me dark glass bottles, and I diligently recorded my impressions of each oil. Surprisingly, many of the fragrances turned out to be completely different from what I imagined them to be: it turns out that the essential oil of frankincense only vaguely resembles the smell of church resin, and the ylang-ylang that Veronica suggested to me is not at all like its pharmacy counterpart. By the way, according to the perfumer, essential oils should by no means be bought from pharmacies or from unreliable suppliers: such products contain artificial flavors and prohibited oil products. Poor-quality essential oil will not only be of no use, but it can even cause poisoning with a variety of consequences - from mild illness to hospitalization. Veronica herself buys raw materials from suppliers from all over the world. For example, the best vanilla can be found in Madagascar and sandalwood in India.
At the end of aroma testing, the perfumer examined my list of preferences and suggested using a base of Peruvian balsam, vetiver and benzoin for the future perfume, place a note of cedar in the heart, and use bergamot as top notes. I trusted the advice of a professional and agreed with this scheme, but asked to add a drop of cinnamon - I really love this spice!
Veronica entrusted me to mix the scent myself. Before you start creating the composition, you need to pour up to half of the base - refined odorless coconut oil into an empty bottle for a future perfume. Now is the time to "chew". To create a small volume of perfume (10 ml), two to three drops of each essential oil are enough. When the fragrance is ready, you need to fill the bottle with the base oil to the top, and then, holding the neck, slowly turn it over until the liquid acquires a uniform consistency. Finally, I applied the fruit of our labors to my hand: the aroma turned out to be spicy, languid and warming - just the way I love it!
Impression
I love to learn and try something new, so the master class with a perfumer gave me great pleasure and vivid impressions. I think that a certificate for creating your own fragrance will be a great gift for your mother, soulmate or girlfriend. You can attend a group master class (from 1,789 rubles) or, like me, get an individual consultation (6,999 rubles). By the way, according to Veronica, working with essential oils saved more than one couple from parting, so why not spend the anniversary not according to a template, in a restaurant, but at an exciting seminar?
In general, in the Aromaobraz studio there are services for every taste and nose. I have already put on my wishlist the perfumer's suitcase (23,800 rubles) with everything necessary for home experiments, and I plan to give myself the creation of a star scent (24,999 rubles), on which the perfumer and the astrologer are working together!
Studio website: aromaobraz.com
Text: Maria Stefanova Photo: Asya Zabavskaya
