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More than the sum of its parts

Posted by Robin on 12 May 2018 3 Comments

A fragrance is more than the sum of its parts. What first hooked me was the way in which an ingredient that smells rather ugly at first can transform into something exquisite when used in dilution or combined with other ingredients.

— Perfumer Ruth Mastenbroek, quoted in ‘I had to memorise more than 2,000 ingredients’: how a perfumer mastered her art at The Guardian.

Filed Under: perfume in the news
Tagged With: ruth mastenbroek

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3 Comments

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  1. therabbitsflower says:
    12 May 2018 at 12:41 pm

    Interesting read and great point from her about how materials transform once diluted or combined with another note. That’s why I think it’s limiting to say you absolutely don’t like a note – you may not have smelled it in the right combination with other notes. There are so many different scent combinations!

    I’ve never smelled any of her perfumes and will have to rectify that.

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    • Robin says:
      12 May 2018 at 7:00 pm

      Definitely limiting to say you don’t like a note, and also people take lists of notes too seriously anyway – you can’t assume what is or isn’t in a fragrance from a list of notes :-)

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      • therabbitsflower says:
        12 May 2018 at 8:33 pm

        Totally! There are too many materials used to list them all, not to mention the synthetics with the not-so-appealing names.

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