Mas A PERFUME Masterclass
While he was in Venice researching this feature, Mark attended a perfume-making masterclass given by Joan Giacomin at The Merchant of Venice
As you enter The Merchant of Venice, there is an inevitable aroma in the air; beautiful bottles, glowing emerald green, sapphire blue and amber orange sit upon shelves, offering a hint of ancient and oriental aromas that combine to produce mesmerising scents. Upstairs on wooden shelves in the perfumery studio are interestingly-shaped vase-like objects, seemingly for smelling the subtle differences in aromas and set next to a large alabaster nose.
The scents, now a brand of the Vidal family, are inspired by the journeys of returning 11th-century Venetian merchants.
The Merchant of Venice perfumery masterclass offers a unique opportunity to gain an insight into the elements that make up a fragrance, covering the early skills of the Eg yptians and Arabian perfumers, through to modern-day techniques. Before an alcove with bottles of perfume elements, Joan Giacomin explains how they can be brought together in different quantities to create appealing fragrances to suit an individual’s skin and preferences. And while the nose will be our guide, Joan soon clarifies where the real knowledge lies.
“We are born with the nose,” she tells us, “but it is the brain that does the work and has the knowledge and expertise. You can educate the brain with study.”
TAKING NOTE
Perfumery ingredients include a base, heart and top ‘note’. It is these that the expert perfumer uses to balance when creating a scent that is distinct, yet not overpowering, and one that offers character but does not intrude.
As perfume is a blend of raw materials that complement each other, the Olfactory Pyramid is used by the perfume composer to describe the temporal development of a fragrance, its opening, its character and its lasting. The top note is the initial smell of a fragrance when first sprayed and lasts 5-20 minutes.
“The heart note disperses after the top note wears off and lasts around 30 minutes and is the ‘character’ of the perfume,” continues Joan. “The base note gives the perfume body and longevity and kicks in around 30 minutes later. This takes time to smell as it evaporates slowly.”
BESPOKE FRAGRANCE
Throughout the session, Joan demonstrates the aromas by dipping smelling tapers into fragrance to educate the nose. In her storytelling, which vividly blends legend and history with scientific distilling and perfumery development, Joan expertly leads her ‘perfumery students’ to the course finale; designing and making our own very personalised scent.
At the end of the masterclass, participants are invited to pick out favourite aromas from a ‘palette’ of scents, which Joan expertly assesses. Drawing up a ‘recipe’, she calculates the right amounts of each ingredient which we concoct to create our own perfume to take home in a miniature bottle – in my case, a satisfyingly fragrant essence dominated by the aromas of sweet orange and bergamot.
Once you see how it’s done, it all makes perfect ‘scents’.
The Olfactory Pyramid describes the temporal development of a fragrance