What are chords? | EPI 006 Podcast All Roads Lead to Aroma
The podcast 'All paths lead to aroma' is a podcast sponsored by Jarilo. In this podcast, Mariana, the founder of Jarilo, explores the world of perfumery and tries to discover how a perfume is made.
This article is the transcript of EPI 006. What are accords?
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↳In today's episode, I'm going to talk about accords and bases, but first, I'm going to light a candle. You know it helps me create an atmosphere of focus and concentration.
↳Since I'm recording at night, today I chose to light a pillar candle from my Jarilo brand. Pillar candles also create a very comfortable lantern effect. The one I chose today is an unscented candle because I want to smell some ingredients and thus have no olfactory interference.
↳As the founder of a candle brand, Jarilo, I would also love to know on what occasions you light candles, or if you're one of those people who never lights candles and only uses them as decorative pieces - send me an email telling me all about it.
↳So what are accords? Accords are simple formulas that have at least two ingredients and are used to create or recreate the smell of a raw material, a creative idea, or also to serve as building blocks for a perfume.
↳For example, a perfumer might want to create an accord of a fruit or a flower whose scent cannot be extracted by natural methods, or of a very expensive material like rose, or create an animal note or a creative idea like the smell of a holiday home.
↳Accords are very important because they allow the perfumer to create something without being limited by the raw materials at their disposal.
↳As I mentioned, accords are also used as building blocks. Imagine I want to create a citrus, floral, and woody perfume. What I will do is create a citrus accord, a floral accord, a woody accord, and then balance these 3 accords.
↳Normally, each perfumer has their personal library of accords that they have developed over time and that they use in their creations. In my studies, I have already created an accord - I called it picnic - it is a formula with 3 ingredients that makes me imagine I am eating fruit sitting on a blanket on the grass.
↳Bases are accords developed by major perfumery houses and are available to be purchased and used as ingredients.
↳I'll go back to the example of the rose. Rose absolute is a very, very expensive material. If I want to create a perfume or a candle that smells or has rose notes, I have 3 options: use the original ingredient, which is quite expensive; create my own rose accord; or buy a rose base.
↳ In my collection I have the Cassis base, which is the recreation of the smell of blackcurrant, Cashmeran base, which has a woody smell reminiscent of the comfort of cashmere wool, and Suederal base, which smells like animal leather without any animal-derived material being used in its production.
↳The accord I just mentioned, the picnic accord, is a three-ingredient accord: Petitgrain essential oil; Cis-3-hexenol; and Cis-3-Hexenyl, in a 2:2:1 ratio, meaning 2 parts petitgrain essential oil, 2 parts cis-3-hexenol, and 1 part cis-3-hexenyl. It has a very fruity and green scent, and as I said, it smells like we're on a picnic eating fruit.
↳I also made a very simple accord of just two ingredients, cassis base and ylang ylang essential oil, in a 1:1 ratio. This accord works very well in scented candles. The candles I created with this accord performed well, both in cold throw and hot throw. Cold throw refers to the scent of a candle when it is unlit, and hot throw refers to the scent of a candle when it is lit.
↳In episode 3 I had said that I would try to see how ylang ylang essential oil and vanilla combine together.
↳I have with me a piece of watercolour paper, two pipettes, and the ingredients. I will then experiment and see if they combine well together. I will put a drop of each on the piece of paper. I could also use two strips of paper, one with vanilla and the other with ylang ylang, and smell them simultaneously, but in these situations, I prefer to put the drops on the same piece of paper.
↳I've already put a drop of each ingredient on the paper. The vanilla is diluted to 10% and the ylang ylang is diluted to 1%. So, in this 1:1 ratio, the vanilla stands out much more than the ylang ylang, completely overpowering it. I'm going to add another drop of ylang ylang, let the paper dry. You can smell the ylang ylang more now, but at this moment, it's still an accord that smells like a dessert with a floral touch, a bit strange. I'm going to put another drop of ylang ylang, and now I have a 3:1 ratio. It's a more balanced accord. It has the floral and warm facets of ylang ylang and the sweet and ambery facets of vanilla, but I don't think it's anything extraordinary, nothing special.
If I had a particular interest in this accord, I would transfer this 3:1 ratio to a bottle where I would put 3 grams of ylang ylang and one gram of vanilla.
↳The next episode will be about olfactive families.
↳Now, I also take this opportunity to say that at Jarilo we have a campaign for Valentine's Day, where in addition to free shipping, we offer the Aromatic Discovery Set if you buy the 250gr Kerazion candle. The offer is automatically added to the shipment so you don't have to worry about anything else. The Aromatic Discovery Set is a set of six mini candles, each weighing 15gr, and it has 2 mini candles of the Summersoul scent, two of the Pieris scent, and two of the Acquaviva scent, so your significant other gets to know all our scents.
↳ This campaign is valid from February 3rd to February 14th.
↳Thank you for listening to this episode of the podcast "All paths lead to aroma". If you enjoyed it, don't forget to subscribe, share with friends, leave a comment, or send an email to todososcaminhosvaodaraoaroma@gmail.com.
↳I would love to know if you already knew the terms accords and bases and what most piqued your curiosity in this episode. If you could create an accord, which one would you create? What smell would you like to have stored in a bottle? Send me an email telling me everything.
Until next time
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