What is my creative process for making handcrafted perfumes from start to finish? 

It all starts with the brief, whether that’s for my own fragrance portfolio or a bespoke perfume for a client. What story will this perfume tell? Every single perfume I’ve ever created has its own fully detailed story. The pure creative freedom I experience in this part is maybe my favourite of the whole process—my real happy place! I’ll also consider what fragrance family it’ll belong to, whether it’ll become a floral amber, a woody citrus or gourmand for example. Mind maps, spider diagrams and mood boards help me to immerse myself in the creative process, and the ideas flow thick and fast.

 Next, I’ll start to experiment with possible formulas. Which perfumery materials would fit well with the story I’m telling and the picture I’m painting? Some stories have strong colours associated with them, like the vibrant yellow gold and black stained glass by Charles Rennie Mackintosh that inspired my latest perfume launch, Côte Vermeille. These fabulous colours immediately brought to mind the brightness of mandarin, the warmth of ylang-ylang, the rich opulence of tonka and benzoin, and the grounding depth of cedar and labdanum.

 Then comes the first part of real potion making. Blending different proportions of my carefully chosen perfumery materials - I use both naturals and aroma-molecules - to get the most exquisite perfume possible. Lots of blotting paper strips are used at this stage as I refine, tweak and adjust. This part can take weeks or even months as I gradually get to know the different variations.

 Once I’m fairly happy with my fledgling perfume, I’ll ask a few trusted friends who are real perfume enthusiasts to try it. I’ll ask them to let me know what emotions they feel while wearing it, what they think of the tenacity and projection of it, and whether they feel it’s a unisex perfume or not. Their input is invaluable, as it broadens my understanding of how my customers might interpret this new perfume.

 I’ll make any adjustments to the fragrance as, or if required according to my friends’ feedback, the wearability of it on my own skin and once I’m assured that it meets IFRA (International Fragrance Association) standards and other safety checks.

Once happy with this, it gets sent to an external lab for IFRA conformity and full safety analysis and certification. IFRA is a worldwide organisation and the voice of the global fragrance industry, dedicated to the safe, responsible, and sustainable use of fragrance.

Your skin is precious and I’m only happy to put my name to perfumes that meet these very high safety standards.

 Finally, this gorgeous hand-crafted perfume needs to have a bottle with a beautiful label. All the time I’m creating the fragrance, I’m mulling over ideas for artwork to fit the story, inspiration and mood. Caps need to be chosen, as do pumps. All these tiny details add up! Extra labels with allergen information need to be stuck on the back of the outer packaging too, so if you know you have an allergy to, for example, eugenol, you can avoid that perfume.

The perfume needs to be registered with the UK government - CSPR ‘Cosmetic Product Safety Report’, a legal requirement for selling cosmetic products in the UK. It's a safety assessment that ensures a cosmetic product's ingredients, formulation, and manufacturing processes are safe for consumers. A legal safeguard which protects everyone.

 And then launch day dawns. The most spectacular of days when you’re surrounded by people cheering you on. Everyone and everything bathed in light, warmth, laughter, and - of course - my latest fragrance!

 

What are my favourite perfumery materials that I enjoy using?

I’d have to go with green aldehydes and citruses as my personal favourites. Bergamot has a very complex aroma - sometimes citrus, other times sweet or floral or fruity - but it always brings a freshness to a perfume that kind of wakes it up and makes it sparkle. I love musks of all kinds. Woods are another favourite category of mine; there’s a very clever aroma-molecule called Clearwood, which is unique in its scent profile—kind of silvery and floaty. Neroli is another gorgeous material - and very dear to me for sentimental reasons - which I use in Hermia and Hera. Cashmeran is like being wrapped in a gorgeous velvet cloak- it's an incredibly versatile material. I think we all love the 'naturals' but the synthetic molecules and materials available to perfumers these days are nothing short of incredible. I generally use a blend of naturals and synthetics but with so many synthetics being produced sustainably with low carbon footprints and that are consistently always very good, it's a no-brainer for me to create using the full palette of materials available to me.

I have a material in my lab called Caramel Furanone, which is double wrapped and lives in its own airtight container because it is a ridiculously potent material and escapes in to all four corners of my lab and beyond! It smells of toasted maple syrup waffles sprinkled with fenugreek seeds and served up with a gutsy americano coffee. I have yet to use in fragrance, do you think I should? 

 

Where do I source my perfumery materials from? 

I’m a firm believer in supporting small independent suppliers because I know I can trust the quality of their supplies. My customers need to know that I use the finest possible raw materials to handmake my fine fragrances. Occasionally I’ll buy perfume grade oils from the heartland of perfumery, Grasse in France for example. I’m also a member of The Perfumery Code of Ethics which reassures my customers that transparency, honesty and integrity are the foundations of Karen Timson Fine Fragrance. If I say it's in the bottle, then I expect you to be able smell it, even if the notes are subtle, they will be there. 

 

Feel free to find out more about me and my work as a perfumer. You can drop me a note via the contact form on my website or reach out via my social media platforms. 

My discovery set of 2ml spray vials include 5 out of my 7 beautiful hand crafted perfumes. You get to choose which 5, and you even get a 10% off voucher when you buy a full bottle.

I wonder which one you’ll fall in love with first…