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SmellyBlog

Smiling Country Notes

Smiling Country by Ayala Moriel
Smiling Country, a photo by Ayala Moriel on Flickr.

Can there be a better timing to reveal my Smiling Country perfume notes than when I'm actually in Sonoma County, which inspired the perfume?

The hills are covered with yellow dry grass and only the trees are green. The smell in the air is of dry grass with subtle underlining cow manure odour. Smiling Country perfume is not far from this, but more on the greener side. I wanted it to be green, crisp, earthy with hints of wine notes and a dash of mimosa (which were in bloom when I first visited her in February)... It may smell like there are notes in it that are not there (patchouli, labdanum and oakmoss were the most repeated guesses). I intentionally did not want to have any of these in there though as they are so easily overused... Instead, what I used to create Smiling Country were:


Top notes: Mimosa absolute, bergamot, frangipani absolute, hemp

Heart notes: Jasmine, tomato leaf absolute, white water lily attar, rhododendron, boronia absolute

Base notes: Spikenard, galbanum absolute, cognac absolute, vegetal musk accord


Le Parfumeur Rebelle reviews Smiling Country

As part of A Midsummer Night's Dream - A Scent Event, Le Parfumeur Rebelle reviews Smiling Country. Very soon, I will reveal all the notes... Until then, I'm thrilled to read the descriptions of how the scent makes each of the bloggers feel. Swimming in a cold lake was never the intention, yet makes me happy: I love swimming so much, that evoking this feeling in my perfumes can only bring a smile to my face :-)

A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Perfume Event

This scent-blog event was initiated by Amanda Feeley of Esscentual Alchemy. As the blog posts reviewing the participating perfumes roll in, you can find the links here.
My contribution to the event is my Smiling Country perfume, reviewed by the following blogs:
Scent Hive
Perfume Pharmer.
Perfume Smellin' Things
Le Parfumeur Rebelle

I haven't revealed the notes used for the perfume, because I wanted the bloggers to experience it for what it is, rather than break it down and dwell on the particular elements that make up the perfume. Seems like this was getting the complete opposite reaction - they each seem very eager to guess what ingredients were used, and even more anxious to find out if they were right!

I'm sticking to my original plan, which is to not reveal what the notes are until everyone is done reviewing them. But since everyone seems to like some guessing - you are more than welcome to add your speculations!

The participating blogs in this project:
AbsintheDragonfly's Artfire Store Esscentual Alchemy's Blog

They will be reviewing perfumes by the following 16 perfumers:

Alfredo Dupetit - BioScent

Amanda Feeley - Esscentual Alchemy

Ambrosia Jones - Perfumes by Nature

Ane Walsh - Artesã Perfumista

Ankica Milic - Be-Bellatrix

Ayala Moriel - Ayala Moriel Parfums

Charna Ethier - Providence Perfumes

JoAnne Bassett - JoAnne Bassett Perfumes

Jane Cate - A Wing & A Prayer Perfumes

Justine Crane - The Scented Djinn

Libby Patterson - Libby Patterson Organics

Lisa Abdul-Quddus - Blossoming Tree

Lisa Fong ~ Artemisia Perfumes

Shelley Waddington - Envoyage Perfumes

Tanja Bochnig - April Aromatics

Yuko Fukami - Parfum Phyto

A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Perfume Event

This scent-blog event was initiated by Amanda Feeley of Esscentual Alchemy. As the blog posts reviewing the participating perfumes roll in, you can find the links here.
My contribution to the event is my Smiling Country perfume, reviewed by the following blogs:
Scent Hive
Perfume Pharmer.
Perfume Smellin' Things
Le Parfumeur Rebelle

I haven't revealed the notes used for the perfume, because I wanted the bloggers to experience it for what it is, rather than break it down and dwell on the particular elements that make up the perfume. Seems like this was getting the complete opposite reaction - they each seem very eager to guess what ingredients were used, and even more anxious to find out if they were right!

I'm sticking to my original plan, which is to not reveal what the notes are until everyone is done reviewing them. But since everyone seems to like some guessing - you are more than welcome to add your speculations!

The participating blogs in this project:
AbsintheDragonfly's Artfire Store Esscentual Alchemy's Blog

They will be reviewing perfumes by the following 16 perfumers:

Alfredo Dupetit - BioScent

Amanda Feeley - Esscentual Alchemy

Ambrosia Jones - Perfumes by Nature

Ane Walsh - Artesã Perfumista

Ankica Milic - Be-Bellatrix

Ayala Moriel - Ayala Moriel Parfums

Charna Ethier - Providence Perfumes

JoAnne Bassett - JoAnne Bassett Perfumes

Jane Cate - A Wing & A Prayer Perfumes

Justine Crane - The Scented Djinn

Libby Patterson - Libby Patterson Organics

Lisa Abdul-Quddus - Blossoming Tree

Lisa Fong ~ Artemisia Perfumes

Shelley Waddington - Envoyage Perfumes

Tanja Bochnig - April Aromatics

Yuko Fukami - Parfum Phyto

Midsummer's Night Dream Perfume

Tomorrow I'll be sending off samples of my perfume contribution to Midsummer's Night Dream perfume blogs event. It's been sitting and maturing for a whole month, which is pretty good... But all in all, I can't say I had enough time to bring the formula to perfection with this perfume, which is not unusual for these kinds of projects.

So, this morning, I had to revisit what I did on April 15th, and tweak it just a wee bit... It needed just a little bit more of bouquetting. And by adding no more than a single drop of a certain flower, I hope it achieved the roundness it needed, or at least closer to it. By doing this, I'm also killing another bird - which is demonstrating to my perfumery students this week what "bouquetting" is and how some notes have a transformative, harmonious effect on the perfume as a whole.

I've got 4 more days of teaching ahead of me, plus the incoming orders from my online spring event, so this will be a rather busy week! I'm not sure how much blogging I could get done this week, but I sure will try... I wish I could tell you more about the perfume I created, but I will have to wait another month for all the bloggers to try it and write about it, and I shouldn't be revealing the notes or anything else about its personality or how it smells, even though I'm itching to do so. We'll just have to wait for June!

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