The Madness to My Method -- Part Two

2. My qualifications and experience.

I'd like to say something here like "I went to Grasse when I was 17 and a whole new world opened up to me" but the fact is, I went to Grasse when I was 17 and ended up with a horrible migraine that day.

So no, I don't have any formal qualifications. Since my initial foray into BPAL back in '05 and my more recent return to the fandom (and yes I really do think there's a fannish element to the indie perfume scene), I've slowly trained my nose to recognize certain notes and I'm also reading about perfume to train my brain.

What I do bring to the table is enthusiasm and a love of scents, all scents. I love that moment when the onions and garlic hit the hot olive oil and the moment when you know that you were right to quadruple the amount of vanilla the Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe calls for. I love the way the air smells near the ocean and I love the way my old neighborhood smelled when Coffee Works was roasting a batch of beans.

I would like to learn more about the perfumer's art; because I find it a fascinating combination of chemistry, art, and luck. To me it's the modern alchemy, and whether the work is done in someone's kitchen or in a lab in Paris, it's its own form of magic. Hopefully, somewhere along the line, I can find a local course of some kind. I don't know that I want to make my own perfume, but I'd like to train my nose a little better.

But in the end, I don't really think I need to know all the nitty gritty details of the process. Sure, as a reviewer, I come with my own likes and dislikes, but so has every reviewer in the history of reviewing. So in the end, I may not know much about perfume (although I'm learning) but I know what I like. Hopefully I can write about it in a way that you'll like and find useful or entertaining.