Perfume Making Workshops 30th April 1st May 2016 - London

Two workshops are planned:

How to Make Perfume & How to Make Better Perfume:

Advanced Skills for Perfumers:

Full details are on the Eventbrite Pages, but if you want to attend both please get in touch with me directly using enquiry@pellwall-perfumes.com as I can offer a discounted price for both.

A WondAroma Podcast

Happy New Year!

Episode 10 of the WondAroma podcast features the Pell Wall perfumer Chris Bartlett talking to Christine Daley of Perfumer Supply House about:

• how Pell Wall came about
• the process of composing a fragrance and 
• a handful of interesting ingredients including Geosmin, Green Tea Givco, Skatole, Theaspirane and Zenolide.

The audio quality starts off rather poor but gets markedly better from about 14 minutes in and continues to improve throughout.

Here are some other links to things we talk about that you might find handy:

http://www.bsp.org.uk/- The British Society of Perfumers

http://www.perfumers.org/ - American Society of Perfumers

http://www.amazon.com/The-Perfect-Scent-Perfume-Industry/dp/0312425775 - Chandler Burr's book about Jean Claude Ellena (perfumer at Hermes)

Perfumery Ingredients at Pell Wall

The March issue of my Ingredients List is now online and the list now features some 300 materials, both natural and synthetic, with some very exciting new additions and a spectacular price reduction on one material thanks to some help from a friend in the US.

There are two versions of the list on the website and both can be downloaded or printed for easier reading as well as browsed directly on the site itself.  The first features descriptions of the odours and uses of the materials both from their manufacturers and from me.  I’m expanding this aspect all the time and there are new write-ups included since the last release in January.



But if you just want to compare prices with other ingredient suppliers you’ll appreciate the second list more - it’s just product names, CAS numbers and prices presented in tabular form:




Among the new additions you’ll find several new naturals such as labdanum absolute, orange flower absolute and violet leaf absolute - all among my favourite ingredients to use, though not cheap I’m afraid.

Speaking of cheap, that big reduction is for Centifolether - down from £52 for 100ml to just £22.  Also very good value is a new musk I’m offering for the first time that you don’t see about much called Zenolide: it’s a great material, as good as some of it’s better known brothers yet almost as cheap as Ethylene Brassylate so you can use it freely.  £17 for 100ml.

But if you want to find out what all the other new things are, you’ll just have to take a look at the lists :-)

Pell Wall: Best Discovery of 2014

Pretty in Pink by Pell Wall

As 2014 races to the finish line, I’m pleased to report that Pell Wall has featured as the Best Discovery of 2014 on the much respected Perfume Shrine blog by Elena Vosnaki, who has also just published a fantastic review of Pretty in Pink on the Fragrantica website: not only does she like the perfume, but she writes about it in the most entertaining possible way.

Beaver from Zoologist
Composed by Chris Bartlett

Speaking of Best Discoveries, ÇaFleureBon Editor in Chief Michelyn Camen has voted Zoologist Perfumes (featuring Beaver, created by the Pell Wall Perfumer) as her best discovery of 2014 in their Best of Scent 2014 Awards. And Speaking of Zoologist Perfumes, you can also read an interview of Chris Bartlett on their blog and a review by Steve Johnson of Beaver, also on ÇaFleureBon  in which we are reported to have achieved the impossible (an animalic scent he can wear without cringing).

Better still Beaver was awarded a Best Scent of 2014 award on the very last day of the year!

So, all-in-all not a bad end to 2014.  

My sincere thanks go to the reviewers and publishers responsible for these and my best wishes to everyone reading for a wonderful New Year and a happy and prosperous 2015.

Zoologist Perfumes, Beaver

It’s common knowledge in the industry, but not so common elsewhere, that perfumes are frequently composed by perfumers who are not associated with the company that markets them.  Commonly those perfumers work for one of the big ingredients houses, perhaps under the guidance of a designer from the brand for which the perfume is being made, perhaps not.

Beaver from Zoologist Perfumes

I do this kind of work too, and it’s a significant aspect of the business of Pell Wall perfumes.  What’s rather unusual is for the house commissioning the work to publicise the perfumer behind it, but that’s exactly what Zoologist Perfumes of Canada have decided to do and I’m very proud to be associated with their brand.  The brief was a great one to work on, expressed as a single page mood board, it gave enough room for creativity yet made their intentions perfectly clear.

You can read a great review of Beaver, the fragrance I produced for Zoologist, on the Cafleurbon website where they are also running a competition for samples.

Furthermore you can read an interview with me, where I talk about the work as well as more generally on the Zoologist Perfumes Blog.

I can add, without any trace of bias, as it’s an aspect I had no hand in, that the bottles labels and packaging for this line are truly gorgeous.

Better still Beaver was awarded a Best Scent of 2014 award on the very last day of the year!

Pell Wall featured in Management Today

Chris Bartlett - Perfumer at Pell Wall

Pell Wall’s perfumer Chris Bartlett is featured in an article in Management Today: not an organ of the press most usually associated with perfumery and all the more worth readying for that.  Apparently we’re like punk rockers . . .

New Standard Packaging and luxury gift option

Art Deco Boxes for Pell Wall

I’m pleased to report that, just in time for Christmas, our new standard packaging is now in use: 30ml and 100ml bottles will be shipped in these elegant Art Deco style, glossy black boxes as standard from now on.

Luxury Gift Presentation

If you’re looking for something even more luxurious for a special gift, we are also offering almost all the range in a tall 100ml bottle, with a magnificent mahogany-finish box: it comes in a protective outer box and can be further gift-boxed free of charge if you order before 20th December.

Sandalwood found to have wound healing effects

The implications of a fascinating piece of new research could be widespread: 

Researchers at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany have found that not only are there olfactory receptors in the top layer of human skin, but have shown that a particular sandalwood odourant can trigger those receptors resulting in increased growth and migration in the surrounding cells.

As this is such new research, there is every chance that other odourants will, in the future, be found to have similar or perhaps quite different effects on the skin with obvious implications for their use in perfumery as well as for medical and other applications.

This research, led by Dr Daniela Busse and Prof Dr Dr Dr med habil Hanns Hatt from the Department for Cellphysiology published their report in the "Journal of Investigative Dermatology”.  

There are many synthetic sandalwood
odourants of which this is one

Reporting of the findings appears in Time but they don’t mention there, the answer to the question that will be uppermost in the minds of perfume-makers: which specific odourant has this effect?

The answer is it was Sandalore (a brand name owned by Givaudan) or 3-methyl-5-(2,2,3-trimethyl-1-cyclopent-3-enyl)pentan-2-ol, if you prefer the chemical designation.

Interview with an Indie Perfumer

The Perfumer’s Organ at Pell Wall

The charming Clare Wood interviewed me at my London hotel a few weeks ago.  We talked about aroma chemicals, natural perfumery materials, the art and science of perfumery, other perfumers I admire and what to do if you’re looking to get started in the business.

You can read the full interview on Basenotes.

Pell Wall Perfume on ITV This Morning Show

Two fragrances from Pell Wall’s 1953 range, a couple of pieces of ambergris that I keep for demonstration purposes, some synthetic ambergris and some of my ambergris tinctures are featured on this section of the ITV This Morning show from Friday 2nd May.

The whole segment is a bit bonkers, featuring as it does a whole range of things made using poo, but it’s nice to see 1953 Eau de Toilette and 1953 Pour Homme featured (even if they didn’t get the spelling right!)

You need to fast forward to 6 minutes into the show if you want to skip the other products: Perfume is on last.



The bottle of part-made tincture they have a sniff at by the way was extracted from a larger batch that is being made from a piece found by artist and guest-house owner Jac Volbeda on a beach in the Western Isles of Scotland last year that has been tincturing since January: I’ll be blogging in detail about this when it’s finished.

Perfume Making Workshop in London

Perfume Making Workshop with the Pell Wall Perfumer

I’m pleased to report that, by popular demand, I will be running another perfume making workshop in London on:

Saturday 31st May

from 11am to 5pm

at The Scent Salon
Les Senteurs:

2 Seymour Place, Marble Arch, London W1H 7NA

(that’s the Wigmore Street end of Seymour Place)

The workshop is aimed at people who have never made a fragrance for themselves before and concludes with a bottle of a fragrance you've created yourself: for those who have made fragrances before, perhaps at one of my earlier workshops, you will of course be able to make something completely new.

The Scent Salon at Les Senteurs

The price is £135 per person, which includes light refreshments, five hours of tuition and practice, all the materials you need, a bottle of your own fragrance to take home and even a glass of fizz at the end.  There will be a break for lunch, which isn't included, at one of the many nearby establishments.

I will provide tuition about materials, guidance on blending and everything you need, all you need to bring is your un-perfumed self.

I'll will take you through the recording of the formula too and as long as you do that carefully you'll be able to order more of the fragrance you've designed from Pell Wall in the future.

I'll also provide odour and use descriptions of each of the 30+ materials we'll be using and these will be both available on paper on the day and sent electronically in advance for those who want to do some pre-work.  I'm also open to requests (in advance) if there is a particular material you want to work with, as long as I have it available and it isn't outrageously expensive then I'm happy to bring some along.

The venue is of course also a specialist perfume shop, so you might like to have a browse while you're there.  The shop is open until 7pm and although the course ends at 5pm, I will stick around to answer questions afterwards too.

Space is limited and places have started to go already so if you are interested, please book quickly to avoid disappointment:

Pretty in Pink Review

Just a little blog post today to say a big

Thank You

to The Perfumed Dandy for his charming review of Pretty in Pink, published today as the first of his Festival of Roses series of reviews.  Roses are one of the most fascinating of all flowers - thought to be the oldest decorative plant in cultivation - thousands of varieties exist and Rose Otto shares near legendary status as a perfume ingredient with Ambergris.

Rose oil is also one of the most complex ingredients used in perfumery with some 700 different aroma chemicals that have been identified as contributing to it's wonderful scent.

If you're thinking of giving roses for Valentine's Day this year, consider a lovely rose perfume: an equally romantic and far more lasting gift than those scentless florists roses in plastic tubes, pretty as they undoubtedly are.

Not (quite) too late for Christmas

Starting today I’m sending all Internet orders over £50 by Special Delivery (next day by 1pm) to ensure they arrive on time - no extra charge.  

Friday 20th is the last reliable date for orders but there’s still a very good chance orders placed up to early Monday 23rd will arrive in time.

1953 EdT and Pour Homme
Perfect presents for Christmas 2013: the 60th anniversary of the coronation 

If you’re reading this and plan to order £75 or more in fragrances, a quick email to me with your order will save you postage charges - so that’s free Special Delivery - just until midnight on Sunday 22nd.

Pell Wall in Vogue

The December issue of Vogue features Pell Wall’s Gin & Lime in their Vapour Trail section, which is part of the ‘All I Want For Christmas’ feature towards the end of the magazine.

Vapour Trail - Vogue December 2013

Vogue Dec 2013

Gin & Lime by Pell Wall

Stock Clearance

Stock Clearance

Bottle and label changes are in progress for Pell Wall and as a result you have the opportunity to snag a bargain.

Existing stock of 30ml and 100ml bottles are substantially reduced to clear so that they can be replaced with the new styles.

Old style 30ml bottles are now £15, £25 or £34 depending on the fragrance - see below.

Very limited stock of the old-style 100ml bottles remains and you can now buy them for the price of a 60ml bottle: but they won’t last long so act now!

while stocks last.

Category	Fragrance	30ml	100ml
Standard	Fruit Wood Green Carnation Haiku Minted Mornings Relaxed Repose Sativus	Black cap only £21 £15 Haiku, Fruit Wood, Green Carnation and Persian Prince sold out.	Sold out
Spring Flowers	Persian Prince Deep Purple Crowdsource
Premium	Anjin Devana Gin & Lime Orange Spice Pretty in Pink Tempus ludendi Viva Verde	Black & matt silver cap only £32 £25 Anjin and Viva Verde sold out.	Sold out
De Luxe	Equisetum Jacinth	Black cap only £45 £34 Jacinth sold out.	Sold out

UK postage is £6 for one bottle, £8 for two or more, free if you spend over £100

European (within the EU) shipping is £30 regardless of the size of the order.

 To buy at these prices simply email me your choices - these offers are not available on the website - if you are lucky enough to live in Shropshire though you can find these reductions at the Craft Cafe in Newport but only 

while stocks last.

Perfume Making Workshop: London 28th September 2013

I'm pleased to report that following several requests I'm going to be running a workshop in London on

A Perfume Making Evening in Shropshire

28th September from 11am.  It will have a similar format to perfume making evenings that I've run before in that it is aimed at people who have never made a fragrance for themselves before and concludes with a bottle of a fragrance you've created yourself.

I'll provide tuition about materials, guidance on blending and all the materials you need, you only need to bring your un-perfumed self.

I'll be taking you through the recording of the formula too and as long as you do that carefully I'll be able to make up more of the fragrance you've designed in the future for a small fee too.

Details of the London workshop

In this case it's taking place on a Saturday though, and the venue is being very kindly provided by Jane at her home in Belsize Park.  Jane will also be running a Lotion Making Workshop herself immediately afterwards (starting at 4pm) so if you are interested in attending that too you could make a very productive weekend of it.

An earlier lotion workshop in London

Space is obviously very limited and places have started to sell already before I've even posted about it so if you are interested, please book quickly to avoid disappointment.

Should it happen that we get a lot more bookings than we can handle I may be able to run an additional workshop on the Friday afternoon just before, so if that would be suitable for you please let us know (I appreciate that isn't convenient for a lot of people who will be at work).

If you'd like to book, please follow the links to Jane's skincare site and book there for either or both courses.  If you have any questions you can also email me.

Perfumery Talks at Shropshire Lavender

For a great day out this weekend 13th - 14th July, come along to the Shropshire Lavender Farm where I'll be giving talks at 12.30 and 14.30 on perfume, what it is, how it's made and what's really in it.

There will be ingredients and blends for you to smell to illustrate the talk and an opportunity to ask questions.  Book via the Shropshire Lavender Events page.

The farm is open all weekend and features lavender in every guise including cakes to die for!

Pell Wall are mell for perfume
at the Shropshire Lavender Farm 

The event was featured in the Shropshire Star last Saturday - very nice article marred only by getting the name of the business wrong: it's Pell Wall not Pell Mell Perfumes, though Pell Mell isn't far from the truth here sometimes ;-)

A perfume that becomes a film star

This is a guest post by Susan Feehan and in introducing it I feel I should explain that, other than my friendship with perfumer John Stephen, I have no connection with the project she's talking about here: I just thought it was such a great idea it deserved some publicity and was sure to interest people who are interested in perfume. Over to Susan:

Fire breaks out at a famous London hotel. A bathrobed hero emerges from the flames carrying the woman who loves him. They kiss and find themselves on the world’s front pages; their moment of passion and courage inspires a new perfume. Then our hero goes back to his wife…

Time goes by…everyone forgets…until a perfume campaign offers the couple a big fat fee and a return to the spotlight. What could possibly go wrong?

If that sounds like a pitch for a romantic comedy, you’ve guessed right. I’m the writer, and I can’t resist pitching. You never know when a hedge fund manager might be reading…

Seriously, every film story needs a crucible in which characters are trapped until they work through their demons or face ruin. I always knew mine would be the world of perfume, but for several drafts I didn’t know why.

I thought it was about glamour, fantasy and a serenely calm and fragrant public world at odds with the story’s private arena of anger, old grievances, betrayal, insecurity and…yes, it is still a romantic comedy.

Then I realised perfume had to be at the heart of the story because it is about the memories that surround one moment captured in a picture. Memories that differ for each character.

Linda — the leading lady who is rescued from the hotel fire and then dumped by her married lover — can’t remember the moment for what it was: an honest and true moment when two people forgot their emotional ties. All she sees is a man she loved who was about to dump her. She only remembers the moment’s future.

Harry — the fire hero — sees the moment and remembers how his courage collapsed into cowardice because he wasn’t sure he could be that man for the rest of his life.

Steve — the man who replaced Harry in Linda’s heart — sees Harry’s and Linda’s big moment and fears he’s not made of that kind of heroic stuff.

Ralph — the photographer who made Harry and Linda famous — remembers snapping two people who had cheated death, who had looked the devil in the eye and said: ‘Not today. We’re in love, and you can’t touch us.’

Pierre — the perfumer so inspired by the moment that he turns it into a fragrance — deludes himself that the moment can return exactly as it once was, if only he can reunite the couple who were his muse.

These are a few of the people I spend my life with. Writers need to find themselves in each of their characters and Pierre hits a major nerve with me. He’s ridiculous in many ways, too precious to operate in the real world. He channels perfume from a universe not known to mere mortals, coming to life only when talking about fragrance and protected from reality by his adoring wife Christine.

Well, I regularly become pompous and authorial about writing generally and film stories in particular. Then I can’t be bothered about the nitty-gritty of real life. Pierre cries when his creation is dragged through the dirt by the very people who inspired him, and cries again when he feels his world is ending. Again, er…me. And, like me, Pierre often wears sunglasses indoors — sometimes to hide the tear tracts on his face. How can you not love him?

He deserves a reward for being put through hell. He deserves more than a fictional perfume. He deserves a real one. So we’re going to make life imitate art. Why shoot a film with a mocked-up perfume that’s probably tea in a bottle when you can have a real fragrance, inspired by the same moment in the story?

But I’m a writer, not a perfumer. So I’ve found our real-life equivalent of Pierre — John Stephen, of The Cotswold Perfumery — who is creating a character I can write, but can’t cast. John can bring this character off the page and into real life. In time, we hope that you can not only see the film, but also buy the perfume. If there are any hedge fund managers reading, that was another pitch for funding…

We want romance, courage, fire, honesty and forgiveness, all in the one bottle. So no pressure, John. Before he bolts for the exit, I should stress that no real-life perfumers will be harmed in the making of this film…

You can find us on Facebook at thekissmovie, on the web at thekissmovie.uk.com and fundraising on indiegogo (at http://bit.ly/12Ztina until 5 August) with perfume perks as our thanks for support.

                      Susan Feehan

A teaser

I've been a bit quiet on this blog for a couple of weeks so I thought I'd do a little teaser of some things in the pipeline to keep you interested:

Coming soon is my first Guest Post from writer Susan Feehan who will be talking about a remarkable project involving a perfume, a film and a crowdsource (not a perfume called Crowdsource you understand, but a real crowdsourcing project) which also happens to involve my friend and mentor, perfumer John Stephen.

A Perfume, a film and a crowdsource

Shortly after that I'll be looking at some of the terms used to describe the various natural materials used in perfume in an attempt to clarify the differences: so if you're not sure of the difference between an absolute and an oleo-resin, stay tuned.

A bit further on and I'm planning a series of posts exploring some of the ethical issues in perfumery: from endangered species to biodegradable ingredients.

Hopefully there is something there to intrigue and interest you.  And if you're a writer and fancy doing a guest post too, let me know: the only rules are it has to be interesting and have something to do with perfume, perfumery or Pell Wall.

A Caricature of a Perfumer

Last weekend there was a Carnival in Newport, Shropshire and at the shop we had caricaturist Chris Ryder doing live drawings for customers.

Caricature drawing live at the Craft Cafe, Newport

Naturally enough I sat for a caricature myself, so here it is:

Perfumer, Chris Bartlett in caricature