WHAT WE DO IS SECRET

New mods are now available

A limited number of Katie and Marina’s new mods are available upon request. If you are interested in trying them out and commenting on them when the reviews are up, please write to: madebyblog [at] gmail [dot] com with your mailing address. Numbers are limited and available on a first come first serve basis. (Sorry, but we can only send the samples to U.S. addresses this time.)

Thanks all, mods will be sent out shortly.

Report on the phone conversation with Clement Gavarry and a review of the latest mods

This concludes Marina’s Round 4 with mod R4/L and R4/M.

© What We Do Is Secret

I had a wonderful opportunity to talk on the phone with Clement Gavarry, the wonderful perfumer who is creating my Holy Grail. He said that my idea behind the scent was very “niche” and “avangarde”…and that is the best compliment I have received in a long, long time. In turn, I told him that I loved one of the two latest mods, R4/M, and that I thought that we were on the right track.

R4/M has all the qualities I am looking for in my ultimate fragrance. It has soft spiciness (cardamom), sweet amber, quite prominent leather and musk, and a comfortable and comforting but not too “fluffy” vanillic drydown. What I want now is for all these qualities to be amplified and emphasized. I would like more spice (I asked Clement to experiment with pepper and coriander), more leather, more musk, even more vanilla. Plus I’d love for the scent to acquire a distinctly smoky undertone. Not so realistically smoky as to be borderline disturbing, like CB I Hate Perfume Burning Leaves; I am looking for subtle, elegant and softly-enveloping smoke of Bois d’Armenie.

The other mod, R4/L, although not drastically different from R4/M, still had, on my skin, the saffron note that I apparently cannot stand anymore. I realize that I actually specifically asked for saffron in my proposal. I loved the note but now the love is gone. I wonder if perfumers in general and Clement in particular find their clients’ ever changing requirements exasperating. I also wonder whether working with one individual client is actually harder in that respect, whether it might not be easier to deal with a committee who submit their brief once and don’t mess with it again, like I do with my “brief” for Holy Grail. In other words, I wonder if it is easier to satisfy a corporation than it is to satisfy one fickle perfumista.

New Mods

A quick note on the latest mods: Both Marina and Katie has just received their new mods from the two perfumers. It may take a few more weeks to hear from the two ladies on their new fragrances, but the samples of their new mods are now available online.