This fragrance has been one of the oldest and most edited fragrances I have made so far. I would go as far to say that it is my favorite creation to date and that there really isn’t anything on the market today that compares. It’s something that performs well in hot and cold weather and though it is strong it is not cloying or aggressive in nature.
To start, it opens with an intensely bright citrus note which features anise, petitgrain, and elemi tinged with spearmint. This unique and beautiful opening blends into a bright woody heart with notes of patchouli, geranium, cedar, tonka bean, and violet leaf. lastly, it settles into a powdery smooth amber base consisting of tobacco, oud, oakmoss, vanilla, vetiver and a healthy dose of musks, both animalic (civet) and sensual skin notes (romandolide).
Top Notes
Bergamot, Anise, Petitgrain
Elemi, Spearmint
Heart Notes
Patchouli, Geranium, Cedar
Tonka Bean, Violet Leaf
Base Notes
Oud, Patchouli, Amber
Tobacco, Vetiver, Vanilla
Oakmoss, Civet, Musk, Ambrette
The oakmoss base featured in this formula is from the first post of mine and can be found through the main site or simply through the link within the formula. I do so hope this fragrance brings you all joy and intrigue! It has been 3 years in the making so far and will in all likelihood will be edited further down the road. It is my joy and pleasure to share it with the world and all the fine perfumers on this blog. Happy mixing!
-Frank
[Special thanks goes to Jamie for allowing me the opportunity and the platform to share my work.]
| Quantity | Ingredient | Comments |
| 100 | Iso E Super | |
| 80 | Clearwood | Patchouli EO can be used as well |
| 60 | Cedryl Acetate | |
| 55 | Romandolide | some flexibility here, could use Edenolide or Habanolide |
| 55 | Ambroxan | The best you have |
| 50 | Benzyl Salicylate | |
| 40 | Vetival | This is a wonderful citrus vetiver compound- It’s essential and very hard to replace. |
| 35 | Petitgrain EO | |
| 35 | Linalyl Acetate | |
| 35 | Sylvamber | |
| 35 | Cedar Atlas | |
| 30 | Symroxane | |
| 30 | Timbersilk | |
| 30 | Silvanone Supra | |
| 30 | Hedione | |
| 30 | Cetalox | Ambrox DL is best quality |
| 20 | Dihydromyrcenol | |
| 20 | Dihydro Terpinyl Acetate | |
| 20 | Cedramber | |
| 20 | Bergamot 104 (Givaudan) | Bergamot EO can be used here (BF is best) |
| 20 | 1980s Oakmoss Base | |
| 20 | Oud Synthetic 10760E | Firmenich Oud replacer |
| 20 | Cedroxyde | |
| 20 | Vanillin | |
| 15 | Vetiver (Haiti) | |
| 15 | Elemi EO | |
| 8 | Star Anise EO | Defining character of this fragrance! |
| 8 | Tonka Bean Absolute | Can replace with equal parts coumarin |
| 8 | Spearmint “Nanah” | |
| 7 | Dimethyl Cyclormol | |
| 7 | Okoumal | |
| 7 | Coumarin | |
| 6 | Bicyclononalactone | |
| 5 | Methyl Octine Carbonate 10% | Violettyne is a good substitute |
| 5 | Vetiver (Indonesia) | |
| 4 | Orange Flower Ether | |
| 4 | Geranium Bourbon | |
| 3 | Firascone | |
| 1 | Citrylal E | |
| 7 | Civet Tincture 10% | Beautiful sparkle and clarity along with anise note. |
| 1000 |
Great, thanks for sharing this formula, looking at the ingredients it’s looks very promising, thank you very much Frank and Jamie!!
I need a few ingredients for this formula though, I’ll add the missing ingredients to my wish list.
New formulas appearing almost every day, so it’s wise to wait a little while until ordering I suppose… haha!
haha! Very true, we have teamed up to overload you with formulas! Just kidding, I hope you like it, its very special to me. If you have any questions on replacements let me know and I will try my best to help!
Thank you very much Frank, I certainly appreciate that. It’s a pleasure to know you’ve teamed up with Jamie and I am very excited to blend your formula soon!
I Made some Changes because i dont have everything but i have to say that i really like this scent. Nicely done Frank!
Thanks so much!! Do you mind if I ask what you replaced things with? I may try it out with different things later on. I’m always trying to improve things!
Citral for Citrylal E, Damascone Alpha for Firascone but half the amount, Sweet Orange for Orange Flower Ether, Karanal for Okoumal, Tobacco abs. for Dimethyl Cyclormol but only 10% of the amount, Terpinyl Acetate instead of Dihydro Terpinyl Acetate, Musk Ketone substitute by IFF for Silvanone Supra because the description from perfumers apprentice of silvanone supra gets close to that, and used Ambrox DL insead of Cetalox
Nothing too extreme it seems. The tobacco absolute is an interesting choice for a replacement of dimethyl cyclormol. I bet it works even better honestly. The orange flower ether is a very very dry orange peel note, waxy and not very pleasant on its own so that note will be absent in yours but the orange eo should certainly play nice with everything else. I’m so glad you made it and enjoy it!
I thought when looking at that formula that tobacco abs. could work well in there, thats why i used it. I got some Cedrone S by IFF and think that could be placed in there too. Honestly its the first time i used Oud/ Synthetic Oud, i really like it
That makes me so happy! It’s definitely not an oud fragrance, at least not to me, but it does a great job of incorporating it as a nuance. Not something most oud fragrances do.
So true! Oud is always very in your face. I love M7 for being relatively well balanced as far as oud is concerned and Creed Royal Oud is very wearable too.
M7 is the next one i want to make!
I got the Firmenich Synthetic Oud, Pretty Oud and Oud Maleki, i Like all 3
Pretty Oud is lovely – I think it is an important component of Gucci Absolue Pour Homme.
Hi Florian, did you already mixed this formula? I am curious what other perfumers think of it.
Yes i made the M7 and Tigerseye.
I like it, used the Synthetic Oud from Firmenich for the M7
I love tobacco absolute!
Thanks a lot for the formula Frank. Would you kindly help with for couple of substitutions as I’m lacking on those materials.
What could replace Symroxane? ( will combination of Vetiveryl acetate + Dimethyl Ocetenone + Tobacarol work?)
Dimethyl Cyclormol is the other one I don’t have ( Patchoulol + Camphor oil comes to mind)
Please offer your advise.
Thank you
Hey there! Sorry for such a late response, been very caught up with life atm. For Symroxane I would think your mixture could work as a substitute. If not then just omit and replace with equal parts timbersilk. The dimethyl cyclormol is difficult to replace. It basically smells like an orange peel if all the sweetness was removed. Honestly, omitting it would be fine, but I would advise adding it if you do ever get it! It is a neat addition to this fragrance.
Lots of ingredients can be found at Creatingperfume like cyclormol and I’ve filled my shopping basket with al lot of other supplies I couldn’t find at PSH or Pellwall etc. Unfortunately when proceeding to checkout I found out that the shipping costs where exorbitant!!! like 185 dollars for 240 dollars of goods ….are you kidding me?! There are some “dangerous” goods I’ve added like: Linalooloxide, Bergamot 104 and Citrylal E and a few others. This is really disappointing because there is no way I am going to pay 185 Dollars for FedEx shipping, it’s absurd! Now I have to contact… Read more »
i wont order on creatingperfume again, did 1 time and was really disappointed.
ordered mainly because i wanted some Coranol, took 5 samples with it and when it arrived i had 6 samples and nothing else. The coranol was a Sample size too instead of 25ml. They refunded me the price for the coranol but i would have wanted to get the coranol. payed really much shipping for small samples.
i was really upset about that
Thanks for sharing this, I can’t find some of the chemicals that Frank has listed in some of his formula’s at other suppliers so Creatingperfume was a obvious choice. I can choose Perfumers Apprentice for some but Citralyl or dimethyl cyclormol etc. they don’t have. And when choosing Oud 10760 or anything else marked with 2 or more Asterisks, there is a shipping fee of 160 € ….! With PSH I don’t have this problem, the only downside is their variety in comparison to CP or PA or Pellwall, it’s much less.
Oud 10760 is available at PellWall its listed as Oud Synthetic (Firmenich)I think the Citrylal and Dimethyl Cyclormol arent essential for this formula and can be replaced in some way
Thank you for that info, I’ll check Pellwall. I rather not deviate to much from a given formula but in this case I have no choice. So I am going for citral and tobacco abs 10% of the amount used for dimethyl cyclormol as you did. And Ambrox DL.
After looking over the formula again i think that dimethyl cyclomor can be replaced with patchouli too.
It probably could and maybe you need a pinch of something Camphoraceous too?
Citrylal E can possibly be replaced by Lime oxide or increase the Dihydromyrcenol in this formula..?
I wouldnt put something camphorous extra when u are using patchouli.
I think that substitutes for Citrylal E would work too
PSH was never designed to replace CP or PA.
That’s true, Christine runs a small business but she sells excellent materials.
Hello Frank, I look forward to looking over your formulas here.
My question is that you specify Indonesian Vetiver, BUT, that still leaves a lot of ambiguity. The crude is extremely smoky. the regular second distilled *can be smoky, but may not be. Is what you specify smoky in some amount? Is it normal dry distillation, or not? Thanks,
PK
Sorry for late response, the one I use is very smoky and very dark in color. As long as it’s not a tar like smoky it should work well in this.