January 2014 ~ raidersofthelostscent

Luigi Russolo, "Profumo", year 1910

We are used to smelling paper strips for convenience, reliability, and practical purposes.
Unfortunately, paper is NOT the best material to smell. There is something better. It's the heavy, complex, "winter-season" fabric. Your heavy coat, for example. Or a "furry" synthetic coat.
Why? for a simple reason: complexity in structure. It's not "flat", but almost three-dimensional.
Fabric is not flat as paper is, but it's thick and with complicate structure. When you spray perfumes all over fabric, a bigger amount of perfume will be trapped. Perfume molecules will adhere on every point of the fabric 3D surface.

Paper has a 2D surface
"Heavy" fabric has a 3D surface, and will "trap" more perfume.

Physically said, fabric is better than paper because the same squared (2D) surface has a bigger 3D surface available. This means there is more space available for molecules to adhere on.
Roughly said, fabric will contain more perfume molecules trapped.
And you will seem to smell more intensely.
Actually, you are smelling almost the double of perfume, on the same smelling surface.

Perfume will last a lot more on fabric, at least two or three days; and if you put your nose "inside" perfumed fabric, you will "catch" even the subtle notes you find difficult to smell on paper, because, being in a bigger amount, they will appear more strong and intense.

Traditional large smelling paper strip: the "flattest" surface.

Cotton shirt : not so good, it's too "flat" for ideal use.

Cotton Sweatshirt. barely usable.

Flannel: not bad for smelling purpose.

Fleece / pile: this is very good

Here are some examples of "heavy" fabrics:

all of these are perfect for accurate, analytical smelling

"Furry" synthetic coats

The most practical way to use fabric for smelling purpose is to cut some old clothes you don't wear anymore. With a pair of scissors you could cut small squares of heavy fabric (an old coat, not used anymore) and use it for your experiments. Remember to wash periodically, and not to spray different perfumes in the same zone, because you will obtain a "perfumed mess".

I strongly suggest you to use fabric instead of paper for "analytical" purposes, i.e.when you want to explore all notes contained in a perfume.
Spray at least two times on the same zone, and wait a few seconds to let alcohol evaporate.
Put your face inside the fabric and smell, smell intensely for many seconds. Deep smells.
You will be surprised on how better you will smell your perfume. Enjoy!

This discussion can make you smile: "How to smell a perfume?"
In facts, the discussion is not so weird. Just walk into a perfume shop and look at the "horror show".

Perfumes tested and judged after just two seconds....
Tiny test papers sprayed from a distance of 35 centimeters (i.e. about 1 feet), and / or smelled at a distance of at least 10 centimeters (five inches) away from the nose...
Test papers waved and twisted in the air before spraying, because "the fragrance will be distributed on both sides" (???) .
Unbelievable but true.

In this short article, we try to focuse on test papers, trying to highlight the most common mistakes and correct them.
Test papers are simple. Just remember, during old time, the papers were used to pour perfumed drops all over, or immersed in the perfume solution, then smelled. The phenomenon of "capillarity" had a big role.
First lesson: test papers should be very absorbent.
Often we see the opposite situation, using an extremely smooth, almost impermeable paper. Today perfumes are "spray" ones, so a spray cloud has some difficulties to hit the paper, even more if physical-chemical properties of the paper itself are not the ideal ones.
Strangely, you get better results by building test papers at home using a very porous and absorbent cardboard, rather than the traditional cards, available in stores, which resemble papers for technical drawings, highly polished.

Another lesson: you can not judge a perfume before at least thirty minutes. And this will be a very gross, rude examination. In fact, an accurate analysis takes hours, and it is very complex. You should try on paper, skin, fabric, make an evolution test, a temperature test, check sillage...
"Test papers" mean everything and nothing in the same thing. There are a lot of different types. Here is a small selection on the table.

Now consider the examples depicted below: the narrow, thin papers, and the very large one. In the stores, you will see preferably the narrow, thin ones.

Now, let's try to spray from a long distance, waiting for the spray cloud to impact on the paper. Well, at a distance of 30-40 cm (more than 1 feet), how much spray will reach the thin paper?

From 30-40 cm, the amount of perfume reaching the large, squared test paper will certainly be greater (below)
Keep in mind that the sense of smell is given mainlky by the amount of perfumed substances. If only a few molecules reach the paper, how could there be an intense feeling of "fragrance"?

And if we gradually reduce the distance, maybe it's even better: an increasing number of perfumed molecules will arrive on the paper and will be available for smelling.

Both situations:

Best situation :

And this is the best situation: spraying from a few centimeters, and wait for the paper to dry. Since the squared, large paper will capture more perfume, it is preferable to choose the large paper.

Remember, before you start smelling the paper, wait until the evaporation is completed, otherwise you will smell mostly alcohol, which can irritate your nose.
About the smelling distance, this is not an issue: olfactory receptors are inside the nose, so you can safely hold the paper in contact with the skin (beware: the scent should have been evaporated: no liquid should touch your nose skin).
All right now? Unfortunately not; as we will see, papers not the best option to test a fragrance. Not the best for strictly analytical purposes, at least.
But excellent, however, for convenience, quick responses, practical purposes, and samples comparison.
We'll talk again about it, in the second chapter.

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SECOND CHAPTER

"Where" to smell?

Previously we learned something about "how" to smell, now it's time to know something about "where". We could speak about "surfaces to smell" and "places/environments where to perform".
As we previously saw, the paper strip is the most common "surface", but if you want to thoroughly test a perfume, you should use at least three different "surfaces". Precisely:
1- Paper.
2- Skin.
3- Fabric.
Why so complicate? Because every "surface" react to perfumes in a different way. So you could test a scent on paper only, and you can find it extremely disappointing. The same perfume, on the contrary, could perform exceptionally good on your skin.
But the best test, in my opinion, is to smell perfumes on "heavy", complex fabric. This because heavy fabric will trap an enormous amount of molecules, and you, dipping your nose in the fabric, will smell it much better.
About spraying, there are the same rules explained before, i.e. it's better to spray near the surface.
So, if you want to properly test a perfume you should use:

1) A classical paper strip (the larger, the better)....

2) Your skin (I personally prefer the back of the hand)...

3) .....and finally the heavy, complex fabric from old clothes.

Making a comparison between paper, skin, and fabric, will enable you to "evaluate" a perfume in the best way.
About "places/environments", remember first that a perfume shop is the worst place where to smell (strange but true). It's very important to smell in a clean, odorless environment.
So, the best place is a very small one, such as a small room at your home, or, even better, inside your car. I personally know a few people smelling perfumes...in the elevator!

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Chapter Three:

"Evolution"

The "evolution" is the "changing" of a perfume during the hours. For example, you could smell citrus at first, then flowers, and finally ending with woods. Each perfume has its own pattern, and a few perfumes have no "evolution" at all.

How can you study the evolution? This is a practical approach on paper and on skin (see pictures below).

On paper:

-Spray the perfume on the first paper,
-then wait 10 minutes,
-then spray the perfume on the second paper;
-wait for another ten minutes ,
-and finally spray again on the third paper.

We will have in front of us three stripes with the same scent, but sprayed at different times.
So what?
We can use the papers to assess rigorously the evolution of the perfume.
In fact, when we spray the third paper, on the second paper there is a "ten-minute-old" perfume; and on the first paper there is a "20-minutes-old" scent.
In this "twenty minutes period" most of notes and shades probably probably come out, and with a single sniff in sequence ( first paper , then the second paper, then the third one ) we can have an immediate idea -in just seconds- of how a perfume evolves.
Between the first and the last map there are twenty-minute difference : can you detect any difference? If yes, which one?
Continue this exercise, and evaluate differences after an hour, two hours, three hours.
At a certain point, of course, the three papers will arrive at the "base notes " ( the "drydown" ) and will smell identical.
This technique lends to many variations: you can lengthen the time (15 minutes instead of 10 , for example), or you can use 4 papers (instead of 3 ), or you can spray a new paper after the old ones "aged" one hour, smelling the immediate difference between initial and final notes .... and so on, the limit is your imagination .

Even better, you can use your skin, because spraying the perfume on three different points of your arm at different times, you can reach impressive results (photo below)

At time zero, spray perfume on your elbow (point 1), after ten minutes sprays on the forearm (point 2), and finally, after another ten minutes, on the back of the hand (point 3).
At this point you can "sniff" the whole arm from point 1 to point 3, slowly "sliding" to each point, and have an effective idea of the evolution of the perfume on your skin.

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(Italiano)

L'argomento può far sorridere: cosa bisogna fare, per annusare un profumo?
In realtà, l'argomento è meno peregrino di quanto si pensi. Basta entrare in una profumeria per osservare un campionario degli orrori. Profumi "provati" e giudicati dopo appena due secondi; profumi spruzzati su mouillettes minuscole da una distanza di 40 centimetri, oppure tenute a una distanza "mai inferiore" a dieci centimetri di distanza dal naso; mouillettes sventolate ad agitate prima ancora di spruzzare il profumo così "la fragranza si distribuisce su ambedue i lati" (???).
Il tutto, pontificando senza sosta di profumi, con l'aria da connoisseurs di lungo corso. E magari imbattersi, cosa realmente accaduta, nell'esperto (esperto?) che ti spiega "come va tenuto il braccio" mentre si annusa un profumo, per poi con la massima naturalezza affermare di non aver mai sentito nominare un profumo chiamato Mitsouko ("...di che marca è?"). Incredibile ma vero.

In questo breve articolo, proviamo a focalizzare l'attenzione sulle semplici mouillettes, cercando di evidenziare gli errori più comuni e correggerli.
La realtà delle mouillettes è assai lineare e semplice. Basta rammentarsi che esse siano nate, in origine, per versarci sopra il profumo a gocce, oppure per venir immerse nella soluzione, estratte, ed annusate. Il fenomeno della capillarità faceva il resto.
Una primissima avvertenza è proprio questa: le mouillettes dovrebbero essere di materiale molto assorbente. Spesso si assiste al contrario, vine infatti usata una carta estremamente liscia, quasi impermeabile. Il profumo oggi, poi, è quasi sempre in forma spray. Una nuvola di spray già è difficile di suo, da far aderire su carta, figuriamoci poi se le proprietà fisico-chimiche della carta stessa non sono quelle ideali. Paradossalmente, si ottengono risultati migliori costruendosi mouillettes a casa propria utilizzando cartoncino molto poroso ed assorbente, piuttosto che che le carte tradizionali già preparate e disponibili nei negozi, che somigliano piuttosto a carta da disegno tecnico, levigatissima, tagliata a striscioline sottili.

Inoltre, non si può giudicare un profumo se non dopo almeno trenta minuti. E questo già è un esame assai grossolano. In realtà, l'esame accurato di un profumo porta via ore, ed è assai complesso. Prova su carta, su pelle, su tessuto, prova di evoluzione, prova di temperatura, prova di sillage... Ma basta così, stiamo mettendo troppa carne al fuoco. Torniamo a noi.
Dire mouillettes significa tutto e niente. Ecco in fotografia una piccola selezione di mouillettes sul tavolo.
Come si può vedere, ce ne sono di tutti i tipi.

Adesso consideriamo solo gli esempi estremi: quelle strettissime e quelle extralarge. Nei negozi, e nelle foto pubblicitarie, è molto probabile imbattersi in quelle piccole e strette, essenzialmente per un problema di minori costi e di marketing (la strisicolina sottile ed elegantemente rastremata è più fotogenica del mammozzone squadrato e volgare, non è vero?)

Adesso, proviamo a spruzzare uno spray come fanno alcuni, ovvero da lunga distanza, aspettando che la nuvoletta vada ad impattare sulla carta. Ebbene, a una distanza di 30-40 centimetri, secondo voi, quanta parte della nuvola di spray raggiungerà le mouillettes tradizionali, lunghe e strette?

Da 30-40 centimetri, la quantità di spray che raggiunge la cartina larga sarà senz'altro maggiore. Già è un pò meglio.
Tenete presente che la sensazione di profumo è data dalla quantità di materia profumata presente. Se poche molecole raggiungono la carta, quanto potrà essere intensa la sensazione di "profumo"?

E se ci avviciniamo progressivamente, forse è ancora meglio: un numero sempre maggiore di molecole di profumo arriverà sulla carta e sarà disponibile per...l'annusata.

Un confronto tra i due casi contemporaneamente:

Ma se si riduce la distanza a una manciata di centimetri, la quantità di profumo sotto forma di spray che raggiunge il bersaglio sarà senz'altro maggiore.

Tanto maggiore la vicinanza tanto migliore il risultato.

Ed è proprio questa la situazione ideale: spruzzare da pochi centimetri, ed aspettare che la carta si asciughi. Dal momento che la carta più larga cattura più profumo, potendo scegliere tra le due, è preferibile optare per quella di superficie maggiore

Ricordatevi, prima di cominciare ad annusare, di aspettare che l'evaporazione sia completata, altrimenti annuserete prevalentemente alcool, che può irritare il naso. Per quanto riguarda la distanza, non fatevi problema di sorta: i recettori olfattivi sono all'interno del naso, quindi potete tranquillamente tenere la carta a contatto del naso (attenzione: a patto che il profumo appaia evaporato). Tutto a posto dunque ? Purtroppo no, come vedremo, la carta non è l'elemento migliore sul quale andare a testare un profumo per scopi analitici. e' ottima però per praticità, per avere una idea di massima, e nel caso di confronti di campioni.
Ne riparleremo.