On a recent trip to San Francisco, I had the opportunity to visit Sebastian Jara's studio and we explored many aldehydes-style perfumes. What are aldehydes, you may ask? We do explore the topic with an overview of how aldehydes can smell, and how they're used in perfumery. There are Aldehydes, and then there are aldehydes-style (aldehydic) fragrances. We try to dive into what it all means.
At Sarah Baker Perfumes, we've never classified any of our fragrances as aldehydic. But the perfumers who make our perfumes do use aldehydes in all of our fragrances. Because, in fact, aldehydes are in a lot of things in the natural world, it may be that it's impossible NOT to have aldehydes in fragrance.
Before making the video, I asked perfumer and accords-teacher Ashley Eden Kessler if she thought perhaps Bascule could be considered aldehydic and she also agreed with me:
I would not consider Bascule an aldehydic fragrance, there is a slight aldehydic note, but only as an accent. -Ashley Eden Kessler on Bascule
Aldehydic fragrances are clearly not my favorite style of perfumery, as we don't have any. Nonetheless, I did have fun diving into the topic with The Perfume Guy. And I got to explore a lot of classics, many of which I haven't previously smelled; it was all around a great learning experience.
It got me thinking about aldehydes a lot. Maybe it's about time we did make an aldehydic perfume for the house. There are some real bangers in this 2-part video. Check them out!
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