LUCK – NYC Wedding Proposal from Aria Melody DJ on Vimeo.

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So our first ever giveaway is over and we have a winner….congrats to Patti. We will be in touch. Check back for more going on this week. Oh and have you liked us on facebook. Thats where our next giveaway is….shhhhh!

Royal Apothic

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Its almost time!! and to help us celebrate, we will select our winner in The Citron Union Giveaway tomorrow!! Are you gonna watch the wedding? London is abuzz

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So i thought it would be fun to start a new feature on the blog called, Behind The Fragrance. As many of you know, I create each of the fragrances at Royal Apothic in our lab in Los Angeles and many times the inspiration comes from the book. For The Citron Union, the inspiration was a little different. I love citrus, all types, but as a perfumer it is really difficult to work with. When I smell a perfume with a truly citrus based body, I generally am immediately reminded of cleaning fluid. So that became my challenge, how could I create a scent that was primarily citrus based, yet not reminiscent of a bottle of Windex. (Sorry Windex, i dont wanna smell like you).
I begin by gathering inspiration, which I post on the giant cork board in the lab. (many of you saw an image of one of these boards on the feature that One Kings Lane did on me). For the Citron Union, here were some of the images….


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Pretty random right. I then begin blending. As many of you know, a fragrance is comprised of a blend of 3 parts: base notes, mid notes and top notes. Heres Wikepedias description:

Top notes: The scents that are perceived immediately on application of a perfume. Top notes consist of small, light molecules that evaporate quickly. They form a person’s initial impression of a perfume and thus are very important in the selling of a perfume. Also called the head notes.
Middle notes: The scent of a perfume that emerges just prior to when the top notes dissipate. The middle note compounds form the “heart” or main body of a perfume and act to mask the often unpleasant initial impression of base notes, which become more pleasant with time. They are also called the heart notes.
Base notes: The scent of a perfume that appears close to the departure of the middle notes. The base and middle notes together are the main theme of a perfume. Base notes bring depth and solidity to a perfume. Compounds of this class of scents are typically rich and “deep” and are usually not perceived until 30 minutes after application.

Sounds very technical and it is. To give you an example, I worked on The Citron Union for 14 months. It took 197 tries before i got the perfect blend. ( I keep track in a handy moleskin)

The final blend:

The trick was using the Sweet Orange in the top and the Balsamic in the base. It rounds out the citrus and creates an amazing amount of “depth” This is a perfect spring fragrance, light and fresh and could be used by a guy. In fact, many of the boys at the Apothic have been using it.

Check it out here...

Now for the fun part. Leave a comment on this post and on Friday we will randomly draw a winner that will receive an entire set of The Citron Union including Perfume, Tin Candle, Hand Creme and Soap!!!

Comment away kids!!