A while back I promised a new book in a month. I think it’s taken a little longer. But today it’s finally out there, an eBook for quick, easy download at $7.99 — pretty affordable.

But let me tell you about it.

People call me. They want to launch a perfume. Or a LINE of perfumes. But they’ve never done it before. They haven’t a clue. They don’t understand how the business works. They’ve believed too many of the wrong sources … pop magazines, TV shows, romance novels, etc. So they think they are going to ….

And what they think is all wrong.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t do it. It doesn’t mean they can’t have their own perfume. In this 34-page eBook I try to give people some reality about how the business works and, while they can’t do lots of things they thought they could do, IF THEY ARE SERIOUS about putting out a perfume, they CAN do it if they pay attention to some rather basic and simple advice. And they can even begin to make money at it.

The reality is that unless you are a celebrity with a grand following, companies are not going to knock themselves out to launch “your” perfume. But, if launching a perfume is a strong enough desire for you, there is a way to do it, even on a very low ($500) budget … IF you are willing to be practical. And, when it comes to bigger budgets, even here you have to be practical because NOBODY has unlimited money. That’s just the way it is.

The title of the book: Make, Sell Perfume Now! The price - $7.99.

It can give you some serious help when you’re making decisions about launching a perfume.

More notes on a perfume in progress. The formula for this new “Patchwood” perfume (that will NOT be it’s name!) has been finalized. The formula has been converted from dropper-bottle drops to grams weighed on an electronic scale with 0.000 gram accuracy. What’s next?

First, the formula gets translated from individual weights to percents … the percentage of each ingredient (by weight) in the formula. So we come out with 100 percent and each individual element is a percentage of that.

Now, having fixed the percentage of each ingredient, we decide how much “juice” we are going to make. Here’s where my production is quite small whereas a large perfume company would be producing thousands of gallons.

Using the percents, and the final quantity I want of the pure juice (before the alcohol and, possibly, deionized water, are added), I now have to translate weight — grams — into milliliters or liters. In essence, I have to judge the fluid volume of a kilo of the juice. The method? A long time ago, trial and error. Now, experience. I have a pretty good idea of what this translation will be and on that (careful) guess, I make my translation.

But now I need the materials. Here I have to go to my notebook and then to the containers from which I drew my supplies. Some — the aroma chemicals — are standard and could be safely purchased from a number of sources. But the natural ingredients MUST be purchased from the original source as essential oils, absolutes and resinoids will vary in aroma depending on batch and source. So now I have to make a careful shopping list. Then order the materials I need in the quantities I will need.

So now I’ll get with it!

Manama … a rose scented perfume for women. We strongly believe that Freedom, Democratic Government, and Personal Liberty — exercised with Responsibility — are the basic rights of all people. This is a time of great hope and great possibilities for both East and West.

Winning formula! My new fragrance is progressing, this is the one with a touch of Patchwood, which I have found enormously mentally stimulating. This photo shows my notebook with the winning formula out of 6 variations. You can read it for yourself and,while it won’t show you the ingredients, it will give you some insight into the steps I go through.

The final formula is a mix of four sub-formulas, each one of them painstakingly developed. The mixing at this point is by drops from dropper bottles as to work with weights would require more (expensive!) materials and more sophisticated measuring equipment.

So now the final version — four sub-formulas. To make the production formula I unpack those four sub-formulas and write up a single formula with each ingredient and the amount to be mixed, still in drops.

Now the fun. Mixing up a batch — which you see in the small bottle — by drops ON A SCALE (grams to 0.000) and then, as drops from each ingredient are added, noting the WEIGHT (in grams) that that ingredient represents. In short, the formula is being translated from dropper bottle drops into grams. This will allow the formula to be reproduced in a larger scale simply by using a scale.

The name and the theme are in progress. The name I’m working with goes well with the scent but I have to tie up the “story” to bring them tightly together.

Stay tuned!

Feedback can be fabuous. Last December a friend placed a few bottles of two of my fragrances in a store so that they could be sampled by customers with some thought of future sales. The fragrances were Mimosa for women and Blackberry for men.

The results? The “winner” was Blackberry but not in the way you might expect. It seems that the women were interested (if not quite ready to buy) Blackberry for themselves!

Now the dilemma. Should I produce it in a spray bottle for women? Should I stop using it myself? Desicions, decisions! Questions without answers. Life goes on.

Works of art? The truth may surprise you. Discover the amazing truth about the the creator. You might be surprised to find out that both were created by the same person … and that’s not something that’s revealed on this blog about these works!

Working on a new perfume

I’m working on a new, “commercial” version of a perfume I started over a year ago. Some people liked it. I liked it. It was different, it was very cool, it was very long lasting and (to those who liked it) very beautiful.

It made use of an aroma chemical called “Patchwood.”

So now, tuning it up, I’ve come up with six different possibilities for this new perfume. Perhaps you’d like to see a little of the decision making process.

These versions were labeled, 146-A through 146-F. I did smelling with them three times, to see how consistant my results would be. Here are the notes I took on these tests —

2/8/11

146-C == Nice — very acceptable.

146-A == More rounded, which is not good - more bland.

146-D == Unbalanced - blob heart -> base.

146-F == Instant hit a little muddy - better in time.

146-B == Too mello initially.

146-E == Good, balanced.

146-B == Yes, this is nice. Well balanced. (See conflicting note above)

2/9/11

146-F == OK. Sense of middle notes. Not just woody. Top note, yes, Patchwood.

146-E == OK - very nice.

146-B == More middle, less top. Top eventually comes through. More heavy in the middle.

146-C == Not woody, not what was intended. Nice but not distinguished. Wood only comes out slowly.

146-D == Very mello — not woody, just lightly woodly. One sour note.

146-B == Positive reaction. Woody plus middle shows immediately.

146-A == Opens up nicely. But not woody. All middle.

4/10/11

146-F == Wood & nartotic not quite blended — a valley between two hills. Very short lived. This does represent the correct impression.

146-E == Wonderfully blended. Perfect opening. Just what is wanted.

146-B == Muddy, not crisp opening. Soon evolves into OK.

146-A == Quite pleasant, no woody noticable — or only slightly. Quickly EVOLVED into woody. And then all is nice.

146-C == Yes, proper unfolding. Balanced.

146-D == Mello. No woody top note. Nice but undistinguished. Not the sought after theme. Continues nice but no woody.

146-B == Opens nicely. A faint rosey? Nicely balanced. Rose does come through.

Note that these comments were made through blind testing. Note how inconsistent they are. I think this is more typical in testing fragrances than most would admit.

Next I’ll be making up three sample pots of the two winners and then seeing how consistent the results will be. This will take a few days. But it should give a “final” formula.

I’m writing yet another book on perfume making/marketing. This is for people starting out, wanting to sell their own perfume, and not having a clue as to what it’s all about.

This is going to be a simple book. It’s not for the “creative” types who really care about fragrance. Sorry. (I care about fragrance myself but I’m not the whole world.)

I learned some years ago that it wasn’t all that hard to bring out your own perfume. Nor was it all that expensive. And, if you had a market (this is the point!), it could be very profitable for you … if you did a lot of the work yourself.

This book I am now working on outlines the steps.

And, it’s going to be (relatively) short and cheap. The aim is for just 40 pages and published as an eBook in various ebook formats, HTML to PDF, nook to kindle to iPad. But I suspect that PDF and HTML will be the winners as I will be selling it at my own websites — Bio-Byte.com and PerfumeProjects.com — because I like to keep the money from my own sales.

BUT, I’m going to price it under $10. Maybe under $5.00. Cheap as a cool iPhone app!

So look for it … coming soon!

I just read about Tumblr this morning and had to see what it was all about. So here I am, posting a message already. Next time I’ll shoot for some depth and perfume-related content. Best wishes to all!