My order is
placed and I am looking forward to trying the legendary Pheros
Many Thanks.
I am giving you all a heads up on the final, naughty shipment of Pheros. Thank you
for your patience.
It has been shipped to Tammy.
Tuesday is my best estimate for when it will arrive at
Love-Scent.
Most of the shipment is composed of the regular cologne version. But there is also a small number of
bottles of Pheros Concentrate.
Note on Pheros Concentrate: There were only a dozen bottles
of the concentrate shipped, which is the lower end of how much I thought I'd make.
So if you want a bottle,
you need to get ready to order it as soon as Bruce makes it available. I only made enough concentrate bottles to
match the number of indications of interest in the earlier Pheros Concentrate thread. I decided after all to
keep a few bottles of the concentrate and perfume for myself -- selfish, I know!
Perhaps Bruce will take early
indications of interest. You have to ask him.
It is not available quite yet, as of this post. Again, it is
set to arrive early next week.
Good luck to all in getting your bottle of Concentrate, if you want
one.
On the other hand, there should be plenty of the regular cologne for everyone, at least for a
while.
By the way, since this was the final batch of this scent for all time, I signed a leaflet enclosure
for everyone who gets either version. Hopefully, that will help communicate the personal nature of this creation;
and reflect that each bottle of Pheros has been in my hands many, many times. For example, just before I
shipped them I shook each bottle again, just to make sure everything is thoroughly blended.
I very much
appreciate all of you who have used the product, and am grateful many of you found it to be a pleasant experience.
Thanks and enjoy.
For anyone fairly new to the forum who wants to learn more about Pheros, just search
the forum. There are lots of informative threads on it.
Last edited by DrSmellThis; 08-16-2008 at 08:41 AM.
DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)
My order is
placed and I am looking forward to trying the legendary Pheros
Many Thanks.
Uh oh! Sounds like Bruce
decided to start taking orders right away.
Again, I'd advise anyone interested in the special concentrate
version to inquire ASAP. (If you don't know what it is, you probably don't need that version.)
Does everyone
remember how to order it, using the comment section?
DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)
Good point Doc. Just to be
clear about it:
If you want the concentrate, you have to specify "Concentrate Version" in the
comments box when you get to checkout. The comments box is just below the shipping options section.
If you want
the regular version you don't need to specify anything.
Congrats once again Doc for a remarkable
product. Sad to see it end.
Thanks for providing that
information.
Thanks for your kind words, and especially all your insight as a lover of scent. That really made a
difference here.
And thanks to everyone who has tried Pheros.
DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)
So Doc, when can we expect a new
creation from you? After all I figure I'll be running out of my Pheros supply about 2050 or so....
(I
actually wore some this past weekend! Super special occasion. GF got her latest college degree and I am of course
encouraging her to finish her CPA qualifications so she can support me... and all my other GF's...)
The opposite of love isn't hate.
It's apathy.
Good question, and funny sig quote BTW. Bottom line, I have supply issues to resolve before turning
thoughts to a new perfume.
There is a reason the big corporations got out of natural perfuming. There is a reason
most of the independent folk practicing natural perfuming aren't producing great products too often (even great
companies with great oils like Oshadi produce sort of cheesy natural perfumes with a lame drydown). Having said
that, I would like to do more of it.
It's not like I've been totally dormant. In the last few years I was
working on four perfumes, which is a lot more work to have on your plate than it sounds.
Interestingly one was
inspired by Old Spice, which nowadays is all chemicals and smells cheap. But people love it, and it might be the top
selling cologne all time. "Why?", I asked. But I wanted to see if I could create the same kind of effect using top
of the line natural ingredients -- something simple that virtually anyone could wear, but that would still have some
natural beauty. There is still some possibility I could revive that project, because the pilot project was quite
wearable and pleasant. It requires a lot of one very expensive fine flower, however; a flower scent that most
perfumers (even natural ones) fake using a combination of a few cheaper natural ingredients (the actual company that
makes it doesn't even do that much, but does the whole thing with chemicals, which is why you can get it for five
bucks). I know exactly how to fake it either way, but screw that. It's the real thing or nothing. I bet most of you
didn't know that the original idea behind Old Spice involves a fine, precious flower, even though there might be
none of the real flower in the current formula you get at the supermarket. Just talking about it makes me want to do
it, but dammit, to do it right! You know, "the perfume Old Spice wishes it was". You have to think that one could
hit it big if done right.
Another perfume was inspired by a perfume made for Napoleon, and was to be a fresh
citrus cologne with lots of class -- I had Gegogi's taste in mind, since I know he's be the last one I'd
recommend Pheros to. Can't leave our bra Gegogi out in the cold (not that Hawaii is cold). There was also a
fine, precious flower involved in this one as the main ingredient other than the citrus. I tried more than several
varieties of the oil without finding an acceptable one (funky aftersmell I couldn't erase -- but maybe I was just
lacking some techique for working with that particular flower. Who was I gonna ask?).
Unfortunately supply issues
derailed both efforts.
I also worked on an amber, which I was just dissapointed with -- strange because I
considered ambers one of my strengths (Pheros has a nice amber note, for example.). That one I just did a
poor job on, though I still wear a drop of it occasionally. Sometimes they just mature into something not all that
great for whatever reasons. Maybe I'm just too perfectionistic. But come to think of it, there were compromises I
made due to supply issues on that one too.
Finally I worked on a bay rum, but didn't hit the magic combo yet.
It's hard to argue with a good bay rum, I have reasoned. It's a quintessential manly smell. But I wanted to do
something unique with the idea. That one still may happen. What would you all think about that one? I welcome any
feedback and ideas.
My standards are different than most natural perfumers', who seem quite content to have
something smell like a cute arts and crafts project. The funny thing is some of them make a lot of money doing it
that way. I suppose it's like pop music. If it sells it must be good somehow. The whole artistic integrity thing
can be difficult in any creative endeavor.
I cannot claim that Pheros is some great perfume. I'd
characterize it as sort of a student's Master's Thesis -- not quite "hard core pro", though you have to bust your
a$$ more than the pros do since you're learining. Some elements of it are amateurish, which is not suprising given
I am a psychologist by formal training. I am particularly annoyed with a certain funky quality of the immediate top
note, as idesign and I have discussed. I tried my best to disguise the most annoying flaw, with minimally adequate
success, I suppose.
What I can absolutely claim, however, is that it was definitely very ambitious (you are
really not supposed to be able to get 150 diverse ingredients to marry unless you are extremely skilled and
experienced, but I have a hard time thinking in simple terms with any creative project); and represents basic,
uncompromising artistic integrity; as well as an extreme amount of obsessive labor that there is no way most
perfumers would have put forth. You just keep tinkering with it until there is nothing more that can be done to
improve it according to your vision for it. But that process took over a year. Finally, I can claim that the
ingredients themselves are first rate.
What you end up with is something with some great qualities mixed in, at
least. I'm proud of the sophisticated musk note, in particular -- you probably won't find that effect in more than
a few out of the way places on the planet -- certainly in no other commercial perfume that I've ever heard of.
You'd have to go way back in history, I'd imagine. Add trace pheromones to round it all out, and it's never been
done.
Last edited by DrSmellThis; 08-19-2008 at 03:44 AM.
DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)
Sounds like Pheros: The Next
Generation, will be one future generations will be enjoying without me, as I will be long gone.
<sniff>
The opposite of love isn't hate.
It's apathy.
Don't jump!
Somehow I
think I'll find a way to make something else for you folks.
DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)
Any info on which mones are
dominant in pheros?
Nevermind, did some research,
sounds like a great product!
Yes, Rbt's sig line is a favorite. In a
hierarchy of needs they're very close for good health.
Thanks for your entire post Doc, I'll be processing
your ideas for a while. I have every confidence that should you again produce something for public release it'll
be on the same very high level as Pheros. I can only encourage you, like others here, to keep it up and give us
something great.
Having said that, I think you're too characteristically modest in describing your challenges,
and the extent of your accomplishment in producing Pheros.
Scarcity of good raw materials notwithstanding, the
challenges of producing an all-natural perfume are phenomenal. Each ingredient must be weighed not only on its own
properties, but as they'll behave in combination with every other ingredient. Some ingredients require large
amounts, others the minutest amounts, and the experience required to know how much of what takes vast amounts of
patience and experience.
Your comment that your master bottle ended up very large leads me to believe that you
mixed and diluted many times to balance ingredients.
The natural perfumer must have a working understanding of
the many constituents of each individual ingredient, which can number in the hundreds. Within each
ingredient there are chemical (thus scent) properties which must be taken into account. Does this base muffle or
accentuate that top note? Does this flower work with this herb or overwhelm it? How much vetiver works in just the
right way to achieve its best properties? Different roses have vastly different properties, and will make a huge
difference in the final product. This is only a scratch on the surface of the challenges of natural
materials.
It would be easier to work with isolated constituents, like commercial perfumers. But so much is lost
in terms of analogue pheromones, or what I understand to be the natural attractants known to us since the beginning
of scented history. The full spectrum of natural scent cannot be duplicated in a lab. And the full natural spectrum
is very difficult to harness in a perfume for reasons of complexity and unpredictability. Instead of working with
primary colors, you have innumerable hues with known and unknown properties, which react differently in constantly
changing light.
Blending scientific and aesthetic knowledge in itself is a challenge, and to balance the two
amounts to an art form equal to any great music you've ever listened to. A natural perfumer must work within
simultaneously unlimited and impossible parameters. The list of ingredients themselves offer challenges in
understanding how disparate parts can blend harmoniously into a whole.
Commercial perfumers report scores of
"failures" before they strike upon a viable perfume. I imagine that a natural perfumer has a lesser success rate.
Working within nature presents opportunities and challenges that are akin to understanding a woman. Fail and you
are dinner. Succeed and the result is beautiful.
I may be preaching to the choir for some, and I've not given
the topic the justice it deserves, but many of us don't truly know what you've accomplished.
Here's to your
success Doc, present and future.
Last edited by idesign; 08-27-2008 at 07:34 PM.
Ego issues be damned, it sure
feels good when someone appreciates something you do. Hopefully all of you have had that experience many times. On
the other hand, most of us have had the experience where you bust your ass to do something worthwhile and fail to
detect any sign that it was worth a darn to anyone. While you don't want to need approval from others, it still
makes a difference somehow.
But aside from that, idesign, I have always found your posts on scent refreshing. You
obviously use your mind in a "rich, aesthetic manner". As an artist one spends a lot of time alone thinking in a way
that is different from the mainstream, so it is fun to feel you can relate to someone mentally. Not too many
appreciate scent like people appreciate music for some reason.
Incidentally, A lot of what the arts do, in my
opinion, is train people in their abilities to think holistically ("synaesthesia" or cognitive unity among the
senses, is an example. In perfuming you see evidence of that when people use, say, musical terms to describe scent.
This characteristic of great minds has actually been considered a symptom of mental illness historically); the lack
of this skill being one of the primary hidden problems we face on the planet (black and white thinking being a
particularly insidious example of the lack of holism, which leads to all the problems with religious and political
fundamentalism, judgementalism, and poor problem solving. And that is only an example. See how huge this planetary
psychological issue must be?). This is why we need to keep the arts in our schools; That type of training is
actually essential to normal brain development, as many studies have shown. But I digress, as usual.
DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)
On that note Dr, I love this
Pheros stuff. Makes me smile just wearing it I look forward to future creations from your lab!
It's funny, but personally, I
often decide to wear Pheros for stress, relaxation and mood reasons; as much as for the scent.
Much of the
fun of it is indeed due to all the natural analog pheromones (e.g., real mammalian pheromones; and phytopheromones,
or plant pheromones), which seem mildly psychoactive.
DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)
"A human being should be able to change a diaper,
plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set
a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem,
pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for
insects." -Lazarus Long (thanks Jim for the inspiration to look him up)
I agree with you Doc. There
should be an outright requirement that we should learn a different language, play an instrument and learn to draw.
The intricacies of full human development and understanding of life require it. I agree too that ties to
emotional health and yes, even personal responsibility, can be traced to some kind of training in the
"abstractions".
In addition, one learns to know and appreciate beauty, both as an abstraction and as a source of
pleasure. Without it we cannot truly appreciate who we are capable of being, and thus incapable of striving for
that goal.
Your "cognitive unity of the senses" makes absolute sense in just the way you described, and language
itself becomes the artistic medium of categorizing our understanding and describing it. There is a larger
understanding of our complexity when we develop our less cognitive parts. You know much more about this than I do,
but the language requirements increase to be able to describe what we cannot "see".
How can a perfume have color
or rhythm? I don't know, but good ones do. In the same way how can a perfume inspire thoughts of memory,
behavior, sensuality, fondness, sadness or bright sunshine? In many ways perfume inspires deeper and more
substantial aspects of our being than other art forms, save for perhaps music, or if you're really versed, a good
literature, but that's not quite as spontaneous.
Interesting diversion, but what does that have to do with
pheromones? Well, what we're really trying to do here is manage a complex set of behaviors with an abstract set of
chemicals which, artfully combined and assiduously managed, can help us understand and steer not only our "targets",
but also ourselves. Its interesting that a great many of the posts on this forum relate to the user. I see a lot
of us trying to understand ourselves better.
Great post Doc,
Greg
Edit: re-reading that quote above reminds
me of a recent thread here concerning an alpha male, not to mention a renaissance man.
If I was to wrestle a point
out of all that for our purposes, it would be that developing your sense and passions of smell, and learning to
think and talk about it, almost has to be good for your brain, because it evokes synaesthesia, where a single
perception or thought spans multiple kinds of sensory information.
That prceptual ability seems to be a
fundamental building block for holistic thinking, which appears to be the cognitive key of wisdom, as i wrote often
back in the old days.
DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)
At the risk of getting our
business thread banned from the main board... (maybe just the digressed part)
IMHO, these perceptual abilities
are critically important for wisdom, which historically is a word and concept originally applied to a "grasp of
wholes" in Greek philosophy (where the term arose as we know it). You also had to lead a certain kind of whole life
(integrity, etc) to attain wisdom. For Plato (Republic) you had to a certain extent be born with the capability for
it.
Synaesthesia is a kind of holism, where sensory input is perceived not as discrete kinds of information, but
is always and from the beginning integrated and united as a whole. I think this "talent" also manifests itself in
terms of integrated modes of thought and perception (e.g., thought + intuition + emotion), and even right-left brain
integration. Some people just find it easy to think holistically, in my opinion, whereas others find it as foreign
as ancient Greek (black and white thinking is a common thought malady to observe in this case); in part, due to
cultural conditioning stunting their growth in that way.
I think all these abilities tend to go together for some
people (artists tend to have a knack for all of it, IMO).
Our cultural history devalued holism, to a large
extent because religion and its authority placed itself in charge of that department (yes, this is true, from the
Middle Ages onward. If you think too holistically, you start to tread on territory religion "has all the answers
already for"; like how to live a certain kind of whole life; so wisdom in common society was threatening to the
power structures. Nowadays politics also tries to take control of all the "big thoughts", or corporate bosses
valuing mindless employees, , etc) , and culture thoroughly eliminated holism from philosophy (now about disjointed
logic problems rather than big questions, etc) and the schools.
The industrial revolution introduced
specialization, science taught us to think of independent and disjointed facts, ecomomics teaches us to think of
short term wealth and ignore the big picture, etc., etc., etc. It's almost a kind of "fall of man" to me, on the
level of thought and perception. Wisdom has been incredibly devalued (e.g., how we treat our elderly; the role of
fathers as teachers in the family has disappeared, the devaluation of "feminine" modes of thinking, forgetting that
we're citizens of a whole planet, rich "vs". poor, man "vs" nature; seeing ourselves as individuals and missing our
connectedness and interdependency, reliance on sound bytes, disjointed shreds of info, etc, etc.).
It is
unbelievable the portion of the world's problems that can be explained pretty comprehensively according to this
"father of concepts", regarding the lack of wisdom and holism. It's hard to even hint at the breadth and depth of
examples from every mode of living, because the lack of wisdom/holism is everywhere, so institutionalized, and so
"normal". That is why I feel comfortable with a grandiose term like a "fall of man".
I could go on
forever, as I've contemplated writing a book on this topic for years, and even filled a few notebooks up
with preliminary work. Maybe this gives you a taste of it. Probably the better the book would be, the more it would
be dissed and ignored, precisely because our culture has detested wisdom; but you never know. It represents in some
sense the culmination of my studies of philosophy and related fields over the years.
But most people are so
deprived of wisdom, culturally, they can't even begin to grasp the concept, even though it's quite natural to
humans. Something needs to wake us up, and that doesn't seem to be happening too soon. Mother nature ("who" might
"wish" we didn't see ourselves so unholistically as separate from her and at war with her) will take care of
that for us eventually, but it might be too late.
Last edited by DrSmellThis; 09-20-2008 at 12:39 AM.
DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)
I'd like to have a bottle of
Pheros to use 7 years from now. Which version do you believe would be better for long term storage, the regular or
concentrate version? Thanks!
Is Pheros concentrate still
available and how do you use it? What kinds of dilution ratios do you use?
Thanks
TG
Please try searching "Pheros
concentrate" for answers to both qustions. These issues have been covered multiple times here, and as I have been
saying, this is a product it helps to read about first.
I don't know if the concentrate is still available.
Bruce or Tammy would know.
DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)
nm.........
DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)
Just received Pheros this
afternoon. Haven't opened the bottle yet, but the paper that came wrapped around it smells awesome! Reminds me of
an incense I've smelt at places before, but never knew its name.
One question though. The paper says to mix w/
11ml of water. That would be 11ml relative to the whole contents of the bottle right? Wondered since I estimate
around 3ml in the bottle. So 11ml would be almost a 4x concentration.
If I'm the rubber and your the glue..then I'd probably get some, and you'd just be sticky
Sounds right. I think Doc said
to use distilled water too.
Thanks. I'm not planning on
mixing the whole thing at once. I wanted to make sure I had the concentration correct for mixing it with other
things. Or just with water as a cover. Just need to find a store that carries distilled water.
If I'm the rubber and your the glue..then I'd probably get some, and you'd just be sticky
Thanks for your
purchase.
To make the cologne, you add 11ml distilled H2O to the 7ml concentrate to make 18ml.
Otherwise, the
concentrate is appropriate for storage away from heat, light, and contaminants.
idesign will use the concentrate
straight on occasion, believing certain qualities are enhanced.
I prefer adding at least some distilled water,
(7ml minimum has been the strongest I've used) as I think it smells better and mellower. Not to mention, you get
more product.
If you mix it (with NPA or whatever) with something else besides water, in my opinion, the
water-alcohol balance will not be optimal. Mixing with oil-based products is not recommended, except on the skin.
DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)
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