News and other interesting items

It can be really useful to have a language to describe the fragrances you prefer. You can use it to describe what you like, and to feel more confident experimenting with new fragrances that are similar, perhaps those in the next group within the same fragrance family using the model below. Remember you do not always have to experiment with expensive purchases such as perfumes. You can always try out our bars of soap, or essential oils to get a pure unmixed fragrance of a different type. Over the years there have been several ways to describe fragrances, but probably...

Perfumes are complicated products, often containing many different fragrances. As you wear a perfume, you will often find the fragrance changes. This is a result of the fragrances within the perfume evaporating at different rates. For simplicity the changing aroma is classified into one of three groups. In reality it is a lot more complicated than that, but Top Middle and Base notes have become a common way of describing perfume fragrances. Top notes These are perceived immediately upon applying a perfume. They consist of small, light molecules that evaporate quickly. They form your initial impression of a perfume and thus are very...

It is with great sadness we have to tell you that Dr George Dodd passed away on the 14th December.    Back in 2006 George Dodd and his partner Liz Mountford, opened the Perfume Studio in its current form. Those of you who met George whilst smelling the fragrances, or having a drink in the café will probably remember him for his love of people and for his stories. George always had a story; about his new scientific creations, his plans to climb high mountains, his latest exploits in a fast car, plans for a runway in Mellon Charles, or...

THE PERFUME STUDIO - THEN & NOW The building that is now known as The Perfume Studio was originally a croft house – the “end croft house” – belonging to lady crofter Annie McLennan. In the photo below Annie and her dog are sitting outside of the house, which is now the gift shop section of the Perfume Studio and can still be seen from the outside of the building.   Annie was born on 29th August 1873 to Donald and Margaret McLennan (nee Urquart - from Gairloch) and died peacefully in her home on 28th April 1950. Annie’s brother,...

I found this interesting item on our old website and thought we should keep it. (I wrote it so many years ago I'd forgotten about it!) "It is dark outside. It's definitely morning, but no sign of dawn just yet. Tapputi is already hard at work in the palace laboratory, continuing her work from the previous evening. Her distillation apparatus containing calamus flowers, stems, oil and myrrh has been bubbling away overnight and now was the time to start the lengthy clarification and filtration processes. After separating different parts of the mixture, discarding most it, and sieving the result several...