Students at L’Atelier Parfums et Creations in Sanur, Bali, create their own perfumes and learn perfume formulation theory

For centuries, Indonesia has been known as a center for scents, the exotic Spice Islands  of history.

Long before the colonizers came to the archipelago to exploit the natural resources of the East, Kings and commoners across the country were harvesting cloves and cinnamon, patchouli and peppers, vanilla, tamarind, sandalwood, massoia and more for perfumes and offerings to the Gods.

Today, Indonesia is still a world leader in farming and producing essential oils. The nation annually exports around US$120 million of the essential oils needed by perfume-makers such as Dior, Yves St. Laurent, Guerlain and Chanel, according to perfumer Nora Gasparini of L’Atelier Parfums et Creations in Sanur, Bali.

Despite being a huge source of essential oils and so many raw materials, there are very few perfume makers to be found in Indonesia, Gasparini said with a delicate French accent.

“We moved to Bali from Martinique a year ago. My husband is in love with Bali — completely in love with this island, so we moved here. Daily, I would walk through the streets and there were these aromas, smells, perfumes — everywhere: in incense, in flowers and barks, and I thought these are the essences of perfumes I want to wear,” Gasparini said at her recently opened perfumery and workshop in a traditional Javanese Limasan house in Sanur.

These scents of Indonesia led Gasparini on the hunt for a perfumer in Indonesia who could capture these scents into perfumes.

“I searched everywhere for a perfumer to develop these, but I could find no one. So I packed my bags, went back to France and studied the art of perfume making at Cinquieme Sens, a perfumer school in France,” Gasparini said. Sitting at her perfumer organ, a set of round or square tiered shelves containing a myriad of bottles of essential oils. Selecting those with top notes, middle notes and bottom notes, Gasparini mixes them into exquisite perfumes.

“Organs are used by all perfumers and are called that because they are shaped like a church organ,” she said.

“I was pretty amazed there was not perfume-making here before. This is the place where the raw materials all come from. For a perfumer, this is the place to be,” says Gasparini.

Passing on her knowledge and introducing a wider audience to Indonesia’s natural wealth in raw materials, Gasparini teaches the basics of perfume making from her studio. A row of eight organs allow the students to formulate their own perfumes and study perfume making theory in a three-hour class.

Gasparini guides the students from their first thoughts and ideas about the scents that excite them, that send out a message of their own personalities.

Using worksheets, students design in words the perfume they are imagining before creating their perfume formulas in a series of trial and error tests to release the perfect perfume for their personalities.

“This is called the brief and it is to describe the perfume you want to make. This can be a story, an emotion and an adjective. I had one man from Jakarta who made his own perfume. It was beautiful with Vetiver and Tobacco scents. Another man came and made his wife a bottle of perfume for their anniversary. I thought that was incredibly romantic,” says Gasparini.

Her knowledge of aromas and how they will blend is extraordinary. She points to the Tonka Bean, which has a woody yet floral lightness, a scent that is not masculine or feminine, but youthful and strangely smelling of someone in their 30’s pursuing a career.

“The Tonka Bean is one of the few essential oils or molecules we have here from another country. It is from Brazil and is a very trendy perfume at the moment,” says Gasparini.

Her student’s perfume designing organs are laden with some of the most valuable and rare essential oils in the world, including agarwood, known as oud in Europe, benzoine, a resin from Sumatra with vanilla and spicy tones and rose oils produced through the enfleurage method.

“Just like in the film Perfume where he waxes the women and then scrapes off the wax to collect their essence — that is the enfleurage method of extraction. The rose petals are placed on wax, which then absorbs all the aroma molecules. It’s a very gentle way to extract the molecules. This takes a month and then the waxed petals are mixed in ether and evaporated off. This leaves a ‘concrete’ of roses.

“Indonesia is one of the few countries in the world that still produces rose essential oil in this way. In Europe, you could never afford the labor costs, so this is very rare and precious,” Gasparini said. Her students can use this and other priceless oils to make their perfumes, which they take home in 30 milliliter bottles housed in leather cases.

“The cases are to protect the perfumes from sunlight,” Gasparini said. While teaching, she also enjoys exploring perfume myths. She revealed many myths on perfume making.

“One is the idea of fixatives, of ambergris from whales being the best fixative. There are no fixatives in perfumes to make them last longer, this is dependent on the raw product and how long its natural molecules last. Citrus disappears very quickly, whereas Benzoine or ambergris last a long time,” Gasparini said of the differing notes on the scent pyramid and their legends.

“The top note is the first note you smell — the smell that you buy, next is the middle note that flows through, and then is the bottom note that lasts.”

Working with these distilled essences of Indonesia constantly excites and satisfies Gasparini.

“Everyday I make a perfume it’s a different environment depending on the smells I create and the mood I bring. If I feel bad, the perfume will be different than on days I feel good. Every time students make a perfume it is a surprise. People really express themselves. In the process you can already feel how the perfume will be.

“I had one doctor who made his own perfume and it was really clinical. I knew he was making the perfume from his head and not his heart. Perfume-making is really quite instinctive and I like to see students following their first instinct because that is usually right,” Gasparini said.

Training as a perfumer under Gasparini is 19-year-old Ketut Suarti.

“I am learning to make perfumes and I love this work,” says Suarti, who may become a leading Indonesian perfumer, one who can take the nation’s raw materials and create world class perfumes.

— Photos by J.B. Djwan

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