A Skid Row pigeon couple loses their home.

Two pigeons perch amidst the wreckage of their home.

Los Angeles’ homeless crisis affects so many, including the wildlife. Last night, two pigeons lost their home when a sidewalk shop’s sign collapsed, leaving the couple’s home roost vulnerable and exposed to the sidewalk on 5th Street, which sees a lot of pedestrian foot traffic at all hours, particularly during the day time. Since the structure collapsed during the nighttime, the birds were forced to stay there, for the night, because other pigeons claim the signs around them. These pigeons seem to not know where they might go, next, but it’s doubtful that they’ll stay here, because of the risk of threats from below. Pigeons usually prefer to have a safe and secure, secluded roosting spot, where they’ll return on a daily basis, typically in the late afternoon. The birds are likely devastated, at the loss of their home, having made grand plans to build a nest and rear some young, behind the shop sign, now that their meals had become regular, on an ongoing basis. 

A pigeon overlooks the street below, from his former home.

A forlorn project haul, upon attempting to figure out Gamma Linolenic Acids (GLAs) ex Blackcurrant Seed Oil.

What started off serene and quietly turned frenzied on my iPad, and I’ve spend nearly a whole day’s worth of time on my device, today being Wednesday, out of the week.

I had just received a small haul of materials, from Bulk Apothecary, which I was eager to receive, since it took about a week to receive the shipment, here in LA, coming from Illinois. I purchased 5 pounds of Himalayan pink salt, because I felt like I needed a mineral supplementation of some sort, and I wanted to try out the salt, as an alternative to liquid trace mineral supplements. I’d also been on the fringes of a deep dive product research stint, having become obsessed with formulating a skin care product that contained γ-Linolenic acid as its primary feature. I had, just the prior week, spent 50 hours on my device, 

upon settling with blackcurrant seed oil. I figured that, for having such small seeds, the brambles (berry) plants must produce a precious oil. Gamma linolenic acids are one of the necessary fatty acids that belong in our diet, and the body’s production and usage of the product declines with age, so, being age 44 now, I’d felt that my energy was in decline, and that I was putting on a lot of weight, possibly due to medications. The thing was, though, was that I didn’t want to sacrifice either my meals or my energy supply - I had to somehow find a way to burn those calories, given that I now started exercising again, all while maintaining eating three or more regular meals a day. When isn’t the lack of available fatty acids a primary contributor to less-than-optimal health, and I felt that supplementing the skin could potentially produce viable results in the greater body-at-large, with the concentrated ingredients I purchased from Bulk Apothecary.

Five pounds of Himalayan pink salt, which, like the blackcurrant seed oil, I’m trying to absorb externally. The salt is reputed to contain trace amounts of a full spectrum of minerals.

The problem was, upon receiving the oil, the salt, and some polysorbate 20, for solubilizing the oils in to a water based solution, for the skin care product, was that I found that the blackcurrant seed oil had what Gemini referred to as an “earthy” scent. I fancied, moreso, that it was a fishy smell. It reminded me of sea buckthorn oil, another oil high in fatty acids, which I had sampled in previous years. Upon consulting with Gemini about the issue, we settled upon that the smell was an inevitable product of the virgin blackcurrant seed oil, which, (virgin) would feature the highest amount of fatty acids, compared to a refined version of the oil.

So I went on a product research deep dive on Amazon, and alternately, consulting with Gemini, and it was determined that I could potentially appreciable halt the smell of earthiness or fishiness, by absorbing the smell, in vitro, making use of coconut activated charcoal powder. I was supposed to let it sit in the oil for a couple or a few days. So, I ordered several more products, including a Büchner flask-based hand pumped vacuum chamber that had a draining ceramic container at its top, which would hold the liquid and the charcoal powder, as it was vacuumed in to the flask, with a paper membrane in between the liquid mixture and the drainage holes of the upper receptacle.

Unfortunately, I never received the packages that went with this second haul, on a subsequent week that had started. It was disappointing, to say the least, largely because I had formulated a poor-smelling fragrance cover-up for my first trial at masking the blackcurrant seed oil’s scent. It was a rosy scent, which, all in all, ought not be the vibe I should be going for, so I was worried that production and development time would be lost, and I’d have to order the items again, or something, but I chatted with Amazon about the boxes being delivered somewhere else, and they promptly issued a refund, at my request. 

The delivery driver’s photo “proof” of that my packages were delivered, whereas I have no idea where this picture was taken - it obviously, to me, isn’t my home, where I’d sent the packages to.

I started hearing things, in my head, about that the whole deodorizing concept was a majorly tweaked out topic to consider, and that I should feel lucky that the packages never arrived, and that I had to get on chat support with Amazon to get a refund, which was painless, by the way. After all, I was about to spend nearly $100 to deodorize a $17 bottle of oil. My rationale, during all of that though, was that I could establish a workflow, and an edge, over competitors, for going the extra mile, by deodorizing the oil that had started to oxidize, for however long it had been sitting out. 

Meanwhile, for this week’s screen time, I did some more consulting with Gemini, and I conceived of that the scent of earthy-fishiness could be better covered up by a sweet tropical type of scent, with coconut, tonka bean, benzoin, and some of my Eau Pigeonoid-recent formulation of a men’s fragrance that I’m currently wearing and chiseling away at, aesthetically speaking. It turned out that tropical was the ticket, and the second formulation ends up smelling quite mild and pleasant - here, I had highlighted a more relatable earthy scent combination, yet the oxidized aroma as the skin care product I fixed up ages, on the skin, still has reminisces of oxidized blackcurrant seed oil, but not so much that I couldn’t forget about it, for a while; so I moved on to the next thing… figuring out what to do, since I had all of that Amazon gift card money that was returned to me, and I settled upon getting back to a project that would have the subject headers as being “LED-backlit mini Indonesian-style wood panel carving decorative art pieces,” a throwback to my old loft apartment, in which I had purchased a lotus woodcut panel set, and I’d set up back lighting for it. 

I felt like going with the sparrows, for this project, because I felt that they suited the floral decoration aspect more neatly than pigeons would. Now I’m considering various options, after having mega-shopped Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, going between a handheld woodworking tool, and laser cutting CNC machines. Whilst in the process of attempting to create assets for the CNC automated cutting of the wood panels, I spent some money on a 2D to 3D model app, for credits for rendering the 3D images. The app didn’t work, now, by this point (I’d used it previously, and it worked quite well), so I settled upon planning to do a 3D print of the model, yet, I had to come up with the 3D model file, in any case - that, or produce a physical model of the woodcut decoration, somehow, by rote, etc. So that’s where I’m at, in all of this. I think I’m going to end up going with a handheld woodworking tool project workflow. I’ll make sure that readers get updated on the progress.

Update: early a.m., the morning subsequent to this last night’s blog. I ended up going with the hand tool, although I had settled upon getting a rotary tooling setup, rather than the smaller engraving pen options I’d been considering. Apparently, things just aren’t done that way, in such a situation as mine - the engraving pen path, that is. So I ordered some woodworking and carbine burr bits, a Big Spring Sale deal of a $69 rotary tool, that was purportedly 77% off ~$299, supposedly. I thought I’d give it a try - it looked alright, and bargain-y, while being thick enough to hold a reasonably-sized motor inside, for the job, and I ordered some square birch wood panels and some sanding scrubbers. I’ll worry about doing the 3D print a little later on, and I’ll tinker with this woodworking setup, in the meantime. 

The pigeons get cooling off stations, during a SoCal heatwave.

In a turn of fate, to contrast with recent weeks’ days of rain, we here in DTLA have been getting by, now, through a heat wave. Some of the other feeders at Pershing Square in Downtown LA, along with myself, have been keeping up with providing a refreshing pigeon bird bath cooling station accommodation, especially this past week, given how hot it’s been in Los Angeles, at the cusp of the Spring Equinox. Check out the pigeons enjoying their day in the sun, while some of them take advantage of the cool water pans, splashing around and cleaning themselves.

@jay.ammon Pigeons at Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles are having a great time after a meal, perching on the bushes, concrete, and railings, and some of the birds cool down in some water pans left out for them. #coolingcenter #spring #dtla #birdwatching #cutebirds ♬ Sounds of Pigeon (feat. National Geographic Soundscapes, Soothing Sounds, Nature Sounds New Age, Relaxing Nature Sound & White Noise Sounds For Sleep) - Pigeon Sounds & Animals Sounds & White Noise Ambience

Ask iPigeon.institute: is it lonely, being a pigeon feeder?

 Recently, I got on to TikTok, after such a long time having done without it. 

I hadn’t much really felt like I “needed” TikTok, but my social media life had started to stagnate, somewhat. I found that a lot of social media users had simply migrated over to TikTok (I put out a couple of sample pigeon videos, and I got a generally higher user engagement rate on TikTok, in the little while I’ve been on there). 

In the app, I had the option, as all social media apps have, of adding people to my following list. I guess I was kind of mystified by the platform, upon looking around, a bit, and, for figuring out some things about how things work. I don’t really know what it is, but the content creation aspect of the platform just “feels” more engaging and supporting, and thus, more rewarding than some other outsets of joining social media and posting content. 

A lot of people who know me know that I’m super-introverted, so I’m kind of at odds with becoming creative, somewhat, in a social media content sort of way, yet, as a generally jobless person, I often fantasize about ways in which I could make money, regardless of how sensible the fantasy might or might not be. Now, that being the case, I’m not completely jobless, and I have some niche ways in which I pull in money. I still have this confounding factor of that the voices in my head would appear to be condemning me, still, on account of the work I used to do, mostly back in 2006-2012, or so, although my therapists have told me to basically set that aside, and their stance is being supportive of a “successful” and prosperous “me,” to which I’m eager to become, having basically lost my entire 30’s to distractions such as (largely being) voices in my head thing. I guess, on one hand, some folks would call it a person’s conscience, but my experience of this thing became much more interactive, superior, and controlling of my thought and decision making process, often blinding me to my own thoughts and personal volition, having taken this prominent place in my mind, whether it’s in the background, or it’s something I can’t ignore. 

Why would I have this odd problem, people must wonder, of me? Recent articles I’ve looked at have suggested that it’s entirely an “inner” voice, hinting at that it’s an organic disease. Yet, many schizophrenics, such as myself, at various times, would swear that there’s some other novel entity observing and attempting to control them; the subject(s), in interactive real time. The novelty of it is what I would speculate as being the driving factor that would be schizophrenia at its most visible circumstance in life - the troubled, ranting, and yelling person who’d become dangerously isolated and alienated, in their mind, out in public. Some articles have suggested, moreso recently, perhaps, that interacting with these voices in the mind does not necessarily constitute a mental illness, whether it be a cultural, spiritual, trauma-based, etc. reason for why some folks speak to voices, and are not considered mentally ill - which is oftentimes how my former peers, and family, as well, have appeared to me, as voices in my mind. They appear to be casually and comfortably navigating the same experience, without having the existential dilemma feature of it, that I, and people like me, feel and experience. Although I haven’t spoken to anyone, coherently, at least, who had ever explained to me what it is, and how they experience it - the voices in their mind, there seems to be a prominent subset of these people who experience schizophrenia, of that they believe that it’s some sort of technology that’s infiltrated their lives. Only time can tell, yet the future seems to be embedding itself in the minds of these lost folks, for various, numerous types of explanations as to their origin and purpose in life. 

Now, let it be known, I feel that speaking to voices in one’s mind, at least, at this point in history, is generally symptomatic of a narcissistic and unsound mind. Even so, this being the case, I still speak to the voices, when the opportunity to do so, in relative privacy (after all, what’s really private, if people are potentially able to also hear what I’m saying “to myself,” in private), for the sake of alleviating the allure of the phenomenon being a novelty of an intriguing nature - that people can, actually, speak to and hear each other, in opportune times, from remote physical distances, and be heard, and speak, completely absent of any technological device that the person has on them. Numerous theories could abound at why this sort of technology is not known, to people, yet it’s so firmly believed, as such, by sufferers; my take on it is that people are not generally and widely responsible enough yet, and this advancement takes place in experimental individuals, at this time, for the sake of gathering data, and perhaps making progress in the subject and study area. 

Anyhow, this type of cognizant dilemma has plagued my mind, for nearly 15 years, now, and it traces back much further in my early adulthood. It’s undoubtedly been the crux upon which my relationships in life have regularly failed - this embedded form of paranoid existence. The latest entreaty to my understanding of it is: “hey! Don’t “actually” take this stuff literally, and go about affecting someone else’s life on account of that you had been hearing things, involving them, and then, go on to bring up what you’re experiencing in the mind - this is all for observation and for understanding.” How annoying is it, when someone reveals their paranoid alternate, inner self, to others? It’s a very touchy part of understanding an individual (or not understanding them), and some folks are portrayed as being very natural and gifted in this form of communication, as though, from having known them, and about their intellectual capacities, they speak as internal entities without causing offense, which is imaginably difficult to pull off. 

Anyways, that was a huge disclaimer and introduction to that, and why, I feed pigeons, as a large part of my identity. I prefer not to traumatize and alienate people with these strange beliefs that inhabit themselves in my mind, at least, while I’m working things through, although I have the desire to not be so introverted, a lot of the time, which I feel further alienates me, and, on that note, I’m generally healthier when I’m in a relationship, whether it be platonic or romantic, and I feel that I’ve been working on a lot of things, in life, which could have used some correction, insight, and perspective, that comes with the wisdom of age. 

So, when the subject matter comes up, in my mind, of that “someone” or other isn’t “interested” in me, romantically :(, I just take things in stride, and wait things out. When I’m put on the spot, like that, I scarcely ever would have an appropriate explanation for why I am the way I am - unattractive to “them,” while navigating the creep factor (being called such suggestive types of names can be ruinous, and I feel that I’ve become too accustomed to hearing some of these names being used). I defer, regularly, to the classic notion of that it’s easier to associate with, and be truthful to, someone who’s not been acquainted with me, much (a stranger), yet. Even so, I have to also defer to Brad Pitt’s character, in Fighting Club, for being a single serving companion to people, as also featuring antisocial traits (he ends up blowing up buildings, for example). I’m not interested in anything nearly of that sort of fantastical statement of largesse, in having the drive to be known, to others, while my innate personality traits are also not condescended upon, through my own willing participation in interacting with others. What I do, by feeding the pigeons, is just a fragile, yet hopeful, project, yet I feel that it ought to seem relatable in that people also pay monthly additional rent, for example, for owning a pet in an apartment setting. I’m simply buying food for the pigeons, and, perhaps, leasing their time with me, given that it’s possible that the city might want to do away with the birds, by the time they start becoming sociable with people - I still don’t know, and I’m at odds, with the loss of the Central Library flock in Downtown LA having gone missing, last year, seemingly not to ever return. They had started to become very friendly with me, although I somewhat felt that some of these staff at the library had different designs upon the space I was using, to feed the birds, daily, and, for that, our purposes for and about the birds would be at odds, although this is all just speculation - there could be various explanations for why the birds left, and never came back. 

It’s a tough spot to be put on, this notion of that I offer that I feed the local pigeons, as a prominent feature of myself, and I have to consider that my perspective on things might naturally seem biased, although I am getting older, and I have to come to terms with a more mature and well seasoned tasteful representation of myself, being that old solutions stopped “working,” and for that I generally don’t have very much to say, off hand, about why I don’t have a regular job - I’ve had several jobs, in life, in which I was to be taken on, for the long term, but personal failures stood in the way of my longevity with them, and I’ve got to say that I’m at a loss, for what I should have, or could be, doing, otherwise, in life, had I not made some certain path-defining choices for myself, although this generally pertains to the people I’m connected with, on social media, whom I value very much, for their continued networking connections to me, for that many of them are very successful, in their own careers, in life. It puts things in perspective, for me - how much better ought I be doing, if I could - if I stood to learn something from these single serving interactions in my life, and take away something of wisdom, from them? On one hand, I can’t perform on all of the types of lifestyle and tasks that I see people do, yet I feel that I could, once again, live a successful lifestyle, this time, based on more sound and ethical principles. I know, it’s not that attractive, and I might seem to be poor, amongst the poor and afflicted population amongst whom I live, yet things are not quite that superficially set in place, although I am doing things on a mental health diagnoses prognosis, in life. 

Maybe, in hindsight, all of this stuff might just be hyperbole, and we’ll live longer lives, to make up for our shortcomings that we’ve lived through. Maybe other people have their own sensitivities and nuances about them that keep them to themselves, on their own merits, and this is just an awkward time, in life, for humility, being that we were brought up in an age of superficial glamour being currency of the day, for some of us. Finding the right niche, in which I can operate, foreseeably in to the future, is my primary concern, and I ought to not listen to such suggestive intimations in my mind about how so, and what for, of that I’m a late bloomer, perhaps, in starting a family life, at this point (I’m currently nearing my 44th birthday). 

Aside from all of that, feeding the pigeons daily is a little and attainable joy that I have, for myself. It’s something I can do, where I check in with my friends, the pigeons, and I witness and experience small rewards and little gems of life, itself, for feeding the birds.

Some of the Pershing Square, DTLA pigeons are starting to become brave.

 A few of the birds at Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles are warming up to the idea of eating out of my hand. The other day, one of them even jumped up on my arm to stand there and peck at the seeds in my hand. 

Wet pigeons are cuter than pigeons that aren’t wet.

An atmospheric river storm hit Southern California, this weekend, and it felt like a much-welcomed event, especially looking back, a bit, to this past year’s wildfire season, which claimed much of Pacific Palisades and Altadena homes in those areas. On a lighter note, however, a rain storm is an opportunity to catch photos that are rarer, in other circumstances.

Pershing Square, lately, has been seeing impressive numbers of pigeons show up to hang out on the stairway to the main plaza level of the park. 

I had a great idea come to me, from my Amazon Vine product reviewing gig, in the form of a clip-on telephoto / macro 2x mobile device lens, by Veedzoens, for this rainy day, seeing as how the birds had been showing up in such large numbers at Pershing Square, almost like they had taken over the place. What better photogenic opportunity could there be, for capturing some of the flock on camera using my telephoto lens?

The sparrows were the gatekeepers, as I approached the pigeons’ daytime roosting and hang out spot at the nearby stairs.

Now, the lens was made specifically for the iPhone, which has a different sized lens, and different on-device lenses, from my iPad Pro, but I was able to adapt it fairly well, to my device. As you can see, there’s some of the inside of the lens that got captured; this happens when the camera is zoomed out. Aside from that, the optical zoom feature of the lens offers a sharper image, and better close-ups than my standard iPad Pro cameras, which max out at 12 megapixels, for the rear camera.

My new 2x telephoto lens. There’s an attachment that goes with it that the lens screws on to, which is a clip for mounting the camera on the rear camera of a mobile device.

I ended up going out, twice, yesterday, in the rain, for the sake of feeding the pigeons, as it was a lot of fun to have a rainy day, with so many photogenic birds present, and I got to make use of my new telephoto lens for most of the photos captured here, from this day. 

I was finally able to get some good close-ups of Muffin, one of the new brown-ish colored pigeons of this flock of birds.

The birds are truly a landmark feature of this part of town. At various several times, during the day, such as after a meal, the pigeons will all fly up in to the air, and follow the leader, as they circle around the high rises, sometimes whisking around to the next street over (Broadway), and some of them fly back over some of the buildings, and they end up roosting back at their lofty places, such as on an apartment building’s ledge, or at the traffic signal. This daily ritual, featuring around 150 birds, or so, at a time, is a signal, at times, to other flock members situated on Broadway, who branch off, from there, to check out different feeding and roosting spots on the next street down, while others may recognize me, and they return to the staircase at Pershing Square, awaiting their meal. 

The birds are truly in their top form, when they’re out in the rain, and it’s a rich sensory experience to observe the pigeons as they work out eating their meal, as a flock, as well as during their post-meal socialization moment, and their flying in formation is a beautiful sight to behold. 

The pigeons perch on the traffic lights, as it’s one of their favorite spots to wait around for meal time.

Muffin, in the Rain (fan art, inspired by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis’ Antiquaries Prefer Shell, 1934)

Lady Gaga and Muffin, from the Beats1 Zane Lowe interview.

Some more wet pigeon photos from mid-February, 2026.

A double haul of fragrance components - Late January-Early February 2026

 The past couple of weeks, or so, have been a whirlwind of fragrance sprayer ingredients mixing. I’d found some very affordable (and, authentic) old favorites that I like, on eBay, namely Spicebomb Extreme, which is for men, and Absolutely Blooming, for women (although I’m using it for myself). I decided to dip in to ladies’ perfume, to boost my room’s aesthetic, and to have some features of femininity in my close proximate area (on me). I’ve been reading that the fragrance is apparently discontinued. Despite these fragrances being old favorites, I started to feel a bit limited, in scent choice, when going out, and I was getting tired of layering the same fragrances on top of each other. 

I was longing for some novelty and versatility, so I went with a concept of one of my own creations, a very skeletal prototype of a men’s fragrance, which I named Eau Pigeonoid, at least, for the time being, that’s what it’s named. The basic concept was that the fragrance opens with some citrus brightness, and, subsequently, a woodsy, coniferous, sweet resinous scent, over a chocolate and tonka aroma, which was somewhat a tasty gourmand musky effect that helped ground the composition. 

I wanted to make some changes to the formula, so, instead of my original 8 ingredients, I consulted with Google Gemini about the fragrance, in intervals, revealing segments of the original Eau Pigeonoid, combined with some features that I wanted to add, such as rum extract, ambrocenide, which I found to be a very popular deep and rich amber fragrance ingredient, and I had some Ultravanil, as well, from an earlier purchase, that I wanted to throw in to a new composition. I hadn’t really used these ingredients in a fragrance composition, just yet. 

So, in the course of brainstorming the new version of a fragrance, based upon the general themes of the original, given my additions that I wanted to make room for, Gemini and I worked out a fantastic ingredients list, where I could pull out all the stops, in the case of this purchase of fragrance ingredients. Ambranum is one of my favorites out of the list below, with its resinous incense-like character, like a raw copal resin sort of take. Patchouli Fractions was another stand out favorite, and it went well with Ambranum and Benzoin Ollifac (the Benzoin, from the original recipe. 

Since I wasn’t too fond of how cloying the original Eau’s citrus opening was, I wanted to have a more ephemeral and fleeting, natural citrus character to the fragrance, so I went with a natural California Lemon and Lime Terpenes. I’d become intrigued by the potential of implementing terpenes in to my fragrance compositions, rather than trying to sort through a bunch of synthetic or altered aroma chemicals, of which there are many available. As I said, the citrus was initially a bit too much, in the original fragrance composition, and it stuck around a long time, and it made the composition take on sort of a smeared mix mash of fragrance components, whereas I envisioned differently, using terpenes, as they were reputed to have generally the same, or desired, type of effect in a fragrance composition, yet, being that they’re natural and not particularly oily (terpenes can be extracted from essential oils, as one of the components of the oil). With the citrus accord I had, including yuzu, petitgrain, and bergamot, I attained a fresh citrusy opening to the fragrance, as the initial highlight of the scent experience, which, now, starts to settle down and really fade, after about 5 minutes, or so. 

I made a couple of different mockups of the new version of Eau Pigeonoid, since I felt that the first one had become too muddy, and it smelled like old men’s aftershave, which is okay, sort of, although I wanted something more cutting edge, and more well-defined. I made a second bottle, which I was happier about, and this time around, I knew the formula better, by memory, so I spent less time conceiving of the number of parts that ought to go in to the fragrance, what order they’re put in, and, I had hoped, with the addition of BHT crystals, the citrus would keep its definition and character, while fading away to allow room for the subsequent woods and sweet musky effect.

I found it surprising, after having made these batches of the remake of Eau Pigeonoid, that Gemini could function so adeptly in the world of fragrance, being that it’s machine based, and, for the fact of that, in general, machines aren’t made to have a sense of smell. For the rum extract component, for example, Gemini recommended giving the rum a new life, with the addition of an oak wood component. I had the choice of trying the absolute, or the CO2, and Gemini recommended the Oakwood CO2, since it had a better character and consistency, within a formulation. I had forgotten what sort of reference I could have, prior to purchasing these ingredients, of a memory of Oak wood’s scent profile, and, upon receiving the product, and sampling Oakwood CO2, I was immediately reminded of the rich, boozy sort of scent of oak casks, for storing and aging rum, for example. The character of oak wood would be a prominent feature, that is to say, in a concept of a true rum aroma.

I bought a few musks, this time around; not the most expensive ones, but, a variety of cheaper and mid-grade musks, since I wanted the dry down of the fragrance to be somewhat light, yet distinct and ethereal. Ethyl Maltol and Ethyl Cyclopentenolone were used in very trace amounts, to achieve a distinct sweet and caramel character to it. I knew that these ingredients were intriguing novelties of this fragrance formulation, yet, also, I imagined that any more than a couple of drops, or a mini scoop of crystals, ought to suffice, since I didn’t want it to smell cheaply sweet. In my original formula, I used Benzoin Ollifac and Tonka Bean Absolute or Key Accord for sweetness. 

5-Methyl-2-Phenyl-2-Hexenal took some getting used to, as a cocoa/chocolate component, as it seemed quite bitter, on first impression. Now, it seems more like natural roasted, ground cocoa bean powder, rather, which is good. I was looking for a cheap alternative for a colorless cocoa component, and I tried out Perfumer’s Apprentice’s Cocoa Essence (Natural), which I found to be very cost effective, and, unlike cocoa absolute, which makes the fragrance liquid milky and thickly colored, I was able to implement cocoa notes without compromising the color of the fragrance composition using these two ingredients.

I added some smokiness to the composition, with some Guaiacwood oil, which comes with a pasty consistency. Part of the reason I reformulated my second try at doing this fragrance was that the second original formulation had a bit too much smokiness to it, although I liked the effect of the smokiness in the mix. Other woods that I implemented were Operanide, Iso E Super, Palo Santo Key Accord, Coniferan Pure, Prismantol, and Patchouli Fractions. I truly was fond of the classic, lighter effect of the patchouli fractions, and I applied it fairly liberally and regularly to the formulation, since I didn’t want it to get buried and left behind. I used Cashmeran somewhat like Ambranum, both of which ended up being primary components of the fragrance mix. I threw in a bit of frankincense and myrrh, to complement the resinous aroma that I was going for, here. 

There were probably just several other ingredients I used, in addition to the ones mentioned, although likely in much smaller, trace quantities. 

SKU:	Product	Quantity	Price	Ext. Price
ac-1098-sz1	5-Methyl-2-Phenyl-2-Hexenal-4ml	1	$7.25	$7.25
fr-1-sz2	Almond Fragrance Oil **-15ml	1	$6.00	$6.00
bl-155_sz1	Ambranum-4ml	1	$17.75	$17.75
ac-1104-sz1	BHT Crystals-8g (0.28 oz)	1	$6.50	$6.50
eo-108_sz1	Blackcurrant Absolute **-4ml	1	$25.00	$25.00
ac-720-sz2	Cashmeran® (IFF) **-15ml	1	$16.75	$16.75
fr-20-sz2	Cassis (Black Currant) Fragrance Oil **-15ml	1	$6.00	$6.00
bl-212-sz1	Cassis 345F (Firmenich) **-4ml	1	$11.75	$11.75
na-6436-sz2	Cocoa Essence (Natural) **-15ml	1	$12.75	$12.75
ac-1059_sz1	Coniferan Pure **-4ml	1	$6.00	$6.00
ac-920-sz4	Coumarin (crystalline powder) **-30g (1.05 oz)	1	$9.50	$9.50
ac-9862-sz1	Ethyl Cyclopentenolone 50% in PG (Firmenich)-4ml	1	$8.00	$8.00
ac-1200-sz1	Ethyl Linalool-4ml	1	$6.25	$6.25
ac-501_sz1	Ethyl Maltol crystals-8g (0.28 oz)	1	$5.50	$5.50
ac-421-sz1	Galaxolide (Musk G)-4ml	1	$6.00	$6.00
eo-7310_sz1	Guaiacwood (Multi-Origin)-4ml	1	$6.50	$6.50
ac-6000-sz1	Habanolide® (Firmenich)-4ml	1	$6.25	$6.25
eo-6505-sz2	Lemon - California **-15ml	1	$14.75	$14.75
ac-2424-sz2	Lime Terpenes (Natural) **-15ml	1	$12.25	$12.25
ac-1194-sz1	Limediene (Bedoukian) **-4ml	1	$21.75	$21.75
ac-1222-sz1	Muscone (Firmenich) **-4ml	1	$14.50	$14.50
eo-217-sz1	Oakwood CO2 Extract **-4ml	1	$9.00	$9.00
ac-1284_sz1	Operanide (IFF) **-4ml	1	$9.75	$9.75
ac-9851_sz1	Patchouli Fractions-4ml	1	$9.75	$9.75
ac-27421-sz1	Precyclemone B (IFF)-4ml	1	$6.50	$6.50
ac-1185-sz2	Prismantol (IFF) **-15ml	1	$15.75	$15.75

Order Notes: None

SubTotal: $277.75 Shipping: UPS Ground $13.03 Tax: $25.89 Total: $316.67

Some of my current fragrance mixing components, at home.

Later, in early February, I got an inkling, probably from my lengthy discussions with Google Gemini, and, also, for going through most of my ingredients collections I’ve acquired, again, so far, of that the narcissus flower could be done much more justice than could be had, with trying out narcissus and jonquil absolute, both of which I tried out, in small quantities, and, which left me disappointed, being that they both smelled very green, somewhat spicy, and stemmy. I don’t recommend, at all, trying out narcissus and jonquil absolute, this being the case. As it turns out, there is no essential oil in narcissus flowers, which is sometimes the case, with some of the fragrant flowers that are used for their fragrance, so, gas chromatography mass spectrometry analyses much more suitably suffice for recreating the fragrances of such flowers that don’t have essential oils to them. After all, narcissus is known, by and large, for its attractive flowers and richly fragrant scent, of which, paperwhite narcissus have a particular character about its fragrance that immediately sparked nostalgia and longing, the moment Gemini had mentioned it, as our discussions went along, during the course of development. 

Although Gemini had neglected, initially, to mention para-cresyl acetate and Para Cresyl Phenyl Acetate (PCPA), one a liquid, the other, powdery crystals, I uncovered that these two components were not only available, from Perfumer’s Apprentice, but that they are also largely considered to be integral in the formulation of a narcissus flowers reconstruction. Indeed, PCPA has a very characteristic floral scent that lends itself strongly to the scent of narcissus flowers. Gemini did not provide the perfect formulation, right off hand, that is to say, but, in the end, it took on my research item additions (PCPA + para-cresyl acetate), and it successfully worked out a beautiful formulation recipe for reconstruction the natural, live fragrance of paperwhite narcissus flowers.

SKU:	Product	Quantity	Price	Ext. Price
ac-814-sz2	Benzyl Acetate (Natural)-15ml	1	$14.75	$14.75
ac-580-sz2	Benzyl Alcohol FCC-15ml	1	$11.00	$11.00
ac-1106-sz1	Cedarwood Terpenes-4ml	1	$7.00	$7.00
ac-1250-sz1	Eucalyptol (Natural) **-4ml	1	$6.00	$6.00
ac-1035-sz1	Indole (Pure) Crystals **-8g (0.28 oz)	1	$6.75	$6.75
na-6699_sz1	Linalool (Natural)-4ml	1	$6.50	$6.50
ac-1129-sz1	Methyl Benzoate (Natural)-4ml	1	$9.50	$9.50
ac-2240-sz1	Methyl Isoeugenol-4ml	1	$7.25	$7.25
ac-2143-sz1	Ocimene **-4ml	1	$8.00	$8.00
ac-1036-sz2	Para Cresyl Phenyl Acetate Crystals-8g (0.28 oz)	1	$16.25	$16.25
ac-2551-sz1	Para-cresyl acetate-4ml	1	$6.25	$6.25

Order Notes: None

SubTotal: $99.25 Shipping: UPS Ground $13.06 Tax: $9.68 Total: $121.99   Payments: Gift Card $100.00 CREDITCARD $21.99

The final formulation recipe for the reconstitution of paperwhite narcissus flowers, obtained via Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy headspace analysis of the air surrounding the fresh flowers. I made only 10% of the listed parts, for my batch of paperwhite narcissus fragrance oil, since I was just experimenting with creating a headspace flower reconstruction. 

Ingredient	Parts	Note
(E) -beta-Ocimene	500	Neat (Pure)
PCPA (10% Solution in IPM)	400	<-- This delivers 40 parts of scent
Benzyl Acetate	200	Neat
1,8-Cineole	80	Neat
Indole (10% dil.)	60	(Already diluted)
Linalool	50	Neat
Benzy Alcohol	30	Neat
Methyl Benzoate	20	Neat
Para-Cresyl Acetate	10	Neat
Methyl Isoeugenol	10	Neat

In truth, the recipe turned out fantastic, as a powerfully diffusive authentic replication of the smell of paperwhite narcissus flowers, with no unnecessary components kept in the formula. I highly recommend this project, which costs about $100 to do, from Perfumer’s Apprentice, for DIY and aspiring fragrance makers. It came out very strong, and one spray of the concentrate, diluted at 25%, at minimum, ends up lasting about 2 hours, or so, on the skin. It smells great, and it’s a suitable season-themed project to do, being that flowering plant bulbs are being sold in gardening stores, around this time of year, paperwhite narcissus bulbs, amongst them. 

A line art illustration of paperwhite narcissus flowers.

Update: more instructions and tips for making your own reconstitution of paperwhite narcissus.

One thing that I should mention is that you’ll need a solvent to keep the oils (and powder - para cresyl phenyl acetate is a powder) diluted in, especially the para cresyl phenyl acetate. One thing to note is that para cresyl phenyl acetate powder is tough to work with - it won’t dissolve easily, at room temperature. I read that putting a glass container in a hot water bath will help the PCPA become diluted, but I didn’t have a glass container like that handy, so I tried plastic. It didn’t work all that well, so I tried diluting the PCPA is more isopropyl myristate, a scentless solvent, related to isopropyl alcohol, somewhat, and it also has the capability to allow dissolved materials to permeate the skin - you could notice some warming effects from some oils, and I found that the paperwhite narcissus oil’s “feel” is somewhat cool, surely on account of the Eucalyptol (1,8-cineole) being present in a kind of small amount. The skin permeation feature of it isn’t too powerful, though. The isopropyl myristate also feels fairly emollient, not quickly evaporative, like isopropyl alcohol. 

So, anyways, I tried diluting the PCPA in more isopropyl myristate, and I didn’t have much success getting the crystalline powder to become diluted in the solvent, although shaking it up in a closed small plastic container did work better, and I got a fair amount of the powder dissolved. I only made 10% of the recipe listed, and I did it as drops being one part. You might want to have a 0.00 scale handy to measure out your portion of PCPA, which I roughly calculated, for a 10% by drops equivalent weight ratio for the ingredient, to be about half a gram, although I had to account for undissolved crystals that were left in my dilution container, so I added about 1/10th to 1/4 gram more, and the base amount for the formula, which worked out well, was about 1/2 a gram, so up to 0.6g-0.75g of PCPA for the 10% reconstitution formula. The amount of isopropyl myristate I used was pretty heavy handed, at 4 mL. I somewhat wrongly estimated how much workspace I was allowing myself, given that I was working with 5mL spray bottles, as my workspace.

Para cresyl phenyl acetate crystal powder, and a 5mL spray bottle. 

Giving myself 4mL of isopropyl myristate made it so my container would be overfilled, given the other oils that need to be mixed in, so I ended up splitting the contents between two containers, and, at the end, when I was done mixing the ingredients together, I just poured the contents out of and back in to one another, to mix it easily. So, if you have 4mL of isopropyl myristate to 0.5-0.75g para cresyl phenyl acetate, that’s plenty to dissolve the crystals in, although you have to consider your workspace bottle’s own particular volume capacity. The thing is, is that, shaking the crystals up, in the solvent, helped to dilute the crystals more than putting my plastic spray bottle in a hot water bath. This dissolving step is important, because the solubility of the crystals affects the diffusion of the ingredient, when sprayed. It’s quite a powerful ingredient, when sprayed. You have to make sure that the crystals are dissolved well, or else your spray bottle will become clogged with solids, and you would have a hard time measuring out equal portions of concentrate in to separate containers, which is how I did my process - with multiple containers. 

About half a gram of para cresyl phenyl acetate - a suitable amount for making 10% of the above described formula, which is plenty, to last you several weeks, to several months or more, even if you sprayed it all the time, when you go out.

Aside from dissolving the crystals, following the recipe is fairly easy and straightforward. You’ll want to have some kind of plastic or glass dropper, to count out the drops per part you’re putting in to your container, and it’s simple to follow the recipe, using 10% of the numbers listed, to create a small amount of fragrance concentrate, which will happen to be a very powerful concentrate, with enough of it to suffice making anywhere from 16 oz. to a half gallon, or so, of dilute hydrosol water. I left my concentrate very powerful, at a 25% dilution, but Gemini advised me of that 1mL of this concentrate would make 16 oz. of hydrosol water.

If you’ve never mixed fragrances with professional ingredients, you might find some of the ingredients to smell strange, some of them powerfully diffuse and fragrant. Don’t worry, though, the recipe makes an authentic portrayal of paperwhite narcissus flowers, and I’d say that all of the components are necessary, even if you only use 5 drops, 1 drop, etc. for some of them, and 4mL is the minimum you can purchase, from Perfumer’s Apprentice. Note that if you’ve never mixed wanted to make this formula in huge bulk, there’s Consolidated Chemicals and Solvents’ Ocimene, being offered in 250mL-1 liter sizes, for cheap prices. You would only require the minimum sized 4mL bottles of each ingredient, to do this project. You definitely should not use the fragrance concentrate undiluted, be sure to mix it in to 4 parts solvent for each 1 part concentrate, at the very minimum. A larger set of travel-sized spray bottles might make more sense, if you don’t like to go heavy on the fragrance. 

If you wanted to, just for fun, you could compare the fragrance concentrate to the real flowers, ideally in fall or winter, although some shops may offer the bulbs year-round. The bulbs are very easy to grow.

Paperwhite Narcissus flowers in bloom.

Oh! I forgot about indole, which also comes as a powder, for this formula. This powder is much easier to dissolve, and it will dissolve easily, without any hurdles or obstacles in the way. 1 part indole powder (1/10th of a gram) to 9 parts isopropyl myristate. You could also opt for perfumers alcohol, or 190 proof alcohol, for the solvent, instead of isopropyl myristate, but, in general, the initial investment for starting out with a small amount is much higher with the alcohol, and you might also only find large amounts of alcohol (relatively) available.