"A Path to the Heart of Spirit"

 Natural Perfumery Course

"When the outfit is donned and the makeup is on, what do you reach for next? 

Why, perfume, of course."

Correspondence Course

Introduction to the art of Natural Perfumery. 

We will be covering twenty-one oils/absolutes; various bases; 

scent profiling; the language of natural perfumery; formulation; 

accords; scent-similars; tinctures; macerations; and many other aspects. 

Specific assignments are given for each of the six sections. 

In order to attain a Certificate of Proficiency for this course, you will 

need to do these twenty-six assignments and reports, send in sixteen perfume samples, including the practical exam, and take the final proctored written exam. The exam can be taken six months after you begin your studies. This is an in-depth course and there is no need to rush. Most people take two years to complete it.

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Interview with Natural Perfume course teacher.pdf

Perfumery Course Goals & Objectives

This course would suit learners who are true novices and know nothing about this topic, but have a passion to learn, as well as those who have been making some perfumes for family and friends but would like to take it to the next level of endeavour. There is a section on marketing and preparing for an interview and review of your perfumes.

At the end of this perfumery course, you will know how to make perfume in various bases. You’ll be given recipes for all of these bases, and some of my perfume formulations, which I've created for this course. You will also learn how to create your own formulae. You will know where to get top quality oils, absolutes, concretes, and attars. You will learn the vocabulary needed to describe the scents you are creating, sniffing, and/or profiling. 

You will learn how to create vertical and horizontal accords, preparing parts of future perfumes in advance of needing them. Learning about tincturing, infusing, and maceration will be included as part of the course, as well. Some plants do not yield up their aroma readily, so my notes and ideas are given on how to make a doppelganger of the desired scent.

We will not spend much time on the history of perfume though several links are included in the resources section. It has been romanticized and theorized about in books, magazines, and on the internet, and you may read this material at your leisure. It is all very interesting, exciting, and wonderful to know where we’ve come from, as a population of people who have loved perfumes since the dawn of time. However, for my course, I am opting to leave that aspect of writing to those more deeply involved in it. I just love to make perfumes and I want to share that with you. 

We won't spend any time examining, comparing, or trying to re-create commercial perfumes as this is a course on Natural Perfume.

Creating a natural perfume today is quite different from how it was created a hundred years ago simply due to the myriad botanical ingredients that are now available to us. We live in a time that is ripe for the making of our own household, bath, and beauty products. We are very fortunate, indeed.  

In this course, we will simply concern ourselves with the art of making perfume, the science and chemistry behind it will be included in the resource section. Again, there are many great books that one can study about the structure of essential oils, and botanical components. There is a reading list included in the courseware. 

The book called: The Scent Trail provides a wonderful olfactory journey into the origins of some of the materials we will be using in this course. It is recommended reading, though there are no projects or exam questions arising from it. See my review for www.amazon.ca  The Scent Trail Review  The Scent Trail Interview with the author: http://www.ricksteves.com/radio/archive.htm#recent 

You will learn how to work with the energy of the substances you are holding: their colour, viscosity, tenacity, scent profile, and how they operate with one another, in other words, the spirit of the plant. One of the assignments is to create a Spiritual Perfume.

We will create a Scent Song as we look at the work of Piesse. There are several supporting .pdf files that I will email to you for further reading and learning.

The profiles of the twenty-one oils and absolutes covered in this course are given in three parts: aromatically, therapeutically, and spiritually. This includes safety information, as that is key to creating a wonderful product. You'll learn how to create a perfume for use in your personal spiritual rituals.    

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There is always a lot of solid  information in my courses. You will need to purchase supplies, essential oils, and absolutes, so here is the list. Documents/Supplies List for the Natural Perfumery Course.doc Ambrette absolute can be used in place of the CO2.

Please have an in-depth look at my Links & Resources page for Suppliers. I have listed numerous ones in North America as well as several in Europe, UK, and AU. 

Student comment Jan 2012... Hi Lyn,
I have been reading the Natural Perfume Course Manual and find it fantastic! It is like my own personal life coach. There is so much in the manual that is so positive and uplifting - it's like a manual to live a wonderful life - like maintaining a schedule, having fun, staying positive, living with intent, tuning in to higher power, and even taking care of yourself and dressing well. It is so much more than natural perfumery. Thanks, JT, Ohio, USA

Here are the essential oils and absolutes we will be covering in the course so you can go ahead and begin to order them.  It's easier on the budget when you don't have to do it all at once. As well, if you look at my links page, you will see many tried and trusted suppliers to get you started. Make sure none of these essential oils/absolutes are diluted in jojoba as they won't mix with alcohol if they are. As well, you want 100% not a 10 or 20 % dilution. You will be making your own dilutions.

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If you feel you have all of the above knowledge in place, 

you may be interested in my Five-Day Perfume Intensive at http://www.scentofnature.net/five-day_natural_perfume_intensive.htm 

held in Coquitlam, BC, Canada each year (next one is in March).

It would be great to meet you in person.

Kind words from a student who is just completing Project 19-Passion for Perfume: 

I’m so grateful to you Lyn, who has been such a marvelous and patience teacher and still is when I’m writing this essay. Without your way of sharing your knowledge in perfumery with me, I would never have know how it feels to get deep into my selves and my olfactory in the way scents can do.

Every morning and every night I think in Scents, Notes, Chords, Accords and how to combine the fragrances to the outstanding perfume. But after I have been thinking for a while I know that I don’t have that experience that I need and that I have to take all the time and read as much as I can to learn what I have to learn.

Today I’m not quite done with the course but I feel so satisfied that I chosen the course that suited me and from here I can develop my life while spending it with natural perfumery. VG, Sweden

*****

Registration and Investment

All students must complete a Registration Form

to send along with payment.

Documents/Registation Form for perfume course.doc

The Course: I am offering an in-depth, correspondence E-course on the basics of natural perfumery, so you can work at your own pace. The manual is well-written, professionally edited, with good photos, tables, and interesting assignments and experiments. There is on-going email support at no further cost.

The Investment: Going green? Great. I offer the entire manual by email and we can save a lot of trees by using this method. All projects can be sent to me by email and so can the Exam. $350.00 

Should you wish the manual mailed, there is a $25.00 printing charge and a $35.00 shipping charge so the course will then be $410.00

I just had a student sign up and she wanted the manual printed and needed the course fast as she is moving to another country. It ended up costing her $67.50 through UPS. So her course ended up costing her $442.50. It is infinitely better to be able to accept the manual by pdf. 

The Exam: I don't offer the proctored exam until the six-month point as there are 26 projects and 16 samples to complete and send in. This doesn't happen overnight. There should be no rush to complete this course. The exam consists of 56 questions. There are no multiple choice so no option for guessing the right answer. You need to know your material before you write the exam. It takes approximately 2-3 hours to complete this exam and you will need a Proctor to be with you. There is a form they will need to fill out, and mail to me, attesting to the fact that you did the exam from memory. When you request the exam, you will need to let me know where to mail it to your Proctor. You will then sit the exam at their home or office. The Exam can be emailed to his or her office and the completed exam can be emailed back by your Proctor. The Proctor Form needs to be signed and sent via postal mail with a legible signature. The exam is not to leave the hands of the Proctor except for the time you are actually writing the it.

This is a correspondence course and as such may be started at any time convenient to you. I do not offer a refund once the course has been emailed out as, by that time, you have the full course material hence all that you need, and that I have put my heart into creating, to learn the art of the course you have ordered.

The students who have gone through this course have all rated it Five Star

Student Comments, over the years:

"Many thanks to Lyn. Her teaching was so useful for me. Before I met her, I was so unsure about myself and my ability to create perfumes as a Professional Independent Perfumer. I have to say that I really enjoyed this six-month course in which I made such great progression, thanks to her help. I recommend her course to everyone who wishes to be assisted with much respect from one being to another." Therese Steigert, Paris, France

"Lyn is one of the most generous teachers I've ever had. Her patience with me while I asked all kinds of questions, most of the answers were in the manual, really kept me going. She would answer and/or refer me to the page number to look at in the manual. I am not the same person after completing this course. I have a deep affinity for our planet and all that she offers. I look at scent in a different way and can really smell what's out there. My garden has doubled in size and I'm really looking forward to it blooming this summer. Lyn has blessed me with a deeper look at my spiritual side. I'll be forever thankful to her for her kind heart and generous soul. Thanks, Lyn" Love MM, Southern USA

"I'm working towards my degree and use the course as a reward for when I've done my other homework. Lyn is a great teacher who knows her stuff; a true gem of a person." IM, USA

"I'm working on creating abundance in my life so I can come and meet Lyn in person. Her course is amazing and I'm learning so much." BB, USA

"I enjoy to Lyn courses so much. My English not good. but course is good. Thank You." JC, USA

"I love this course! This is the best thing I have done for myself. It's as if my soul is saying to me...'you finally listened to what I want you to do'." MN, USA

"I am grateful to find your course. For many years when I smell a scent of a flower I feel so curious how could I recreate that same natural scent and share the beauty of it with others. That is why a wish to take this course and find out am I creative enough  to make fragrances. Again I deeply thankful to find this course teaching about NATURAL perfumery but mostly to connect with you,-someone who is not afraid to share this secret knowledge with others." JI, AU

"I'm loving this course. It is opening up spaces within me that I did not know where there. I'm happy to recommend this course to anyone interested in having a better understanding of natural scents. With love and gratitude for your wonderful gift to the world." JG, AU

"I am an intuitive learner so I knew right away it was the course I wanted to take. I felt very good about your approach to the essences. For my Birthday, I decided to give myself the perfect gift for me - your course. I've been happily enjoying it ever since - the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks, Lyn" CN, Japan

"My passion for perfume was again ignited when I signed up for Lyn’s Natural Perfumery Course. It truly is a path to the heart of my spirit. I enjoyed the course immensely. Lyn is a dedicated, wonderful teacher with lots of information to share. I enjoyed the alchemy of creating scents for the soul. It was one of the greatest gifts for me and for my personal and spiritual development. Thank you Lyn!" Gabriella Berran, Ontario, Canada (Note: dear Gabriella passed away in March 2011. This is a great personal loss and a loss to the Natural Perfume community. Please remember her in your prayers. Thank you.)

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      Hyacinth

Perfumers Journey.mp3

... a five minute meditation. If you will have all your components ready (listed in the text below) you can go ahead and make up this lovely perfume called "Perfumers' Journey". If you create it in alcohol, use a 5 ml bottle. You will need to add 68 drops of Perfumers' alcohol to these 32 drops of blended essential oils for a 32% Perfume. Enjoy.

Perfumers’ Journey…

First, we want to ground to Gaia, our Mother Earth. The base notes of Vetiver grass, the tree resin from Frankincense, the heartwood of Sandalwood, and the root of Iris are rich and grounding; all of these connecting us to the earth and manifesting the full-bodied notes from the spiritual into physical realm.

Creating the Centre of Being from the floral heart notes of Rose maroc, Jasmine g, Ylang Ylang, Osmanthus, Orange Blossom absolute, and Neroli, we flesh out the aroma and give it heart. One by one, we drop them in to form the whole and find synergy as a group, creating something else, entirely.

Finally, those elusive head notes, which momentarily flicker before leading the way to Spirit; teasing, frolicking, promising the Light touch of the Ethereal. Eventually, these are the ones that will make the first fleeting impression on the sniffer. Rosewood, Coriander, Bergamot, and Cinnamon leaf.

When the last drop is in, they react to one another forming alliances and taking the traveler to exotic destinations.

What do you want the wearer to feel? Where do you want them to go? … leading the willing deeper and deeper, note by note,  into the depths of  the scent. Journeying whiff by whiff to bygone and long forgotten times; except by the nose.

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My first order of business is always: DO NO HARM, which is why I include the following statements. 

When making natural perfumes, we are dealing with the wondrous, powerful, highly scented, and generally medicinal plant chemical components. Please refrain from taking this course if you: have major internal organ damage, have severe breathing or skin allergies or sensitivities, or your health is otherwise severely compromised. 

Those who are pregnant or lactating, can complete and email the following 'paper projects' for the correspondence course: 1- on Anosmia, 4- on another descriptor for rose oil, 6- on descriptive words or phrases, project 16- on tincture and infusions, project 19- Passion for Perfume, project 25- philosophies; half of the Perfume Projects on accords. The reading, gathering of supplies, and preparation of a safe Atelier can also be accomplished while you are waiting to begin the course.

"Attention Professional Registered Aromatherapists: Study from home to earn your CEC's or CEU's. Achieving a Certificate of Proficiency for this two-year correspondence course in Natural Perfumery may satisfy the requirements for the 24 CEC's that you need to maintain your professional membership. Check with your association for more details. If this course is not listed by your professional body, perhaps you would like to suggest it to them." 

Methods of payment 

Cash/Cheque (if local to Vancouver, BC area),

Money Order/Bank Draft in Canadian Funds, 

Western Union Worldwide Money Transfer

Instant money transfer from your bank account to mine.

PayPal to use your credit card, or use your

debit card, which takes eight working days to clear. 

If your bank as Interac, and you do online banking, 

you can also send an email money transfer.

PayPal allows you to use all your favourite credit cards, as well as your debit card (which takes eight working days to clear).

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