I suspect no one GAF abt my perfumery, but I've been making an interesting study of a material called zdravetz (Geranium macrorrhizum).

This is a "true" geranium, while the ubiquitous "geranium" used in perfumery is actually all genus Pelargonium.

So on recommendation of a colleague, I obtained zdravetz e.o. (the Bulgarian vernacular for G. macrorrhizum, where it grows ubiquitously).

Zdravetz smells somewhat similar to traditional "geranium", but also quite different.

It has bright minty floral green top notes & dark woody ambery drydown.

Some analysis has shown that major (up to 50% b/w) constituent of zdravetz eo is molecule called germacrone. http://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/data/rw1419191.html

Supposedly, this smells ambery woody & is very tenacious.

When I received the eo, it had bunch of precipitate, so I warmed it up, precipitate dissolved, then diluted 50:50 w EtOH.

My tests on smelling strips revealed less tenacious floral green minty notes & dark woody ambery musky tenacious aspect.

My assumption was that this very tenacious aspect is mostly or completely germacrone.

Since it's very nice smelling & has foundation of woody, I substituted the zdravetz eo in equal dose for patchouli in a simple sketch.

It performed remarkably well & its woody aspect is even more tenacious as a base note than that of patchouli.

Top notes of zdravetz are strong & clashed w the top notes in the sketch, but that is of minor importance & can be dealt w appropriately.

So anywayz, I put the bottle of 50% zdravetz in EtOH in my closet & did other stuff for a few days.

When I next looked, these beautiful crystals had formed! Presumably these are mostly germacrone.

So I decanted supernatant & redissolved crystals. Then I put the supe at 4C, and more crystals formed! So I decanted & redissolved again.

Supe is at -20C now & still more crystals are forming, so will decant again & redissolve.

So now I have pretty pure crystals (I assume germacrone) & pretty depleted zdravetz w/o much germacrone to study.

Initial study on smelling strips indicates that the crystals are mostly woody ambery & supe is mostly floral green.

Interestingly, the very strong minty facet seem to go w both crystals & supe.

So whether it is facet of germacrone itself, or smthg else in there, remains to be seen.

Just after few days on smelling strips, seems like the minty facet goes away much faster then woody ambery, so smthg that's not germacrone.

After longer on smelling strips, this will become more certain. But for sure, I can now see how these fractions perform in blends.