Welcome to JORUM JOURNAL ISSUE II.
JORUM JOURNAL is a monthly glimpse behind the scenes at Jorum Studio. Find out what’s inspiring us, what’s motivating us, what we’re celebrating – the thoughts and stories behind our fragrances.
FEBRUARY at Jorum Studio brings slowly brightening days, and our glorious city of Edinburgh finally begins to wake up from her post-Hogmanay slumber. Halfway through the month, the sweet smell of Nectary in the air heralds Valentine’s Day…
A MOMENT WITH: EUAN MCCALL
This month in-house perfumer and Jorum founder Euan McCall sat down with new friends Perfume Lounge to talk about all things fragrance, including the inspiration, struggles and artistic ways of Jorum Studio.
PL: Where do you seek and find inspiration for your perfumes? And once inspired, what is your creative process?
EM: Our process is pretty lengthy and from an outside perspective probably boring as it is inherently analytical and repetitive.
After we decide on the subject material or concept, we spend a relativity long time researching and putting together a moodboard. The moodboard usually consists of mixed media; images, film-stills, music references, furniture design, architecture, typography, fabric/ textile samples, web links, notes on new raw materials etc. Usually this happens in tandem with creation of initial perfume sketches, and each informs the other in the ‘melting pot’ stage. At the point where we feel comfortable with the ideation and conceptualisation, the moodboard is complete and we double down on formulation. Many of our archive formulas were created more analytically and without external creative influence, you can feel this when sampling.
PL: Can you tell us a bit more what it’s like to produce everything in-house?
EM: Our production can be swift for some formulae and slightly longer for others. Typically, we turn around full production in a few weeks, and everything is done in-house with batches ranging from 100-1000 units per reference for Jorum Studio. We usually batch a few times a year as a typical schedule with some ad-hoc production if a particular perfume requires such. Our production scheduling isn’t perfect as we can run out of certain perfumes, but it is impossible to know how anyone perfume will perform at any given time. So, production is admittedly not perfect but ultimately more sustainable both economically and ecologically.
The packaging elements are designed in-house by Chloe, and these are worked on throughout. Packaging may seem straightforward, but it is a very demanding element and the commodity prices for all raw material tend to be in constant and vicious flux. I do not envy this job! Part creative, part accountant and part mediator and negotiator. It’s gruelling!
READING LIST
Expanding our minds this month with these good reads…
Woman Made: Great Women Designers - Jane Hall
Taking inspiration from some of the greatest designers of the 20th and 21st centuries, and they happen to be women!
Grass - Sheri S. Tepper
Visionary science fiction – a vivid sensory experience, exploring the extremes of 'nature' and humanity.
A Scots Dictionary of Nature - Amanda Thomson
For an as-yet-undisclosed reason, we've been brushing up on old Scottish nature-based myths, folktales and poetry... a dictionary is always helpful, even for us natives…
RAW MATERIAL FOCUS: ROSE ABSOLUTE
February marks the season of love, so this month we’re delving a little deeper into the lover’s favourite: Rose Absolute.
The profile of our Turkish origin Rose Absolute is utterly astounding. It is unctuous, vibrant and radiates with the intensity and warmth of a precious ruby under summer sun.
Beneath the blushing petals lies a spicy-floral darkness that diffuses poetically as the material wears. Rose Absolute can be used across all applications, often lending an otherwise near-unattainable naturalness. In both fragrance and flavour work, Rose Absolute can be used to enhance gustatory profiles – apple, raspberry, strawberry – besides more floral-focussed profiles.
At Jorum we use a lot of Rose Absolute by industry standards. It makes its way into many of our client formulas and can be found front-and-centre or hidden in the shadows within numerous Jorum Studio perfumes (Arborist, Medullary-ray, Carduus, Phloem, Nectary & Elegy). We love using Rose Absolute to add floralcy, bloom, exaltation, depth, naturalness and of course, a rosaceous character that is simply wonderful.