Volatile Fiction

A Finnish indie perfumer and writer in England

Month: January 2015

A small John Lennon interlude

January 13, 2015nukapai 2 Comments

About Volatile Fiction

Pia Long is an independent perfumer, fragrance industry professional, writer and a bit of a nerd. This is her personal blog. If you want to find out more pop over here.

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We bought a new plant for the office today. It seems to be settling in really well.

We still have tickets left for @britishperfumers @iffinc & LMR Speed Smelling event at the RSC on the 24th of January - will be a fun evening with perfumers! This event is open to all - just visit bsp.org.uk to book. #perfumery #britishperfume #perfume #fragrance #scent #scentculture #fragranceevent #essentialoils #chemistry #london

Not doing top 9: instead; best bits of 2018. Lots of new fragrances for Parks; Browns signature scent; many more I am not allowed to mention (yet or possibly ever) - there are global brand names you would all know well. The year started with a global raw material shortage so apart from creating new scents, I was also busy helping clients deal with the crisis. In 2018 I worked on approximately 80-100 formulas. THAT brings me to one of the best bits of 2018: the additions to our team at Olfiction - Ezra, my trainee compounder/lab assistant joined us this summer. This has been so life-saving and increased our capacity for fragrance development so much that I can’t describe it. You can see Ezra here in Thomas’ Mini, helping me haul a few extra bits of decor from IKEA to... the single biggest item of my 2018 - our move to a new lab! I found a place for us at a beautiful converted farm estate, still the location of an equestrian centre; it’s also where my health club is located which means I’ve been able to go for a swim and a sauna in the morning and walk 5 metres across the lawn to our lab afterwards. The move itself burned me out a bit - we took on an empty shell and I drew our plans and arranged builders to fit it out bespoke. Our existing custom-built lab furniture came along and we additionally had to now furnish this baffling “extra space” - an office, kitchen and a meeting area. I still can’t believe how lucky I am to work in a chilled out and fit for purpose environment with people I love. Speaking of which, @thecandyperfumeboy joined us part-time this year and it’s been wonderful. Here you can see him giving a presentation to @britishperfumers about the concept of fragrance influencers on social media. @nickrgilbert and I were featured in @perfumer_flavorist magazine (for a change, this way around - I also wrote some columns again, though had to drop the monthly commitment due to getting increasingly busy with work). I co-designed and hosted a lecture on fragrance in literature @thebritishlibrary_ with @b.coldwine & visited family in Finland for midsummer; grew big roses; got really into Steven Universe; saw MUPPETS live; Hamilton & Little Shop of Horrors.

Finnish Christmas is almost here... I made joulutorttu (plum pastries) to start the mood right #joulu #suomi #christmas #christmasbaking

What a year it has been! Really happy; really tired... Looking forward to Christmas holiday next week! This year Nick and I have seen through the move to our new premises, added two new team members and created so many fragrances and stories for our clients I've lost count. I've been too busy to really reflect properly but now that I can, I feel almost embarrassed at how lucky I am to get to do work that I am passionate about with people I love. I will never take this for granted. 💕

Sometimes I do little trials direct into ambers - perfect for when you have pre-dilutions and existing accords and you need to get that “hmm, what if...?” out of your head. I love being in the lab Sunday evenings when I can be completely by myself and blast inappropriate music 😝🤘🏻#perfume #perfumery #fragrance #britishperfumery #scent #perfumer #perfumelab

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