The Perfume Making Podcast
Karen Gilbert
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Recent Episodes
Done with Hustle? - Building a Stronger Perfume Business That Won’t Burn You Out in 2026
This isn’t the usual New Year’s episode about planning, vision boards, and big 2026 goals. Instead, Karen looks at what happens when you actually need to do less, and how that can be the key to…
Layering Like a Pro (or a Rebel): From TikTok Hacks to Indie Perfume
Ever wondered why everyone’s suddenly talking about layering their favourite scents? In this special year-end episode, Karen dives into the layered world of fragrance - examining the trend that’s…
Don’t Sell Yourself Short! Building a Perfume Business Without the Discount Spiral
It’s easy to think that the best way to stay ahead in business is by watching your competitors and lowering your prices when they do. But as Karen explains in this episode, that common fear-driven…
Making a Mod: Embracing Iteration in Perfume Making and Doing It Right
This week Karen follows on from the conversation she had about learning to evaluate your perfumes. She covers something that is done as a matter of course in the industry. It's something a lot of…
Evaluating Your Fragrances: How to Judge Your Scent Like a Professional
Do you really know if your fragrance works? Or are you just hoping for compliments? In this episode, Karen reveals why friends and family are not likely to be giving you the feedback you really need.…
Why Buying More “Magic” Materials Won’t Make You a Better Perfumer
It’s easy to believe that the secret to creating great fragrances lies in having more materials - more naturals, more synthetics, more obscure aroma chemicals. But as Karen explains in this episode,…
You’ve Made Soup! - How to Avoid a Muddy Fragrance
“You’ve made soup!” is a phrase French perfume teachers often say to their students. In the world of fragrance, soup refers to a perfume that smells muddy, flat, or undefined. But what causes a scent…
Raw Notes - What I Learned from Bruce Springsteen
Karen recently went to the cinema, something she doesn’t do very often. However, on this one-off trip to see the new Bruce Springsteen film, something resonated with her. We often chase perfection,…
The Evolution of Musk - Part 2
Following on from last week's show on the history of Musk, Karen is here to tell you all about the synthetic musks. First developed by accident in the 1930s, synthetic musks have evolved through many…
The Evolution of Musk - Part 1
This week, Karen is introducing the first in a two-part series on musk. Musk started life as one of the most prestigious materials in the world of perfumery and was often associated with nobility and…
Soapy, Sparkling, Strange - A Journey Through Aldehydes
After last week’s episode on Chanel No. 5 and its revolutionary use of aldehydes, Karen is going to delve deeper into this fragrance family and its role in the world of perfume. Whilst most people…
Decoding Aldehydes - The Chemistry of Chanel No. 5
Over the years, Karen has received countless questions about one fragrance family in particular: aldehydes. They often leave people puzzled about what they are and how they’re used in perfumery. In…
Synthetic Scents - The Risks of AI in Perfumery
Last week, in one of Karen’s classes, a student was surprised to learn that some information she had received from ChatGPT was inaccurate. With AI becoming increasingly common in perfume making -…
When Chemistry Meets Creativity - A Beginner’s Guide to Synthetic Perfume Materials
Karen often hears from people who work exclusively with natural materials in their fragrances but are beginning to notice the limitations, whether it’s their blends smelling too much like…
Eau de What? - Demystifying Perfume Concentrations
This week, Karen is tackling a question she's asked all the time, especially by those transitioning from aromatherapy to natural perfumery: “What’s the deal with concentration levels for leave-on and…
The Art of Weaving Time - Crafting Order from Chaos
After a well-deserved break, which was extended by a week, Karen is back. During her time off she took part in ‘Hampshire Open Studios’, a scheme where artists across Hampshire open up their…
Rest - The Most Underrated Note
After 110 episodes, week in, week out, on top of 3 ongoing courses, authoring her latest book, a family trip to France, and a family wedding in Spain, Karen has decided to take a well-earned break…
The Tincture Trap - Why Tinctures Often Fall Flat
This week Karen is addressing a question she gets asked all the time regarding the use of tinctures in perfumery. The short answer to this question is that tinctures don’t work. But, with so many…
Too Much of a Good Smell - The Myth of Longevity in Perfumery
This week on the show, Karen is finally addressing an issue that has been annoying her for years - the obsession with extreme longevity of a fragrance. There is a theory that the longer a perfume…
The Architecture of Aroma - Structuring Floral Fragrances
Karen has a new live course coming up, on the 7th of July, and in this episode she wants to explore two things that link into that live course - Floral Fragrances and Structure. Working with florals,…
Frequently Asked Questions
The Perfume Making Podcast has published 126 episodes since July 2023, covering topics in Arts, Education.
The Perfume Making Podcast is currently sporadic with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 40m.
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