This week, Karen is going all the way back to a fundamental topic for those starting their journey in perfumery - “Why alcohol based perfumes are the best starting point for beginners.” Alcohol, as a base material, often gets overlooked and has many false narratives surrounding it. But, it is actually the best place to start your perfume journey. In this episode, Karen is here to explain what makes alcohol so unique and debunk all those myths surrounding it so that you can start your perfume making journey with ease.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Alcohol evaporates very quickly. Most people learn this and instantly assume it to be a negative. However, Karen explains why this property is a game changer for beginners.
• How do your materials react to an alcohol base versus an oil base? Karen breaks down in detail the difference between the two.
• Alcohol is a very volatile solvent. Karen explains how this property allows you to create scents with more complexity and depth.
• There are many myths surrounding the use of alcohol in perfumery, such as “alcohol dries out the skin.” Karen is here to debunk those myths.

BEST MOMENTS

“Alcohol reveals the true nature of your materials clearly and cleanly.”

“If you have built your business around oil based scents, don’t abandon that entirely, you can introduce alcohol slowly.”

“Alcohol based perfumes are so much more versatile than oil based.”

EPISODE LINKS

In Person Classes

Artisan Perfumery Mastermind

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Getting Started Guide

Artisan Perfumery Mastermind

ABOUT THE HOST

Fragrance expert, author, teacher and speaker; Karen Gilbert runs courses in the UK and online which demystify the secretive world of perfumery in a fun and interactive way.

Karen has inspired thousands of students to explore their olfactory sense and create their own personalised fragrances.

With extensive product development experience in both the commercial perfumery and the organic skincare industry, Karen is able to offer a unique insight into creating natural and mixed media fragrances for fine fragrance, room scents and skincare/bodycare products using commercial perfumery techniques.

Karen is also a certified meditation teacher and has a passion for helping people to create daily rituals that integrate scent with other modalities to shift state and increase your sense of wellbeing.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website

Instagram

Facebook

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Email

Karen recently received an email from a listener that posed an interesting question…”Should I keep my business doing what is already working or should I branch out and try something new?” Stepping into a new world can be daunting and can leave you second guessing if you’ve made the right choice, however, there is a way to do this and minimise your risk. This week, Karen is here to explain how you can expand your business into new and exciting avenues without losing what you have built and how you can grow your brand with confidence.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Before you start introducing new ways of working, or even new product lines, take a long hard look at what you’re already doing. As Karen explains, if it’s working, there’s a reason for that, so look at how you can leverage that to support other parts of the business.

• What are the best products to get started with when thinking about expansion? Karen details some of the easiest products to develop and gives you a warning about the ones to avoid.

• Karen breaks down the principle of the ‘soft launch’ and how it can help you to test new products without the excessive time and expense of a full launch.

• The fear of fear itself is often the very thing that holds us back from getting where we want to go. Karen discusses what that fear might actually be about and how to overcome it.

BEST MOMENTS

“There’s a lot of power in stability and it’s the smartest place to grow from.”

“Ultimately you want to gain the skills to design scents that truly represent your brand.”

“The biggest thing that can stop us getting where we want to go is fear.”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Getting Started Guide

Artisan Perfumery Mastermind

ABOUT THE HOST

Fragrance expert, author, teacher and speaker; Karen Gilbert runs courses in the UK and online which demystify the secretive world of perfumery in a fun and interactive way.

Karen has inspired thousands of students to explore their olfactory sense and create their own personalised fragrances.

With extensive product development experience in both the commercial perfumery and the organic skincare industry, Karen is able to offer a unique insight into creating natural and mixed media fragrances for fine fragrance, room scents and skincare/bodycare products using commercial perfumery techniques.

Karen is also a certified meditation teacher and has a passion for helping people to create daily rituals that integrate scent with other modalities to shift state and increase your sense of wellbeing.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Email

On this week's show Karen is joined by a leader in the tech world of fragrance, Camila Thomas. Founder of Air Parfum, a device that allows you to test multiple fragrance without sensory overwhelm, WikiParfum, a digital encyclopedia of fragrance, and ScentXP, a platform that bridges the gap behind online and in-store scent discovery. In this interview with Karen, Camila explains how technology and AI are revolutionising the consumer experience in the fragrance sector, why an open attitude to tech will benefit everybody and how sight is the new smell.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When Camila, who had a background in the world of tech, entered the fragrance industry she identified a disconnect between the consumer and the product that she felt could be bridged with new technology. She explains to Karen how these initial discoveries started the journey that she is on today.

• Most companies that develop new technology in the fragrance industry limit its use to their own fragrances. Karen and Camila discuss the importance of opening up our tech to the whole sector.

• Wikiparfum, the digital encyclopedia that Camila developed, allows consumers to understand what fragrances will smell like without actually smelling them. Camila explains how the platform works.

• Airparfum is a device that allows people to test multiple scents without overwhelming their senses. Camila explains how it was developed, how it works and why it revolutionises fragrance testing.

BEST MOMENTS

“Fragrance is a category that many people in marketing love, but very few understand.”

“The only way to make the right recommendation of a fragrance is to make it for the individual, independently, regardless of who makes the fragrance.”

“The ability to visualize a scent suddenly makes it a universal language.”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Getting Started Guide

Artisan Perfumery Mastermind

ABOUT THE HOST

Fragrance expert, author, teacher and speaker; Karen Gilbert runs courses in the UK and online which demystify the secretive world of perfumery in a fun and interactive way.

Karen has inspired thousands of students to explore their olfactory sense and create their own personalised fragrances.

With extensive product development experience in both the commercial perfumery and the organic skincare industry, Karen is able to offer a unique insight into creating natural and mixed media fragrances for fine fragrance, room scents and skincare/bodycare products using commercial perfumery techniques.

Karen is also a certified meditation teacher and has a passion for helping people to create daily rituals that integrate scent with other modalities to shift state and increase your sense of wellbeing.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Email

Happy New Year and welcome to the first episode of 2025. Before bursting into the new year with a host of new content, Karen is here to deliver an interactive episode that will allow you to look back and reflect on 2024. Whilst you may not think you achieved much last year, Karen is here to offer you some prompts and advice that might just make you think different. And, once you’ve completed your recap of 2024 Karen will walk you through how these observations can help make 2025 a year to remember.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Before Karen takes a look back at 2024 she shares some titbits of what listeners can look forward to on the show in 2025 and some information on her upcoming courses.
• Karen invites you to challenge yourself and write down the achievements you made during the last 12 months. Whilst they may appear to be small at first, writing them down may lead to a revelation.
• What are your values? A question that not many of us think about. Karen encourages you to make a list of your values, look back at how you might have compromised on them in the past and how that can help you to be more aligned with them in the future.
• Having looked back at last year, Karen sets you the task of taking what you have learned and setting your intentions for the next 12 months. Not sure what these can be? Don’t worry, Karen is on hand to offer some suggestions.

BEST MOMENTS

“The more you reflect, the more you will realise how far you have come.”

“We put so much pressure on ourselves with new year resolutions, why not try setting a new year's intention instead.”

“Sharing your goals makes them more real. Talk to your friends or your online community about the things you want to achieve.”

EPISODE LINKS

The Scent Shift

In Person Classes

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Getting Started Guide

Artisan Perfumery Mastermind

ABOUT THE HOST

Fragrance expert, author, teacher and speaker; Karen Gilbert runs courses in the UK and online which demystify the secretive world of perfumery in a fun and interactive way.

Karen has inspired thousands of students to explore their olfactory sense and create their own personalised fragrances.

With extensive product development experience in both the commercial perfumery and the organic skincare industry, Karen is able to offer a unique insight into creating natural and mixed media fragrances for fine fragrance, room scents and skincare/bodycare products using commercial perfumery techniques.

Karen is also a certified meditation teacher and has a passion for helping people to create daily rituals that integrate scent with other modalities to shift state and increase your sense of wellbeing.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Email

This week marks the third and final part of Karen’s mini series on her scent shift programme. This time of year we all make promises to ourselves about how the next twelve months will be different but, as we all know, these promises never last. The reason they never last is that we always fail to create new habits, which are the key to lasting change. Karen is here to help. In this episode, she explains how to use scent to form and sustain positive habits so that 2025 can be the year of change for you in more ways than one.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Having a positive mindset is great, as is acting on positive emotions, but real change comes about when we change our habits. Karen outlines why and how habits are the key to improvement.

• Karen breaks down the science of habits, how we form them and how we stick to them, and explains how scent can accelerate and enhance this process.

• Karen explains the practical steps you need to take in order to link a habit to a scent.

• Just in case you’re struggling for inspiration, Karen gives you some examples of scents and the habits that they could be linked to.

BEST MOMENTS

“By linking a specific scent to a specific habit we create a natural cue that helps us move from intention into action.”

“Your brain automatically creates neurological shortcuts based on the scents in your life.”

“Scent can help you transform your habits from a chore into a natural part of your daily life.”

EPISODE LINKS

Scent Shift Programme

£50 off Coupon Code: SS-EB22

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Getting Started Guide

Artisan Perfumery Mastermind

ABOUT THE HOST

Fragrance expert, author, teacher and speaker; Karen Gilbert runs courses in the UK and online which demystify the secretive world of perfumery in a fun and interactive way.

Karen has inspired thousands of students to explore their olfactory sense and create their own personalised fragrances.

With extensive product development experience in both the commercial perfumery and the organic skincare industry, Karen is able to offer a unique insight into creating natural and mixed media fragrances for fine fragrance, room scents and skincare/bodycare products using commercial perfumery techniques.

Karen is also a certified meditation teacher and has a passion for helping people to create daily rituals that integrate scent with other modalities to shift state and increase your sense of wellbeing.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Email

Welcome to part two of this mini series inspired by Karen’s ‘Scent Shift’ programme, which looks at how scent can be a tool for meditation and wellbeing. This week, Karen is looking at how to create emotional anchors with scent. Emotional anchors are an incredibly powerful tool that can be harnessed to bring about positive changes to all aspects of your life. But, how do they work, when can you use them and how do you create them? Karen answers all these questions and more so that you can start creating your own emotional anchors today.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Emotional anchors are a powerful tool that can be used to help transport you into a desired emotional state. Karen breaks down the science of how and why they work.

• You might already be using emotional anchors in your daily life without realising. Karen gives some examples of common emotional anchors and encourages you to be mindful of what is already on your radar.

• Karen outlines her three step process to creating emotional anchors of your own.

• Emotional anchors can help you in all aspects of life. Karen gives some real world examples of how they can help you.

BEST MOMENTS

“Emotional anchors are created by repeating a scent during emotionally meaningful moments.”

“Scent can not just shape your experiences but it can also provide emotional support.”

“Emotional anchors make you aware of how the power of scent affects your mindset.”

EPISODE LINKS

The Scent Shift

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Getting Started Guide

Artisan Perfumery Mastermind

ABOUT THE HOST

Fragrance expert, author, teacher and speaker; Karen Gilbert runs courses in the UK and online which demystify the secretive world of perfumery in a fun and interactive way.

Karen has inspired thousands of students to explore their olfactory sense and create their own personalised fragrances.

With extensive product development experience in both the commercial perfumery and the organic skincare industry, Karen is able to offer a unique insight into creating natural and mixed media fragrances for fine fragrance, room scents and skincare/bodycare products using commercial perfumery techniques.

Karen is also a certified meditation teacher and has a passion for helping people to create daily rituals that integrate scent with other modalities to shift state and increase your sense of wellbeing.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Email

This week’s episode marks the first in a series of shows inspired by Karen’s ‘Scent Shift’ programme, which looks at how scent can be a tool for meditation and wellbeing. In this first part, Karen is looking specifically at how fragrance interacts with our brains to influence our emotions. Drawing from the evidence based research, Karen explains not only how this happens, but why. And, teaches you how to utilize this incredible power of scent to your advantage to live a healthier and calmer life.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Why does the smell of perfume, or anything for that matter, invoke an emotional response in us? Karen breaks down the science of why scent impacts us emotionally.

• The correlation between scent and mood has been thoroughly researched and is backed up with evidence. Karen gives an overview of how certain scents can influence us emotionally.

• We can use the ability of scent to evoke emotions to our benefit, as Karen explains how to ‘set an intention’ with a scent to positively influence your day.

• In a similar way, we can also use scent to transition our mood or mindset, whether that be wanting to regain focus or to help us switch off after work. Karen explains how you can do this.

BEST MOMENTS

“The connection of scent and memory isn’t just anecdotal, it’s rooted in how our brains function.”

“Scent doesn’t just improve emotions, it can be used to enhance your focus during work, promote creativity or increase energy during workouts.”

“Consistency is key. The more you practice, the better you will become.”

EPISODE LINKS

The Scent Shift

The Scent Shift £50 off Coupon Code: SS-EB22

EBo Shower Steamers

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Getting Started Guide

Artisan Perfumery Mastermind

ABOUT THE HOST

Fragrance expert, author, teacher and speaker; Karen Gilbert runs courses in the UK and online which demystify the secretive world of perfumery in a fun and interactive way.

Karen has inspired thousands of students to explore their olfactory sense and create their own personalised fragrances.

With extensive product development experience in both the commercial perfumery and the organic skincare industry, Karen is able to offer a unique insight into creating natural and mixed media fragrances for fine fragrance, room scents and skincare/bodycare products using commercial perfumery techniques.

Karen is also a certified meditation teacher and has a passion for helping people to create daily rituals that integrate scent with other modalities to shift state and increase your sense of wellbeing.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Email

In this episode, Karen shares valuable insights on transitioning from experimentation to a more structured approach in perfumery. Karen discusses common challenges such as feeling overwhelmed by raw materials, creating balanced accords, and translating ideas into finished fragrances. She provides practical tips like simplifying your palette, starting small with accords, and focusing on fragrance structure and storytelling. Tune in to gain a fresh perspective on your fragrance creation journey and grab her special Black Friday offer: The Foundations of Fragrance Collection

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• It's easy to feel stuck when you're trying to pull all of these pieces together by yourself, but it doesn't have to be that way.

• Every successful perfumer has been where you are now. We all start out with the same basic challenges.

• It's tempting to try everything, but without an understanding of the materials and the specific roles that different materials play, it's really easy to get completely lost or frustrated.

• Successful perfumery does not happen by accident. It's not just about throwing materials together and hoping for the best. It's about having a clear process and the knowledge to guide your decisions along the way. And that is why I have put together the Foundations of Fragrance Collection.

BEST MOMENTS

“Every successful perfumer started where you are now.”

“Simplify your palette. Pick a few materials you are curious about and get to know them deeply.”

“Using a mind map, brainstorm or mood board is a great starting point to help you map out your fragrance.”

EPISODE LINKS

Foundations of Fragrance Collection

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Getting Started Guide

Artisan Perfumery Mastermind

ABOUT THE HOST

Fragrance expert, author, teacher and speaker; Karen Gilbert runs courses in the UK and online which demystify the secretive world of perfumery in a fun and interactive way.

Karen has inspired thousands of students to explore their olfactory sense and create their own personalised fragrances.

With extensive product development experience in both the commercial perfumery and the organic skincare industry, Karen is able to offer a unique insight into creating natural and mixed media fragrances for fine fragrance, room scents and skincare/bodycare products using commercial perfumery techniques.

Karen is also a certified meditation teacher and has a passion for helping people to create daily rituals that integrate scent with other modalities to shift state and increase your sense of wellbeing.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Email