{"id":20309,"date":"2025-03-17T22:32:20","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T21:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.amber.com.pl\/bursztyn-jest-szalenie-inspirujacy-dla-perfumiarzy-rozmowa-z-alanem-balewskim\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T19:43:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:43:01","slug":"amber-is-wildly-inspiring-for-perfumers-interview-with-alan-balewski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/aktualnosci\/bursztyn-jest-szalenie-inspirujacy-dla-perfumiarzy-rozmowa-z-alanem-balewskim\/","title":{"rendered":"Amber is wildly inspiring for perfumers - a conversation with Alan Balewski"},"content":{"rendered":"

How old are you actually?<\/strong><\/p>\n

28.<\/p>\n

You have already achieved a lot. You've been to nose school in France and you've already created several original fragrances. How old were you when you started out in perfumery?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is difficult to actually pinpoint when this passion started. Perfumery has always fascinated me. I used to travel to perfume fairs in Italy and France, where I got to know fragrance creators and perfume brands, especially niche ones. I was very lucky, because in a rather hermetic industry like perfumery, I came across quite open-minded people. When they noticed my great interest - not so much in the fragrances themselves, but in creating them - they gave me a lot of valuable tips on how to create perfumes, where to source the ingredients used by professional perfumers, how to explore and test them. Little by little, I gained more and more knowledge until I finally started experimenting, creating my first fragrance compositions, which of course ended up in a drawer. I was a little over 20 years old at the time.<\/p>\n

What gave you the courage to take them out of the drawer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was motivated to do this by my perfume friends in the Tricity. Encouraged by their positive feedback, I started creating short fragrance series for my friends. More and more, more often and with better and better results. Until passion turned into a full-time profession.<\/p>\n

Then you decided to go to France for nose school?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For me, ISIPCA nose school was more of a culmination of my efforts and a confirmation that the solutions I arrived at on my own were in line with the profession. At that point, I already knew that I wanted to go into this professionally. You have to keep up to date, because perfumery is a very dynamic field.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, my first association with the perfumer is... straight out of \u201ePerfume\u201d....<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is justified, as it is the most \u201eperfumy\u201d and strongly evocative book. As far as the steps are concerned, not much has changed over decades, perhaps even hundreds of years. On the other hand, much has changed in terms of ingredients. Whereas as recently as 100-150 years ago, the perfumer surrounded himself with mainly natural, essential extracts from plants, we now have much more innovative ingredients at our disposal, the so-called aromamolecules. These are various chemical compounds with unique scents that enable perfumers to create very unique, innovative compositions. A good example of this is the famous Chanel No. 5 fragrance, in which the perfumer used aldehydes. Thanks to aromamolecules, which at the time were just entering the world of perfume, he managed to create a completely new, bright, improbable effect that still fascinates today. Today, the perfume industry has a whole arsenal of such molecules at its disposal. I too try to combine them in my compositions with traditional, natural ingredients to create a new fragrance. For example, in the \u201eMare Goticum\u201d series of amber perfumes, I have used amber oil, which gives a hint of grease, a noticeable petrol, and molecular ingredients to conquer the effect of scent associations with the ship's engine room.<\/p>\n

\"3685<\/figure>\n

Amber has been used in perfume for a long time. The question is whether for its inherent incense-like fragrance or because it was confused with the precious ambergris in perfumery?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This similarity of names - amber and ambergris - caused and continues to cause confusion even among perfumers. Historically speaking, the English-language name for amber - amber - came from the Arabic word anbar, which originally meant grey ambergris. Meanwhile, these are two completely different ingredients, although both were found on the seashore. Both had a similar structure - amber, you know, fossilised resin, while ambergris, a secretion from the digestive tract of a sperm whale, first floats in the sea and also rocks. Perhaps these similarities caused the two names to merge into one. Especially as they both give off a distinctive smell when heated.
The amber note in perfumes, even such classics as Guerlain Jicky, for example, truth be told, has never been extracted directly from amber. Perfumers used a kind of interpretation of its scent - a visual, golden, resinous texture - obtaining it by combining completely different ingredients. Today, the amber chord is the result of combining the vanillin we all know with various resins. So successful, in fact, that practically to this day there is a whole range of perfumes that are still based on the same idea. What's more, in classical perfumery there is - or rather, there was - a belief that amber as a natural raw material in perfume is not right.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, you are of a different opinion and have even proved it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amber, especially Baltic amber, was very close to me. I grew up in Pomerania, where amber was present not only in the form of stories about fishing, jewellery and sculptures, or the good-for-everything amber liqueur, but also in the form of its smell, especially the polished nuggets. Knowing a lot about amber, and above all that it is a resin, I thought it might be worth trying to extract a scent from it. Or at least some single modest component of fragrance.<\/p>\n

\"3685<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

You took a rather ambitious approach to the subject: you decided to do something that no one had done before you - you sourced the smell of amber from natural amber.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To be honest, I don't know if I was actually the first. I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere in far-flung countries like India or China, where perfumery is based on slightly different, more balmy ingredients, there have already been attempts by local makers to source fragrance from natural amber. However, I have not been able to access such information. I also analysed contemporary perfume brands in Europe, the USA and the Middle East, but I did not come across such information there either. My methods of obtaining the amber chord are largely based on historical recipes, some of which were already known in the Middle Ages. I have merely modified them, i.e. adapted them to the present day, in order to obtain ingredients that are at the same time safe, stable and have fragrant qualities. I was keen to show that natural amber can be an attractive perfume ingredient and can have a great variety of scent shades. I hope that the results of my experiments will be so attractive to other perfumers that they will want to work not with so-called ready-made products, but with amber chords extracted from natural amber.<\/p>\n

What are the differences between a fragrance extracted from natural amber and an artificial extract?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fragrantly, these are two completely different tales. I originally planned to source just one ingredient, but the amber turned out to be so fantastic that I was able to get a whole series of interesting ingredients. I have amber oil, which is made by dry distillation, which is combustion without oxygen. The oil has a very strong, smoky, even pungent smell, reminiscent of the smell of ship's grease. I also subjected it to a modern purification technique, i.e. rectification. As a result, I managed to remove some of the heaviest, most irritating odours. Amber oil was obtained as far back as the Middle Ages; I only \u201eadded\u201d a more modern purification process to the old recipe. This is important because, extracted only in the traditional way, it contains a lot of ingredients considered dangerous today. The amber oil appeared to have potential, but I was also keen to obtain an ingredient that was closer to that amber smell I knew from my memories. To obtain it, I had to \u201eextract\u201d the aromatic substances from the Baltic amber without burning it. Which is terribly difficult because Baltic amber is very difficult to dissolve. In the end, I managed to select the right set of solvents and obtained an extract that is closest to the smell of a homemade amber tincture or, for example, polished amber.<\/p>\n

\"3685<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

So not every ingredient a perfumer can use?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are bound by limits on what we can use and in what quantities, so that the final product is safe for the consumer. Hence the need to purify the amber oil, which additionally allowed us to get rid of the smokiest, heaviest components of the fragrance. Invariably, however, it is a far different ingredient from the one we associate with the smell of amber in perfume, where this amber chord is sweet, resinous, rounded, warm. But we also have other ingredients, such as artificial musk. Natural musk has been highly prized in perfumery for centuries, but it was also very expensive, so different ways were sought to replace it. At the turn of the 18th century, German chemist Sigismund Marggraf came up with the idea of combining amber oil with nitric acid - the result was a brown, waxy mixture that had a very animal smell - Marggraf associated it with the smell of musk. This is probably the first documented artificial musk. It gives a scent that is more cosy, velvety, soft, even downy, and at the same time has that animal, animalic note to it. After receiving the first edition of the amber perfume, I encountered comments that it was associated with the smell of stables or horsehair, among other things. I, on the other hand, associate it a little more with sheep shearling.<\/p>\n

I don't think I would want to smell like that....<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know this sounds quite controversial. In the perfumer's workshop, there are very many such ingredients that do not smell very attractive on their own, but when skilfully combined give an interesting fragrance composition. Perfume, after all, is never a single ingredient, but always a complex composition. If we smelled amber oil - which smells quite penetrating, industrial, even like mazout or heated ship oil - even after purification, most people would probably think it was unsuitable for a perfume. Meanwhile, an image came to my mind inspired by a diver in a historical amber fishing suit on display at the Amber Museum in Gdansk. I imagined all the machinery on top of it injecting air for the diver. And it was for this interpretation that I decided to use amber oil - which is why, of the three fragrances I have created in the amber series, it is Mare Goticum that is the most controversial.<\/p>\n

Perfumes are not just meant to smell, they are meant to tell stories....<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perfumers' noses don't work like most people's. We don't divide fragrances into smelly and smelly, we just try to discover the potential even in the more difficult fragrances and think about how and with what to combine them. For me it is very important to have an inspiration, a concept that sets me on the path to creating a fragrance. I try to start from an idea, such as this diver and the deep-sea mining of amber, and use the different ingredients in such a way as to replicate the story as best as possible. It is not a great art to combine several ingredients into something that smells pleasant. Everyone is capable of doing this intuitively - studies show that even children as young as a few years old are able to create simple scent combinations, such as combining flowers into a pleasant-smelling bouquet.<\/p>\n

\"3685<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

This is where we get into the subject of niche perfumes. Are there many amateurs of petroleum-scented perfumes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most definitely think of perfume in purely utilitarian terms as a complement to an image or wardrobe. But there is also no shortage of people who are looking for more artistic fragrances, reflecting a story, transporting memories back in time and ready to accept controversial scents. And so the fragrance \u201eEridan\u201d with its amber musk evokes associations with a family home, a holiday in the countryside or even an equestrian school. In these less typical fragrances, we are often able to find more elements that speak to our memories, emotions, associations and therefore to our personality.<\/p>\n

You also create bespoke perfumes What do the people for whom they are created want to smell like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Memories and emotions. This is most often the result of the interview I do in the first stage. I ask them about their favourite scents, but above all I am interested in their olfactory memories, e.g. what they associate the smell of their family home with, what their parents smelled like, and what their first love smelled like. Sometimes this is not easy, because under the word rose, for example, everyone has a different olfactory association. For one person it might be, for example, a dune wild rose, for another a mottled rose that grows in their parents' or grandparents' garden. Therefore, this interview is essential to create a fragrance that evokes emotions and allows you to express yourself.<\/p>\n

Let's go back to amber and the three fragrances you created based on them. \u201eMare Goticum\u201d and \u201eEridan\u201d were created on the basis of Baltic amber, \u201eHispaniola\u201d on the basis of blue Dominican amber. Baltic and Dominican smell different?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each type smells different. With the exception of Sumatran, which does not smell at all. I'll honestly admit that it was a very big surprise to me when I started experimenting with ambers from different parts of the world: Mexico, Indonesia and the Dominican Republic. And this Dominican amber turned out to be a hit. It is the fossilised resin of deciduous trees - not coniferous like Baltic amber - so there is already a difference in smell from that. It smells even before it is heated, and its scent is multidimensional: it has such a woody, balsamic sweetness on the one hand, while on the other it is slightly powdery, a bit like iris flower extract, with a slight hint of bitterness in the background. Mexican, on the other hand, has a scent similar to white copal, more pungent and spicy, also very interesting, but it was the Dominican amber scent that captivated me completely.<\/p>\n

The first limited edition of these fragrances that you offered last autumn quickly ran out. I know you're working on the next edition and that it will be a little different.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I like to change the composition of my work gently from edition to edition. Of course, these main amber ingredients will still be noticeable, only the side accents will change. For example, in the current edition of \u201eHispaniola\u201d I have modified the proportions of the ingredients a little, but I have also gone for a fantastic red mandarin from Brazil, which smells so insanely appetising that I literally fought the temptation to drink it.<\/p>\n

When is the premiere?<\/strong><\/p>\n

At AMBERIF SPRING, I previewed the new edition of this amber series. I also had the opportunity to talk about how I worked on the amber ingredients and these compositions. I was very pleased that even for experts and veterans of the amber world, this topic proved to be something of interest, and the fragrances themselves received a very positive reception. Now that the perfumes are ready, all that remains is to fill the flacons with them. Sample kits of the entire collection will be available within 2-3 weeks, while the full-size flacons will be available in late March\/early April. In addition, we are also working with the Amber Museum to launch - very soon - a perfume workshop, where participants will be able to create their own perfumes using my amber ingredients with my help. As you can see, for perfumers too, amber can be wildly inspiring and open up many new possibilities for its use.<\/p>\n

Alan Balewski<\/strong> - independent Polish perfumer and researcher in the psychology of smell, founder of the Bale perfume laboratory. His path to the world of perfume began with self-taught experimentation and fascination with fragrances, which in time led him to one of the most prestigious perfume schools - the French ISIPCA. Experiences gained both as a self-taught perfumer and during professional education resulted in the creation of the Bale laboratory, a space where traditional craftsmanship is combined with a modern approach to fragrance composition. Using a proprietary methodology, he experiments with innovative olfactorial effects, drawing inspiration from the rich history of perfumery. His work is a constant search for new frontiers in the art of fragrance.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have known for a long time that amber is an ingredient in many perfumes. But today we will learn that this scent - or rather the representation of it - is synthetic and has little in common with the real smell of amber. So what does real amber smell like?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Bursztyn jest szalenie inspiruj\u0105cy dla perfumiarzy \u2013 rozmowa z Alanem Balewskim - Amber Portal","description":"We have known for a while that amber is an ingredient in many perfumes. But today we will learn that this scent - or rather the image of it - is synthetic and with p"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"sekcja":[245],"class_list":["post-20309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wywiady","sekcja-ludzie-opinie"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20309"},{"taxonomy":"sekcja","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sekcja?post=20309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}