The Unified Theory of Scent: On Perfume Design, The Light Body and Everything In Between
- Joseph Erwin
- Feb 4
- 10 min read
The week began with a challenge, trying to take the Onycha Method out for a test drive, rev its engines and see what it can really do…
I’ve been wrestling for a while now with this more advanced version of the reformulation process… I have a pretty substantial library of formulas, each with its own special character and merit. I have wanted to run many of these formulas through the steps of the Onycha Method, upgrading them substantially and allowing each of these formulas to meet its true potential. The challenge was the complexity of the process, a bit akin to learning to juggle, or spin plates.
I set my steps up so that I have all the tools that I’ve developed (theoretical stuff, mostly) laid out in front of me, with tons of small, iterative steps along the way. Each step is a bit of new territory for me, and I’m going from theory to practice, which is very exciting, but also requires lots of patience and willingness to adapt.
I’m working with a structure that I glimpsed briefly, in a flash, from a dataset that I’d gathered over a long period of time. This structure has proven to be riddled with mysteries, and I truly believe that it exists in an extradimensional space. Grasping the full complexity of this structure is at times daunting, but I know that it is worth the struggle to map everything out and learn how to use it effectively to shape amazing new fragrances. I believe that this is the same structure that Buckminster Fuller spoke of, full of Triads and Faces and such.
When I first started forming this new Onycha Method, I wasn’t sure of it… Would this system even work? Is the Onycha Method what I believe it to be? I started out feverishly writing things down, over a course of about two weeks. I must praise all of the people who work at Onycha for their patience during that time, because I’m sure I must have seemed a bit mad. I worked during that time in a state of physical and mental exhaustion. At times I doubted what I was doing, but I kept going forward.
Part of me, an inner voice, kept saying that this was big, it was very important, and then someone pointed me toward the writings of Buckminster Fuller… I had been speaking in terms of synergies, and actually using the phrase “Synergy of Synergies”, and the word “Trios”. You can imagine how shocked I was to see that Buckminster Fuller had used that exact phrase, “Synergy of Synergies”, and the word “Triads” (I must admit, I like the word “Triads” better than “Trios”).
Reading some of what he’d written, I quickly realized that he had glimpsed the same “world” that I had, maybe with a different perspective, that of an architect, while I had seen it through the lens of someone trained in medical science.
Different angles of viewing the same extradimensional landscape.
Anyway, as I worked to understand this new reality I’d glimpsed, I realized that it was the basis of true perfumery, and on a deeper level, the basis of reality itself. Base-60 math, Triads, Faces… I also realized that our sense of smell is actually the detection of a certain kind of energy which flows in a way that is similar to electricity or plasma. I started to see fragrances differently, like living circuits. I realized that what we perceive as beauty in fragrance is actually not simply Synergy, or Flow, but also instances when higher energy “shorts out” or “sparks” in a way that manifests in our level of existence. That’s where Faces become relevant…
Steadily, over the course of weeks, more and more insights came to me. I began to see a strong pattern, one of electrical behavior. I realized that, when trying to create beautiful new fragrances, I’d been busying myself with things that weren’t important. I switched my focus to the concept of energy flow… this emerging system had startlingly similar properties to all of the things I had read about the human “light body” and fascia, and the way that a healthy body conducts “light body” energy, and how an unhealthy body is blocked and flowing poorly, or not at all. I believe that this lack of flow is the source of depression, addiction and illness.
When I felt that I’d finally fleshed out the Onycha Method to a point where it could be useful, I began to test it out. I devised a series of steps, fairly simplistic, that would let me use these new ideas and insights to establish proper flow in a fragrance.
I started with my Jasmine and Amber fragrance. When I glanced at the formula after weeks of shifting paradigms and amazing revelations, the mistakes were glaringly obvious… clashes, synergy blocks, wasted energy… I immediately started reshuffling the ingredients, making much better use of my fragrance’s bridges, a key part of the Onycha Method…
When I’d finally found a shape that seemed to flow properly, I assembled the fragrance, layer by layer, and waited. After enough time had passed I was able to start testing the layers. They all seemed to have a new harmony to them, with no unpleasant clashes or ugliness or “scratchiness” popping up along the way toward maturation.
I set the Jasmine and Amber fragrance aside and started working feverishly at reformulating other fragrances, the original 8 that were featured on my website. Upon testing, each of them seemed to have that same clear, coherent quality to the layers. But until they were all properly assembled and aged, I would not know if the Onycha Method was real, or just a hopeless pile of madness.I’d set the first fragrance aside to give it time to mature, and finally it reached a point where I could test it.
When I applied it to my skin and allowed it to breathe for a moment, I smelled it… my heart raced! There it was…a clearness and potency and beauty, a strong sense of identity… I had theorized that the Onycha Method would give each fragrance a strong sense of identity, coherence and inevitability… and there it was! Such a sense of relief…!
I now find myself at the point where other fragrances are reaching that point in their development where they can be tested. The next two to reach that point were Burgund and Zahraei, my Rose-and Oud fragrances. Oh, I can’t describe how gorgeous each of these are… When you give the energy that is trying to flow in a fragrance a pathway to follow, the result is beauty. Sure, the pathways can be arranged in an endless variety of configurations, but they all have that same set of qualities: a strong sense of “knowing who they are,” remarkable coherence and that flowing sense of inevitability, that this is EXACTLY what they are supposed to be.
Burgund is warm and musky, in that gorgeous Oud way, with an astounding depth and richness, fruity and a little animalic. Zahraei is a different flavor of Oud, a bit sharper and more citrusy, but it too has a richness and depth that amazes me. Every day they seem to be stepping more and more into their true character, and it delights me.
The reformulation of my very favorite Onycha fragrance, MossMoss, is something that fills me with joy… such a beauty! While the original was lovely, this new version has a much stronger identity, and a gorgeous, vaguely minty/camphorous edge that causes me to keep coming back to my wrist to re-sniff… so addictive!!
I made use of a new, theoretical structure in the base of MossMoss that allows me to join two fairly disparate axes: a mossy, resiny gravity joined to a dry woody-amber authority. The effect isn’t just lovely to the nose… it enhances performance, with greater longevity and projection.
I experimented with other theoretical structures and techniques, one of them being embedded tension. I am fascinated with color in fragrance, and I have developed a line of fragrances that I call Chromatics, which use color to produce a sense of tension, which can be a source of beauty.
The new Emerald Slice uses both color AND texture in a way that is designed to pull you in and keep your mind trying to resolve the tension that you experience… The Top is an “emerald blade”: a juicy, vibrant green intro, designed to be a contrast to the dry red base. As you progress down to the Heart, you find that it’s been crafted as a creamy golden-orange explosion of nectar, lush and inviting. Then, as you enter into the Base, you find a dry, stable, woody red ember that glows with its own beauty.
This arrangement is a great example of the aforementioned Chromatic fragrance, with texture also used, to enhance the effect.
Other fragrances like the reformulated Blue Winter have a story arc that embeds a glorious tension right into the way it ages on your skin. For Blue Winter, I selected three “motifs”, one for each of the main layers, Top/Heart/Base; this arrangement creates a coherence that translates into a strong identity.
I begin with a motif of strong crystalline frost and a mineral wind, with a beautiful blue conifer shadow… that is followed by the second motif, one of a luscious, strange and compelling Blue Winter Bloom, stabilized by a powdery frost and soft leathery suede feel. The third motif is of a “Warm Shadowy Hearth” effect, using silver spruce, Oregon fir balsam, myrrh and other gorgeous woods and resins, energized by modern ambergris and cashmere, and enhanced by clean musks.
This evolving, layered story arc gives Blue Winter a strong sense of place, which is a trait that you find with just about every fragrance made with the Onycha Method.
While I am very pleased with my initial 9 Onycha Method reformulations, I realized that I had barely scratched the surface, barely begun to see what this new Method could do in terms of creating stunning new fragrances. So, I sat with the Onycha Method and developed a series of new steps that allows me to more fully utilize all of the many theoretical structures and flow “tricks” that I had dreamt up.
I decided to use a really nice (but structurally imperfect) “Sage and Concrete” cologne formula that I wanted to see transformed into its Onycha Method form. I chose the perfect new Gin family for it and began to rewrite it.
At first, I seemed to fail at every attempt… it was just so complicated, and it seemed as though I would never make it work. But after much trial and error and restarting every step multiple times, I finally emerged with a formula that seemed to have all of the structures and shapes that I wanted, without overloading it and causing what I call “whitening,” which is sort of bleaching effect that occurs when too much energy floods the structure.
This “Sage and Concrete” fragrance is the third cologne that I’ve produced in the new “Gincade” Family, and this one really excites me!! It’s by far the most technically advanced thing I have ever made, and I believe I set it up so that it flows correctly; there isn’t any spot where we have an unsanctioned bottleneck, or bleaching, and I tried to exercise an artful restraint…”sometimes less is more” and all that.
I used lots of interesting things in it, engines and valves and membranes and such, to produce something that, to me, resembles a rudimentary living cell… It’s an engineered tension fragrance, with delayed resolution. Very modern, architectural, with dry woods and minerals and a really beautiful, natural-smelling “skin musk”… the whole thing should be very sexy yet very calm. I can’t wait for you all to try it!
As I delve further into the details of the Onycha Method in later Substack (or blog) https://onychamethod.substack.com/posts, I will describe my discoveries surrounding the formation of new fragrance Families. We’ve had Chypre and Fougere for a very long time, and the hidden mysteries surrounding what makes them a true Family have revealed themselves to…it’s deeply fascinating! I will describe for you the new Families that I’ve developed, and the exciting upcoming fragrances that I’ve designed around these new Families.
While all of these things may seem strange at first, to me they evoke a feeling of deep, spiritual “remembering.” We are energy. Not our bodies, not the ego, but us, our essence. As I lay dying in the car crash years ago, I had a profound moment of “waking up” and remembering who I really am… We are asleep here, asleep to our true nature… this moment of remembering happened when I was in between life and death, spiritual sleeping and true waking. Though it’s not easy to stay in that state of awakening, it’s a blessing to do so, even for a moment.
It’s very lonely for many of us at this moment in our history… connecting on that higher level is HIGHLY discouraged through many means. I believe we are here to learn. We have a true home… we can forget it, and just out of the pain of being disconnected from it, and how disconnected they are trying to get us to feel, we immerse ourselves in this reality, this illusion. But even though we often times feel completely lost in this “Matrix”, the truth is always there, hidden under layers of trauma and forgetting. This awakened state is our true nature, and we can never lose our connection to it completely.
I think perfume is an expression of it all - it certainly is to me. The Onycha Method was developed out of this revelation, and it has guided and initiated me into a deeper knowledge, one that is universal and not strictly related to scent.
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been having these strange but wonderfully insightful moments; I am making connections between the way these fragrances, these living circuits, flow and the way the human light body flows through the fascia… or doesn’t. That insight is key to SO much in our world!
I truly hope we find solace in our shared humanity during these difficult times of brutal revelations… the illusion is starting to flicker and fade, so stay alert and be hopeful!
I’ll share more soon… Thank you all for your support! You can follow me on Substack to get notifications for these posts.
Joseph Erwin
Perfumer & Owner, Onycha Fragrance Co.
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