Oh, True Apothecary! One Year, One Nose ~ 365 Days of Olfaction February 1, 2012

Day 9 ~ One Year, One Nose

2012-02-09T07:40:00.000-08:00

Everything's coming up . . . violets?

Again with 'Phyllis' flowers', as me mum likes to call 'em; the little low to the ground weedy things she's always tearing out of the lawn, trying to corral them back into the brick-lined garden spot -- that have turned out to be nothing less than viola odorata.

Funny, I'm slightly anosmic to the flowers themselves, but my 'boys' pick up the scent of violet when a short bouquet of them has been thrust up their noses. "Ooooh," they say, their bleary eyes rolling up in their heads, "those flowers smell nice." Me? I take a sniff and catch only the barest whiff of a delicate almost-flower thing, sweet and powdery smelling with a hint of the pastille (y'know that's just an associative connection -- I adore violet pastilles AND I can smell them. They don't taste half bad either).

Violet leaf (abs.) at a 10% dilution ~ smells intensely green, almost melon rind-like and heavy with the cucumber tones. There are a lot of fruity (melon?) notes in the leaf, though the bright, fresh green of it dominates. I feel that a 10% dilution for evaluation is perhaps a bit high. A 5%, 3% or even 1% might be a better ratio at which to study this lovely and intense green scent. Violet leaf is a take over scent -- put it in any high quantity in a composition and you've made it a violet leaf eau de parfum (or whatever concentrate you're working in). Violets, in any form it seems, do not shrink from anything. Not from crazed grandmothers with pinchy-grabby-twisting fingers, nor from your big old nose. Violet leaf is a BIG smell.

Violet flower tincture (Parma) ~ now we're talkin'! Sweet, powdery, intensely sweet, honey-like with shades of warm powdery amber, not heavily 'white floral' indolic like gardenia or jasmine, but pervasive nonetheless. Orris root tincture has a lot of these same characteristics, so I wouldn't be too far off the mark in comparing violet flower tincture with an orris root tincture; they're both softly sweet, slightly floral, powdery, candy-like and again, pervasive. Violet flower is a very distinctive scent -- basically once your nose locates and correctly identifies the smell of violets, it doesn't get easily erased from your olfactory database. But then you might confuse it with orris root . . .

Day 8 ~ One Year, One Nose

2012-02-08T07:52:00.000-08:00

I'm late! I'm late! And I still have Day 9 to post! So much to do, so much to smell!

Antique Mysore Sandalwood (the 'real' stuff)

I have very little of this sandalwood left, in fact, not even enough to formulate with anymore. I keep it in the library to make comparisons and just because it's such a lovely scent in general. And I'm happy that I do since it is the most beautiful sandalwood oil I've ever smelled. It is exquisitely creamy and woody with lots of lush buttery tones. It makes me yearn to have been a perfumer in the 10s and 20s when there was a lot of this Mysore sandalwood available (my sample is over 100 years old). I would have hoarded it even then (I say that now, but who knows?) This sample gives an impression more of 1920s France; art deco, the Paris World's Fair, flappers and shameless women who smoked cheroots than of India and chandan dhoop. The tenacity is spectacular, lasting well beyond the 12 hour mark and into months, however faintly.

Day 7 ~ One Year, One Nose

2012-02-07T09:35:00.000-08:00

An Ounce of Civet (really, less than a gram)

Someone gifted me a small bottle of this stuff -- someone who obviously hates me (not really, she just knows that I am ever the curious cat) -- in an effort to tickle my olfactophile tendencies.

However, as a preface to this evaluation, I must say that I disagree with -- is it Steffan Arctander? I think it is -- who said civet didn't smell like shit. It does. Tremendously. Just sayin'.

On an odor intensity scale of my own design, I rate civet as a 7 (10 being a true screamer of a stink). Civet smells of vomit, rotting dirty feet, loads of crap, and brings to my mind memories of scooping huge piles of dog crap (we had a giant German shepherd) up in the backyard -- that came out of a dog who didn't have the best of diets as he was a sneaky midnight snacker of the neighbor's trashcan. We once came home from an all day excursion to find our silly dog in the back yard eating the innards of an aluminum can. He had managed to chew off the bottom seal of the can (the top was wide open) and had cut his bottom lip partially off. He was sent to the vet for a total lipectomy. After that he always looked as if he were grinning maniacly as his bottom teeth were always showing. And he wisely stopped digging in the neighbors trash. He also lived to a ripe old age.

So back to civet. It ranks a 7 and not a 10 because I'm a masochist and must love the smell of poop. The sensory feel I get from this scent is gritty and intense, rough, like sandpaper. In this form I cannot imagine how it could be used in a perfume. At all. The color of the civet tincture was crystal clear, but the color I see in my mind's eye is, of course, poop brown.

I definitely see the fixative potential of this material, but I -- gah! It's just too horrid to even think of using in something people -- strangers to me! -- will be spraying on their bodies. It's like something you'd think of people doing in BDSM clubs (not that I would know about any of that stuff -- no, really!)

I can say this much for civet tincture, it definitely mellows as it dries on the stick, lowering it's rankness down to halitosis instead of vomit, rotted feet, and shit.

The small vial of civet goes in the library, never to be smelled again, unless I'm trying to scare someone.

Day 6 ~ One Year, One Nose

2012-02-07T09:15:00.000-08:00

Bucco Leaf (natural isolate)

This bucco leaf natural isolate smells very little like a bucco leaf powder or vacuum distilled oil. To my nose, it lacks the medicinal smell, the touch of the pennyroyal. Instead I get a soft woody floral with sweet caramel notes and a strong vintage sandalwood/floral 'perfume' headiness. Even though this natural isolate's scent can be detected up to 12 hours later, by then it has lost all that warm woody floralness and has slipped right into the green and somewhat medicinal, leaving off with a hint of mint.

Oops! One Year, One Nose on Delay :S

2012-02-07T08:02:00.001-08:00

Days 6 and 7 are coming later this afternoon!

Day 5 ~ One Year, One Nose

2012-02-05T18:10:00.001-08:00

Frangipani and Fig cake with Pineapple glace.

Yes. Frangipani absolute and Calimryna fig extract poured liberally into a plain white cake batter, baked, then topped with a simple confectioner's sugar and pineapple juice glaze. Again, yes. And gone. It never fails to happen; I get barked at by the resident eaters that I'm making 'perfume food' again, then when done, it's gobbled up, seemingly while I sleep because I never see them eating it, until all that's left are the crumbs on the cake plate.

Predominantly a sweet, mapley smelling cake with light notes of frangipani and a hint of spice, like cardamom, something green and sneaky that peeks in and out. The scent is luscious. The fig is remarkably present, smelling just a bit like a gentleman in tweeds on the dregs of his ultra-manly musky parfum.

Perfumed food is ultimate olfactogustatory experience. (You do realize that isn't a word, right?)

Day 4 ~ One Year, One Nose

2012-02-04T10:36:00.000-08:00

Lemon

Who doesn't love lemon? While washing dishes this morning, I kept catching whiffs of it's tart sweetness and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. The window was open a crack so I thought perhaps the neighbors were cutting lemons or making juice. Then I realized the granddaughter was being suspiciously quiet while sitting in the corner of the kitchen with her back to me. I tiptoed up to her and peeked over her head and there in her lap was a gnawed on lemon that she was making sweet, slobbering love to. One thing I can say about this granddaughter, she does love her groceries, even if they make her pucker and shudder and drool like a rabid squirrel. We keep a big basket of fresh lemons and oranges on the floor next to the refrigerator as we're always digging into it for one thing or another -- salad ingredients, lemons for salsa, oranges for eating or juicing, playing catch. We do love our citrus 'round here.

The scent of lemon -- well, most of us know how lemons smell. They're quite common in many parts of the world so access to their lovely fresh, fruity, citrus and floral bouquet is easily met. But what does lemon scent do to you? Perhaps similar to how I felt, standing in front of a sink full of dirty dishes and catching the tickling finger of lemon on the air; uplifted. Enlivened. Maybe even a little excited? Excited about the scent of a lemon? Sure. In the dead of winter, lemons, to me, represent the coming spring and summer; of green tea and lemon wedges in tall glasses filled to the top with slushy ice, sipped slowly while sitting on the front porch watching the neighborhood being. It reminds me more recently of days of lemon distillation, the scent of fresh squeezed lemon filling the air, a replete feel-happy aroma, the 'E' of nature. Or maybe it feels that way because I'm cuckoo over distillation in general.

Lemon smells zippy. Zingy. Fresh. Fruity-sweet and citrusy-tart. Aldehydic. Ok, so what does that mean, aldehydic? Citrusy smells are aldehydic -- soapy and waxy and slightly floral. I know, this is getting confusing. Not all aldehydes smell like the aldehyde I'm describing here -- some smell nasty, like turned butter and black bananas. But when I say (or write) 'aldehydic', what I'm referring to is a sparkle I'm detecting in a scent rather than a specific aldehyde. Think champagne bubbles.

Some perfumers I know use lemon sparingly as to not fall into the Lemon Trap (much like the Bergamot Trap, and the Vanilla Trap ~ The fact that some perfumery ingredients are used to re-steer a south-facing perfume makes them 'Traps'. It's like cheating on an exam when they're used this way.) Look at any classic perfume and you will undoubtedly find the copious use of bergamot and vanilla; look at any classic cologne or eau de toilette, and all three may be in there. Lemon in cologne is understandable. By cologne's very definition, it is lemony and flush with citrus of every color and stripe. Jean Nate is a fine smelling eau de toilette *slash* bath splash cologne rife with lemon, that I once had the misfortune of getting in my hair. It took two days of shampooing to get the scent completely out. Aside from that, again, it is a fine smelling splash. With lemon.

Oh, yes, and then there is always the association of lemon (in some parts of the world) with toilet bowl cleaner. Again, lemon gets a bad rap.

Day 3 ~ One Year, One Nose

2012-02-03T06:41:00.000-08:00

Preface

By now you, the reader, are probably wondering what boring, not-so-well-thought-out olfactory observation I will post today -- or not (wondering, I mean). This preface is to explain that I promise to work harder at posting good olfactory observations and potentially imparting useful information. That is the goal. (Geesh, it's only Day 3 and I'm already saying this). And I have a notebook with page after page of olfactory snapshots upon which to build a whole picture. But. Ah, yes, the ubiquitous 'but' ~ But I have been terribly distracted these past few days. The curse of threes (y'know what it is, it's the three bad things that happen one right after the other) has decided to make a visit to my family in a very big way. On the other hand, we're due the blessing of threes any time now, Universe.

There are so many lessons learned from the last week. Too many to go into, and certainly not appropriate to share here.

Summarized: Love one another -- a lot. Follow the rules of safety. Listen to people who've been there and done that because they can save you a world of heartache. And lastly, forgive.

On to the post:

Ruby Red Grapefruit ~

I had the pleasure of experiencing a freshly picked ruby red grapefruit and comparing it to a bottle of red grapefruit essential oil (mine). The same yet different. Fresh grapefruit peel is cool, zingy, slightly sweet with a strong neroli floral force. More of a juice, peel, twig, blossom kind of scent than strictly a peel scent. I was surprised by it -- lovely petitgrain notes, and I had not realized how much of a floral note that the fresh grapefruit peel possessed. I have access to many more of these grapefruit, so I am thinking a distillation session is in order very soon. And a bit of antioxidant in the oil to help retain that gorgeous floral tone. That is, if it translates the way I think it will. There is a slight pitchy, citric acid tonality to the fresh peel as well, something bitter and slightly nasty, like soured milk. Obviously this scent doesn't work well on its own, but taken in with the floral notes, it turns the whole picture to that of a fleshy, sensual woman. A woman who doesn't give a rat's patooty what you think of her. A bold, audacious woman.

Here is an interesting bit of information regarding one of the chemical components of grapefruit ~ Sex & Grapefruit.

Grapefruit distilled oil is not as exciting as fresh peel. There is a dullness to the oil, a muted quality. And absolutely none of those lovely neroli floral tones are present. It could be because the oil is older and not as fresh, as I do recall the oil when first made was gorgeous with floral notes and rich with high limonene tones and aldehydic highlights. It was sparkly. Even preserved, it doesn't hold a candle to its younger, fresher self. It does, however, still retain a lovely juicy quality. A little zip that makes your mouth water.

Capturing scent from raw materials through distillation must have driven those old apothecarians completely insane. Oftentimes it simply doesn't translate. I am reminded of Grenouille and the cat.

Photo is a pomelo, not a ruby red.

Day 2 ~ One Year, One Nose

2012-02-02T08:25:00.000-08:00

Macarons & Cupcakes

Peaches and Cream Macarons simply smell of sweet peach jam. Oh, and cream. And vanilla. So perhaps not so simply scented. The outer 'shell' of the macaron is sugared vanilla, the scent just hovering above the crust. Once broken open, the scents of peaches and cream explodes ~ there is tart peach jam with rich apricot notes, deep notes of cream and more sugar, a dash of dark vanilla, ooh, and butter, salty creamy butter. A nibbler sitting across the table from me at the bakery remarked, "It feels like fat little buttery peach angels are dancing on my tongue!"

Chocolate Twin Pomegranate Wine & Cheesecake Cupcake smells of red wine, the darkest, sweetest red wine, with rich, dark bitter chocolate and cream, and a dash of sweet, tart cherry. The wine prevents this scent from reaching the dark decadent gourmand rush of just chocolate and cherries, instead twisting back and settling in about halfway to dark gourmand -- the red wine scent is prevalent, bolstered by the juice of pomegranate, both tart and slightly bitter smelling. Think Raisinettes with their deliciously sweet chocolate coating and tart, juicy raisin within -- like that, yes. There is a yeasty element to this cupcake -- smells of barrooms after the patrons have gone and all that's left is the cleaning up. It is at once rustic and elegant, but I would never want to wear a scent like this. It heads in too many directions at one time and is confusing.

Day 1 ~ One Year, One Nose

2012-02-01T07:37:00.000-08:00

Cold.

I felt it appropriate to outline this 'scent' first since I smell it every morning on the way to work (riding a bicycle 1 mile), and because cold isn't only a scent, it is also a sensation. It is tingly. It burns. It fills your head with its sharp-edged metallic odor and covers your body in gooseflesh, reddening those areas which are not protected by clothing.

Cold smells the way it does because of how the ions in the scent molecules in the air behave at low temperatures, something about negative and positive charges and warm people skin resulting in that weird metallic smell we often associate with cold. I won't even pretend to understand it. In my neck of the woods, cold smells like warm corn tortillas, perhaps a result of those oppositely charged ions clinging to the warm air close to my body as I race past the taqueria. This smell, along with the metallic scent, persist so long as the temperature is around freezing, but once I ride into the sunlight and feel the warm rays, the smell of cold dissipates, however briefly, and I smell other things -- cooking smells, car exhaust, wet fallen leaves, dust. The scent of warm is obviously more diverse than the scent of cold.

Breathing in the scent of cold has its drawbacks -- runny nose, frozen nose, numb nose.

The scent of cold can be edgy and dull at the same time. It is unconventional as a subject of scent and I find myself going back to how cold feels, so it is better to smell cold in its element ~ the freezer. Ice vapors that roll out of a refrigerator freezer when opened to a warm room are piercingly metallic, as is the scent of the solidly frozen dry ice in the ice tray. Once cold hits that magical number that turns it warmer, it loses the metallic sharpness and picks up the scent of whatever is nearest.

Cold smells of vigilance and struggle and purity with a price.

Tomorrow Begins the Challenge ~ One Year, One Nose ~ 365 Days of Olfaction ~ Join me!

2012-01-31T08:07:00.000-08:00

Well, that title says it all. February 1st, tomorrow, Wednesday, is the launch date of what may prove to be my undoing ~ ha!

So come join me. Check in daily or weekly, and catch up on the olfactory journaling. My hope is to inspire and intrigue you (yes, you), and possibly create an olfactophile of your nosey little self.

And here we go.

Repost

2012-01-24T08:02:00.001-08:00

Artisanal Perfume

Artisanal, or, as my friend B. likes to say, "Art-is-anal," perfume is more niche than niche, more indie than indie, and, to quote another friend, "More specialer," than regular off-the-shelf stuff. So what if the label is a little thready on the edges and sits crookedly on the bottle? Or the bottle is run-of-the-mill, nothing special? It's the art contained within the sometimes ordinary packaging (though packaging can be the #1 selling point for some perfumes) that is important. How many times have you opened a beautifully packaged and bottled perfume to a reaction equivalent to crickets chirping in the middle of the night? Nothing special here -- pretty bottles with boring contents make prime real estate for dust. Again, it's what's inside that counts (as with most things in life) -- juicier than the average juice.

Transitions

2012-01-22T11:33:00.001-08:00

What happened . . .?

2012-01-21T17:19:00.001-08:00

What ever happened to the woman who could crank these out like just-add-water pancakes? I need to find her . . .

Woe and French Macarons

2012-01-21T09:28:00.000-08:00

My books, my perfume instructionals, were stolen off my porch, or perhaps mis-delivered, about a week ago. These books were long awaited, especially by the students who've been anticipating the evaluations' unit and base/perfume building sections of the course.

Though the past few months have been hard on me both financially and emotionally, I feel extremely fortunate and lucky to have such good friends and good luck (knock on wood) -- I feel blessed in many ways.

However.

This book thing knocks me down. I feel what little credibility I've managed to build over the past few years is slowly draining away. It just sounds like one more lousy excuse for being irresponsible, and I'm not that person. The background on the books is stupid long, and just stupid -- first I was in revisions when the course started but I couldn't even think straight to get them done on time due to my personal life (damned personal life getting in the way of everything!) -- then the new publisher is so good they sticklered (not a word, I looked it up) me to death over details of the book for a good two months; then I moved and had no internet access for a month, then new roommates and adjustments came, then the holidays, then more revision of the books, then this -- the flippin' stolen books!

Now that I've finished whinging, I'll pull up my big girl pants and get to doing something constructive. The project (One Nose, One Year) is coming along beautifully. I ended up getting lost in frankincense, for the 1028th time in my life. I can't get enough of the stuff. It's like perfumer's crack! *

I think opening yourself up to smelling everything is a great lesson in life. It conjures memories like you wouldn't believe, while simultaneously creating new ones; it sparks the imagination and these 'ah ha!' moments come rushing in, overwhelming. There's a bakery up the street called Frosted that makes the most divine French macarons I have ever tasted. I could write volumes (yes, Proust) on the scent and flavor of those macarons -- salted caramel, raspberry, pomegranate wine, key lime, vanilla bean, pink champagne. Oh, and the textures! Scents have textures, yes! Imagine the macaron with its delicately brittle covering embracing a soft, gooey center that emits a mouthwateringly juicy berry scent, hints of vanilla and salt wafting up your nose, tickling your baser instincts. It just makes me want to hop up and down ~ ha!

Image by Frosted Cakery, Fresno, Ca.

*I mean no offense to anyone who has ever had a drug problem or a dear one involved in drugs. I thoroughly understand the heartbreak and devastation of addiction.

One Year, One Nose ~ 365 Days of Olfaction

2012-01-19T07:40:00.000-08:00

The official start of this project is February 1, 2012. That should give me plenty of time to get some journal entries down so I'm not feeling so pressured. Though I work well under pressure, it's not good for my well-being in the long run. I'm already sweating the details here. This is a huge undertaking -- not the journaling but the dedication to sharing the entries on this blog.

I imagine that some entries will be long and detailed, while others will be short and concise, more a reflection of mood than the availability of subjects to smell. There is plenty here to smell, no doubt, from the hundreds of perfumery raw materials to the streets outside my doorway. This part of town can also be called the garden district, and though the lovely herb and rose gardens are dormant at the moment, during this blogging project they will come to life again, and then there will be plenty to write about. Not only that, but just walking to the market is a lesson in olfaction, from the restaurants, bakeries, incense shops, pubs and the smell of goings on in the tattoo shop parking lot, well . . . plenty to write about.

So mark your calendars as February 1, 2012 is the official launch of this heady project.

Project: Journaling

2012-01-16T06:49:00.000-08:00

So in the mad morning internet dash this morning, I hopped onto FB, the usual course of events after checking the email accounts, the press accounts and catching up on the fake Yahoo news . . . and what do I see? This link here shared by Kedra Hart of Opus Oils, a blog post by Glass, Petal, Smoke blogger discussing 'olfactory and gustatory' journaling. "You'll have 365 scent memories worth cherishing that will last a lifetime" ~ and I immediately thought, this is exactly what I've been waiting for, the sign. I am a huge fan of Julie Powell's blogging escapade in which she stakes a claim on the blogosphere with '365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen', not to mention Hollywood's rendition of the book with perfect casting and the appropriate amount of sentimentality. I've been wanting to do a blog *slash* olfactory journal with depth and a capacity to teach the reader something about scent detection and how to properly conduct a love affair with their noses/sense of smell. The problem for me is that I often don't dedicate enough time to sitting down and writing a useful blog post on olfaction, whereas a journal, this substantive, tangible thing, something I can toss in the backpack and write in during breaks at work or while sitting somewhere smelling, something no one gets to judge (until it gets posted) could be done with a few months' head start on the blogging so the continuity, once the posting begins, isn't broken. 365 days. That's a lot of time to dedicate to a whimsey. Well, not a whimsey. A project. One year, one nose.

Rose Moss

2012-01-12T07:26:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been thinking about roses -- a lot. Rose moss scents stick in my mind. Nostalgic, vintage, familiar. I think about roses while working at the j o b. An obsession is beginning. I see late roses still clinging to bushes in the neighborhood while I walk. I haven't yet, but I want stop and smell them. It requires stomping across a stranger's yard and looking foolish for a moment. Rose moss. Rose moss.

A Few Words on Happiness

2012-01-07T09:50:00.000-08:00

It has taken my whole life but I have finally figured out (I think ~ ha!) what happiness is. I am partner-less. I work a part-time job. I don't have a car. I have debts I need to get in order. I have few assets and little money. I've severely neglected my perfumery. A few of my grown children are harboring grudges against me. But still I am happy. I won't say blissful, but content. Truly. It could be the result of a lot of different factors in my life at present -- healthier eating habits, moderate amounts of exercise, a sense of self-sufficiency, a renewed interest in creativity, a break from toxic relationships, and the realization that I have some of the most amazing friends a person could ever want. So what is happiness? Simplification. Whittling off the layers of gunk that "society" claims we need. Releasing oneself, no matter how painful, from relationships that are damaging to the psyche. Allowing oneself to let go the unnecessary responsibilities thrust upon us by others. It's a start.

Last night was Jeanne Rose's 75th birthday party hosted by Yosh Han in San Francisco. I wanted to go but obligations here at home kept me here at home. Quite a few of my friends attended the soiree and I look forward to hearing their accounts of the event as the initial reports sound smashing.

I've been running trials on the perfume submission for the 2012 Primordial Scent Event -- my chosen element is water. I'm feeling the need to step up my game, so I've chosen some scent elements that may seem unusual to the theme. Like tolu. I have a bottle of vintage tolu resin diluted to about 50% in organic grain alcohol. Something about it 'feels' watery to me -- like the rain dampened leaves on the edge of a slow moving river, a beautiful marriage of decaying vegetation and warm, murky water. Tolu has that cinnamon-like spice to it, so it will be somewhat difficult to tease out from it what I want. I feel the need to incorporate a touch of some of the other elements into the theme since in reality water is cradled by the earth and blanketed by the air. We shall see. The trials continue on.

I moved my bed into the studio. It was an idea that rolled around in my head for weeks before I actually did it. I just felt the need to be closer to my art, I guess. I cannot accurately express the joy I feel upon waking to all the glittering bottles and the sheer potential in this room every morning. Since moving into the studio, I've slept better than I have in months. I get up, make a pot of tea, sit down at the bench and begin sniffing the materials I laid out the night before. It's a re-education in olfaction.

Sienna Musk

2012-01-02T08:26:00.001-08:00

So I've taken off my perfumer's hat (for this post) and slapped on the reviewers' hat to tell you about this perfume that I've been wearing since last Wednesday ~ Sienna Musk by Sonoma Scent Studio.

I usually don't like to cheat before I do something like this, but I did this time, reading all the previous reviews of this perfume before coming back here and doing my own thing.

What happened is I woke one morning about a week and a half before Christmas knowing full well I had to go to the box mall or hit up an online shop with super fast shipping to get the perfumeophiles some new holiday scents -- time was ticking away, this was the last thing on my list, I was vacillating between going for what I know and heading into the wild unknown. So of course, you know me, I chose the latter! I think it must have been something I saw on FB (yes, I have a new FB account with fewer than 50 "friends" and it's refreshingly manageable, just how I like it) and Laurie Erickson's name popped up and a link to Sonoma Scent Studio and the interest was piqued and my 'buy small and not corporate' ire kicked in and I thought, what the hell?

I have never had any previous contact with Laurie Erickson, though I do know about Sonoma Scent Studios as it's quite popular and non-NBP, which is probably why I waited to so long to try them out (the non-NBP part), so I wasn't completely in unknown territory here -- just a little on the dark and shady side, perhaps, and I mean that in an ophthalmologically myopic sort of way.

I never really know what to expect when I get packages from the small niche perfume houses, and believe you me, I've been receiving truckloads of late and -- well, let's just say that some of the creations I've worn and brusquely washed off were zombie-scary. Really. I have segregated these baddies into a perfume coffin, a tin box with a latch, kept far away from the goodies, lest I accidentally dab a bit on in the mad morning scramble before work and rue the day . . . all day . . . along with my co-workers who have to pass me at the door when coming in and out for work.

I perused and perused, going from one scent description to the next on the Sonoma Scent Studio site, clicking the links to blog write-ups and trying to decipher the codes of scent I was reading. I chose two perfumes based on the descriptions I found and purchased those for the perfumeheads -- this was about a week and a day before Christmas (I did say I perused, taking two days to decide what to get) -- and guess what? I actually received the order before Christmas, as well as a number of lovely samples, and that's where Sienna Musk comes in to play.

Sienna Musk was literally the last perfume I tried out of the sample packet because I'm not a big fan of the musk family -- at all -- the sad result of years of mother's Jovan Musk days wherein she sprayed, and quite liberally I might add, that smell on her person and clothing, thus imbuing her closet and most of our house with its reek. So, yes, I delayed the wearing of Sienna Musk 'til the very end. I don't know for certain now whether that was a mistake or a blessing, suffice it to say, I am enraptured by Sienna Musk. It opens with a flush of ginger and spice and a soft backnote of citrus, then goes straight into a nostalgic soapiness, like shave soap smelled from a few rooms over, then tumbles into the 'musk'. This isn't a furry in your face musk. No, it's skin-like, with mild smoky undertones and a sweet creaminess that tugs you not so reluctantly further into its warmth. Then the spice returns and then wavers, folding into the skinness of the scent, rolling in and out, back and forth, until it's no longer a perfume on the skin but is you. Or, rather, me. Sienna Musk reminds me of L'Artisan's Tea for Two, not a doppelganger, but more a scent of a similar thread. Which is why I now adore Sienna Musk.

Goodbye 2011!

2011-12-31T12:18:00.000-08:00

Goodbye! Fairwell! Auf Wiedersehen! Arrivederci!

Here's to a splendid new year, and a big hello to 2012.

I wanted to write one of those 'best of' lists, and maybe toss in a few 'worst of' holla's for some of the perfume-political rottenness that went on this year (same as it ever was), but I was late in gathering it all up, and honestly, my heart just wasn't in it. But I will say this -- the past 12 months have seen an advance in popularity within the niche, indie and natural botanical perfumery genre, pushing it further than it's gone since the early 2000's when NBP first began its upward march into popular culture. Bloggers who only blogged on commercial and designer perfumes really stepped up to the plate, reviewing indie and niche brands that included more than a few notable natural botanical perfumes in the mix, bringing the 'word' to the masses like never before. It's been exciting watching what I love so dearly grow into something more readily acceptable and even heartily embraced by groups of people who had never even heard of natural botanical perfumes, or knew that this small, dedicated group of folks were out there, blazing trails and creating a fervor; folks consumed by a passion for their art creating modern masterpieces in the confines of a small home studio or tiny shopfront in some obscure anywhere town.

But I think what I've noticed most this past year, and what seems to have really pushed NBP into the mainstream, has been the quality of work coming out of the perfumers. The bar has been raised again, and this time to a much higher level than in years past. And though it might seem a daunting notion to someone new in the field, and even to some who've been plugging away in NBP for years, it serves all of us in a positive way -- it forces us to be the best perfumers we can be, and that's what we want, all of us, to the best we can be. It's the rare perfumer, and the best, in my opinion, who sees their greatest competition in their last best creation.

I also wanted to mention all the projects that came together in 2011 -- A Midsummer Night's Dream with its whimsy and dreamy quality; the PLAP! project hosted by Monica Miller, which heralded in some of the year's very best perfumes based on patchouli, and also brought together a diverse group of people from perfumer to performer, and the Clarimonde Project hosted by Lucy Raubertas. These projects have proven once again that this NBP, niche, indie-thing isn't just a bunch of untrained know-nothings tossing together a few essential oils and calling it perfume. No, on the contrary, these projects have proven that the NBP, niche and indie perfumers are a force to be reckoned with. I'm also really excited about the 2012 line-up of projects, most notably the Primordial Scents 2012 project commencing in June 2012.

2012 may very well be the year we blow the lid off this thing.

So here's to us, the perfumers, for a year filled with blessings and new discoveries.

Update on the Quickie ~

2011-12-30T07:02:00.000-08:00

I have dodged a bullet ~ it appears the imminent homelessness of a family member wasn't so dire a prediction after all. A reprieve has been offered and accepted, so I get to keep the studio!

Now for deadlines. I have been very lax with readying the studio for students, but since we've just emerged from the holiday season, I give myself a reprieve as well. Yes, with the holidays, the move, the upheavals, the emotional blackmail -- wait! Did I just say that? Yes, I did. The emotional blackmail. Y' know, that stuff there can paralyze a person. It's toxic to the enjoyment and progression of happiness. I fight very hard to reject the doom and gloom of someone else's lack of emotional balance, and it's exhausting! So whenever I see it coming 'round the bend, I take a different path -- cross to the other side of the street, so to speak. Oh, yes, I was discussing deadlines . . . I need to set a few. This studio isn't going to get prepped for public consumption until I set a deadline for its debut, so I think a tentative 'open house' will be set for February 11, 2012, a Saturday (all day), well past the hustle and bustle of winter holidays and just in time to interest people in love potions for St. Valentine's Day.

In readying the studio, I've decided to make use of a few things I've found scattered about this old house, such as the original wood doors with crystal doorknobs . . . yes, those are to be repurposed and built into a new, fabulous modesty screen -- hinge three together and voila! A custom antique modesty screen, which will do a fair job of hiding the back end of the computer desk and all its vital wirings. Can't have dangling wires around here since there are babies crawling about.

Oh, and I'm taking French lessons. Finally.

So! Mark your calendars for February 11, 2012 for the . . . well, I haven't made up a title for the event yet, but I will soon. Perhaps you can help?

Just A Quickie ~

2011-12-29T07:16:00.000-08:00

I have only moments to write this (and probably not well, at that) as I'm running a bit late and still need to hop in the shower, wash the 'do, dress and bolt off on the bike to work in this chilly-yet-not-freezing 39 degrees F air.

First, I may already be losing my brand new perfume lab! Yes, my beautiful hardwood floored, antique paneled, built-in cabinetry'd perfume lab may soon be taken over by unexpected new roommates! Aaaarrrrggghh! But what can you do? Allow someone to become homeless because you want to mix a bit of perfume here and there in a gorgeously appointed studio? Oh, with some heartfelt hesitation I answer no. People are far more important than things, even things which make people (me, me, me!) so very happy and spiritually fulfilled. And, as I've said time and again, there is more than one way to skin a . . . critter!

I'm finally working on finalizing the formula for Primordial Scents. It's been a long and difficult road getting in the groove for this, one that officially began September 3rd, 2011 when the world went a little topsy-turvy. But in all actuality, it began unofficially years and years and years ago, like 18 or 19 years ago. That's a long time to try to make something work, don't you think? I think I gave it a fair shot. I realize this doesn't make much sense ~ I haven't been working on the formula for 18 or 19 years, but on something else -- my life! Or the life I was trying to create. You know, sometimes someone else's idea of what a life should be becomes a huge obstacle in the pursuit of creativity and true happiness. It's the old square peg, round hole fiasco . . .

But, yes, the Primordial Scent formulation -- mmmm, I'm hoping I haven't become so rusty these past few months of coveting yet not working on perfume that I am able to create something that isn't entirely amateurish. It's not quite like riding a bike . . .

So, yes! Time to wash up and ride off into the sunrise!

Winner of Holiday Parfum Draw

2011-12-15T13:49:00.001-08:00

Is Linnea Wiedeman. Please send me your address at thescenteddjinn@yahoo.com

Congratulations!

And thank you to all who entered their names in the drawing.

Perfume Pharmer Announces 2011 Niche Perfume Award Winners!

2011-12-14T06:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Perfume Pharmer released its list of the top 20 Niche Perfume Awards for new releases in 2011, and it goes like this:

Pandora by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz of DSH Perfumes

Transcendental Musc by Liz Zorn

Secret Garden by Mandy Aftel

Bohemian Spice by Tanya Bochnig, April Aromatics

Orcas by Ayala Moriel

Avalon by Ambrosia Jones of Perfume by Nature

Immortal Mine by Alexis Karl and Maria McElroy

Star F&@#*% by Kedra Hart of Opus Oils

Wild Child by Kedra Hart of Opus Oils (good goin' Kedra!)

Royal Water by Rodney Hughes of Therapeutate

Dreams and Visions by Jane Cate of Wing and A Prayer

Pentachord Verdant by Andy Tauer

Fleur #1 by Jessica September Buchanan of 1000 Flowers

Vanille Botanique by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz (go girl!)

Nectars des Ils by Juan Perez, Vents Ardents by Shelley Waddington -- collaboration duo for EnVoyage Perfumes

Sharif by Abdes Salaam Attar of La Via del Profumo

Au Pear Tingle by Kedra Hart of Opus Oils (xo)

Paradise Lost by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz of DSH Perfumes (xo)

Best Incense ~ Kyphi 2010 by Katlyn Breene of Mermade Magickal Arts

Best Perfumer ~ Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

Lifetime Achievement Award ~ Jeanne Rose

I have to say that I agree with quite a few on this list (since I helped choose some of them!), for example, some of my favorites this year were Pandora by DSH, Wild Child by Kedra Hart and Royal Water by Rodney Hughes/Therapeutate.

And I also wholeheartedly agree with the final award, the Lifetime Achievement award to Jeanne Rose. I just don't think Ms. Rose gets enough credit for her lifelong, and continuing, contributions to perfumery. A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Rose in her home in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco, and I'll admit it here to you, but please don't tell anyone -- I was petrified to meet her! First of all I got lost and was late for our appointment by almost an hour, then when I did show up I could see that Ms. Rose was sizing me up -- this odd lady from the inland come to talk with Grande Dame of San Francisco -- but it wasn't long before my nervousness settled down (just a bit, mind you, I was still pretty shaky by the time I left). It was quite the experience sitting alone with Ms. Rose in her home, going through boxes of very old oils and resins. I even got to hear with my own ears her famous, "Waft! Don't draft!" protestation while sniffing a very old bottle of benzoin resin. It was like being in the company of a mystic, the oils treated reverentially and with love as we wafted and slipped into conversation about how much had changed since she'd first begun in aromatherapy, how the oils now are different from the oils then, how much has been lost to poor distillation processes and scam artists and over harvesting. As I said, it was quite the experience and one I will treasure forever.

So congratulations to all the winners of this year's Perfume Pharmer Niche Perfumer Awards!

Apple Blossom Concrete!

2011-12-13T01:29:00.000-08:00

I found it! Nearly 25 grams! Woo-hoo! I've been looking for this stuff for a couple of years, almost since just after I received it. It's in a big silver tin and I can't imagine how I lost it in the first place except that in my memory the tin was much smaller and had much less inside. I just wasn't looking for the right thing.

Oh, what does apple blossom concrete smell like? Granny Smith apples and hay and warmth and sunshine. The bright green apple scent fades away quickly leaving just the earthy warmth and leafy smell.

I'm up very late tonight, way, way, way past my bedtime, but I couldn't sleep for some reason. Very unusual for me. And I started thinking about my goodies just sitting in here still wrapped up and waiting to be released, then I hopped on the computer to see was Ana was doing and voila! Inspiration to begin work. I'm cracking down on the unwrapping and finding early gifts!

I'm going to be absolutely good for nothing at work tomorrow. Eek!

Holiday Perfume Giveaway

2011-12-11T07:59:00.000-08:00

DRAWING IS CLOSED: WINNER IS Linnea Wiedeman

I feel as if I've been out of the game for a long, long time. Perhaps mentally and emotionally I had pulled back from my love of perfuming due to personal issues ~ in fact, yes, that's exactly what I did. As much joy as formulating and sharing perfume brought me, there was this niggling little voice in the back of my mind asking, "What's the point?" Sacrilegious, yes? I thought so too. It pains me to admit it. The point in the broader sense, I suppose, could be that perfume and its construction is art, and art doesn't need a practical reason to exist, unless one defines beauty and spirit and love and passion in practical terms. In the personal sense the point was quite ill-defined. It's very difficult for me, as a caretaker 'type', to set aside time for personal aspirations when someone close to me is spinning out of control, and worse when it is a whole herd of people dealing with various and sundry life hurdles. Taking the time to work perfumery, and the necessary concentration and focus one needs for that task, became nearly impossible, fraught with bouts of guilt and what seemed like terminal failure with every experiment I played out. So then I was dealing with two issues; my guilt and black cloud mentality due to taking the time to formulate, and the potential loss of my mojo! This stretched across the spectrum of body beautiful art I was creating, and revealed itself more prominently in my latest soaping endeavors. No more dark and gloomy soaps were ever made than what I had produced from about May of 2011 until the following September. Even the classes I was giving during the summer seemed soulless, the soap created uninspiring.

Since I have not created anything of note lately (though that may change in the next few months as inspiration gels and takes on a more solid, tangible form) I am offering as gifts a coffrett of some oldies but goodies from the treasure chest of aromatic wonders here at The Scented Djinn ~ 5 ml bottles of Serj eau de Parfum, Atay Extrait, and Amber Extrait for your olfactory pleasure.

Make a comment publicly here on Oh, True Apothecary!, or send me a private message via thescenteddjinn@yahoo.com to enter your name into the drawing. The name of the winner will be chosen Thursday, December 15 and mailed immediately in case you want to give the 'fumes away as gifts. Open to those living within the continental US (sorry to those of you not within those perimeters ~ future giveaways here at OTA will include all the planet's human inhabitants).

Hello!

2011-12-09T07:27:00.000-08:00

John Mayer suggested I stop being my normal sarcastic self and just say "hello", something about sincerity . . .

Anyway! The studio is still days away from completion. Just over half the boxes have been emptied and the spaces within the room are pretty close to capacity. And my chair "got" broke. Yep. My antique blending bench chair that was discovered on the side of the road was the sore victim of chair abuse. Y'know how you tell your kids not to lean back in kitchen and lawn chairs because, you say, they'll fall back and break their heads, but what you're really worried about is your poor chair getting a broken leg and back? Yes, that action. Well, I must not have told the kids' friends' friends not to do that in my chair because -- well, you connect the dots here. So I'm chairless and 'working the bench' from under the bench, on the floor.

I have been using some pretty spectacular perfumes lately, my friends. You must go over to Liz Zorn's studio Soivohle for samples or bottles of Jasmine Summer, Queen City Rain, and the must-have, Vanille OTR -- I'm not a big fan of vanilla perfumes, but this one is different. Not a sweet, syrupy concoction, but a sophisticated spicy green perfume with low vanilla backnotes and tenacity for days. Reminds me just a bit of Chanel No.19. It's not an all natural perfume but it is worth checking out if you're of the all natural bent.

O, Happy Yule!

2011-12-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

Whilst everyone about is scrambling to participate in such crazy and nonsensical antics as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I've taken the very shortest road and have put all my gifts on layaway -- in September. Except for a perfume purchase online here and there, there isn't much left to do but set up the tree (ooh, the ceilings are very high and afford space for a lovely tall tree for all the newest grandbabies to marvel), hang the door wreath, spike the nog and wrap the toys. Then begin on the food. I've gotten several requests already for the now popular Neroli Petitgrain Shortbread Cookies, as well as the Jasmine Green Tea Champagne Cupcakes. I'm also going to roll a few nuts in some patchouli sugar (no, not my mom or my crazy across the street neighbor! ~ though both could do with a bit of sweetening).

I've been poking around with a bunch of new perfumes I received -- some stuff from Soivohle and a shop on Etsy called AoStudio9 that makes lovely body sprays. No, they're not all natural but contain a goodly amount of the stuff and they smell remarkable. I must say, my daughter was quite taken with Liz's gorgeous Ankara, and the floral beauty Jasmine Summer. I'm kind'a digging them all, actually, having been a bit 'fume starved the last few months.

Here's to a happy Yule season. May all your wishes and dreams come true.

Spike!

2011-12-04T15:41:00.000-08:00

'Nard, that is. Mmmm, baby. Someone special recently gifted me a bottle of spikenard -- about four ounces of the stinky, juicy stuff. Ahm in luuuvv! Oh, yes, it does have a slightly weird valerian-like undertone that almost takes you there, but then pulls back in plenty of time for the beauty of 'nard to come through. Stuffed Up Nosed Daughter professes it reminds her of roses! Which sent my mind reeling -- Christ being anointed with a pound of 'nard began to fill my imagination, coupled with a long-ago Pranic healing class in which we were told that divine yet earthbound spiritual masters naturally smelled of rose. Could it be, perhaps, a little magic lives in the spikenard? A bit of the mystical and mysterious?

Spikenard is a wondrous oil, not only having been used by ascended masters, it was also used by wealthy Roman women, and Egyptians adored the 'nard. (By the by, my prepubescent sons used to call their private parts 'nards', so writing the word 'nard seems very odd.) It is also shown to relieve migraines and help with insomnia. Since it is somewhat related to valerian, and subsequently contains a high level of valeranone, I would tend to agree with its effective use in battling sleepless nights -- these past few weeks have been awash in 'nard. Thank heavens it doesn't smell too much like valerian! Also, spikenard could be used as a sacrificial perfume material in a perfume which contains noticeable levels of oudh oil -- spikenard and oudh share a few olfactory similarities.

Frankincense on My Mind -- and all over my hands!

2011-12-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

During the move, lots of things got dumped. Nothing I'm going to sit around crying about, but enough to make note of it. For example, frankincense resin. The smaller chunks and frank-dust filled the plastic bin about halfway -- it ended up on its head and there I was scooping resin dust and pebbles off the bottom of the chest of curiosities and fabulous finds. So, obviously, it got me thinking about frankincense stuff. Y'know, soap and body butters, facial oils (because right about now I'm in desperate need of some skin toning unguents to tighten up my recently fat vacated neck and face). I just wish I had a bottle of carrot seed oil, that'd surely do the trick -- oh, and a bit o' frankincense too, methinks. So as a treat to myself, soon, perhaps even before the end of winter, I will make a batch of frankincense soap with pumpkin and carrot oils and simply soak in in it.

Also in the dump was a beautiful vintage bottle (the bottle's vintage, not the contents) of Indo vetyver (very lovely stinky stuff that makes my toes curl) -- I lost about half of the full contents, which, as fortune would have it, soaked into the nearly bare wood of my moisture-starved perfume hutch. Walking past the hutch is quite the toe tingling experience.

Well, I got a good start on the studio Saturday. I figured out where the furniture would go at least, and the books are in the shelves. As for the "goodies", they're still tightly locked in their boxes awaiting their debut. Did I say I also have a butler's pantry right next to the studio? Yes, I do, and that's where the fridge and tinctures reside, as well as spill-over eo's and whatnot.

I want a love that's on the square. Can't seem to find somebody, someone to care, And I'm on the lonely road that leads to nowhere I need a Sunday kind of love I do my Sunday dreaming, oh, yeah! And all my Sunday scheming Every minute, Every hour, Every day. All I'm hoping to discover a Certain kind of lover, Who will show me the way. In my arms need someone, Someone to hold, To keep me warm when my Lips grow cold. Love for all my life to have And to hold. All I want a Sunday Kind of love, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah! I don't want a Monday, Tuesday, Uh, Wednesday, or Thursday, Friday, Or Saturday. Oh, nothing but Sunday Oh, yeah, yeah. I want a Sunday, Sunday I Want a Sunday kind of love. Oh, yeah, yeah. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday kind of love.

I'm Baaaaaack!

2011-12-03T09:28:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm back. And what a mess I've found! Regardless, it was a great break, even though the events that lead up to the break were both traumatic and life altering. It's not worth getting into the details. Suffice it to say, I am a bit less encumbered by outside sources of stress and am free to make some decisions for which I am 100% responsible.

I am in the process of rebuilding my perfumery in a new location. Where I currently reside offers me the opportunity to teach small groups of interested parties in the art and splendor of Natural Botanical Perfumery -- and bellydance ~ ha! I will post photos of the new studio as soon as I am able. In the meantime, enjoy these hideous post apocalyptic perfume studio photos . . .

I currently live just a few minutes from my J O B -- here's to jobs that pay the rent (on time)! Since I am turning a new page in my life, I decided to go all the way -- my new mode of transportation to work is a Schwinn. Hurrah for decreased belly fat! Yippee for stamina! Boo for hypothermia in the mornings!

Right now, life is pretty okay. Well, more than okay. I am so anxious to get back to the business of perfumery. I've made a few discoveries and can't wait to implement them into the course curriculum at NNAPA. Here's to life!

Good bye!

2011-11-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

I will be offline and incommunicado (not really) for about three weeks to a month.

See you all then.

Conscious Smelling Activity 1

2011-10-31T04:27:00.000-07:00

When have you ever, as a rule, awoken with the intent to smell everything? On purpose, with objective, and to store that information in your olfactory memory bank? Well, why not? The students I teach begin their lessons with conscious smelling exercises, and across the board, each and every one has related sensational stories of what they have discovered about the scents they smelled, and about themselves as beginning perfumery students. It ignites a fire, a passion, for scent detection; for learning to better describe, categorize and verbalize to others what they are smelling.

For example, one of the exercises is to smell different types of paper ~ magazine print, newspapers, old books, clean sheets of computer paper, bills, old hand-written letters ~ and the aromas the students are able to ferret out of these papers is boundlessly interesting. For instance, one recent student smelled gasoline, marijuana, and "old woman" scents from a magazine, while another student found a fashion magazine to be overpoweringly feminine and perfumey on the initial sniff, but upon further examination discovered specific scents of citrus, floral, spice, rock, wood, moss, wet moss, and the "feeling" of being in a swamp! After those types of illustrations in scent, who would ever feel the same way about a magazine again? I mean, it's not just a magazine anymore, it's a cornucopia of scent and color; it's clarity.

Seeing something clearly, even if what you're "seeing" is scent, is so very important to the study and advancement of perfumery. I also find it interesting that many of my students see scent in color, as I've mentioned here before. When a student says he smells the color blue in the scent of black pepper, I cannot help but think that in that observation lies a deeper level of clarity.

So my challenge to you is this: Smell something ordinary today and pick apart its scent into distinct, nameable aromas. Smell your work desk (just make sure no one is watching or you might get a few odd looks thrown your way -- or you can just explain what you're doing); if it's wood, smell for the wax that may have once polished it, the hands that may have once transferred some scent, the smell of perfume or food or something else . . . ? If it is metal, do the same; smell the metal, experience the cool tang of steel, the icy impersonal feel of it. Again, smell for the hands that have brushed against it, the paper that may have been stacked upon it, the smell of conduits or electrical wiring or warmth from some machinery which sits upon it -- find some scent on it that is distinct and unexpected. Really dig in. Then tell me about it.

Oh, and Happy All Hallow Even!

SARS and Civet

2011-10-30T04:25:00.000-07:00

Nice name for a perfume, eh? This is old news, though, the connection between the SARS virus and civet cats (not cats, not cats, not really cats). It appears, however, that the SARS virus lives in the Asian variety(ies) of civet and not the African, from which most "civet paste" for perfumery is acquired, and which really isn't in the same family as Asian civet (the African Palm Civet (Nandinia binotata) is genetically distinct and belongs in its own monotypic family, Nandiniidae - per wiki).

The Arctander sold to someone special, for which I am ever so grateful. If I'm forced to give up one of my prized possessions, I'd like to know it's going to someone who will love and cherish it as much as I have.

Slipping Into Snark

2011-10-29T04:14:00.000-07:00

I've come to realize something about myself. I'm naturally snarky. My brain is, anyway, my mouth I am able to temper. If I said half of what I think I want to say, people around me would be a mess of emotions and negativity, and heaven knows I don't need anymore negativity -- or messy emotional upheavals! The screen door on my mouth is firmly closed and latched shut, which gives my brain plenty to chew on. Nothing like regurgitating snark to make your day ~ ha!

The move has been on my mind in a big, big way. 'They', the mysterious they of many a conversation, say that visualization is the key to making things happen. If you see yourself somewhere in a certain attitude, one which you desire, the eventuality is that you will make it real. So if you see yourself, say, sitting in a room with mahogany wainscoting, 10 foot ceilings, built in sideboards and stained glass windows, then someday you will make that happen -- you will be sitting in that room, claiming it. It's easier if the place is in the real world and not just pulled from the imagination. Or so they say. From the moment I saw this house I'm to move into, I saw that room dressed up with my big antique blending desk and antique perfume bottles on the built in shelving around the room. I saw the glass pocket doors thrown open, beckoning visitors to enter. I saw me in there. That was nearly a year ago, and now it's to become a reality. Positive thinking, and no slipping into snark for me, thank you.

I packed up my bottles of vetyver mitti and vetyver rose Edward. They were oozy, boozy and woody sweet, mouth watering and languid. I do so love vetyver (I've mentioned that before, yes?). I can hardly wait to unpack and set up shop. Those vetyvers are top priority for either a formulation project or some sort of bath tub goody -- a melt perhaps, or a fizzy bath ball. Something to make you dream prophetic dreams.

Facebook Free

2011-10-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

Yup. Deleted the account. Realized that it's a tool for much busier people than I, and by that I mean people with inordinate amounts of time, often hours it seems, to peruse, comment, participate, advertise, promote, gossip, blab, and "like" 'til the chickens come home to roost. I also realized that I don't really have 900 friends. Honestly, if I can't fit you all around my dinner table at Thanksgiving (and that's an honest invitation), then I'm not giving you the proper face time you deserve as my friend. Of those 900 supposed friends, I've actually met face-to-face about 10, maybe even 20 of you, and more if I count family; of those 900, I am closely acquainted and truly count amongst my friends about 100 (lucky me, right?), so the rest of the 800 -- erm -- friends are really just people who want to clutter the forum with ads. At least that's been my experience. And Facebook in general reminds me of those Christmas cards you'd get from affluent relatives who would summarize their entire year with paragraphs dedicated to each person in their immediate family wherein each person had absolutely no strife, but instead was rewarded with honors in school, raises at work, elevations at church, marriages, babies and massive lotto winnings -- or some such hoo haa. And it seemed that with every newly accepted friend, there came an influx of advertising from that new friend. What I'm saying, in a nutshell, is I don't have time. I believe, for now, that my time would be better spent studying and formulating than trying to keep up with the Jones' on FB. Check out this webarticle about FB.

While packing the 'fume room, I ran across a little packet of perfume samples that I purchased from one of the decant shops online, one filled with Tom Ford's delicious vetyver parfum, Grey Vetiver, which, 'lo and behold, actually smells like it has some veyver in it -- and the other vial filled with my favorite perfume in the world (at this point), L'Artisan's Tea for Two. Prior to losing them in the mess I call my work studio, I only sniffed these perfumes, but since finding them I've been wearing them on alternating days. Both work quite nicely with my skin chemistry, and I'm beginning to think I have a second runner up for the number one spot on my scale of favorite perfumes in that Tom Ford concoction.

I'm also feeling tremendous guilt over my recent (say the past 6 to 8 months) lack of attention to business. My business. The shops I run online and the subsequent orders I am required to pack and ship in order to be a good merchant. I've probably said this a thousand times already, but the joy for me comes only in the creation of these treasures, not in the bottling, labeling, wrapping, photographing, advertising, SELLING, packing and shipping. Yes, I do truly appreciate the orders, tremendously, in fact, for those sales have more than once pulled my bum from the fryer, but honestly, I don't get excited about the money part. I have decided that before I reopen the shops for business, I will commandeer a warm body to help with the fulfillment of orders in exchange for an education in NBP. But that won't happen until after the big move. So if you're energetic, have about five or six hours of free time a week, live in the Fresno, California area, and are interested in learning about Natural Botanical Perfumery and working (a little) for that information, then watch for updates here on this blog and I'll hook you up, as the youngsters say.

Today my darling only daughter turned 18. I gave her a big hug and said, "The front door is over there." Sounds pretty harsh, but it's kind of a running joke as all the kids got the same "advise" on the day of their 18th birthdays. Her concern was more focused on the bathroom door, however. And in all reality, she'll probably live with me until she's thirty.

Well, ta-ta for now. Today is my day off and I've got some packing to do! The 'fume room is nearly done, and I say that with all the cynicism I possess, as the further I go, the greater the numbers of stuff I find to pack, understandably. What I don't understand is how it all seems to expand upon exposure to light and air, like some weird science project. Or the Blob.

Oh, yeah, I still post these blog posts on Twitter :)

The Dust Has Yet to Settle

2011-10-26T07:08:00.001-07:00

Man oh man. Things were chill around here when the dust storm started. I was feeling pretty insulated for a while there, but now there are chinks in the armor and some -- no, let me rephrase -- a lot of the dust is swirling in. I've been in hiding, attempting to stay under the radar and concentrating more on daily survival. And a big move. Where I live now -- where I've lived for the past 16 years -- is way out on the edges of town, far from the center and very far from my day job, the post office (that's why your orders aren't getting sent out -- that and the fact that I'm a car jinx -- mine isn't running, the borrowed one isn't running, the one I rely on isn't running -- see? Car jinx. Sorry Mom.), grocery stores, farmers' markets, and anywhere else one might go to feel . . . normal. Where I am working on moving to, however, has all of those things, and more. A twenty minute walk to the J O B, a block or two from one of the original city post offices, and paces from there is a grocery store, a farmer's market, numerous eating establishments, pubs, art houses, clothing stores, and the community college, all very useful places, especially to those of the workhorse variety (me). I've been forced to pull all product from my Etsy site because I can't get to the post office but maybe once a month anymore to mail out orders -- whenever a sympathetic friend or relative is running about and offers a ride -- and it bites. Big time. I'm not used to relying on anybody for anything. Like I said, it bites. Once the move is made, however, I'm reopening shop and getting my bum in gear for the winter products -- butters and balms and soothing fragrant oils. The most consternating part of packing up for the move is this -- packing my essential oils, absolutes, tinctures and infusions just makes me want to play! I have a box marked 'things to work on in the new house' that is full -- full, I say -- and ready to be cracked open once we get settled in. Also, this new place is full of big spaces and the architectural flamboyance of the 1920's, so I will be teaching classes there (it's also in the business district so it's properly zoned -- hoo yah!), and possibly a few apprenticeships.

I have said a time or two before that I'm an optimist, right?

Anyway, I have to get running to the J O B -- five hours of type, type, typing and some really interesting stories.

In case you're in the market for a lovingly abused Arctander, here's a listing for you: Lovingly Abused Arctander.

Lost and Found

2011-10-09T07:25:00.001-07:00

Found old Arky hiding in plain site, much to my relief. I dug and dug and dug through the stacks of books on my desk, under my desk, on the 'fume cabinet, in the 'fume cabinet, in, on and around the armoir, in the pile next to the computer, the pile under the computer ~ everywhere! So I thought. But there he was, sitting on the BOOKSHELF snuggling with last year's L'Artisan Parfum catalog and cuddled by a 1939 copy of Cupid's Book.

He seemed quite pleased with himself.

Worked tirelessly yesterday, but, boy, am I tired today! Didn't really get much done in the way of making space -- well, maybe just a bit, but it is slow going. This project is much larger than I had originally thought, but then again, all my help seems to disappear when things become 'unfun' for them. There's so much to do and I want it all done before the beginning of November when I prep and and fret over the coming holidays. I'd actually like to invite friends over to a Homie Thanksgiving (something my son Daryl does for his friends the weekend before Thanksgiving). Sometimes it's difficult for friends to get together for some fun during holidays because they are so busy with family, and then there are those friends who are far from their families or have nothing to do and would appreciate being included in some holiday cheer. But that plan depends upon the progress of Operation Get The Crap Out.

The house phone became lost yesterday and was found in a locked bedroom, awaiting the occupant to return. So when calls came in I listened as callers left messages and wondered if they thought I was ignoring them. And, coincidentally, my cell phone ran away from home but returned late last evening when the car it hitch-hiked in came back to the house. It was as if the Universe was playing defense for me, blocking interruptions in the work. I only wish those "coincidences" would occur while formulating, then I'd be a much better and more prolific perfumer.

Since I began working with The Perfume Magazine, I have been inundated with perfume samples, most all-natural, but here and there a not-so-natural makes it through. It doesn't bother me at all. I rather like the new niche perfumes that are circulating. It seems that since the natural craze took off, more and more interesting and avante garde perfumes are being created by that miniscule 3% of the market. It's kind of a revelation (maybe not to YOU) that 97% of perfume 'out there' isn't really that great.

Well, I have loads and loads more to do and I'm just procrastinating here, rambling on random thoughts. Just know I'm thinking about you. I wish you well and prosperous in these difficult times.

In the time of your life, live -- so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite variety and mystery of it.

The Time of Your Life, William Saroyan

Waking up to Sunshine

2011-10-07T06:44:00.001-07:00

I only have a moment to write this as all my moments are recently occupied with non-perfume, non-soap and non-what-I-LOVE-to-do activities, like work, for example, and paying debts, and trying to hold together what is left of my old life while forging ahead in my new one. I wake nearly every morning to the bright and cheerful face of my granddaughter, her chubby pink cheeks and two-toothed grin, with its accompanying slobber, at eye level next to my bed. Her lovely brownie-green eyes sparkle in anticipation of my waking. It's marvelous, really. Then I'm off -- to my morning job transcribing long-winded statements made by people with atrocious grammar and limited vocabularies. I know if they could hear themselves, or better yet, read what they say, they'd be much more careful how they spoke in the future. It's not that they're uneducated or undereducated, it's just that they don't realize how silly regular conversation can sound, or how little information can be provided, even in a long 3000-word answer when it's peppered with 'ums', 'uhs', and mumbling 'you knows' between every relevant word, and the switch backs -- oy vey! Start a sentence that's moving along nicely, then suddenly remember something prior to the event being discussed, and stop mid-sentence to begin telling that tale, and then finally never getting back to the original thought, just rambling and tripping over what might have already been said, what was already said, and throwing in little darlings of information that go un-elaborated. I have very nearly fallen asleep transcribing some of these things.

In the afternoon I either run off to a housecleaning job or come home and clean my own house, and do laundry and peck around in the garden, and stare at the mess in the studio wishing for the elves to come in the night and clean the garage so I have some place to store the items in the studio I don't use regularly. I am torn between wanting to sell off a majority of the unused items in my studio and keeping them for my future 'grand perfume museum'.

"If I were a rich man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I'd biddy biddy bum.
If I were a wealthy man.
I wouldn't have to work hard.
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
If I were a biddy biddy rich,
Yidle-diddle-didle-didle man."

Yadda da da daaaaaa!

I just have to share this -- I've already done so a bit on Facebook, but I will elaborate just a bit more here. One of my students, Marian del Vecchio, who lives and works in Sao Paulo, Brasil, is going to be a very prolific and possibly famous NBP some day. Her interpretation of the course assignments, from base accords to finished compositions, is nothing short of spectacular. As I've commented before (on Facebook) her Jasmine Soliflor parfum is just IT. Y'know? It's jasmine, but not straight jasmine. It's layered and complex and reminds me of the delicacy and femininity of perfumes like Anais Anais and L'Air du Temps. It has that same feel to it. And like a dumb-ass, I poured nearly half the vial onto a scent strip to test it and was left with only about a half milliliter to enjoy. I wear it sparingly, on my wrists mostly, so while I'm working at the keyboard, I can occasionally raise my wrist for a sniff'a. What's best about Marian's compositions is that they're all very different from one another -- she's not afraid to take chances. I won't go too much more into it because I haven't yet sent her her formal evaluation notes, so . . . Just watch for her, that's what I'm saying. She's got a rare talent.

As for my own perfume aspirations, well, understandably they've been put on hold. I'm tinkering at this point, as tinkering is all that there is time for. But whilst I tinker, I think. The next project is in the works and I have a lot of time to work it out. Writing down the bones of the perfume.

Ok. Got to run!

Wonderful Wonderous Fall

2011-09-26T06:46:00.001-07:00

Oh, how I love the fall. I love when the mornings are chilly and sharp with the scent of the crush from the winery up the road, and the sweet agrestic smell of wet yellowed straw left on the ground after harvest. I live on the edge of town, near the farms and the foothills, where if the wind is right, a rooster's crow can be heard as the sun begins to peek over the edge of the jagged peaks of the Sierras to the east. The eastern sky becomes pinky-orange and misty, edged in dark blue lace dotted with brilliant white stars. It's magical. Enchanting. And it makes me want to make yummy skin stuff -- pumpkin scrubs and masques, pumpkin and green apple soap (think Roman chamomile as the "apple"), vetyver baths to entice benevolent spirits.

And the very best part? No. More. Blasting. Heat.

Magic of Scent

2011-09-17T06:45:00.000-07:00

I really do love what I do. The scents, the formulating, the calculating, the wonder when it all turns out right, the absolute shock and disappointment when it does not. I love walking into my cluttered little studio and picking up a whiff of dark, aged Indonesia vetyver from the drop that slid down the side of the bottle and solidified there; brushing the dust from the "goodies" box and opening it to reveal a vial of champa concrete, the lip of which wafts the odd sweet floral minty~ness into the air; the air-dried green goo along the edges of a glass stopper plunged firmly into a near-full bottle of Peaseblossom, giving off snaking fingers of scent redolent of a classic fougere tinged violet. Bottle upon bottle of dark mossy green, pea green, gold, amber, yellow and crystalline colored tinctures glittering in the dim studio light.

I love that these elements speak to me; that I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about an old bottle of boozy dark patchouli that smells of a thousand first rains on a thousand dusty roads, or the last milliliter of a particularly beautiful season of rose otto aging to buttery rose perfection, tucked away in a dark box, or the crate of luban resin in which I hide muslin bags of cash in hopes that the luban will bless it with fortune.

New News

2011-09-14T23:05:00.000-07:00

Redundant, eh?

Well, NNAPA is gearing up to add another course to the list -- a Portuguese language six-month intensive begins October 1, 2011 for our Portuguese-speaking perfumery friends. The course cost is the same ($725 USD) as the English language course, with full tutor and mentor support (many of our past students are fluent in both Portuguese and English). Both the text book and the work book for the course have been translated into Portuguese, so self-study is also an option, though at the moment only the text book is available through CreateSpace or through direct purchase here (see right sidebar). I hope to have the work book in Portuguese published within a few weeks to help those students who wish to utilize a structured course for essence evaluations, trial study evals, and perfume formulation worksheets.

A lot has happened in the past few weeks. My entire life has been turned upside down. I walked away from a long-term relationship, started a new job, was offered another part-time job, and -- well, does there need to be an 'and'? My head is still reeling. I feel like it may be a while before I feel 'normal' again, whatever that is. As for formulating, I have only one perfume in mind that I will share next year, and I'm still in the throes of a soap making frenzy, but thus far have managed to create really scary dark soaps that obviously reflect my recent emotional upheaval. I haven't made hydrosol since September 3 during the Psychic Fair -- made about a liter of fresh white sage hydrosol which I gifted to Shannon at Seasons, where the fair was being held. There's another fair being planned for November 5, 2011, so if you're in the Central Valley and have nothing important to do that day, stop by and give it a visit. You'll like it -- promise.

My current projects are: cleaning out the studio to turn part of it into a bedroom for myself and my mother; make money (duh) to care for my family; write, write, write; be happy. Not necessarily in that order. But so far have managed only to drag a mattress into the living room to sleep at night, and keep the front lawn watered. Not making much of a dent in my current projects list.

Woe.

Pandora by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

2011-09-12T04:36:00.000-07:00

The past few days have been wrought with signs from Pandora. In my personal life I’ve found myself opening a box of mysteries that I pray lead not to tragedy but to new opportunities. I’ve also been listening to a lot of music of late -- Marvin Gaye, Dave Matthews, Sade -- on what else but Pandora.com? And then comes in the post a package from Colorado which contained a spray vial of emerald green juice – The Pandora.

Pandora, the perfume from renowned perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, is sensual and sublime. It is viscerally appealing – one cannot help but sniff, sniff, and sniff again where it has been applied. It is feminine, floral, a bit green, woody and softly sweet.

Pandora is a slow embrace; a kiss with a promise; a warm hand at the small of your back. It is both vintage and contemporary, pulling those romantic scent elements from perfumery’s origins into the modern age and marrying them exquisitely. A classic.

Other blogs reviewing this stunning perfume are:

victoria: http://eaumg.net/

trish: http://www.scenthive.com/

carrie:http://eyelineronacat.blogspot.com/

jen: http://thisblogreallystinksperfume.blogspot.com/

monica (w/ david lb): http://perfumepharmer.com/organic-perfume-skincare-remedies/

amanda: http://esscentualalchemy.wordpress.com/

lucy: http://indieperfumes.blogspot.com/

dawn: http://dshnotebook.wordpress.com/

Natural Perfume Academy Fall Session 2011

2011-09-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

The Natural Perfume Academy online is set to begin its Fall session beginning September 22, 2011. Sessions will no longer run for 12 months, but will instead run for 6 months. We discovered that 12 months was simply too long a period of time to run the course and it was effortlessly converted to a 6 month time frame.

Other changes made to the course include the elimination of the 50+ Essence Evaluation Kits and Blending Kits included with tuition. The Essence Evaluation Kits will not be offered at all, however, the Blending Kits, or Perfume Formulation Kits at the Academy store online, are being offered at a separate cost and include:

* Oakmoss- 2ml
* Rose de Mai- 2ml
* Bergamot FCF - 5ml
* Coriander - 5ml
* Frankincense - 5ml
* Geranium, Bourbon - 5ml
* Ginger - 5ml
* Ho Wood - 5ml
* Jasmine Sambac - 2ml
* Cistus - 5ml
* Lavender - 5ml
* Lemongrass - 5ml
* Neroli Absolute - 2ml
* Patchouli Absolute - 5ml
* Petitgrain - 5ml
* Grapefruit, Pink - 5ml
* Vetiver Bourbon - 5ml
* Ylang Ylang Complete - 5ml
* Bulgarian Rose Concrete - 5ml

Because we eliminated the Essence Evaluation Kits and only offer the Blending Kits/Perfume Formulation Kits as an option, and the course time frame has been cut in half, the cost of the course has been drastically reduced from $1350 for a full session to only $725 for a full session.

NNAPA/Natural Perfume Academy is accepting new students for the Fall session. Reserve your position in the course with a $240 deposit. Payment plans are available. The course is completed March 21, 2011, at which time the students will receive their Certificate of Excellence in Natural Botanical Perfumery from the Natural Perfume Academy.

To register for the Fall session, please contact Justine Crane at nnapatutor@yahoo.com, or go to www.naturalperfumeacademy.com for more information.

Soap, Holistic & Psychic Faire, Betty Yi

2011-09-01T06:56:00.000-07:00

The newest soap, The End of Chaos, had to be chopped and incorporated into another batch of soap scented with just patchouli and a drizzle of antique cade oil because I used an extraordinary amount of grapeseed oil, which though moisturizing and conditioning to skin, doesn't make a terribly hard bar of soap. I had Sponge Soap Square Blobs that smelled like something dug from deep in the cold, dark earth. I even used one and it turned gelatinous and squigey in the shower. To remedy the problem, and to preserve the beautiful deep dark essence, I simply made another batch of plain Castile using organic extra virgin olive oil, and shoved slices of the original soap into it -- everywhere. The soap is cut into towers with the slivers of super scented soap poking out of the top, like a weird geometric landscape. The original soap, if you remember from previous posts here, was made with extra virgin olive oil, pressed grapeseed oil (lots and lots of this oil!), and organic unrefined coconut oil, then was scented with patchouli, luban, Turkish sage, ylang-ylang, antique cade (just a smidge as it's on IFRA's dirty list), helichrysm floral wax, champa concrete, a mashed-to-dust combination of frankincense and myrrh resins (warmed and slightly melted), antique saffron spice, and a homemade Egyptian incense blend made with more frankincense and myrrh powders, cinnamon, cardamom, fennel and anise. It will be wrapped and put up for sale at the Renaissance & Psychic Faire scheduled for this Saturday (September 3) at Seasons Gifts & Gardens at 1121 N. Nelson Street, Sanger, CA 93657, ph. 559-876-9000, and the "leftovers" will be posted on Etsy on Sunday.

Holistic & Psychic Faire at Seasons ~ this is the first time for me doing this show, but I have been a regular customer and instructor at Seasons since this past May when I began teaching soap classes there, so I feel comfortable and fairly confident this show will be quite nice. I will be exhibiting the distillation process for hydrosols and giving a brief hydrosol workshop, distilling more of Season's gorgeous white sage, this time taking a bit of the oil off the top for spiritual work and bottling up the hydrosol on site. I will also be selling only two types of soap this year as two were all I was able to get prepared, and I wasn't going to sell any but convinced myself it might be a good idea, and I will also be setting up a small display of Natural Botanical Perfumes.

Shannon, proprietress of Seasons, has just yesterday undergone a major heart procedure -- the timing couldn't have been worse, but her recent declining health necessitated the procedure. She will be in attendance for everyone to talk with and mingle, but she probably won't be doing her usual running here and there and everywhere. I commend Shannon for continuing with the Renaissance & Psychic Faire despite this setback and hope that it brings her more joy than stress, as preparing for these types of events can bring immense amounts of unnecessary stress.

Later this afternoon, it's off to scrub floors and dust door frames as Betty Yi products are in full testing mode. One product in particular, a light castile soap based all-purpose cleansing spray scented with peppermint and thyme, is phenomenal at cleaning darn near everything. This particular formulation was originally made with lavender oil and lavandin hydrosol, but for some reason the fragrance compound wasn't working -- it just wasn't pleasant enough. So we switched out the fragrance compound to something more cheerful and, in the case of the thyme, more bacteria battling. Thus far it is the favorite amongst the customers. It is our favorite as well. The lavender compound smelled heavy and sluggish, perhaps making the cleaning crew drowsy as they scrubbed!

The End of Chaos

2011-08-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, not so ominous as all that -- it's what I've chosen to call the new soap I made -- The End of Chaos, in honor of the end of this latest Mercury retrograde period. Perhaps a better name for it would be The Temporary End of Chaos!

Again, I choose to be optimistic!

The End of Chaos is a hodgepodge of aromatics, a spiritual cleanse with a striking resin-rich, deep and exotic scent.

I incorporated the full amount of water for this size batch, something I rarely do, and the soap is very wet and dense so it will be a few weeks before it is ready for its debut. It smells fabulous.

The base oils I used were a simple (as per my usual operation) combination of extra virgin olive oil, grapeseed oil and coconut oil. The scenting materials began with a healthy dose of aged patchouli oil, a big splash of aged olibanum, just a little bit of some really beautiful and aromatic Turkish sage oil, some ylang-ylang, a dribble of antique cade oil, a couple tablespoons of helichrysm floral wax, champa concrete, frankincense and myrrh resins finely crushed, a palm full of antique saffron, and a bit of aged Egyptian incense (cinnamon powder, cardamom powder, fennel powder).

I went to visit my son who lives in the Tower District yesterday and we went to the little neighborhood market for some drinks and we found a single bottle of organic extra virgin olive oil that was discounted, so I bought it. Next soap will incorporate organic evoo and . . . something else really nice.

End of an Era

2011-08-24T08:02:00.000-07:00

After some deliberation I've decided not to attend this year's Intermountain Nursery Harvest Arts and Peace Festival. The past few years' sales have been dismal, with our booth making enough to pay booth fees, gas to get to the venue, and food, and not much else. The revenues certainly didn't cover the time and money spent preparing batches of soap and other natural body care products, even though I have been able to recoup some of the costs of preparing for the show through post show sales online.

And last year was particularly strange. I had always, since I began attending the show, thought of myself as somewhat of a permanent fixture there at the Harvest Arts and Peace Festival. Imagine how surprised I was to come to the show, sans canopy because my usual space at the show is in the shade, and found someone else setting up a booth there. I ended up in a fringe aisle in the sun. It was entirely my fault for not confirming my attendance, but like I mentioned, I felt like a permanent fixture there, and it wasn't unusual for me not to confirm. My bad for making that assumption. At any rate, most of my yearly customers had a hard time finding me and when they did they were surprised by where I was in relation to the rest of the show. And the second day I was there, I became very ill, either from being in the sun all day or from something I ate, I ended up lying in the back seat of my car for most of the second day while my mother, heaven bless her, worked our booth.

The decision not to attend a show that I've been sort of a fixture of for the past ten years or so really wasn't so difficult. Given the circumstances of the last show, and the fact that sales there for me have declined steadily for the past three or four years, the decision was really quite easy.

But there is a problem. I am now in full soap making mode! I've conditioned myself, I guess, to start hunting for soap making supplies and whatnot at this time of year. Today I'm making an olive oil and grapeseed oil soap, I have no idea how I will scent it, but I'm certain it will be something nice. Maybe frankincense and myrrh. Or patchouli and ylang. Or red cedar and sage. Or maybe over the next few days all of the above!

There is a show on the horizon. September 3, 2011 is the Renaissance Psychic Faire at Seasons Gifts & Gardens. I will be selling soap and maybe a few perfumes. And I will be conducting an exhibition making hydrosols using the white sage grown on site at the botanical gardens (at Seasons). And, if all goes as planned, signing people up for classes in soap making, distillation and Concepts in Natural Botanical Perfumery to be scheduled throughout the fall of 2011 and again in the Spring of 2012.

One door closes, another opens.

*Update: the soap, the newly made soap, The End of Chaos it's called, is made with olive, grapeseed and coconut oils, and scented with patchouli, olibanum, Turkish sage, ylang-ylang, antique cade (a drop), heli floral wax, champa concrete, frankincense and myrrh resins, antique safranum (spice), Egyptian incense (cinnamon, cardamom, fennel, rose petal, sandalwood, calamus).

Mercury Retrograde and Pluto in Capricorn

2011-08-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

Only three more days until Mercury pops out of this current retrograde, and, from what my more astrologically knowledgeable friends have been saying, Pluto is in Capricorn, which has to do with destruction and rebuilding. I don't pretend to understand astrology at all, and sometimes I don't give it a second thought, but recently, especially NOW, I'm thinking there's more to it. I'd like to think that this current planetary alignment has more of a global impact, but judging by events occurring right here on the home front, I have to say it's more specific than that -- it is hitting home, and hard.

I choose to be optimistic.

I have always been a clean slate type of person. Having my life changed at the drop of a hat and rebuilding it into something else is something I've done time and again. Though it's been almost two decades since I've had to make a major shift like the one looming in the near future, it feels like yesterday. There's this deep sense of familiarity with this kind of change. Life upheavals. Lifestyle restructuring. And always a spark of optimism.

I tried to get the jump by tearing into the studio and ridding myself of all the unnecessary objects and possessions that were simply taking up space, feeding my ego, or my sense of worth through material things. But that got stalled. The studio is a wreck. I've actually lost my copy of Arctander. People keep piling up their unwanted objects-that-cannot-be-thrown-away in a corner of the studio and it's attracting pests -- I can't keep the cat out of it, spiders are setting up camp, and dust bunnies are running rampant. All I wanna do is make soap, start formulating the newest perfume, Lylli Bleu, so that it's off the paper and in the world, write a little more, and make some money! But no, I get hoarders and dust.

*Formulating Tip of the Day:

Dilute. Dilute, dilute, dilute! Save money by formulating perfume trials using 1, 10 and 20% dilutions. Mix and match the ratios. Be adventurous. Keep meticulous notes. Love what you do.

Fantabulously Scented Artisan Soap

2011-08-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

So, yeah, taught a soap class last Saturday and made, if I do say so myself, the most exquisitely scented soap ever. It's a knock out. Here's what we did:

We used extra virgin olive oil and organic unrefined coconut oil, whipped it up with the lye and when it hit trace, we poured in antique cubeb oil, aged patchouli oil, antique copaiba balsam, a rarified Turkish sage oil, ylang-ylang oil, petitgrain sur fleur neroli oil and a hefty dose of pink grapefruit oil. Then we split the batch, poured some into the mold, then added organic white sage leaves to the other, and more scent -- more cubeb, more copaiba, more ylang and grapefruit, more patchouli -- man, it was devastatingly intoxicating! Then that was poured over the top of the stuff in the mold. Then we sat it aside and sat talking for an hour or so about life. It was like that soap opened up something -- a door or window into a place where strangers were friends and we conversed about life topics as if we'd known each other for years.

I wanted to stay even longer, as the class was given in the evening and twilight was on the horizon. Sitting in the garden amongst the mugwort, sage, tea tree, peaches, sweetgrass, lavenders, buzzing bees and sleepy birds -- it was meditative, mellow, an escape from all that is happening in the world. A retreat.

I'm telling you, if you live in the Central Valley, you must give Seasons Gifts & Gardens a visit. The address is 1121 N. Nelson, just a few miles east outside of Fresno off of Belmont Avenue. Google map it. Coming from Fresno and heading east on Belmont, drive until you see the big arrow sticking out of the shoulder of the road on the left (yes, there is a big arrow sticking out of the ground!) and about 50 yards up the street on the left you will see Nelson and the Seasons sign. They have a wonderful herb and book and supplies shop onsite, but the gardens are exquisite. A nice place to hang out for the day.

New Natural Botanical Perfume Course Begins 9/22

2011-08-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

Once again, I'd like to announce the new course at NNAPA beginning September 22, 2011.

This is an online course in Natural Botanical Perfumery taking six months to complete. The course includes a text book and a work book (for essence evaluations, accord trials, perfume formulating trials, and finished perfume evaluations), and full tutor and mentor support, 24/7.

We are happy to introduce our new lower course cost to help students fulfill their dreams of becoming a Natural Botanical Perfume Formulator. At NNAPA, it's easy to learn to create perfume without breaking the bank. Our course curriculum knocks off years of independent research and study and helps the student form cohesive thoughts and ideas regarding how they want their future in perfumery to progress.

For more information, contact nnapatutor@yahoo.com, or contact the course administrator.

Reserve your space in the course today!

I ♥ Copaiba!

2011-08-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

If I possessed scent bumper stickers, my poor little car would be covered in "I ♥ Patchouli" and "I ♥ Linden Blossom" and "I ♥ Vetiver" stickers from hood ornament to trunk keyhole, much to the confusion of the other drivers on the road.

But I do. ♥'em, I mean. I have several ounces of copaiba balsam that I'm getting to know a little better. It's a Fritzsche Brothers vintage, circa 1930 to 1950. It makes me smile when I smell it, so mellow and woody and robust with a sweet, creamy backnote and peppery green top notes.

I ♥ Copaiba!

Special Announcement for The Natural Perfume Academy

2011-08-15T18:45:00.000-07:00

The Natural Perfume Academy is pleased to announce a restructure of the course curriculum for the upcoming September 22 course.

The changes are as follows:

We have reduced the cost of the full-support course from $1350 to $725

We have reduced the length of time of the course to six months, though the coursework and curriculum are exactly the same as the one-year course (condensed!)

We have excluded the Essence Evaluation Kit, but are keeping the Essence Evaluation Workbook (included with tuition)

We have also excluded the Blending Kit but offer it as a separate expenditure through NNAPA, or to allow the student to choose from whom they purchase their coursework essences (essential oils, absolutes, etc.)

We are accepting small non-refundable payments throughout the length of the course to help ease the financial burden for some students

What is remaining the same is the coursework (with additional updates), the textbook and workbook included with the cost of tuition, and one-on-one studies between tutor(s) and students, as well as mentor support, and a full Natural Isolates course taught by perfumer Shelley Waddington (Nat. Iso. Kit sold separately)

For more information or to register for the new course beginning September 22, please contact me (Justine) at thescenteddjinn@yahoo.com, or contact the course administrator at www.naturalperfumeacademy.com

Wanna Buy a Kaufman?

2011-08-15T16:38:00.001-07:00

I found three copies of William Kaufman's Perfume coffee table book in the studio and I'm selling off two on Ebay (short sale, 3 days only). If you've ever wanted a copy, here's your chance to get a nice one (or two).

Kaufman Book #1
Kaufman Book #2

Natural Soap Making Class in August ~ Reminder!

2011-08-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

This is a reminder if you live in California, particularly the Central Valley, I will be teaching a soap making class at Seasons Gifts & Gardens in Sanger, CA on August 20 at 5pm.

Seasons Gifts and Gardens
1121 N. Nelson Street
Sanger, CA 93657
email: seasons4you@gmail.com
559-876-9000

Mixing Thoughts

2011-08-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

As most of my readers know, I distill a lot of different botanicals to create artisan style hydrosols -- some things that aren't readily available in the larger marketplace. I create quite a few co-distillations as well, the most recent being kombu seaweed and lime, and another of rose geranium (from my garden) and luban. But I think it's important to point out that much like perfume ingredients, these hydrosols can be blended together to make something phenomenal for your own needs. For example, blending the white sage hydrosol with the sweet grass hydrosols makes a very effective and powerful spiritual cleansing tool. White sage with English lavender is also quite nice, and works beautifully as an aura cleansing tool in pranic healing practices. Blending the two lavandins, the green and the fine, make a more well-rounded and full scent profile, as well as creating a luscious skin cleanser and toner. Mixing a little of the lavandin fine with the rose geranium and luban co-distillation is drop-dead gorgeous! A splash of patchouli and a dash of vetyver hydrosol, and it's almost a perfume.

Limitless possibilities.

New Hydrosol

2011-08-11T13:19:00.000-07:00

I've just finished up the latest addition to the hydrosol arsenal here in the apothecary ~ sweet grass! I'm selling only a few bottles from this distillation with hopes that another distillation in the future will net much more than this first experimental batch. I'm quite pleased with the scent profile as it is spot on sweet grass! This would be great for ritual cleansing of spiritual tools, or to cleanse and clear your living and work space of any negative energy left behind by those nasty sloughers of negativity.

Comprehensive Natural Isolates Course at NNAPA

2011-08-11T09:18:00.000-07:00

Within the course curriculum at NNAPA is an entire unit dedicated to the use of Natural Isolates taught by perfumeur extraordinaire, Shelley Waddington, perfumer and owner of En Voyage Perfumes, recent participant in the Summer of Patchouli Love (hosted by Monica Skye Miller) with her spectacular perfume, "Go Ask Alice", a 'fume based on -- what else? -- patchouli!

Shelley Waddington, President of Beau Soleil, LLC, chief perfumer for The Carmel Perfumery, and owner of EnVoyage Perfumes, is a true underground force in fine fragrance and has been involved in aromatics for the past 18 years.

Perfumer Waddington, known by many as “the Carmel Perfumer”, holds a diploma from the prestigious Galimard Perfumeur in Grasse Cedex, France. She has developed innovative concept perfumes, inspired by her travels, legends and lore, and by the beauty of her native Carmel-by-the-Sea, with its storybook English cottages, dramatic scenery, and indigenous flora. It is this tale of two cities--- her unique experience as a classically trained perfumer in France and her love for her native Carmel-by-the-Sea which is her hallmark.

Perfumer Waddington has collaborated with top designers, artists and consults with private clients to create bespoke perfumes at her private studio. She developed her talent for creating perfumes based on fine art principles, and began developing her innovative lines of ready-to-wear artisan perfumes under her own label using only bio-ethical fragrance materials.

Perfumer Waddington’s two Collections, the Carmel-by-the-Sea Collection and the Odyssey Collection which were created in her studio have been lauded globally, by her peers, the industry and consumers for their innovativion. Waddington continually challenges herself by designing and expanding her horizons creating perfumed stories; these are Shelley’s own signature scents, each inspired by her knowledge of perfume chemistry and composition, indigenous raw materials, by art, artists, literature and the gorgeous world around her.

New NBP Course Beginning September 22, 2011

2011-08-10T12:44:00.000-07:00

NNAPA is launching a new course in Natural Botanical Perfumery beginning September 22, 2011.

NNAPA currently offers a single fully paid scholarship to a randomly chosen student each course session; if interested in scholarship information, please contact the administrator at NNAPA.

About the NNAPA course:

Antiquarian Perfumery/Natural Botanical Perfumery is a non-accredited course, and no prerequisites are required except a passion and desire to learn Natural Botanical Perfumery from the ground up. This course is recommended for those who desire to begin a career in NBP, or those who wish to broaden their educational horizons.

Course tutor: Justine Crane. Justine Crane has been actively studying and formulating specifically for perfume since 2003, and actively making and selling scented natural handmade soaps, balms, butters, etc, since 1996. Justine took nine months to study, evaluating essences daily, formulating for soaps, butters, balms, bombs, melts, and oil-based perfumes. In October 2007, Justine started a study group called Black Nails, just herself, and two delightful women who were as interested in honing their perfumery skills as she was herself, and they spent a year studying Jean Carles, Edward Sagarin, Poucher, Verrill, Arctander, and obscure catalogs such as the Buyer's Guide & Cyclopedia for Soaps, Perfumery and Cosmetics, circa 1938. They conducted trials, shared formulas, evaluated essences and shared insights -- it was a marvelous education they created together. When it was done, Justine opened her shop and began peddling her wares.

The NNAPA aka Natural Perfume Academy is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Instruction will be given via forums, formal and informal chat sessions, and by units. Students will be given specific time frames in which to read, research and participate in each unit before the next unit is open for study and discussion.

An evaluation work book and course textbook are provided to each participating student and its cost is included with the tuition. A recommended reading list is provided in the work book. No other books or texts are necessary to complete the course.

Topics covered in the course include, but are not limited to, a brief perfume history, popular historic perfumery ingredients, the evolution of the perfume culture, safety issues, endangered species and cruelty in perfumery, storage and shelf-life of raw materials, chemical constituents of perfume ingredients, glossary of terminology, the perfumers studio, the perfumers palette, notes, accords and chords, evaluation of raw materials, supplemental scent vocabulary, continued olfactory training activities, advanced perfumes tools and techniques, tinctures, evulsions, dilutions, scales, required lab ware, oil and solid perfume making instruction, basic instruction in the production of soaps, butters, balms, massage and bath oils, creation of perfume, vertical and horizontal perfume trials, intuitive perfumery formulation, base compound formulation, advanced composition techniques, discussion of sacrificial perfume materials, finishing, “fining”, clarifying perfume compositions, creating custom perfumes, creating a reverse brief, reading and interpreting a brief, suggested raw materials to compliment the perfumers palette, and more.

For more information, contact the course administrator.

New this session: Shorter course time & payment plans for nearly all students.

Winner of Hydrosols!

2011-08-10T09:18:00.001-07:00

Is Gretchen with ADK Aromatherapy ~ please contact me with your mailing information Gretchen.
Congratulations!

Jasmine Coconut Cupcakes by Moi!

2011-08-06T10:27:00.000-07:00

The recipe is over at Perfume Pharmer ~ yum!

Rose Skin Serum from TSD Apothecary

2011-08-02T11:49:00.001-07:00

Rose Skin Serum

The Flakiness of the Creative (me)

2011-07-31T10:13:00.000-07:00

I have this problem. Well, I actually have a lot of problems, but I'm talking specifically about creating wonderful smelly things for skin and hair, the environment and spirit, and the problems I have within that arena. For example, I procrastinate. Some days I'm really good and can get those orders cranked out and in the hands of my customers within 48 hours or so, but when I'm in one of those procrastination modes, which is becoming the norm for me and shouldn't be, I know, and I try to snap out of it and not use the fact that we're down to a single car now and my husband works out of town for days at a stretch and I'm virtually car-less during that time as an excuse for not sending things out on time and asking for a ride from one of my mobile children, or even from my mum, is an exercise in humility, but still not as awful as sending out orders late and (here's the next problem) with the wrong number of items packaged inside. Did you get all that? Yeah, problema numero dos, if you order two of something from me, you'll probably only get one -- in the first package -- I'm sure to make it up to you in the second or third package. I'll gather up your two whatever that you ordered, get 'em labeled and ready to go, however, when it comes to the packaging part, putting the item(s) in the box, only one makes it in. It's like some sort of self-destructive mental block. My friend L would tell me it's because I don't want to send stuff out, and in a way, she's right. The creative part is my gig -- I love, adore, cherish! -- making the skin care or spray or perfume or cleaning thingamabob more than anything; the play of ingredients against one another that eventually, through time, patience and experimentation, bond to create a harmony of . . . whatever. Packaging, even labeling (that includes designing labels, which I hate) is a pain in the patooty. Which brings up the next problem; I sometimes give too much irrelevant information at inappropriate times. Yes, this is a business! Yes, customer service is supremely important, and I do try to make up for my shortcomings by offering discounts and store credits to the nearly disenfranchised, but I also somehow manage to fudge that up as well. And the inappropriate information? Well, that's this entire flippin' post! This is something I've done my whole life. My friend M would say I blurt out inappropriate things because it's my way of alienating myself from people so that, in essence, I've "rejected" them before they have a chance to reject me. Whatever. As an example of one of the more inappropriate things I've said--out loud--was when I caught someone watching me pluck the elastic band of my bra with my hand under my blouse, and the plucking commencing at the frontal boobage area, while attending a Parent/Teacher meeting at my sons' elementary school, and I loudly blurted out, and unfortunately during a lull in conversation, "I need a new bra." Then realizing the ridiculousness of what I said, I began laughing hysterically and had to excuse myself from the rest of the meeting. Needless to say, I never attended another Parent/Teacher meeting at that school again. See? Now was any of this in any way relevant to perfume or skin care or room sprays or scenting or anything creative? So, yes, back to the topic -- flakiness and general unintended fcuk ups -- I'm sorry.

It's probably a good thing that I'm redirecting my energy to non-toxic housecleaning, a relatively lonely sport, because I might be inclined to tell the lady or man of the house that their 16-year-old son in full swing puberty needs to stop putting his boogers on the bottom side of the toilet bowl because, for crap's sake (no pun intended), he's sitting next to an ample supply of toilet tissue in which to properly deposit them!

Okay, I'm sorry again.

Happy 1001st Post Giveaway!

2011-07-31T09:45:00.000-07:00

OTA has just hit 1001 posts with this one (I wanted to do a 1000th post giveaway, but I inadvertently posted something and forgot that that one was the 1000th . . . ah, well, 1001 is just as auspicious).

In celebration of my 1001st post, I'm giving away a 2 oz bottle of patchouli hydrosol and a 2 oz bottle of white sage hydrosol. Just comment this post and you are entered in the drawing.

Good luck!

Natural Soap Making Class in August!

2011-07-30T19:39:00.001-07:00

I will be teaching a soap making class at Seasons Gifts & Gardens in Sanger, CA on August 20th. Please call 559-876-9000 or contact Shannon at seasons4you@gmail.com to reserve your spot.

Distillation, Co-Distillation & Possibilities

2011-07-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend Shannon allowing me free range in her botanical garden, I've distilled lavandin for the first time. And now white sage. And in a few hours, English lavender. And in a few weeks, once it's dried and reaches the desired aromatic level, sweet grass. In the meantime, I've been entertaining myself with other distillation projects; a co-distillation of lime and kombu sea kelp, to name one. And the roster for "what's next" is quickly filling up. Co-distillations intrigue me at the moment. Imagine a lovely winter room spray made with pure water, orange and mandarin peels and a pinch of cinnamon stick. Clean, fresh, non-toxic, non-olfactorily invasive. The white sage hydro can be used as a body spray, but it's 'calling' is in spiritual cleansing, so marketing it as a room or space purifier for spiritual work is a possibility, especially helpful to those who cannot tolerate the smoke from smudging or burning incense. I can't even begin to tell you how spectacular the white sage hydro smells. And the oil yield is amazing. I cannot wait to get to Shannon's again to pluck more fat, fragrant leaves for the pot. So what can't I distill? Well, dead cats, for one; fig leaves, tomato leaves, peanut butter and gold. But I can distill heirloom tomatoes with basil, black figs, clay, sugar, salt, honey, valerian, catnip, chamomile, spearmint, mugwort, amber resin, green tea, black tea, rose petals, chai, pine cones, cedar bark, rosemary -- and even patchouli leaf.

Patchouli Hydrosol

2011-07-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it. I bit the bullet and made another batch of patchouli hydrosol. I swore I never would again, but I did. Because I'm fickle like that.

The first batch I made a couple years ago was an unmitigated failure. It burnt, and me being me thought, oh, well, what's that going to hurt? It hurt. A lot. Boiled potato skin hydrosol, anyone? Yes, it smelled like boiled potato skins.

This batch doesn't. It smells like patchouli. I even poured about an ounce over my head last night before bed to help cool down. It worked beautifully, and I didn't smell like a boiled potato peel.

Living in the Sunlight!

2011-07-27T18:21:00.001-07:00

Kombu Seaweed and Key Lime Co-Distillation

2011-07-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

Today's work includes a distillation for hydrosol of kombu seaweed harvested prior to the tsunami and a huge bag of key limes. There is a distinct possibility that there will be a significant amount of oil from this distillation as well -- salty sea lime oil, anyone?

Y'all have a good day.

First Batch of Books for Sale ~

2011-07-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

Contact me privately at ohtrueapothecary@yahoo.com if you're interested in purchasing any of these perfume-related books.

Perfume Album by Jill Jessee ~ $10 (no spine cover; repaired; inside fine)

Perfumes and Spices by A. Hyatt Verrill ~ $12 (has dust jacket but is tatty)

The Woman Beautiful by Ella Adelia Fletcher published 1901 ~ $100 (is slightly worn but in okay condition, no dust jacket, includes several natural botanical perfume formulations, for example:

Woodland Violet

Extract of violet . . . . . . . 6 ounces

Extract of rose . . . . . . . . 2 ounces

Extract of tuberose . . . . 2 ounces

Extract of cassie . . . . . . . 2 ounces

Tincture of orris root . . . 2 ounces

Tincture of ambergris . . . 1 ½ ounces

Oil of bitter almonds . . . . 20 drops

Rose water (triple strength) . . 11 drachms

and

Violette de Parma

Extract of Clove Pink formulation

Rondeletia

Mignonette

and more)

The Science and Art of Perfumery by Edward Sagarin~$20 (good condition) SOLD

Fragrance The Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel by Edwin T. Morris~ $10 (1984 edition; has tear on spine but otherwise in acceptable condition)

The Mystery and Lure of Perfume by CJS Thompson reprint copy from original 1927 edition~$50 (excellent condition)

The Complete Book of Natural Cosmetics by Beatrice Traven~$10 (original 1974 hardcover edition with dust jacket; edges of dust jacket are a bit tatty, as is the top edge of the binding) ~ SOLD!

What the Nose Knows by Avery Gilbert~$15 (2008 hardcover with dust jacket; good condition)

Perfume Through the Ages by Roy Genders~$40 (original 1972 edition; library copy in great condition with dust jacket included)

ALL HARDCOVER COPIES!

Everything Must Go!

2011-07-21T13:35:00.001-07:00

After thinking long and hard, I've decided to let go of a vast majority of my perfume making supplies and materials, including books.

I will keep you posted.

Coming Soon!

2011-07-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

Or probably, most likely, next year! Betty Yi cleaning products.

It's funny how an idea just takes you over. I've been doing the green clean (or what I thought was green clean) for years, but now that I've started to really research this, I'm discovering that green might not be the correct nomenclature for some of the base ingredients used to make those so-called green cleaners. Baking soda, for example, is mined. How green and earth-friendly can that be? Hydrogen peroxide (which I've never used for cleaning house) is also considered a green cleaner, but is it really? And how about vinegar? Depends on whether it's sourced from petroleum (oh, yes, Ms. Yi, most white vinegar is a petroleum by-product) or from botanicals. How green is your white vinegar?

Some of these basic green cleaning products aren't green, but they are better for your health than quite a lot of the more chemical laden, commercial cleaning products. Unless, of course, you're allergic to them.

Anyway, back to the research.

The Slush of Alcoholic Distillations

2011-07-18T07:41:00.001-07:00

So I was anticipating siphoning off about a milliliter or two of the co-blend of gardenia tincture and fresh lemons from the distillate after a stint in the freezer to separate the hydro from the oil, but I forgot to factor in the alcohol effect. As in, alcohol don't freeze. What I ended up with after 12 hours in the freezer was a super smelly semi-solid slush. I guess if you order some you'll have to deal with the free floating balls of oil in the hydro-alcoholic mix -- oh, and yes, the bit o' alcohol as well. Organic grain alcohol isn't the same as isopropyl alcohol. It doesn't dry you up like a prune and suck out all your internal juices. This saucy little experiment would be more like a simple summer scent; light, delicate, daintily walking on its tippy toes. I think you're going to like it.

*Update: I thought about it, thought about it, thought about it . . . thought a little more and decided NOT to distill this again to separate the alcoholic portion from the hydrosol. When I performed the second distillation, I got about 3/4 of a cup of super clear fluid (alcohol, perhaps?) with huge drops of oil floating on top, during the first hour of distillation. However, the longer the juice stewed, the more cloudy the results. So, what happens when you put too much water in the alcohol? It fogs. But again, as much as I'm fighting the urge to do further experimentation on this hydroalcoholic batch, I won't. What you see is what you get, mmm hmm!

Gardenia Hydrosol Co-distillate

2011-07-17T20:00:00.001-07:00

Gardenia. Can you believe it? Just imagine what a few cups of gardenia tincture (and heavily tinctured, I might add) plus a big blender full of juicy fresh lemons straight off the tree smell like distilled together. Nirvana. It's heavenly gorgeous! Indescribable. I'm afraid to use it! And I got some oil -- lord have mercy!-- maybe a ml or two, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, can they? It smells like I've simply distilled a super fragrant summer parfum. It's luscious. So after I freeze off the oil, I'll put this new co-distill up for sale. I ran it through twice (it's on the final run) -- first run was to get everything from the lemons and gardenia into the pot; second run was to help clear it up a bit. It's just a bit cloudy, but I suspect that's from the alcohol in the tincture. Hopefully a full day or so just sitting will help settle it out.

More Distillation Experimentation

2011-07-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

There was 10 mls of lavandin grosso essential oil, but I siphoned off about 2 mls to store away -- the rest goes to Shannon at Seasons Gifts & Gardens in Sanger, CA, from whom I received the lavandin bundles and buds to distill.

After completing the lavender- um, lavandin-distillation, I moved on to those cucumbers. So now there's about 30 ounces of cucumber hydrosol waiting around to settle (still notes settling). The weird thing about these cukes is that they're the pickling kind and they already smell a bit pickly when they're cut into. They even have a strange tartness to them when tasted. Then I got a wild hair in me ar-- eye and decided to do a co-distillation of overgrown rose geranium and languishing frankincense oleoresin. Oh em gee. The still notes are crazy wild, but the gist of the hydrosol is all there -- deep, lush, herbally, rosey rose geranium with a snap of pitchy, resinous luban. Holy cow! It's inspired me to do more weird, wacky and wild distillations, so I think next is a co-distillation of lemons (going to mum's to pick lemons today) and about a cup of a strong tincture of gardenia (compliments of Ms. Velvet & Sweet Pea - Laurie Stern). It's not a co-distillation in the strictest of terms -- I don't know what to call it -- I'm just going to make it and see what comes of it. And hope that the little bit of grain alcohol in the al embic doesn't catch fire or blow up! I will have to make the fire extinguisher handy for this experiment.

Lavandin, It's What I Got

2011-07-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

Grosso. I got just less a little than a gallon of hydrosol. And 10 mls of lavandin grosso essential oil. This morning I'm finishing off the last 10 ounces or so of the hydro, then it goes in the freezer to separate out the oil, then the oil goes into the small bottle to separate out the water, then the oil is again poured off into another bottle that's just -- um -- oil.

The next grosso harvest is in the fall and I think I'm going to teach a distillation course on site at Seasons Gifts & Gardens. See what we get.

Shannon at SG&G said she has another patch of lavender that's much more fragrant and is meant for oil specifically. I think it's either a pink Hidcote or a Jean Davis, and it is more fragrant than any other lavender I have ever smelled. Oh, and it's an English variety. And it's not a hybrid.

Call From Betty Yi

2011-07-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

I woke this morning in the midst of a dream in which my cell phone rang and the caller id identified the caller as "Betty Yi". I don't know a Betty Yi, but she had a message for me from the other side (dun dun DUN!), but as I was answering the phone call in my dream (with feelings of hopefulness, happiness and a sense of a new beginning) my cell phone did ring and it woke me up before the dream was fulfilled. It wasn't Betty Yi. It was my husband telling me that he thinks he just got screwed out of a full-time position at the hospital he's been working for on a per diem basis for over a year. Except he didn't say it as nicely as I just wrote it. While I'm still thinking, Betty Yi, Betty Yi, what is your message? he's huffing and puffing over the inequities of life, using words like "desperate" and "grievance" and "quit".

Perhaps, based on those feelings I had while answering Betty's call, that was the message. Not that the husband may be staring down the barrel of impending unemployment, but that this is a time of hopefulness, happiness and a new beginning, because even after receiving husband's message, I really didn't care. I'm not rushing for the valium, as it were. As snarky and pessimistic as I may seem at times, I am, at heart, the world's biggest optimist, and being optimistic in the face of crushing doom has never let me down. Crushing doom never actually happens. Another avenue always opens up and there I go.

Over the past few weeks I've been thinking, and thinking long and hard, about the future of NBP. Ever since the Perfume Exhibition and Scent Event in May, I've had this niggling feeling in the back of my mind that perhaps there's something else to consider here, something more profitable, more fulfilling than just making perfume for sale and trying to rope in students to teach.

The problem with being profitable in any business may lie with the poopy economy, as the media so love to ram down our throats (do you hear the words desperate, grievance and quit on the wind?) Who is going to buy perfume or pay for a perfume course if they can't even put food on the table, or keep the power bill paid, or pay rent or a mortgage on time? And perhaps for those who aren't worrying about these issues because they are happily, and luckily, employed, what is it that they worry about not being able to afford? It's about prioritizing luxuries. I think. So what luxuries are worth their price?

Please bear with me as I ramble on . . .

Recently, my currently unemployed son and I had a sit-down regarding what types of businesses might work in this economy. His field is refrigeration (big diesel trucks carrying our groceries are his specialty) and he has every type of license, certification and accolade that is achievable within the field at the ripe old age of 25. He feels he's topped out. Prior to being laid off, he was making as much as people working in the business 20+ years were making. His only shortcoming in determining his candidacy for lay off at his old job was that he didn't have kids and a mortgage. More of that inequity stuff going on. This left a sour taste in his mouth about this business in particular, and working for someone else in general. So we talked.

"But I'm an artiste!" I tell him, tongue firmly in cheek, when my son, prompted by my husband, suggested I get a J-O-B outside of the home.

"Well, that kind of sentimentality goes right down the toilette if the primary bread winner loses his bread, mom. I'm an artiste too, but it isn't paying my bills."

Who raised this smart ass? Oh, yeah, I did . . .

He was right, of course. I do need to do something to generate a steadier income than the hit and miss sales of perfume-related things. But here are the problems, and I will list them in no particular order:

1. I'm old.

2. I'm fat.

3. I'm visibly tattooed.

4. I haven't worked outside of the home in over six years.

5. Competition is stiff.

6. Jobs are scarce.

It appears, judging by this list, that the only job I might possibly be a shoo-in for is the circus. On a temporary, part-time basis. Like Thursdays at 3pm. In March.

Notice I didn't list that I'm not qualified to work. I am. I can do anything I set my mind to, especially if it means the preservation of my family. It's the convincing of the hiring party at the potential place of employment that is the hurdle I never seem to hop high enough to get over.

I come from entrepreneurial stock, even if I can't spell the word without spell check. My dad was one of those guys who worked for someone else to get what he wanted, then worked for himself when he was flush in cash. And he did everything from trucking, commercial fishing, building furniture, construction, art -- a jack of all trades he was. He never lived long enough to fulfill his dream of owning his own business, but he had plans -- big plans.

"What can we do together, mom?"

"Stripping is off the table," I answered, opening my robe burlesque style to expose my favorite summer nightie.

"Fine with me! But seriously, let's figure something out. Let's figure out what we can do with what we already know and turn it into something else," he said.

"Look, all I've done with any kind of consistency is raise kids, make stuff and clean house. I'm not interested in running a day care, making stuff doesn't always generate the money, and cleaning house -- ugh! Cleaning house is just cleaning house."

"That's it then."

"What's it?"

"What have you been doing around here?" he asked, sweeping his arms out. "Green cleaning! I've never met anyone else but you who doesn't have sixty cans of bug spray or weed killers or bottles of furniture polish and Mop'n'Shine under their kitchen sink! All someone's got to do is hand you a bottle of vinegar, some baking soda and a lemon and you can make their house shine like a janitorial service went in and did it! You make all your own cleaning supplies, you reuse cleaning rags, you make linen sprays, you put sachets in the cupboards, you have experience scenting stuff! What the hell, mom! Think of the possibilities! You could clean their houses and market your--"

"Wait! What?"

"-- supplies!"

And then it dawned on me. He was right. There was the opportunity. This was the luxury that someone would happily pay for.

So. That's it then. We just signed our first two clients. And I can't help but think that my dream phone call was the "go ahead" signal (along with the real phone call) to get this thing going. Many happy returns, Ms. Betty Yi.

Lavender Fine and Lavender Green

2011-07-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

I've decided to use these two names to differentiate between the two hydrosol distillations of lavender that I've been brewing up this past weekend. Lavender fine is the distillate from the flower buds and smells smooth and rich, while lavender green is the distillation of both the buds and stems and has a slight medicinal, piquant green note to it, and is not as smooth. I've managed to get a little bit of oil out of both these distillations, but still notes persist -- heck, the brew is only a few days old! -- and won't settle down to its lavender goodness for at least a month or so.

Though the process is more efficient, it's still a pain in the arse. I distill early in the am and late in the night because the peak of heat in the daytime prevents me from firing up the metal monster to work its magic. By day's end I will have a gallon of lavender hydrosol. Finally.

The black velvet apricot hydrosol is to die for! It smells of the fresh fruit; the tang of plum, the juiciness of apricot and back and forth. Verrah nice. The blackberry hydro is a juicy berry rush -- I stuffed the al- embic and squiged the berries down as much as I could, letting the juices flow, before adding the water. This made for a super berry scent with some earthy back notes. Also verrah nice. I don't have much of this hydro, just 32 ounces, as I used up all the blackberries in the one distillation. I didn't even get to nibble a few before they went in. Blackberry season is over in the valley this year, so there won't be any more at least until next summer.

I don't ever get tired of making hydrosols, I just get tired of the house warming up too fast when I do. Otherwise, the metal monster would be fired up 24/7, kicking out delicious smelling skin waters non-stop.

The Internal Frenzy of Fragrance Fabrication

2011-07-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

My kitchen is a slip-n-slide. A few years back I wrote about a set it and forget it style of distillation I was interested in creating, a process that doesn't really exist. You know how it is - you come up with a nifty way of streamlining the process (this can possibly apply to any process) and think you've discovered some kind of technical/mechanical gold mine, only to realize that all you've done is mopped the kitchen floor. For the 10th time in a week. Clean kitchen floors are important, especially when you have a pre-toddler in the house 80% of the time, but if it isn't the goal of the new spiffy gizmo, then in some sense, you've failed. Or, rather, I've failed. Once again, Ron Popeil, leader of the set-it-up-and-walk-away generation, you've led me astray . . .

Let me 'splain. And if I repeat myself from previous posts, please forgive. For years I was in need of a circulating water system for my al- embic, and I dreamed up a bucket system (I did not come up with idea, so I take absolutely no credit for its invention -- in fact, I think I might have seen it in reference to illegal spirits distillation) wherein a big bucket, perhaps the one normally used to make soap, becomes the cooling water container, and a small immersible pump, such as one used for table fountains or fish tanks, is set up inside the water bucket pumping water through a tube and into the container holding the cooling coils of the copper al- embic and then circulating back into the water bucket, into which a few plastic bottles of frozen water are placed to keep the free-flowing water at its coolest. The idea is sound. It works. But it isn't the leave it go for an hour type of arrangement I thought I'd bought myself. No. Instead my time is spent almost as it was before when I was draining the warm water from around the container holding the cooling coils and replacing it with cool, icy water every 15 minutes or so. My task isn't to keep the water cool, it is preventing the water level in the cooling container (around those coils) from dropping too low, or just as bad, keeping the cooling container from overflowing. The problem lies in metal and plastic tubing's ability to expand and contract according to the temperature of the water flowing through them. If the water in the water bucket is really cold, I can set the flow of the water so it fills the chamber but doesn't overflow, however, once that cooling water in the water bucket heats up, even by a couple of degrees, the flow of water needs resetting. At least twice during an hour's time, which is less than the amount of time I was spending before with the draining and replacing system, but is still not optimal for indoor distillation. If I ran the distillation outdoors, this wouldn't be a problem. Any overflow would end up watering my garden and not be mopped up repeatedly.

So I suspect the next project is to set up some kind of heating table in the backyard to accommodate distillation there instead of in the house. I would no longer be so concerned with the slip-n-slide effect, and the house wouldn't suffer the effects of a hot piece of metal warming the air in the house for hours at a time. Once again, I am back to the distillation drawing board.

I've pretty much been distilling things non-stop since a week ago, between visits with my mum, who had been really sick and in the hospital. She's home now and doing better, but I still run out to her house to check on her every so often during the day, running her errands and keeping her garden watered. When home, however, the reggae gets turned up, the al- embic is fired and some odd thing or another gets tossed in the chamber for distillation. Right now it's running the black velvet apricots through for a clarifying distillation, then before the lavender is too far gone to finish, I'm going to run another 32 ounces of water through that (giving me a total of 64 ounces of hydrosol and a few milliliters of oil), and then run all that through again to clear it up. Then it's on to those organic cucumbers that have been piling up. I've got a patch of cukes growing, as does mum, so I'm cuke heavy at the moment. And I can't wait to make that hydro.

And then there is the rose geranium that's just going bananas. It has to be cut back -- and, yes, I will distill that as well. We're expecting the temperatures to cool down some for the next week or so, so I am going to take advantage of it and distill, distill, distill!

Building the hydrosol stock is fun, despite the funky set-backs. And since it is a funky wild process to begin with, singing reggae to the al- embic seems a perfectly normal thing to do.

Ugly Soap

2011-07-07T10:16:00.001-07:00

I reeeaaallly gotta stop making ugly soap. It doesn't look good for my business.

Ok. Off to care for mum. She was let out of the hospital yesterday and I've yet to make it to the druggist to pick up her five-hundred-sixty-two-thousand-three-hundred-and-ninety-nine pills she's got to take, not to mention the five different flavors of blood thinners, and on that point, I am not kidding. Oy.

Black Velvet Apricots

2011-07-07T09:46:00.000-07:00

Black Velvet Apricots seem to be all the rage these days, do a google search and see what comes up. Here's the skinny ~ they're a hybrid fruit, more commonly known as a pluot or an aprium, aka a plum/apricot marriage. From what I've read, most plum/apricot hybrids lean heavy on the plum making a heartier plum-type fruit with some apricot attributes. The Black Velvet apricot is a 50/50 hybrid, which gives this fruit its characteristic fuzzy black skin and plummy, juicy innards.

They're grown in Kingsburg, CA, just a hop, skip and a jump from where I live and even here they're exorbitantly expensive at $3.99 per pound. And not organic. The fruit sticker number is 3251, which means it's grown conventionally.

Anywho, I made a 32 oz batch of Black Velvet Apricot hydrosol last night and will redistill it later tonight to clear it up. I overfilled the chamber and some of the fleshy bits boiled up through the steam chamber and into the hydrosol. It smells really nice.

May's Perfume Scent Event & Exhibition Here in Ol' Fresburg

2011-07-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

I know, I know -- I've been pretty much mum on the about Fresno's first ever perfume scent event and exhibition, and by now everyone's probably already forgotten they were waiting to hear how it went. I started at least a dozen different times to put down in words how the event went, who was in attendance, what we discussed, the display, exhibit and food, but for some reason I just couldn't get it right. And yesterday I figured out why I was (and am) having such a difficult time writing about it -- to me, it was special, personal, less an event and more of a "family" gathering; something private and, in some sense, surreal. Beautiful.

The day couldn't have more perfect. The venue was the back yard of an old mansion in the Tower District; the lawn perfectly manicured, brickwork patio covered tip to tail with a gorgeous canopy, a gentle breeze on the wind, the water in the pond trickling quietly. I, on the other hand, was a hot mess! I was late to my own party! The food, thankfully, was prepared in advance so all that had to be done was to cook it and serve it, but with only moments before the big opening and at least another hour before the food was ready, and only one me doing the setting up of the display, the arranging of the tea table, and the preparation of the food, it seemed an impossible task. My rescuers came by way of Berkeley, CA, bearing accoutrements, good will, helping hands and gusto. Lisa Camasi came with a lovely antique brocade table cloth upon which to showcase my perfumes and perfumery collections to their best advantage; Laurie Stern of Velvet & Sweet Pea's Purrfumery came with a huge tea/coffee pot to heat water for the various floral teas that were being served, as well as gifting me with a case of fresh, fragrant gardenia blossoms from the flower market in the Bay Area; and Yuko Fukami of Parfum Phyto came to help prep and serve food for the guests. More support came by way of San Jose, CA upon the arrival of Shelley Waddington of En Voyage Perfumes and her husband Rich.

Much of my family and a smattering of local friends were also in attendance, turning the event into something akin to a family reunion with new and wonderful "family" joining in. The whole exhibition part of the event went out the window as everyone talked and mingled, ate and drank, brainstormed and commiserated on the difficulty of being an NBP in this economy with so much competition and . . . well, it was a non-stop gab fest from beginning to end! And something I would do again and again just to get perfumers together to talk freely about their work, their ambitions for the art form, their techniques, their ideas for the future -- there was a real feeling of camaraderie amongst the perfumers gathered that day, so much so that even friends and family outside of the perfume community were listening intently to what we discussed.

The food ~ oh, the food was extraordinary, if I do say so myself. There were rose flavored scones with lemon curd, jasmine cheesecake with jasmine whipped cream, petitgrain sur fleur neroli shortbread cookies, and fresh picked strawberries; rose tea, jasmine green tea, blooming tea and a lovely sweet osmanthus tea, as well as wine and champagne (the champagne was courtesy of Lisa Camasi who also brought a big bottle of Hangar One Mandarin Blossom vodka for the now famous Camasi Tea ~ recipe to follow). I shared my bottles of homemade lemoncello and strawberry liqueurs, and it turned out they were pretty darned good too.

I also arranged to make dinner for my out-of-town guests, which turned into making dinner for the entire guest list of attendees, which was wonderful for everyone to sit and talk some more and get to know one another better, perfumers and non-perfumers alike. Dinner was baked apricot chicken, a delicious ratatouille, pasta, salad, and garlic bread.

As I mentioned before, it was hard to write about this because it wasn't like a stuffy gathering or a teaching affair, or what I had intended -- a means of marketing NBP to the local community -- it was a family affair, a gathering of friends intent on one purpose -- to build community within NBP. It was a party!

I couldn't have put this event together without the help of my son Scott, his girlfriend, Becca, and their roommate, Jade. They made sure the guests were comfortable, their glasses full, and their plates overflowing, not to mention providing the gorgeous venue, help with cooking and cleaning and serving . . . they were unimaginably wonderful.

The only downside to this post and the event? I didn't get a single photo I can use here! I literally became so enraptured by the setting up and then the conversation that I completely forgot about the camera. So, no photos.

Now for that recipe ~ Camasi Tea

1 gallon freshly brewed jasmine green tea
1/2 cup (or to taste) raw honey
1 cup (or to taste) Hangar One Mandarin Blossom vodka

Pour into tall glasses filled with crushed ice and drink through a straw. You won't even taste the alcohol, but you will feel it.

Going Nowhere With Nowhere To Go

2011-07-06T08:15:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note about mum -- she's doing better; still in the hospital but doing much, much better. She had two procedures and her cardiologist said her heart was "100% better than when she came in", but they're keeping a careful eye on her and will for the next month or so, then her dancing shoes can come down from the closet shelf . . .

Now to perfume ~ someone recently reminded me about something that I'd forgotten in these past few years of trying to *'be somebody' within the NBP community, and it's kind of changed my perspective (perhaps it occurred in part due to the hours waiting in the CICU waiting room for news of my mother) on the whole darned mess. What if I just want to study perfumery? Just study it, learn it inside and out, take courses from other perfumers, go to France to study, delve into the subject completely, with no goal in site other than being in perfume? Then all the stress of this business would fall away, wouldn't it? No more competition, no more sides to take, no more modalities to promote, no more silly bottling issues, no branding, no nothing to do with marketing, no more pointless Wikio ratings. What if? There is a certain amount of romance in the notion that I might some day train my nose to distinguish between a rose otto oil from roses grown on the west side of a hill in Bulgaria as opposed to the east side of the hill, in what region and soil type, for the sheer knowledge of it. Or a lemon oil from lemons grown in Spain compared to a lemon oil from lemons grown in California. There is something harmlessly appealing about that.

To dream, eh?

I've finally completed the first (successful) distillation of lavender, and got quite a bit of oil from it, and will start on the second this evening as the days are way too hot to have the al-embic running. It raises the temperature in the house a good 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Between these two batches of lavender I managed to distill a couple pounds of blackberries for hydrosol. I have 32 ounces of crystalline blackberry hydro that I plan to bottle and put up for sale by the week's end (plan, remember that word). Once the lavender distillation is completed, I plan (hehehe) to distill the wads of cucumbers coming up in my organic garden. Cucumber hydro is on the roster, as are some pretty little black apricots. Peaches, apricots and nectarines are in season here in Cali and a lot of organic growers are selling them for a song,

At last, my love has come along. my lonely days are over, and life is like a song! Oooohh, yeah, yeah!
At last, the skies above are blue-ooh ooh my heart was wrapped up in clover the night I look at you I found a dream that I could speak to; a dream that I can call my own I found a thrill to rest my cheek to; a thrill that I have never known Oooh, yeah, yeah! You smile, you smile, oooh, and then the spell is cast, and here we are in heaven, for you are mine at last!

Maybe that song will work, eh? Or maybe I can sing Georgia on My Mind to the peach vendor ~ ha! Needless to say, if I catch the season just right, I will add more pit fruit hydrosols to the stock.

So I'm off to package up orders and then to the PO before heading over to the hospital to see if mum is feeling up for a visit.

*'be somebody' is meant facetiously as in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't fecking matter

Smell My Finger ~ Summer of Patchouli Love in the Flesh

2011-07-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

Summer of Patchouli LOVE aka Patchouli Bliss, aka Smell My Finger, My Hand, My Arm!, aka Have I Died and Gone to Heaven?!

Choosing only three for the top favorites wasn’t an easy task, but here goes.

My top three favorites are:

#14 ~ Kama Sutra, baby! This is edible honey dust, sugary sweet and powdery, lusty nights and cause for blushing in the morning!

#13 ~ Sweet, buttery, berry-floral intense incense ~ absolutely beautiful. Edible yumminess.

#7 ~ Boozy, sexy, gourmandy-green with wild animalic and water notes. Did I say sexy?

There weren’t any “bad” perfumes in this bunch. The diversity and range of interpretations of patchouli in these perfumes was spectacular – all of them utilized the key ingredient beautifully.

These patchouli perfumes were presented unnamed and unrepresented by their makers, so choosing the “winners”, as it were, was a completely fair and unbiased exercise. I also assigned a rating system of points from zero to five, zero obviously being the least impressive, and five being the most impressive.

The following is the list of perfumers with their corresponding perfume #’s, and the notes I took prior to the perfumer’s being revealed ~

#1 Indienne- Perfumer Alfredo Dupetit, Bio-Scent by Dupetit ~ this perfume is deeply woody with a powdery, tonka-smooth backnote, very creamy; the dry down is strong and tenacious lasting a few hours. ☺☺☺ and ½ ☺’s

#2 River Walk- Perfumer Liz Zorn, Liz Zorn Perfumes ~ this is a fruity-sweet perfume with smokey pungent notes, there’s a dichotomous sticky/powdery note throughout this composition that I find intriguing. ☺☺☺ and ½ ☺’s

#3 Go Ask Alice- Perfumer Shelley Waddington, EnVoyage Perfumes ~ soft, smoky-floral, green, very feminine and “light”. ☺☺☺

#4 Haight and Ashbury- Perfumer Jane Cate- A Wing and A Prayer Perfumes ~ floral-fresh, powdery, feminine, delicate. ☺☺☺

#5 Bohemian Spice- Perfumer Tanja Bochnig, April Aromatics ~ this is a sparkling citrus, mostly orangey, with sweet powdery notes threaded with green. ☺☺☺

#6 Happiness- Perfumer Ambrosia Jones, Perfume by Nature ~ this is a bright green citrus with a warm smoothness, summery. ☺☺☺

#7 Rose Boheme, Perfumer Charna Ethier, Providence Perfume Company ~ boozy, green, gourmand; has a lovely animalic backnote with surprising watery aspects making this perfume “feel” languid and lustful. The dry down is sweet and smooth and has nice longevity. (my #3) ☺☺☺☺☺

#8 Patchouli Paisley- Perfumer Lyn Ayre, Coeur d’Esprit Natural Perfumes ~ this perfume is peppery and green with delicate floral notes; nice balance, though a bit fleeting.☺☺☺☺

No #9 (we omitted to use the number nine in order to avoid confusion with number 6 for the Patch test Bunnies)

#10 Tetu- Perfumer JoAnne Bassett, JoAnne Bassett Perfumes ~ dark, smoky, green leather; tenacity, tenacity, tenacity! ☺☺☺☺

#11 Bodhi Sativa – Perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, DSH Perfumes ~ this perfume is sharply green and fresh; tangy with juicy, fruity notes throughout; good tenacity. ☺☺☺ and ½ ☺’s

#12 Queen of Punk – Perfumer Amanda Feeley, Esscentual Alchemy ~ this perfume is minty and animalic, like iced fur (?), with powdery, woody and resinous notes holding it all down; good tenacity. ☺☺☺☺

#13 Wild Child- Perfumer Kedra Hart, Opus Oils ~ this perfume is bodacious; sweet, buttery, dense berry notes with heavy florals and an intense incense note – beautiful. I just love the way the fruit notes mingle with the incense notes, like a head shop and a lingerie store smell all wrapped into one. (my #2) ☺☺☺☺☺

#14 Royal Water- Perfumer Rodney Hughes, Therapeutate ~ this perfume sparkles and shines, like polished gold; it’s super sugary, honeyed, lushly powdery and exotic. This is probably giving away way too much personal information, but it reminds me of Kama Sutra honey dust and all the anticipation that that scent entails, but more. I’d be a little concerned that someone might lean over and whisper in my ear, “What did you do last night?” if I wear this perfume out. But that certainly isn’t going to stop me. I’d definitely wear it out, over and over again. (my #1) ☺☺☺☺☺

This was such fun, and as I said before, there wasn’t a bad perfume in the batch. I’d wear them all, and I will. In fact, I’m wearing #12 right now, floating down the river to the Summer of Patchouli Love.

Baby there’s a DRAW!

Comment on this post at Perfume Pharmer to be entered in a DRAW for a 5ml flacon of Patchouli #14 Royal Water by Rodney Hughes for Therapeutate

To be eligible for Perfume Pharmer Draws please be signed up at the top left of the Perfume Pharmer blog page for their feed or email.

DRAW ends July FULL MOON xoxo

Lavender Distillation to Date

2011-07-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

It's been slow going with the lavender distillation. My mum was put into the hospital for heart-related issues and will probably be there for a few days yet. It goes without saying that getting this lavender distilled isn't in the forefront of my mind at the moment, but I am doing it for the few hours in the evenings when I am home and "present". The first go-round went belly up -- I burned the batch and had to toss it and the 32 or so ounces of hydrosol into the garden mulch pile -- this happens when your mind isn't really on your work. And the circulating water issue has had me in knots since I started distillation a few years ago. Checking the cooling chamber every five minutes to see if the water needs draining or icing isn't exactly the most efficient way to create nice hydrosols. Completely by accident, while strolling the aisles of the massive hardware store down the street, I found a small immersible table top fountain pump. I was at the massive hardware store down the street to buy new hosing for the al -embic -- after a half dozen go 'rounds the hose becomes so saturated with the scent of one or another of the oils/hydrosols running through it that it is impossible to get clean again, so frequent replacement of the hose is required. It was just a happy accident that I happened to be poking around in the garden area of the store and saw the little "on sale" sign for the pump. I've been mulling the idea of setting up a recirculating water system for the al -embic for years but never got around to doing it. Finding the right kind of pump was the most difficult part -- if I did manage to locate a pump sufficient for the job, it often came with a very large price tag and extra equipment I didn't want or need, and an old style fish tank pump would have been perfect for the job, but they're becoming a rarity as the newer style running water immersible pumps are the "in" thing with fish lovers. That definitely wouldn't have worked with water spilling into and around the cooling coils . . .

So I got my pump and tubing home and spent the next two hours trying to figure out the best way to get a consistent flow running, and voila! cool recirculating water is in the house. Every so often I have to add a bit of ice into the water pot from which the cooling water is taken, but not nearly as often as before without the pump set-up. I can literally walk away from this and allow the distillation to continue for an hour or two at a time without having to babysit it.

Even with mum not well and sitting alone most of the time in the hospital I am determined to get this distillation business done and done well (so long as mum's got a deck of cards, a pencil and a crossword puzzle book, and some people to watch, she's pretty well entertained for days on end. The only thing missing from her day that would be considered a part of her normal routine is pulling weeds in her gorgeous food garden, which, by the way, is throwing tomatoes like Cy Young, making my big salad bowls verrrry happy). Doctor's orders, once mum's released she is not to be allowed to work the garden for at least a month, no more daily walks, and definitely no more cigs. And the funny thing about mum is this; she isn't worried about dying (it is a definite possibility at this point in time), she's more worried that if she lives, will she be able to dance again. You just gotta love her for that.

Distillation at this point in time is more like meditation than ever before. On the line-up for distillation after the lavender are organic blackberries. That is, if they last without being eaten first.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Perfume Event ~ Reviews of The Scented Djinn's Peaseblossom Eau de Toilette

2011-06-28T11:20:00.001-07:00

All I am - a redhead wrote:

This is an edt and when you look at the notes, you cannot but wonder how Justine made them in such light and refreshingly warm perfume. The notes are so well combined and blended you cannot (well, I cannot tease them apart). I can smell the oakmoss and lavender and rose and vetiver and resins but they are all light on their toes and they play around on this warm, sweet breeze.

Monica Skye Miller of Perfume Pharmer reviewed in poetry:

Peaseblossom: Like gossamer wings, fragile, thin and shimmering this scent whispers on my skin drawing me in layer upon layer all transparent it is like looking at myself in the kindest way omniscience like seeing a reflection of my original face in a fairy forest pool

Carol at WAFT (What A Fragrance Fanatic Thinks) wrote:

Ah Justine has created a beautiful , resonant scent with great finesse . This is at once sunny and deep , grassy , floral , resinous . I love it ! I consider this a very sophisticated composition , the top notes are unusual with her tinctured wheatgrass adding freshness and green tinged sunshine , the heart is well blended , the base is deep and earthy ( love the mitti , she has used it with a deft hand ! ) . I will wear this joyfully .

Diana at Feminine Things wrote:

As to the scent: three cheers for a sweet floral, but not fruity, patchouli! How did she do it? It’s not overly green, and yet definitely a patchouli scent on me. It’s a gentle scent, possessing a playful quality I’m happy to see in a scent based on a fairy. Green and mossy at first, it quickly becomes sweeter, lavender and sage and vetyver providing a strong base for the dance of the floral notes.

Sample sets of all the perfumes in this perfume event are available through Carol at WAFT ~

Distilling Lavender

2011-06-28T00:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm staying up late to begin the distillation process for these bags and bags and bags of lavender that Shannon at Seasons of Spirit in Sanger gave me for helping out with the bundling, and because I'm going to give her a big bottle of hydrosol. It looks like I might get a couple of gallons of hydrosol out of this (did I say bags and bags? yes? so, yeah, bags and bags ad infinitum) of lavender buds, stems and leaves. I have a bunch of just stems too that I think I might grind up and make a nice kyphi-like incense with for the fall. I think I'll throw in the little bits of sweetgrass clippings I got into that kyphi too. That should make for an interesting natural incense ball, eh?

Video of the Sweet Grass Harvest/Braiding

2011-06-27T16:17:00.001-07:00

Sweet Grass Harvest in Sanger, CA

2011-06-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

Le Parfumeur Rebelle Reviewer Scott Ellis Pipes In

2011-06-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

LPR perfume reviewer Scott Ellis pipes in on the perfume event A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Happy Summer Solstice ~ May Your Blessings Be Many

2011-06-21T10:34:00.001-07:00

Mum called this morning with this breaking news ~

"I got a tomato!"

To which I replied, "This is cause for celebration!"

"Yes, it is!" She answered.

"Well, what will we do?" I asked, fully aware that today is the day of summer, the solstice, a significant mark on the calender (and incidentally our first over 100 degree weather ~ we're staring down the face of 106 degrees Fahrenheit, perfect tomato incubating weather).

And she answered with enthusiasm, "Dance naked in the garden!"

Is it Overwhelming or Exciting?

2011-06-18T09:36:00.001-07:00

I don't know about the rest of you, but this past week has been for me a three-ring-circus, a county fair, a backyard burning man party, and train-wreck all rolled into one, and I'm the conductor who fell asleep in the tunnel, and the entertainment director who has misplaced her organizer . . . and her flip-flops . . . and a green lighter she was asked to hold onto that the owner now wants returned to them.

A Midsummer Night's Dream and Summer of Patchouli Love are in full swing and I'm in the throes of writer's block and editor's frustration. Ever have that hurry up and wait feeling? That's where I'm at. Hurry up and get this done, but wait, don't do that yet, it's not time! It's not just with the writing and the blogging and the sniffing and reviewing -- it seems to be everything right now.

I seem to be going through another transitional phase which normally would scare the living daylights out of me, but not so much this time around. The changes are welcome. But what does that say about my life, eh? Even with so much going on and so much to do, I still feel like I'm wading chest-deep through cold molasses. I feel as if everything is going past me at breakneck speed, and there I am, the little slug that almost could, squiging along the dirt, dodging the sunlight and salt patches, trying to catch up to-- what? I may never find out if I keep up this pace.

Waiting to get reviews is like waiting in the doctor's office for a tetanus shot in the eyeball; preparing to write reviews is like trying to find the only cherry at the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket of rock-hard ice cream with your bare hands. Neither is fun nor easy. And it feels like I have two heads -- one focused on selling me, and one focused on -- well, selling still, but selling someone else.

I had prepared two perfumes for the AMND perfume event hosted by Amanda Feeley, but in the end, and at the very last minute, I opted to send only one. Peaseblossom. Puck's Love Juice is still stewing and a few samples have been decanted for future sale. My gut told me that PLJ wasn't the 'one'. It's good, don't get me wrong -- it's a lovely strong fougere, but it just didn't strike me as very magical in that midsummer night's way. Peaseblossom, however, has a few tricks up his sleeves.

In a sense, I feel like I'm cheating on the AMND event -- I've had the happy fortune of being able to smell ALL of the submissions via LPR reviewer Scott Ellis' stash. I am humbled and impressed by this group of perfumes and perfumers -- two or three in particular really tickled my fancy, and I came to a dawning realization that some of these 'old-timers' whose 'fumes I'd tried years ago have really honed their craft to perfection. I mean, some of their compositions are so far and above what they were producing, say, six or seven years ago -- y'know, in the dark ages of modern NBP -- that their signatures have changed.

Well, I'm off to crack the whip, as it were, on my LPR reviewer who is currently une personne disparue. Perhaps I just need to relax. Having two heads seems like it will never be a smooth, workable situation.

Full Moon Dreams Soap

2011-06-15T10:01:00.001-07:00

New floral-citrus soap at The Scented Djinn Etsy Apothecary.

Hydrosols

2011-06-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

The Scented Djinn Etsy Apothecary now has vetiver hydrosol and a lemongrass-vetyver co-blended hydrosol available -- in a new, bigger bottle!

Summertime and the Living's Easy

2011-06-15T05:38:00.000-07:00

Ah, that's what I'm talking about ~ summer made it, and as hatefully hot as it can get here in the valley, the long hot days to come are welcome -- for now.

I just caught a whiff of peppermint -- someone in the house is spraying some peppermint hydrosol to cool down. Earlier it was lemon and rose. Just smelling these fragrances seems to bring the temperatures down, makes the sticky humidity inside the clothes less gross.

Everything in the garden gets watered at night now so the sun doesn't scorch them to death. Night watering is best, especially tonight, when the moon is full. The plants seem to grow several inches within a short period of time after a night watering. Plus it keeps the nasty kitty butts out of the food gardens.

Now that the heat's on, the flowers in the front garden will slow down blooming. The roses won't, no, they love the heat, but the jasmine will, and the honeysuckle too, to some extent. I'm still planning to make a little honeysuckle liqueur this summer . . .

This afternoon mom brought me a cutting from a 75-year-old lilac bush. It was planted in the front garden of Mrs. Bali just before World War II, around the time her much older husband passed away. The lilac cutting is growing beautifully, and the 75-year-old bush at the old homestead? It bloomed last year for the first time in almost 25 years. Goes to show what a little love will do for an old plant; they're more like us than we think.

PLAP!

2011-06-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

The Summer of Patchouli Love has begun -- because I got my coffrett! I did a quick sniff of about half the box yesterday, but only after scaring the beejeezus out of the mail person! I don't think stalking the mail carrier while loitering behind an overgrown oleander bush is the smartest thing to do ~ ha! They get a bit tetchy and irritable when people do that kind of thing.

So! The coffrett's here, it's pretty and beautifully packaged, and contains an array of some of the most exquisite patchouli perfumes I've ever had the pleasure of sniffing. Stunning stuff, this.

Now I'm off to pick my top three . . .

Have a wonderful PLAP filled day!

A Midsummer Night's Dream Commences

2011-06-14T08:55:00.001-07:00

Today kicks off the first day of the perfume event "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and the flurry of activity and level of excitement is palpable. There are already reviews rolling out ~

WAFT by Carol reviews The Scented Djinn's Peaseblossom

Fragrance Belles-Lettres reviews Blossoming Tree's Fair Thee Well, Nymph

Perfume Pharmer's Monica Skye Miller reviews three perfumes ~ En Voyage Perfume's Titania, Bellatrix's Titania, and Artesa Perfumista's Robin

Feminine Things reviews Bellatrix's Titania

The other blog I co-host, Le Parfumeur Rebelle, is also a reviewing blog of the event, but we've decided to review ALL the participating perfumer's perfumes, instead of just a handful, as most of the other bloggers have done, and we're really feeling the pressure! It's the opening day and we haven't posted a single review! Scott Ellis, LPR's reviewer for this event, is awash in Midsummer bliss at this very moment, leaving me FB messages and phoning me every so often to talk about this perfume or that one, or WHO is this perfumer?! He's beside himself with fragrant happiness.

I'd also like to give a great big smelly hug and a fat wet rosy kiss to Amanda Feeley, host of this event, for coming up with such an exciting and wide-ranging topic on which to draw inspiration in the creation of perfume. The solstice is coming upon us quickly and what better way to celebrate the change of seasons than by showering oneself in the scent of Midsummer?

Let the merriment commence ~

Natural Cucumber Scent

2011-06-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a debate over this cucumber thing. I didn't realize it until I saw how many people were coming to this blog to check out 'cucumber essential oil' -- like hundreds! I wasn't aware that cucumber was such a popular scent.

So the debate was that I had done some research and was unable to locate any "real" cucumber essential oil for scenting stuff and I wrote about and was argued with over it, which sent me on a more extensive hunt for this elusive naturally derived cucumber essential oil that everyone was insisting existed. I don't have a problem being wrong if I am wrong. And if any of these folks leaving messages that cucumber essential existed had left a link to where this shy little company producing the stuff was so I could check it out, I wouldn't have taken after the subject like a pit bull with a chicken flavored teddy bear in its mouth. After a bit of research, I found a source of cucumber seed oil, which is a completely different critter altogether. And I blogged about that. And was argued with again.

Now I've been informed, and read about, a company named Treatt that do in fact make a naturally distilled cucumber. It's a flavoring agent rather than a scenting agent, but the scent is sufficient enough for use in compounding fragrance for whatever you want, or so the original source states. And, did I mention it's naturally sourced?

So there.

Just let me chew my teddy bear in peace now.

Repurposed Soap

2011-06-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

The darker chunks in this soap represent the original soap I made the other day that was so full of essential oils it was oozy and squijee. Those bits are still oozy and squijee, just less so now with a solid foundation of newer soap around them.

I just made a small batch of soap, tossed in a few of the squijier pieces into the pot and whipped them in, then chopped up the rest of the squijee soap into pieces, put them in the mold and poured the newer soap over the top. And this is what I got. And it still smells like heaven.

Re-Post

2011-06-10T10:02:00.001-07:00

Detecting Smell

I have not read any of the newest tomes on scent detection, and there are several in circulation at the moment. I've read Luca Turin's 'Secret of Scent' and have to be honest and say that while I find the study of smell fascinating, this book left me wanting something a little . . . different. I guess I wanted a 'how-to' manual on scent detection. And less chemistry.

While I consider my nose to possess average sniffing abilities, I have learned to better listen to my nose. Yeah, listen. Okay, maybe that's the wrong word.

I've learned to consciously sniff the air ~ everywhere I go. I've always done this in close proximity to plants, even years ago when I wasn't knee-deep in aromatics and hoping to become a perfumer.

I distinctly remember an incident which occurred several years ago, when my big boys were still little boys, and we'd taken a day-trip to Monterey, California. While walking around the historic Cannery Row, I subconsciously brushed my hand through the the plants we passed, then cupped my hand over my nose to inhale the scent. There was rosemary, lavender, sage ~ herbs in abundance growing along the sidewalk in planter boxes ~ that scent, combined with the smell of the sea, provide an olfactory profile that is distinctly 'Monterey'. What I remember best about this particular trip was walking along, dipping my hand into the plants, sniffing and suddenly realizing I was walking alone. I turned around, and there was my family about three yards behind me, watching. Then one of the boys, I don't remember which one, shouted, "Why do you do that? You're embarrassing us! You look like a crazy lady when you do that!" Like that wasn't embarrassing.

Well, I didn't stop doing it. And maybe I am a crazy lady, so what? I considered the ritual a valuable olfactory lesson. Still do.

There are certain things one does not need to train the nose to detect ~ car-struck skunk, for example. Carrion. Poo. Halitosis. Sweaty feet. Stale perspiration. They have a way of making themselves known.

Years ago, when I was a girl, my mother babysat two little boys who lived a few houses down from ours. Every afternoon, after the little boys' mother returned from work, I would walk them down to their house and deliver them to her. Upon walking into the house, I would be struck by the overpowering odor of burnt maple syrup. I could never quite figure this out, how someone's house could smell like burnt syrup. Then one day I told my mother about the smell in their house and she shook her head and said, "It's not syrup. It's pee. Old, stale pee in their mattresses." This left a scent impression in my mind that even today I cannot shake. As much as I love the scent and flavor of real maple syrup, every time I smell it I am reminded of those little boys and their mapley smelling, pee-stained mattresses.

Consciously smelling things makes a huge difference in how I interpret the world. Sometimes it is strange what I pick up on the air that other people don't, or what my grandson, for instance, can detect that I cannot. He once sniffed a bottle of gifted ruh khus and proclaimed, "Tea!" Initially, I didn't get that particular note from the ruh khus, but after his little non-biased review, I definitely 'got it'. He also called Vietnamese oud, "Gicky mud." Got that, too.

For years I mistook the scent of mountain misery for the scent of manzanita. It wasn't until very recently, when I attempted to tincture manzanita leaf, that I realized it was the wrong smell, not the one I associate with what I refer to as 'my mountains' ~ the Sierra Nevada mountain range from Sacramento to Bakersfield. Nope. It was kit kit dizzee, aka mountain misery, which held the scent I so love, and, I as I recently learned, my husband abhors.

We get used to smells, I think, and after a while we tune them out. Not those overpowering smells, the skunks, carrion and the like, but the every day smells of our homes and the people we love. We should probably open up a little, take in all the smells and refine our sniffing abilities, so we don't miss anything.