Friday, September 3, 2010

Perfume Illuminated: Apple


“With an apple I will astonish Paris.”
~ Cezanne

The weather here in southern California is still very Summer like, despite the Labor Day weekend indicating the arrival of Autumn. Today, in alignment with the forthcoming season and current offerings at the farmers market we shall highlight apples as our honored fragrance and flavor guest.

“The apple cannot be stuck back on the Tree of Knowledge; once we begin to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less.” ~ Arthur Miller

Malus domestica, the deciduous apple tree, originates in Asia and is part of the same family as the rose. The popular juicy fruit made it's way to North America with the early colonists in the 1600's.


FRAGRANCE

The aroma of apple is classified in the edible "fruit" domain known as fruity. At this moment in time like most other fruits there is no apple essential oil, there is however an apple blossom concrete which was available a few years back. I have used the apple blossom in a perfume ode to the Greek Goddess of Love "Aphrodite" as well as an up and coming perfume.

The essence with the most apple-like aroma is Roman chamomile, Anthemis nobilis. This calming essential oil has a bright, fresh, fruity character that is very reminiscent of the fragrance of apples. The other apple like essence comes to us via the marigold known as Tagetes Tagetes minuta or Tagetes glandulifera it is available as an essential oil or the brilliant flame orange colored absolute.

As with some of the other fragrance and flavor specimens discussed in this series tincturing is the alternative to creating your own fragrant raw material. With apple experiment with the peel as well as the fruit and how about using an heirloom apple for a little history!


FLAVOR: Beth Schreibman Gehring
Please continue reading about Apple at the Windesphere Witch blog

Images:
Apple Blossoms, also known as Spring, by Sir John Everett Millais 1856-59
Adam and Eve by Albrecht Dürer 1504
Old engravings of mouth and nose photo collage ©Roxana Villa
Text ©Roxana Villa, pilfering content is a violation of copyright, don't do it.

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