White Flower Season

The white flower season begins here in the garden of pure fumes with gardenia, then gradually overlaps with jasmine sambac which overlaps with plumeria.  I was lucky to get extra gardenias from my mothers plant which is much larger and more abundant than mine.

The gardenias are now done but we are in the thick of jasmine sambac bloom time just as the plumerias are starting up.

Currently I have lots of different potions brewing, but the most amazing is a toss up between the gardenia enfleurage and the jasmine enfleurage which was layered over a violet enfleurage.

Summer to Autumn

Two days ago it was warm and I was harvesting jasmine flowers for the ongoing enfleurage. Monday night the weather suddenly changed – as if day light savings time were a window that was abruptly opened. All of a sudden we've got substantially cooler weather, so cool that my little jasmine sambac flowers this morning were barely opened, as if they weren't too sure opening themselves up was such a good idea.

I don't blame them. I wore a wool sweater and thick scarf to the perfumery today. Thus, I feel pretty confident stating that the jasmine cycle more than likely has come to a close. Nest up: violets!

The Tink Goes On

The jasmine tincture process is still going. Normally the cycle ends at some point in November, but it is dependent on the weather. Since we continue to have high heat its possible that will just keep on supplying those beautiful little blooms for another month.

Harnessing the Soul of Jasmine

The article I wrote for the NAHA (National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy) journal is live, check it out here.

In the meantime, this years tincture is coming out quite spectacular. Every night or morning when I add more flowers I take a little taste. In the photo above with the notice the different shades of yellow of each liquid contained within each glass jar. The largest one on the left, is the first one I started, thus the hue is more golden compared to the second jar on its right and the green hues of the little jar on top.

My jasmine plants haven't been looking so good the last few days, I'm not quite sure why. They seem a bit "spent", like they are tired, but I could be projecting. We shall see how much longer the season will go, normally they continue offering up the flowers into November.

Jasmine Tincturing Summer 2015

Although the jasmine blooms seemed to get to a slow start this year they sure have been producing dynamically lately!

Every evening or morning I harvest the little flowers, take photos and add them to the 190 proof grape alcohol. Sometimes I filter the alcohol before adding the flowers, besides that, I do these tasks every single day and will continue until the cycle ends, usually in November.

The amount of photos I take daily is probably as abundant to the blooms. At the moment I have three glass mason jars filled with the aromatic elixir in my refrigerator. This fragrance potion ultimately goes into Blossom, a citrus and herb cologne I created based on traditional formulas. I'm experimenting with using the tincture like a bitter added to cocktails.

Each time I filter the infused alcohol I pour filtered water over the spent flowers I drink the heavenly tonic with Greg.

The biggest challenge each day is figuring out how I will shoot a new and interesting photo of the process, I feel like I've shot every possible potential image and then a new one, thankfully, presents itself. Here's a few from this morning....

Happy Independence Day!

I'm sort of taking the day off, it's Independence Day here in the US after all, not that a major holiday would influence a perpetual artist. Day, night, linear time doesn't much affect those living in the creative realm except for perhaps getting to the post office with packages before they close.

I started the morning with some gardening including the daily task of gathering the pikake blossoms and putting them into the ongoing tincture. Since there were too many spent flowers in the potion, before adding the new batch, I filtered it and removed the clear, skeletal looking posies. One of the new tasks I've added to the process of filtration is that afterward I will run water through the spent florets that are sitting in the strainer and drink the potion. It's a delicious, refreshing potion with the notes of jasmine sambac and adds a nice addition to the ongoing ritual.

Besides lounging and enjoying the freedom of it, my main agenda today is reading  more of "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness. I've been curious about this novel since it came out and a facebook friend mentioned it to me. Then, in January while enjoying the medieval dye garden at Highland Hall Waldorf School, the book came up in a conversation with one of the faculty members. I had brought up the film "Only Lovers Left Alive" which led to a discussion about vampires and the book. It wasn't until a few days ago that I finally took a moment to have the book transferred to my local library and I started reading it.

The alchemical symbols on the cover immediately intrigued me, followed by the first paragraph with the main character, Dr, Diana Bishop, gathering leather-bound manuscripts from Oxford's Bodleian Library.

I'm not very far into the novel as I type this, but, I've already noticed that the author has a great use of scent in her writing which has added yet another level of appreciation for me. I'm in heaven and hyper conscious of that impending moment when you realize how depressing it will be once you have finished a great book. Luckily this is a trilogy, so the anticipated point of gloom can be let go for awhile.

More soon, in the meantime, the prevailing scent for Independence Day seems to be "smoke" emanating from all the barbeques here in the wooded hills. This evening the note will have an added slightly metallic aspect from the firework festivities down in the valley.

White Flower Season!

The white flower season has arrived! It appeared like a rough start for the Jasmine sambacs but not for the Gardenias. Here at the house of beautiful smells I have a jasmine sambac tincture and a gardenia enfleurage in tandem, eventually I will have a jasmine sambac enfleurage as well but its too early in the season. Although in all honesty, the weather pattern is completely off and thus so is the flowering pattern of the sambacs.

For those of you who are subscribers of my newsletter you'll find a little treat of the 2014 gardenia enfleurage from last year. Little tubs are also available at the fan funding here. Keep in mind that the 2014 edition is very subtle, the fat was only charged with flowers three times. The 2015 edition should have a much stronger presence since we began the process earlier in the season.

Introducing Fleurish

Fleurish, a play on the french word fleur for flower and flourish a design embellishment used in calligraphy, is a luxurious jasmine solifleur with abundant notes of the indolic heady white floral laced with honey.

The fragrance was initially one of the trials for Figure 8: Coeur de Jasmin, which some of you may have received as a sample last year. Fleurish is an extremely fresh and velvety floral with a duration of at least six hours with a intoxicating jasmine threaded through the top, middle and base of the fragrance. The formula not only contains three types of jasmines but also a bit of the Jasmine sambac tincture/infusion from my garden. A plethora of other sacred and precious ingredients such as a ten year vintage of Mysore sandalwood are intricately stitched like precious gem stones inlaid in a golden ring. As with all my perfumes this has been constructed using ONLY high end botanicals, absolutely no animal ingredients or isolates are included.

Fleurish is one of the items offered in the upcoming Fan Funding Event, and thus for a time being will only be available through that venue. It will be available for sniffing at the upcoming celebration of the new space on November 15th.

Hearted

In the midst of herding all the elements for the Fan Funding Event together, the extravagant grand finale jasmine blooming cycle I came across a glorious glass apothecary cabinet for the new space. Although I thought all I needed was a simple glass case, when I found THE piece I realized no, this is the statement piece for the front section. Not only is it beautiful but evokes my great grandfathers apothecary in downtown Buenos Aires magnificently!

Of course its going to cause great chaos within the space. All the existing furniture and hangings will under go a massive shift, but I'm okay with it. Above is a simple photo of the piece taken hastily with my mobile, more soon.

Meanwhile...

While most places in the northern hemisphere have been experiencing some form of Autumn weather and signs of the impending season, we continue to have heat and very few visible harbingers except for acorns and pumpkin vendors.

Meanwhile, the jasmine sambac is happily blooming in yet another flowering cycle. I now have two big bottles of tincture, a glass jar of an infusion and an enfleurage all happening at once!

Impending Darkness

The night and day of equal length beckons us in the Northern hemisphere to prepare for the shadow, the season of the dark and cooler temperatures. Called by many names including Mabon, Autumnal Equinox and Meán Fómhair, the pagan holy day of the harvest reminds us to be grateful, assess where we are at and begin our inward journey.

The opening illustration by Gustave Doré depicts Archangel Michael casting out the arrogant angels. During this season we also celebrate Michelmas in honor of St. Michael who defeats Lucifer and St. George who tames the dragon, both of these beinging symbols of conquering our shadow side.

The emblem of the five pointed star, also known as the pentagram, is often used to deepen into this season. If we cut in apple in half through the horizontally we will see the hidden star contained within. This image repeats within our body and in nature, another reminder of our perfect one-ness with the Earth.

Today I poured a Cimbalom round tin for a customer and was reminded of the apple note contained within the fragrance. Then, later in the day, I found myself contemplating Greg's Enchantment print hanging in the hallway of our little woodland cottage. Thus, my fragrance this evening is the heavy jasmine inspired floriental Cimbalom, auspiciously heady pink jasmine flowers have five petals.

Opening image: Archangel Michael casts out the arrogant angels. Illustration by Gustave Doré, 1866.

Summer 2014

Officially Summer is over, although one would never guess by the warm weather we've been having here. For me, it "feels" done when Eve heads off back to college in Vermont, which she did the Sunday before Labor Day.

The weather folks have been deliberating whether this part of the earth is going to be hit with an El Nino this year. First they said yes, then they said no and now it appears they are saying yes again. The rain would sure be helpful for our parched earth, despite mudslides that will most likely occur here within the woodland.

A few of the sign posts indicating the approach of Autumn have become evident by shifting coloration in the oak leaves and the presence of abundant acorns.

Dailies

The daily gathering of little white florets from for the Jasmine sambac tincture continues. Although there was a bit of a dry spell of blossoms for about a week, the plants are flowering once more.

These waxy, abundantly scented little flowers have been getting added to 190 proof grape alcohol since April of this year. Thursday morning, while filtering the tincture, I poured a tablespoon into a glass. After finishing the process and cleaning up, I studied the fragrant potion and drank. The first impression was the strong, sharp, astringent taste of the 190 proof organic alcohol followed by the most glorious floral flavor. Like a well blended, complex botanical perfume, there was a journey of notes which ended with the most delectable tang of jasmine flowers...as if drinking an aspect of the soul of the plant which even the hydrosol cannot capture.

While experiencing this exotic and completely new taste sensation I contemplated how the high proof alcohol extracts botanical components that water cannot, making this format of experiencing the flavor of these delicate flowers a completely new and different adventure.

This tincture is meant for the 2015 edition of the Blossom Cologne. The 2014 edition of the fresh and uplifting cologne can be found here, keep in mind there is a specified amount of the cologne due to the finite availability of the hand infused alcohol contained within the fragrance.

Each plant material tinctures up differently, some do not not release there precious aromatic treasures while others do so very eagerly. Jasmine sambac works well as long as you can keep up the task of filtering old blossoms and adding new ones consistently for a period of three months or so. The alcohol in the tincture I've been making is just about completely saturated with aromatics thus, tomorrow I will begin doing an enfleurage with the jasmine blossoms.

The Constant

In the morning after I harvest the jasmine blossoms my hands smell spectacular for a few hours. Thus my scent of the day (SOTD) has been Cimbalom. Yesterday I applied the solid and today a small drop of the liquid while pouring some samples. I'm thinking that an Eau de Parfum of Cimbalom would be quite nice just about now.

The constants lately: jasmine gathering/tincturing, prepping the new space and filling daily orders. Prepping the new space has been the most labor intensive and ranges from multiple phone calls in the morning, painting furniture, and what seems like endless decision making.

Below is a shot of the signage in front of my space that will soon say Roxana Illuminated Perfume, instead of appsminded.

Happy Solstice!

Happy Solstice from the Santa Monica Mountains to each of you. The potted jasmine sambacs in my garden started their blooming cycle in April. Each morning I have been gathering the little white blossoms and placing them into the organic, 190 proof grape alcohol. The base starts off a crystalline clear liquid slowly turning toward a golden yellow by the end of the process in the Autumn.

Some days there are no flowers, just a few or like today too many to count. The amount of blooms seems less than last year which may have to do with the un-seasonal warm winter we had. These little blooms will infuse the alcohol until it can no longer take on any scent. At that point I will start a second batch.

In the meantime I am working on the new edition of Blossom Eau de Cologne. There is still a bit of the 2014 edition which can be found by following this link for a sample and/or a 30 ml spray bottle at the website.

This post has been pinned here, follow the process on Instagram here.