Imbolc & the Goddess Brighid

This post have moved to my Substack Illuminated Perfume.

Chamisa distillation

Last week, during a filming session at the perfumery for an upcoming feature, I distilled the beautiful golden flowers of Chamisa with my small glass still. The result is an enchanting, mellow yellow hydrosol that smells of liquid sunshine.

The main notes are from monoterpenes like d-limonene, which contributes to the warm, sunny scent. There is a darker yellow rim of the hydrosol which indicates a tiny amount of essential oil. I’m going to do a run in Spiritus, my cooper still, to see if we can capture more of the essential oil.

Chamisa, a perennial shrub native here in New Mexico is a member of the Aster family (Asteraceae) and goes by many names including: Rabbitbrush, Rubber Rabbitbrush and the latin Ericameria nauseosa.

The scent of the hydrosol has very little in common with flowering plant, which is quite fascinating. Although many are allergic to the pollens found on the flowers, the hydrosol does not carry that encoded message and may actually work as a type of homeopathic remedy.

A is for April & Alchemy!

Since we have gotten an amazing community already signed up for the Alchemy happenings in April, I thought I'd post a few details all in one place, including a FAQ's.

Here is the list of activities we have planned so far, more are in the works! For ALL these events please arrive unscented. Be mindful of laundry, cosmetic and bath & beauty products on this special day. We need to keep our palettes clear and free of odorants and be respectful of the flora and fauna we will be working with.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 20th - 7pm

Alchemy Panel Discussion

with Cathy Skipper, Dr. Florian Birkmayer, John Steele and Roxana Villa

LOCATION

Huron SubStation
2640 Huron Street, Los Angeles, CA 90065

FREE
The panel discussion is free and open to everyone who RSVP's in advance

____________________________________________________________________________

FRIDAY, APRIL 21st - 3-6 pm

Distill Your Own Hydrosols

with Cathy Skipper and Dr. Florian Birkmayer

LOCATION

Details provided upon registration.

FEES

If you are registered for the Alchemy & Medicine of the Soul workshop this class on distillation is included in your tuition. To purchase la carte the cost is $40.00

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SATURDAY & SUNDAY, APRIL 22nd and 23rd

9:30 am - 5 pm

Alchemy & Medicine of the Soul

with Cathy Skipper and Dr. Florian Birkmayer

LOCATION: 

Roxana Illuminated Perfume in the Atrium of  Whizin Market Hall
28914 Roadside Drive, second floor, unit 219

Agoura Hills, CA 91301

FEES
Early bird registration $296
After March 31st, $350

____________________________________________________________________________

MONDAY, APRIL 24th

7 pm - 9pm

Hydrosol Encounter

with Cathy Skipper and Dr. Florian Birkmayer

LOCATION: 

Blue Table at  Whizin Market Hall
28914 Roadside Drive

Agoura Hills, CA 91301

FEES

$40 which covers all the expenses, including the very special and unique hydrosols 

we will be sipping and exploring.

____________________________________________________________________________

FAQs

1. Can you recommend a hotel in the area?

Homewood Suites by Hilton Agoura Hills

The group rate has expired, but ask just in case: ILLUMINATED PERFUME WORKSHOP

2. How many students will you consider a full class to be?

We are not sure yet, 23 is the maximum my perfumery can accommodate. 

If we get more we may move it to another space.

3. Will you be sending us a list of things we need to bring?

"For the participants in the Alchemy & Aromatherapy 2 day class:

Participants are to bring 2-3 essential oils. This is for the last two exercises. 

Only a few drops (at most) will be used, they will be returned."

4. Any pre-requisites?

Nope.

If you have any more questions or need more details please contact me:

roxana <at> illuminatedperfume <dot> com

or use the contact page on my website.

Word Rant Wednesday

Wow, it's been since last January when I last hopped onto my bloody soap box and preached about correct word usage and definitions in the perfume industry. Thus, before another year arrives without me raging against the dying light, let's get on with it!

A few months ago a friend sent me a link to a blog post that referred to an iconic herbalist having challenges with essential oils. I won't mention the name since its not important. After some exploration I learned that some herbalists believe that we don't need essential oils. From what I was able to discern, this particular point of view argues that since a large quantity of plant material is needed to obtain an essential oil, the end product is very concentrated and thus both wasteful and potentially dangerous.

Different perspectives is a good thing and important, after all, there is no "one size fits all" and variety is what makes life interesting. There are many facets to a diamond, the more facets the more light is reflected.

In fact, after doing my own distillations I can resonate a bit with the "idea" that perhaps the plant material might be better utilized in its whole form and that the amount of water needed might be wasteful. This is particularly poignant here in Southern California where we have a sever drought. However, it really depends on what the plant material is, who is distilling and why, what the end result will be for the item, etc. I personally adore the hydrosols that have been obtained from the plant material from my garden, the farmers market and my other nearby growers. The benefits of the hydrosols have been marvelous and the aromatic waters contain chemicals that are not accessible in the raw plant material, as a tincture, infusion of an essentials oil. Each form will have a different imprint, a specific frequency based on the extraction, and each medium has a different use. For example, I might eat fresh spearmint leaves, use then in a tea, combine them with limes for a refreshing lime-aide on a hot day, or perhaps through them into a soup with fresh english peas. In fact, I have done all of those things in the last thirty days. However, that does not detract from the value of spritzing my face with the hydrosol while typing this blog post, using the essential oil on my temples or inhaling the aromatic molecules from my palms to provide a bit of clarity and energize my thinking or adding a tiny bit of the essential oil into an aromatherapy blend or perfume.

Just like we have many types of aromatics in the palette of perfume, we also have many types of extractions and ways to use them. Throughout history the "Still Room", the distillery room, was a big part of daily life containing herbs from the nearby garden.

"Still Rooms were places where freshly collected plants and flowers were utilised in many ways, and these traditions continued well into the Edwardian period. Herbs could be hung upside down in bunches and dried for household and kitchen use, or pounded to a paste and in their simplest form added to lotions and grease or fats to provide ointments, medicines and poultices, or added to water and allowed to quietly “distill” for bottling as herb-rich medicinal waters. These were strained off into bottles and stoppered with a cork or the fore-runner of today’s “clingfilm” – pig or sheep bladders, stretched tightly to produce an air-tight seal.

Honey-rich syrups were made by infusing herbs previously bruised in a mortar and pestle or by making a strong decoction – both methods requiring heating to reduce the liquid, then strained through muslin and honey added to sweeten. Colds and sore throats were often relieved by a rose-hip and lemon balm decoction with honey added to soothe and heal. In a static display it is difficult to show the process without a fire and bubbling potions reducing away, but we have an old copper full of herbs waiting to be infused with a ladle nearby for bottling – and a couple of completed bottles ready for use."1

According to one herbalist, the case against essential oils is that they are too concentrated and thus cause hormone disruption. This is followed by a reference to lavender oil causing young boys grow breasts. Oh my, really? Please follow this link to a post here at the journal from 2008 where I share insights into this very topic.

Ultimately we each will have to find our own truth, independent from what anyone says, that is the main tenet to the Art of Botanical Perfume course.

“If you meet the Buddha, kill him.”

~ Linji

1 From the The Rye Castle Museum blog post The StillRoom in the Tower

Spiritus

I am excited to share that a beautiful, cooper alembic has been sent to me. I have chosen to name the still "Spiritus", since the word was one of the names given to the first distillates which were made with wine, herbs and citrus.

Now that the course is finished I have been getting my ducks in a row to dive into this very ancient and alchemical art.

Auspiciously, my local friend Monika Peters began her own journey in distillation last Autumn, thus I have a "distillation" buddy! On Friday Monika and I decided to distill, thus Sunday I headed out to her home high up in the Santa Monica Mountains overlooking the Pacific ocean to do some with my still. We had planned to do a distillation and also "prepare"my still that day. Unfortunately Monikas hoses were too small for my still, so that task is set for another day...perhaps this week.

For the distillation I had Greg purchase some fresh picked, organic lavender from Fillmore at the Farmers Market on Saturday, which came with a few sprigs of mint and lemon verbena. During twilight I went out into my garden hunting for something to pair the lavender with, I was considering white sage, when the Artemesia californica caught my attention with her new shoots gently waving at me. I asked, "Oh, would you like to offer your new shoots to be converted to spirit?" I felt that the plant indeed wanted to be part of the endeavor. Thus, very early on Sunday morning, amidst the gentle song of the birds I harvested a bundle of the artemesia and gave the plant a small carnelian crystal in return for the new shoots. One thing that I find interesting about this particular plant on my front slope is that it came up on its own, most likely thanks to a bird or coyote droppings.

I then put the lavender bundles and artemesia into a bucket of filtered water while I loaded Spiritus into the car and all my other gear for the day. As I placed the bucket with the plant material into the car I decided to add a quartz crystal in with the plants to help maintain their vitality.

After determining that we would not be using my still we set up Monikas, which she named Grace. We then decided to gather some rosemary from her garden to pair with the lavender and artemesia. Thus we had a trinity of local plants from the Lamiaceae family.

We assembled all the apparatus and then weighed our plant material. Next we covered the plants with water, keeping track of how much water we used. Meanwhile Monika noted all these details and more on a paper in her notebook, including other items like the date, time, location, temperature of the day, if there was wind, etc. It was a perfect day, sunny, 79 degrees with light wind.

Next, at 1:58pm we fired up the stove! Although we could smell the beautiful aromatics as everything began to heat up it was at approximately 2:10pm we saw the first drip of our hydrosol. An incredibly exciting moment!

During the process we tested the ph and noted the aroma and taste of the water. At 3:11 we decided to turn off the heat and end the process, although later on we realized we could have let it go a bit longer.

Hydrosols, also referred to as floral or herbal waters, were originally called "hydro-lats" lat meaning milk, because of the whitish color of the water as it comes out of the still. The yellow colored liquid floating on top of the water is the essential oil.

The process gave us 16 ounces of a beautiful fragrant water with notes of pinene, camphor, lavender and lemon. Once the herbal water sets for a bit and we separate out the essential oil I will go on a little tasting/smelling journey with the hydrosol and see what she shares with me. Meanwhile, the quartz crystal that I added to the herbs ended up going into the distillation with the plants and seems to have disappeared.

All photos Roxana Villa.