The alchemical trinity of Chaparral

The perfume Chaparral is not a reference to the creosote bush, Larrea tridentata, which sometimes goes by many name chaparral, as well as greasewood and la gobernadora. I named the fragrance after the California biome distinguished by wet winters, hot summers and drought-tolerant shrub land. This biome is also found in the Mediterranean, South America, Australia and South Africa. The word chaparral comes from the Portuguese and Spanish word “chaparro" meaning evergreen oak shrub land.

Back in 2006, when Chaparral was conceived and launched, my intention was to bring awareness to this community of plants which are very undervalued in Los Angeles where residents opt for pesticide and water hungry lawns and non native palm trees, rather than the local sages, artemisias, oaks, etc. 

In creating the perfume Chaparral®, I weaved together my love and commitment to the indigenous plants of California with skills in aromatic plant preparation and the artistry of perfume formulation.

“Art arises when the secret vision of the artist

and the manifestation of nature

agree to find new shapes.”

~ Kahlil Gibran

My husband, Greg Spalenka states that there are three main components of great art which applies to the full spectrum of the sensory realm including visual, auditory, culinary and olfactory orchestrations.

He adheres to these three components as a trinity of "Mind, Body and Spirit":

Mind; the idea and/or concept

Body; representing the materials

Spirit; the love, passion, integrity and/or soul nature

In alchemy the trinity is Sulfur, Mercury, and Salt, code words for what is also referred to as "Soul, Spirit, and Body"

Sulfur = Soul = Consciousness 

Mercury = Spirit  = Mind

Salt = Body  = Mineral

So if we go back to Greg's trinity, I have overlayed Greg's trinity with that of alchemy in this way, substituting Greg's word Spirit for Soul/Love.

Mind; the idea and/or concept / Mercury = Spirit

Body; representing the materials / Salt = Body

Soul/Love, passion, integrity and/or soul nature / Sulfur = Soul, Consciousness

All these components, working together at a high level of sophistication and awareness, create a synergy, where each component becomes more than the sum of its parts.

In perfume the mind aspect (Mercury) is the concept that the fragrance is built on, encompassing much more than a scent based on a fragrance family or type. The body aspect (Salt) is made of the materials contained within the perfume, the artist’s palette. Soul (Sulphur) is the burning passion of your creation, this is where the true artist weaves their own authenticity into the constructed artwork using their consciousness. Each is important and is required for the finished art to transcend the ordinary, to reach the heights of the sublime.

Over the last twenty years I have come to keen realizations regarding California natives and their value. The journey beginning with guided instructional walks led by herbalist David Crow back in the 90's when he would lead nature walks in the Santa Monica Mountains. Davids introduction than deepened with lessons from communicating with the mighty Oaks on my property and its surroundings, when we lived in the Santa Monica Mountains.

The California native Coastal live oak was the one who spoke to me and revealed the value of native plants just as I began organizing my community to protect four large trees on an lot next to us. In an attempt to secure the safety of the trees I created a perfume devoted to them. The perfume is called “Q” for Quercus agrifolia and was the first in a series titled Californica.

The second perfume in the series, Chaparral® was birthed in October 2006 when I was researching incense. Incense was used by a variety of cultures depending on the plant material in their particular region. The indigenous people of California use the sacred white sage, Salvia apiana, to clear a space or fumigate an individual. I chose to create an incense themed perfume devoted to the California indigenous people based on the plants of the area.

The trinity mentioned above works in Chaparral like this:

Mind/Concept | Mercury/Spirit: The native plants of California, the chaparral.

Soul/Love: The soul nature of this perfume is expressed through the mindful harvesting and preparation of the plant material. The fragrance is created by hand with an intention to expand awareness of native plants.

Body/Material: actual, vital plant material used in tinctures and essential oils to represent an “authentic” fragrance of the regions native plants.

California native plants add tremendous value to a California garden including: authenticity to a landscape design, low water needs, benefits to wildlife habitat, increased biodiversity, and the ability of these plants, particularly the Coastal Live oak, to sequester carbon. Learn more about the chaparral at the website for the California Chaparral Institute.

Related links here at the journal:

Restoring the Woodland

California Dreaming

The Shadow

Medicine Wheel

How to Make a Plant Infusion

A plant infused oil, called an infusion, is a process used to extract properties from a plant matter which is sometimes referred to as our Prima materia. In plant fragrance making and aromatherapy we use infusions for salves, solid perfume and oil bases.

First thing to consider is your end purpose, what is the intention of your herbal oil? Is it scent, therapeutics, flavor, magic, color? If you are not quite sure of an intention and just want to experiment, than let yourself be guided by the plant that presents itself to you, it may be in a dream, from your morning pages or perhaps witnessing a plant waving to you.

For making infusions you can use either fresh or dried material. If fresh make sure your material is completely free of moisture by placing the plant matter on or between paper towels, tying up bundles and hanging them upside down from a rafter or by laying them out on a screen. Depending on the climate where you live, allow the plant matter to wilt for approximately 5-8 hours or more,

If using plant matter that is already dried double your quantity.

PLANT INFUSED OIL

There are just two basic ingredients to creating an infusion: plants + carrier oil. It is important to consider your end result when selecting the carrier oil. For example if its for flavor than an organic extra virgin, cold pressed olive oil well be perfect. For a perfume, that option may not be the best because of the scent, thus I would suggest jojoba oil, which is actually a wax and does not go rancid.

Other options:
A 'preservative' for your infusion such as benzoin or Vitamin E Oil

Supplies:
Glass jar with airtight lid or canning jar
Muslim clothe
White wine or a high proof alcohol

Directions:

Step 1: If using leaves make sure to remove wood and hard stems, unless you want those as part of the infusion. With flowers use the 'petals', not the inner regions such as calyx. In the photo below, after drying my sage I removed the leaves from the stems.

I don't worry too much about follow a specific formula, I am more concerned with documenting what I am doing so that when I go to make it again I can either follow exactly what I did or make adjustments depending on past results.

Here is a basic formula if you want guidelines:
15 gm dried herbs or 30 gm fresh herb
1 cup oil

Step 2: Place your plant matter in a glass jar, then pour oil over them, taking care that all of your plant material is covered. Cap with a tightly fitting lid. To help breakdown your plant material add 1 tablespoon of white wine or a high proof alcohol.

Step 3: Leave the jar in the sun, some individuals move the jar in the evening to warm spot. I like to leave mine in the window to observe the night energies which include stars and moon. The length of the process varies with each material, check in on it after for 2 weeks to see if it is to your liking.

Step 4: Remove the top and strain the oil. If you feel you would like it stronger then repeat the process using your infusion as the oil.

If you used a canning jar, remove the top, pop out the inner metal circle, layer the top of the jar with muslin, attach the outer screw rim of your the lid and strain your oil.

There are many other tricks of the trade and ways of working, for example you could plan your infusions according to astrology, if using flowers replacing them every few days is the best way to get a strong scent. The main thing is to do it and learn each time.

Hydro+sol

Hydro meaning water and sol meaning solution, the term hydrosol is the aromatic water that carries over the essential oil during the process of distillation. In some instances the end product is the hydrosol, the condensate water produced during a plant distillation, while in others the hydrosol is a by-product of the distillation of plant matter to obtain essential oil. This fragrant water is bursting with similar aromatherapeutic affects as the essential oil counterpart but in a water soluble format that is much more subtle.

Hydrosols have many names including distillate water, floral water, plant water and hydrolat, lat referring to the transparent milky color of the water as it initially comes out of the still. In some instances words such as floral or plant water may not be a hydrosol but a water with added scent material.

During the distillation process plant matter gently imprints the water with its molecular trace particles resulting in a fragrant water. Referred to as "waters of life" in the past, hydrosols are considered a lost art that are now circling back as a revolutionary new form of aromatherapy. The distillates have been termed as “the soul of the plant”, with the ability to transmit non-verbal messages, bypassing the thinking mind.

I distill hydrosols with a heart-fulness that begins when harvesting the material throughout the entire process to bottling. I use both a cooper and glass still, depending on the time of year and availability of plant matter.

Hydrosols contain essential oil molecules which help preserve them and in turn offers many of the benefits of the essential oil. I use them for skin care as toners, room & body misters, perfume,  deodorant and combining with other ingredients to make eco friendly cleaners, facial masks, drinks or for flavoring. Since hydrosols have a cooling quality and are said to reduce inflammation, they are especially useful in hot weather, when someone has a fever and when heat rises in the body, such as a hot flash.

In stock at the moment, click here to my website.

Santa Fe Pinon & Santa Monica Mountain White Sage, the word Santa means Holy in Spanish, these are indeed holy, actually “divine” is a better word.

Related posts: Elixir of Heaven, Jasmine sambac Hydrosol

The Golden Cloak of Autumn Arrives to Santa Fe

A few of the sign posts signaling the arrival of Autumn here in Santa Fe, New Mexico have been sighted. We begin with a flowering native commonly referred to as Rabbitbrush, Chamisa, and Rubber Rabbitbrush,  the latin is Ericameria nauseous and/or Chrysothamnus nauseous.

Chamisa

Above: Chamisa in June

I find Chamisa particularly interesting to watch through the seasons. In early Spring the little, elongated leaves begin to emerge with a gorgeous sage/teal color which stays through Monsoon season until late Summer when you start to see the golden yellow flower pods. In late August early September the flowers begin to open with the landscape around Santa Fe turning gold.

Above: Chamisa in August 2019

Above: Chamisa at the end of her bloom cycle September 2017

Chamisa is a drought tolerant, perennial with great value to the pollinators and animals that browse and forage. The leaves, flowers and seeds are all food sources as well as a source of shelter for small animals, hence the name rabbitbrush.

I've witnessed chamisa to be quite tolerant in the harsh desert climate where water can be scarce while the heat and wind intense. Another lovely feature of chamisa is that it provides us with a hydrosol and essential oil.

Cholla

Above: Cholla, April 2019

Above: Cholla, September 2019

The cholla (pronounced "choy-ah") cactus, also called cane, jumping and walkingstick cactus (Cylindropuntia imbricata), is another one with variety through the seasons. From my observation, in general, the fruits begin to turn yellow gold in late Summer/early Autumn and maintain this hue almost right up until May when the cholla seems to awaken with a very short window of spectacular magenta flowers. There is some variation from plant to plant, as I have seen some of the stalks go to seed and some of the fruits dry up. This is one that I am still getting to know, and as you may recall helped in bringin forward the Perfumed Bestiary series.

I've been told that The Shed in downtown Santa Fe, cooks with the fruits of cholla.

Above: Cholla, May 2019

Above: Cholla, Late June 2019

Opuntia

Our other local cactus is the Opuntia, commonly known as Prickly Pear. The fruit is the part called the prickly pear as well as tuna, sabra, nopal (paddle, plural nopales) from the Nahuatl word nōpalli for the pads, or nostle, from the Nahuatl word nōchtli for the fruit; or paddle cactus.1

Above: Opuntia, June 2019

The fruit of the opuntia is edible, another feature of the plant is that the insect is extremely valuable in the plant dye industry. Although cactus plants exist in many parts of our Earth they native to the Americas.

This beauty comes in many colors and has a cycle which is not quite as striking through the four points of the season wheel. Below is the peach colored blossom from June with of photo of how it looks now in September.

Above: Peach Opuntia, September 2019

I've heard that besides the cochineal that live on the plant, the fruits can also be used for plant dye, thus I will be mindfully gather them and doing some tests.

Above: Juniper berries, September 2019

There are many other plants that thrive in this high desert landscape, like the pinon, juniper, asters, etc. which I will share as I continue to learn, study and communicate with them.

1 Wikipedia

12th year Anniversary

I've been so swamped between the move to another house, the spa-cation and getting prepared for the Santa Fe Art Tour at the perfumery that I completely forgot about the 12th anniversary of launching Roxana Illuminated Perfume, ugh!

Back in February of 2007 I was contacted by Sandy Messori to be a presenter at the Ojai Valley Lavender Festival. As you can imagine I felt extremely honored considering some of the other speakers were luminaries in the aromatherapy community, like Suzanne Catty & Michael Scholes. Along with presenting I was offered a booth to sell my products.

At the time I had just started coming out of my shell as a "perfumer", even though I had already been teaching, creating my botanical perfumes and custom fragrances for clients. The invitation gave me the impetus to get my branding and a website together, which launched on the day of the event June 16, 2007. You can read a little bit about it here at the journal.

As a gift to you I am offering 25% off the round tins of Vera (pictured above). This lavender perfume was created specifically for the Ojai Lavender Festival to be a reflection of the landscape, it is complex yet simple with notes ranging from lavender, sage, sun-kissed skin, honey and resin. Use coupon code VERA at the illuminated perfume website, or come pick it up at the perfumery.

Here are a few testimonials I uncovered...

"This perfume has redefined lavender for me. It has built it into a scent that is stunning in its complexity; that is both very natural and very feminine in a sophisticated way. This is one little luxury that I hope never to be without again."

~ Customer of Vera liquid flacon

"Lavender is one of my favorite flowers and scents, and this smells exactly like the real thing, not heavy or overpowering at all like those soap and bath products! Thank you so much!"

~ Customer of Vera solid perfume

"I love that you make perfumes I can wear without getting a rash. I love the heavenly scents and I'm thrilled with the extra solid samples you included! Thank you!"

~ Customer of Vera liquid perfume flacon

"Starts as a herbal-y lavender then dries down to soft resins. Exquisite."

~ Customer of Vera solid perfume

"Absolutely beautiful perfumes. As well as smelling good, I love how each seems to be imbued with intention to me; Sierra is joyful, Q is grounding and Vera gives a feeling of clarity."

~ Grace

"Thanks, Roxana! It smells wonderful ~ as per the words of my fiancee. :)"

~ Fireman, Vera liquid for his girl

I LOVE the VERA it has a wonderfully complex scent,

and the "sun kissed skin" note is very sensual!

~ Customer of Vera solid perfume

"This is my favorite stuff in the whole world. "

~ Customer of Vera liquid falcon

"I am wearing this right now. Seeing how Vera is my favorite thing in the world, of course I love it. Love, love, love it."

~ Customer of Vera solid perfume compact

"The depth of this fragrance is amazing. Lavender has a very open, honest fragrance, but Vera is so much more. It is open and subtle at the same time. I love wearing it.

Thank you so much for creating this wonderful fragrance."

~ Customer of Vera liquid vial

Aroma, Alchemy and Medicine of the Soul in Words and Images

Last Thursday (I can hardly believe its been a week already!) Cathy Skipper and Florian Birkmayer arrived in Los Angeles from Albuquerque for the transformative Alchemy and Medicine of the Soul classes and experiences beginning with the Panel on Alchemy in Cypress Park.

Originally we had set up the discussion to take place at a friends home in Woodland Hills, but as the RSVP's continued to mount I began searching for a new location. Out of the blue, we had a very generous offer via e-mail from Meike Kopp informing me that we could use her gorgeous space as a venue. Although we lost many attendees from the San Fernando Valley stretching up to Ojai, we gained the same amount back and also had a glorious, large open space which we took advantage to film the event. As soon as the footage has been edited I will share it here at the journal.

The next day the Hydrosol Distillation began at 3pm up on the warm, sunny plateau of Topanga. It was an absolutely gorgeous day which started off with taking Cathy and Florian over to visit the perfumery, lunch at Blue Table, a stop at the house to cut the white sage and then hauling all the gear up the mountain and setting up.

Auspiciously the flowering Salvia apiana, white sage, from my garden had already been pollinated by the honey bees. This was confirmed by Cathy as she used her magnifier to examine the botany of a flower. So, besides her wand, a little medicine bag with crystal offerings for plants and her journal Cathy also has her magnifier at the ready!

"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate."

Saturday and Sunday was the two day workshop, what I consider the main course of the aromatic venue. Each morning everyone arrived and squeezed into the teaching space of the perfumery where Florian lectured about Jung, our collective imagination and shared his point of view on the Alchemical processes as a tool to recognize and move through emotional challenges. Cathy interjected regularly adding her strong intuitive approach and her own personal stories of transformation.

On Sunday we finished traversing all the alchemical processes with some work on our shadow, culminating in creating a blend and a group photo.

Monday evening was the dessert, featuring an encounter of the aromatic kind with sipping gorgeous and very diverse hydrosols. As we inhaled and sipped the high vibrational plant waters we each tuned into the message shared with each of us through the elixir.

The five days were a magical mystery ride with Cathy and Florian as the chauffeurs in partnership with the botanical intelligence from the plant kingdom. Personally, I was able to re-visit work in a very similar vein as an initiate in a Celtic Shaman group. The facilitator, Kaitryne, also had a Jungian psychology background which she had woven with Celtic & Native American shamanistic concepts. Thus there was quite a bit of overlap as well as concepts I had introduced with The Tree Of Life presentation at Bastyr.

Next stop for Cathy and Florian is teaching the two day workshop in Seattle followed by returning to New Mexico to finish up their online course.

Anxiety

Yestarday I had a friend mention that she uses lavender for dealing with anxiety and that she wished she hadn't left her bottle of lavender essential oil at home because it was a stressful day. Gee, what a bummer I thought. Since this freind works in the Whizin Atrium where my perfumery is, I told her I had made a perfume using three lavenders from Ojai combined with three from France and that I would bring her over a little tub.

When I went back upstairs I prepared a little "Anxiety Relief "solid sample pack of three which included Vera (lavender & sage, master healers), Lyra (floral, feminine, soothing and relaxing) + Terrestre (earthy, grounding with some rose for the heart).

It seems that anxiety is quite a popular theme the last few weeks, at least here in the United States of Surrealism! Not only our many of us concerend about the future of "the land of the free" but many are having some sort of crisis financially, spiritually or an awakening bekoning them to live their life in a different manner.

The stress is likely to be compounded for those who don't spend much time in nature and or get their information from the corrupt media that is intent of fueling fear. Fueling fear was a manipulation tactic used during the Hitler regime as a means to control people. When people are in fear they are much easier to control.

An article I read last year in the National Institute of Health cited that anxiety disorders affect 18 percent of the adult population of the United States, or about 40 million people.

So, lets go over a few things that can facilitate some relief, beginning with dumping the news!

1. Breathing

When stress or fear enters our arena our breath will become shallow, shift to a rapid pace that feels like its going to jump out of our mouths or stop all together.

Awareness of our breath in those situations is the number one item to become conscious of. Number two is centering ourselves to harness our power and not only control the breath but also our emotional state. I see this as taming the AIR element that has gone awry. Breathing and out of control thoughts are like a tornado thrashing through our village. We want to command our inner cowboy/girl to lasso that tornado and use it later for something that will serve us, not destruction.

2. Daily Acts

Creating daily acts that nurture our spirit is critical. The most simple are getting in nature. If at all possible remove your shoes and walk or lie on the grass or the earth....or head to the ocean side.

3. Use authentic essential oils and essential oil rich products.

Fragrance oils ARE NOT essential oils! Essential oils come from plants, fragrance oils are derived from petroc-hemicals and or a combination of petro-chems and byproducts of other industries. I believe the current misconception between "fragrance oils" and "essential oils" might be from the usage of the term oil.

Many studies can scientifically validate essential oils, this one, indicates lavender reduces the human body’s stress response. While teaching aromatherapy to massage students in the 1990s I shared Hippocrates message, which I still do today "The way to health is to have a scented massage and an aromatic bath every day." That can be as simple as putting your feet in a bucket of warm water with a bit of salt and 8 drops of essential oil.

Here is another study that finds massage with lavender has the ability to lower blood pressure associated with stress.

4. Laughter

Spend time with people that make you laugh, if there aren't any around you then go out and find them! In easy way to do that is go to a Comedy Club, if that's not an option than find a copy of the Sunday comics. Don't bother with the rest of the newspaper, since that is basically fear based, depressing or makes us wish we made more money so we can buy more stuff we don't need.

5. Get lost in a good story that is uplifting and inspiring

My daughter and I have been watching The Crown on Netflix. Not only is this series really well written and beautiful but it always makes me feel good. There are lots of other great series out, in fact, loads of them. However, not many leave you feeling good. The other Netflix series I highly recommend is Chefs Table.

For more about stress relief check out this post here at the journal from December back in 2007!
More http://www.treehugger.com/health/8-natural-remedies-anxiety.html

Vera Solid Natural Perfume is Back!

Three different lavenders and white sage grown and distilled in Ojai are combined with orange blossom and thirty one other plant essences with two of my own complex chords go into Vera. The labyrinthine orchestration results in a sparkling, sunny, uplifting yet calming pure fume, evocative of the location in Southern California where the inspiration began.

Breath deep, connect to the land, the sunshine, the air, the plants, the honey bees—all guides to our inner sanctum of knowing and peace.

Read more about Vera at these posts here at the journal

The liquid and Eau de Parfum version of Vera is coming along with other fragrances that are sold out and the intoxicating Summer jasmine perfume. I also have To Bee and Blanc as an Eau de Parfum to unveil, which by the way, are fabulous layered over each other. The synergy gives conveys a deep, rich honey note.

I'm a presenter, once again, at the NAHA Beyond Aromatics conference. Yay! This time, the happening takes place at the University of Utah toward the end of October. Come join me and this dynamic community.

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.