Mind & Heart Expansion

Lisa Camasi, of the Botanical Perfume Yahoo Group, has challenged all of us on the list. She is encouraging us to consider options to the cultural mind set of consumption on the day after Thanksgiving. Here is a list of her ideas:

1. Instead of consuming, create. Make something. Make a perfume, balm, body butter, soap. Knit a scarf, design your holiday card, write a poem, make a holiday collage.

2. Instead of consuming, experience. Take a long walk. Volunteer at a local shelter. Learn a new dance step. Teach a child how to braid a horse's mane, or her own hair. Play flag football with your siblings/cousins/co-workers. Rake your elderly neighbor's yard. Play hide and seek with your cats. Sing to a baby. Hold someone's hand.

3. Instead of consuming on a grand scale, consider consuming a little more consciously and mindfully. Wherever possible, support small businesses, shop locally, buy hand made, Fair Trade, locally grown and locally produced. Encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Do you have more?

In honor of this terrific idea I will be posting a series of recipes to encourage you all to make a botanical item that day.
The first will be for a Bay Rum After shave, or as my friend Shelley says "Bay Yum". I first made this with one of my Aromatherapy teachers when she journeyed out to LA to do a Gift Making Workshop. Since then, this Ray Rum After shave has become a staple in the Gift Making workshops I now teach.

BAY RUM AFTER SHAVE from Jade Shutes of the IDA

Base ingredients:

Nice glass bottle 6oz
Bay leaves
Allspice
Cloves
Rum (preferably Bay Rum or Bacardi)
Purified water
7-10 drops essential oil of Bay laurel

Directions:

1) Fill 1/2 inch of the bottle with cloves and allspice herb - add Bay leaves - leave enough room so that herbs look nice and the rum can cover.
2) Fill 1/2 of the bottle with Rum, other 1/2 with purified water.
3) Add essential oil.
4) Shake.
5) Leave for one week, shaking periodically, to infuse.

Botanical Yahoo Group
East West School for Herbal and Aromatic Studies (formerly The IDA)

Images above ©Roxana Villa

Art, Artists & Inspiration #2

While in NYC we feasted with many of our dear artist friends. Comic con buddy, Donato Giancola arranged a fabulous dinner at the L'Ecole with other Illustration friends including art director Irene Gallo and fellow illustrator John Jude Palencar. To our sublime surprise Shaun Tan, illustrator and author of “The Arrival” joined us as well. We began our meal with small appetizer and continued onto to our five course meal. I must say, that by the third course we were stuffed and wondered how we would manage two more courses. The key was the digestive salad that included a delicious sorbet. It was an evening of divine gastronomics, laughter and creative conversation.

Seated from Right to Left: John Jude Palncar, Irene Gallo, Donato Giancola, Shawn Tan, Greg Spalenka and myself.

Our final evening in NY was spent with Matt and Lisa at a french restaurant called Blue Ribbon. The highlight was seeing Matts short film H20 Uh-Oh, which opened the Live Earth concert in New York and later featured at the Tribeca Film Festival. Stunning and provocative.
From NYC we drove south to Philly. The following morning we walked over to the University of the Arts where Greg had been invited to speak and showcase his award winning, visionary art. The exhibition includes; original paintings, posters and prints spanning 25 years of his career.
Gregs multi-media presentation featured stories from his journalistic work with Mike Tyson and Klaus Kinski along with other adventures along his path as illustrator extra-ordinaire, including his recent work in the films The Ant Bully and The Golden Compass.

The exhibit is up until November 16, 2007
located at the Richard C. Von Hess Illustration Gallery, Anderson Hall at the
University of the Arts located 333 South Broad Street, 7th Floor
Richard C. Von Hess Gallery hours:
Mon - Fri, 10am - 4:30pm
215.717.6240

Donato Giancola
The French Culinary Institute
John Jude Palencar
Shaun Tan
Irene Gallo
Matt Mahurin
Live Earth
Lisa Desimini
Greg Spalenka
University of the Arts

Top image "Inner Cathedral" ©Greg Spalenka, "The Arrival" bookcover ©Shaun Tan, bottom right image "Heart" ©Greg Spalenka.

A mini-personal NY Sniffapalooza

After a rich and intoxicating experience at COSM we traveled uptown via subway for a mini Sniffapolooza. Sniffapalozza is a community of perfume enthusiasts that began in NYC by Karen Dubin and a few perfume lovers. In a very short time it has grown into a mega-community with events spanning the globe. I was unable to attend the Fall Ball in NYC, thus, I decided to take my own self guided tour. We began at Takashimaya, a Japanese department store, on Fifth Ave. between 54th and 55th. A beauty of a store with mouth watering grace on each floor. From there we crossed the street over to Henri Bendel and got hooked at the L'Artisan counter. I was spritzed with their 2007 limited edition Fleur d'Oranger, which is pure Neroli heaven. A delightful fragrance which embodies the heart and soul of the Orange tree, utilizing both the wood and leaves of the tree (Petitgrain) as well as the blossoms. It is uplifting and fresh, yet has little to no evolution. I found the 2006 Fleur de Narcissus much more interesting and complex. I've read that their newest in this line is Iris Pallida, unfortunately they did not have this at Henri Bendel NYC when I was there.
In the botanical perfume world Iris pallida is the Latin name for Orris Root, one of my favorite pure essences. A woody-floral note which is rich and velvety with hints of powder. Last year I created a custom perfume for a client melding a floral chord with Orris and notes of the Sea at the base. It is such a lovely fragrance that I've decided to rework the formula as one of our signature scents.
The staff at Henri Bendel was very generous, especially when I told them I had missed the Sniffapalooza Fall Ball. I left anointed with Fleur d"Oranger, loaded with scent strips and lots of samples.
The following day, our last in NYC, was spent traversing Soho. "So" stands for South and "ho" for Houston...thus "SOuth of HOuston." How transformed I found this area. My very first living space in NYC was a studio walk-up on Elizabeth Street. To my great surprise, Elizabeth Street is now filled with fashionable shops, including Le Labo. Le Labo is a small, laboratory looking niche perfume shop with a store in Grasse as well is on Elizabeth Street. Certainly an interesting concept in perfume stores that looks both old+modern, with it's laboratory style. Around the corner on Lafayette Street is Santa Maria Novella, also known as Lafco. During the LA Sniffa last February I had the opportunity to visit the LA location. The NYC store is much larger and more impressive. Santa Maria Novella dates back to 1612 when the Dominican Republic friars began selling their medicinal and ephemeral products to the public. There is an informative streaming video on their website.
Other scented faire in NY still to be explored is Aedes de Venustas, Bond No. 9, Cb "I Hate Perfume" in Brooklyn and Barneys NY which now carries many niche perfumers.
Sniffapalozza
Takashimaya
Henri Bendel
L"Artisan Parfumeur
Le Labo
Santa Maria Novella/Lafco
Aedes de Venustas
Bond No.9
Cb "I Hate Perfume"
Barneys NY