Perfume Illuminated: Cannabis

In a subtle association with the previous post about Alice's Adventure in Wonderland, Perfume today gets Illuminated with a bit of Cannabis.

Known by a variety of names including Hemp, Cannabis was utilized for thousands years for such things as paper, fiber, textiles, beauty care and more. An interesting time line of the use of Hemp can be found at Hemp House Maui where the versatility of the plant is well documented.

FRAGRANCE

For the natural botanical perfumer there is a steam distilled Hemp, Cannabis sativa, essential oil and a Hemp seed oil as a carrier base.

Hemp seed carrier oil has a medium viscosity with a nutty aroma. It is often employed for the skin, cooking and soap making. The disadvantage of the oil is that the shelf life is only about three months depending on how it is stored. My experience with it has been with deep moisturizing oil treatments for the hair.

The essential oil of Hemp is obtained by the flowers with an herbaceous aroma. I use this essences in Vera, the perfume devoted to Lavender. It pairs well with other aromatics of the meadow and citrus.

This particular essence is not included in any of my perfume books. Since the aroma therapeutic profile has a calming affect the essential oil will work well for a bedtime perfume or linen spray combined with Chamomile, Lavender, Sandalwood and Neroli.

For a conceptual perfume consider pairing with Patchouli as the start of a hippie perfume and add some transformational essences including Frankincense.

FLAVOR: Beth Schreibman Gehring

Please continue reading about Cannabis at the Windesphere Witch blog

Wandering Wonderland

The film adaption of the beloved story, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll releases today. This onscreen version has been done by the ever so creative Tim Burton. Aligned with this several character from the Perfume blogging community have joined together again to present you with some scented fun through Wonderland. In this segment a game has been weaved in providing you dear readers with a chance to win a trial version of a new fragrance I have in the works related to Wonderland. At the bottom of this post please follow the links to each of the blogs participating.

Although I was vaguely familiar with the story of Alice it was when I heard an audio recording presented at the CalTech in Pasadena that I became much more intrigued. The lecture "Parallel Worlds", presented by Michio Kaku, took place in February 2005. Dr. Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist, best-selling author, and co-founder of string field theory. Like Einstein, Dr. Kaku has the ability to explain complex scientific ideas elegantly and easy to understand.


In the talk Parallel Worlds Kaku mentions how one hundred fifty years ago, a British mathematician from Oxford, wrote the first depiction of a wormhole in the english language.The author realized that the people of Victorian England may not accept the idea. Thus, he choose to write his theory as a children's books. The name of this mathematician is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the name of the books is Alice's Adventures Through Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Charles, a lover of parody, word-play and puzzles, changed his name to Lewis Carroll by reversing and transmogrifing his given names.

Lutwidge > Ludovicus > Lewis
Charles > Carolus > Carroll

According to Kaku the looking glass is the Kerr ring. (Side note: LOST fans are you paying attention?) This gets Curiouser and curiouser! If one were to walk through the Kerr ring you may find yourself transported to the other side of the universe, Wonderland perhaps?

Falling throw a rabbit or worm hole is an extraordinary expereince, which I have documented for you as a fragrance. The formula of this liquid botanical perfume has pulled notes from the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

The first scent encountered in the story is that of grass and daisies (Galbanum Co2 and Violet Leaf) followed by the aroma of the earth of (Mitti Attar and Vetiver) with a some Orange Marmalade (Orange). Once arrived the aromatic terrain includes trees (Cedarwood), dry leaves (Patchouli), currants (Black Currant), pepper (Black Pepper), mushroom (Cepes), tea (Tea), butter (Butter), rose, (Rose) and flowerbeds (Jasmine). The primary fragrance note of the new perfume called "Smell me" is a green fragrance with rose at the heart.


GAME: What is the use of a talking about a perfume without smelling it? To be entered to win a sample of "Smell Me" please visit each participating blog and determine which character from the story each blogger has assumed, including my contribution. E-mail your guess to me Roxana(at)IlluminatedPerfume.com. Five winners will be chosen to receive a sample of the first edition trial of the fragrance. The game will end next Thursday at 10pm PST. In the meantime I will send free samples with any orders of $25 or more placed in the next seven days. One gram vials of "Smell Me" are available at my E-shop.

Now, please go deeper into the Rabbit Hole and journey on to visit my friends in Wonderland.
I have no doubt they will delight you with their prose, rhymes and songs. Just be weary as you wonder about, the Queen of Hearts has a tendency to separate the head from the body, perhaps she is related to René Descartes, but that is stuff and nonsense!

Perfume Shrine
Indie Perfumes
The Windesphere Witch
Perfume Smellin' Things

As Noted: Chocolate 1 & 2

In January a list of ingredients and notes was posted here at the journal to explain the distinction between the word "note" in a perfume vs "ingredient". The list also serves those inquiring what is contained within each Illuminated Perfume. The entry is called As Noted and can be located here at this link.

Today's entry is the second part of the original post, illuminating the notes in first and second tier of the Chocolate Solid Natural Perfume series.


Let's begin with the natural base materials:

• Golden Jojoba Seed Oil.
• Organic, unfiltered Beeswax.
• Cocoa Butter.
• Cocoa Powder.
• Theobroma cacao extract from South America.
• Essential Oils, Absolutes, Concretes and C02 extracts primarily from plant matter. The only essences that are not from plants are: Beeswax, Honey, Seashells and Seaweed. I utilize "whole" essences in keeping with the concept of Gaia and Holistic Aromatherapy.
• My own plant infusions.

What I do not use:

• No animal ingredients, nor do I test on animals.
  
• No isolates, as stated above I only use "whole" essence.
• No synthetic fragrances.
• No petrochemicals.
• No parabens.
• No phthalates.
• No artificial colors.

To help broaden knowledge of what botanical perfume, here is a link at this journal outlining some key points: Botanical Perfume: A Comprehensive Definition.


For the aromatic component of each of the Chocolate perfumes I created an accord of essential oils, Co2 extracts and absolutes. A soliflore, meaning one flower in French, is a term used to describe a composed perfume dominated by one single flower, such as Gardenia or Jasmine. These chocolate perfumes are like more a soliflore in that they celebrate one note, but, the main note of chocolate is also combined with other notes such as Rose, Orange, etc.

Roxana Illuminated SOLID Chocolate Perfumes, Tier 1

Figure 1: Noir Deep, dark and mysterious with a strong musk note.

Fragrance family: GOURMAND
Notes: Musk, Chocolate
Main Ingredient: Patchouli

Figure 2: Cerise Succulent cherry weaved with a base of rich chocolate.
Fragrance family: GOURMAND, FRUITY
Notes: Fruit, Chocolate
Main Ingredient: Seabuckthorne

Figure 3: La Forêt A dense conifer forest meets an ocean of chocolate.
Fragrance family: GOURMAND, CONIFER, WOOD
Notes: Fir, Chocolate
Main Ingredient: Spruce

Figure 4: L'Orangerie Mouth watering citrus in a base of rich chocolate.
Fragrance family: GOURMAND, CITRUS
Notes: Orange, Chocolate
Main Ingredient: Orange

Figure 5: Bois de Chocolat Smokey woods and chocolate.
Fragrance family: GOURMAND, WOOD
Notes: Wood, Smoke, Chocolate
Main Ingredients: A variety of Cedarwood and Cypress essences.

Figure 6: Épices Spice, a hint of vanilla and chocolate.
Fragrance family: GOURMAND, SPICE
Notes: Spice, Chocolate and Vanilla
Ingredients include: Coriander, Ginger, Cardamon and Balsam

Praise for the first tier of the Chocolates can be found online here:

Roxana Illuminated SOLID Chocolate Perfumes, Tier 2

The second tier, or phase, of the chocolate perfumes continues with the fusion of cacao with such botanical wonders as Rose, Jasmine, Orange Blossom, Vanilla Orchid Bean and Moss.

Figure 7: Pétales The classic combination of Chocolate and Roses.
Fragrance family: GOURMAND, FLORAL
Notes: Rose, Chocolate
Main Ingredient: Indian Rose Edward

Figure 8: Coeur de Jasmin Rich heart of Jasmine enveloped by Chocolate.
Fragrance family: GOURMAND, FLORAL
Notes: Jasmin, Chocolate
Main Ingredient: Jasmine Sambac and Grandiflorum

Figure 9: Fleurs de Orange A buzz with Orange blossom flowers and honey.
Fragrance family: GOURMAND, FLORAL, CITRUS
Notes: Orange blossoms, Chocolate
Ingredients include: Orange Blossom Absolute, Neroli and Blood Orange

Figure 10: Blanc A milk chocolate truffle featuring the Vanilla Orchid Bean at center stage.
Fragrance family: GOURMAND, VANILLA
Notes: Vanilla Orchid Bean, Chocolate
Main Ingredient: Vanilla Absolute

Figure 11: Chêne A tribute to the mighty and sacred Oak.
Wood, resin, aloeswood and moss.
Fragrance family: GOURMAND, WOOD
Notes: Wood, Resin, Oud, Moss, Chocolate
Ingredients include: Wood, Oud and Lichen


These creamy artisan delicacies are available in a myriad of forms from clustered samples, individual truffles and a variety of box sets. The best place to access all of these is this direct link to the bounty of chocolate natural perfume confections.