Soothing Scents

In today's post I am participating with thirteen bloggers under a united theme organized by fellow colleague Ayala Moriel. Please follow the links at the end of this post to travel to the other participants in this blogorama.

1. Juniper Essential Oil

I came to the world of aromatherapy via essential oil of Juniper. The story of this journey has been repeated often in classes and lectures over the past fourteen years. I was in the midst of a divorce, my daughter Eve was three at the time and the prospect of single motherhood was terrifying. In an effort to rid myself of the psychological trauma as quickly as possible I decided to do as much inner work as possible. The type of work ranged from massage, kinesiology, rebirthing, working with a psychologist, a vision quest and participating in events with women.

A native American sweat lodge with a group of women was one such effort. After the pipe ceremony DeeDee, the friend who had invited me to the sweat, placed four little bottles of essential oil into the center of the circle. She encouraged each of us to anoint ourselves before proceeding to the lodge. I went over and deeply breathed in the aroma from each amber bottle. To my surprise upon inhaling one of the essences I was transported to a vital and fragrant forest where I instantly felt uplifted and fortified. That portal was a bottle of Juniper essential oil.


From then on I began to learn as much as I could about essential oils, ultimately resulting in a certificate in Aromatherapy and becoming a tutor the East West School of Herbal and Aromatic Studies. Soon I switched from teaching illustration classes at Art schools to teaching the benefits of Aromatherapy. Eventually that path widened to include Botanical Perfume.

2. In Fiore

In the year 2002, approximately, I met several individuals interested in botanical natural perfume which have become dear friends. One of them is colleague and mentor Julie Elliot of InFiore. Although I make my own beauty products there are specific items from Julies line that I adore and save for special occasions, like when I need a comfort scent. My two favorites at the moment are Fleur Vibrante, a Jasmine face balm, and the Rose petal "cleansing face and restorative balm" called Lustra. These are heavenly and created by hand from pure, vital ingredients.

3. California Sage

Ever since moving to the Santa Monica Mountains I have developed a fondness for the aroma of the native sages. Many different varieties grace our native garden. I adore how the scent fills the air with their herbal authenticity. Sometimes when we get home at night the scent of sage is the first thing I whiff as I open the car door. I'm looking forward for our plants to get really large so that the fragrance will broadcast throughout the neighborhood and provide food for the honey bees.

4. Tea

Sometimes I feel like I could just live on tea with milk and honey, in fact there are days where I will realize I haven't had anything else. One of my favorites is Herbal Chocolate and Roses from the Tea Garden and Herbal Emporioum. Another favorite is Puerh, lately I have been enjoying the one from Numi, normally I pick it up while in Chinatown. My other tea obsessions are Mate from my homeland Argentina, Vanilla bean from Mighty Leaf and a really good cup of Earl Grey.
Did you know that Earl Grey tea is flavored with essential oil of Bergamot?

5. Cimbalom & Chaparral®

Besides Julies beauty products and my essential oil collection the only other scented items I wear are my own perfumes. The two I most often reach for, especially out of balance, are Cimbalom and Chaparral® in their solid format. I keep both of these in my purse so that I can inhale or put some on whenever the need may arise.

6. The Bath

In aromatherapy the essences most often listed as comfort scents include: Sandalwood, Chamomile, Lavender, any essence in the citrus family but particularly Tangerine and Neroli, Frankincense, Rose and Vetiver. One of the things I do routinely to rsetor balance is to have a bath with one of the above mentioned essential oils or a synergy. My favorite is a combination of Patchouli, Ylang Ylang and Tangerine....euphoric, grounding, relaxing and extremely comforting, especially before bed.

Many thanks to Ayala for inviting me here today, now please journey on to the blogs of the other participants....

BitterGrace Notes
Perfume Shrine
Notes from the Ledge
Scent Hive
The Non Blonde
Perfume in Progress
Katie Puckrik Smells
A Rose Beyond the Thames
I Smell Therefore I Am
Olfactarama
All I Am A Redhead
Savvy Thinker
SmellyBlog

Images: Enchantment and Sierra ©Greg Spalenka, Lustra ©InFiore, Sage photo, Tea cup on parchment and Cimbalom by Roxana Villa.

The Making of the GreenWitch...

“The making of the greenwitch....is an old spring rite...
for greeting summer
and charming a good harvest of crop and fish.”
~ Susan Cooper

The Vernal Equinox arrives this SaturnDay, heralding in the long awaited Spring time. In the old pagan traditions of creating an offering to a divine deity for a plentiful harvest, I have created GreenWitch, as a gift to Tethys.

GreenWitch is a liquid, natural perfume in the Chypre fragrance family. The scent began as a recreation of a traditional Chypre. At the time of the formulation I was listening to the book on tape GreenWitch by Susan Cooper which inspired a different navigational course for the fragrance.


In general I create perfume for me. All my early fragrances: Q, Lyra, Aurora, Chaparral® and Sierra, as well as others: Cimbalom, Rosa, Terrestre, Page47, Peace and Smell Me were formulated first according to a specific topic like "Oak" for example and secondly with the intention to satisfy my own perfume aesthetic. Vera, the Chocolates, Vespertina™ and now GreenWitch have not been developed according to my own personal fragrance aesthetics. Perhaps you will notice how the fragrances are different from the first grouping I mentioned?

GreenWitch began without a name, as a study on a classical Chypre formula from the book "An Introduction to Perfumery." As I sketched and the story worked it's magic on my pagan soul, I veered in the direction of a "green" Chypre and then added specific elements from the story. Last year for the Spring Equinox a small amount of the perfume was released as a trial edition. Read a much more in depth herstory of the creation at this link at Sniffapalooza Magazine.

“Hazel for the framework, Rowan for the Head,
The body is of Hawthorne boughs and Hawthorne blossoms.”
~ Susan Cooper

The first edition is close to the trial version but with more sea notes woven in. I think the sea elements and the evolution of the fragrance are my very favorite aspects of this perfume. Here is how I interpreted the basic formula from "An Introduction to Perfumery" by Tony Curtis and David G. Williams:

• Bergamot Oil, FCF >>> Bergamot, Italy
• Sandalwood Oil, E.I. >>> Sandalwood, Mysore
• Vetivert Oil, Bourbon >>> Vetiver, Haiti
• Oak Moss Absolute, Decol >>> Oak Moss Absolute
• Rose base >>> Monsoon Rose Attar, Geranium Absolute & Rose Otto, Iran
• Jasmin base >>> Jasmine Sambac Absolute
• gamma-methyl ionone >>> Orris Root C02
• Patchouli oil, light >>> Patchouli, Indonesia
• Musk ketone >>> Faux Musk Accord #1
• Clary Sage Oil >>> Clary Sage
• Neroli reconstituted >>> Neroli, Morrocco
  

From there I looked at other formulas like the one in"Perfumes of Yesterday" by David G. Williams. Besides the ingredients listed above the Williams formula also contained:

• Bitter Orange
• Tuberose >>> Tuberose
  
• Clove
• Cassie >>> Cassie Absolute, Egypt
  
• Ambergris >>> Labdanum
  
• Castoreum
• Civet >>> Faux Civet Accord
  
• Tonka Bean >>> Tonka Bean
  
• Vanilla >>> Vanilla C02
  
• Ambrette >>> Ambrette C02
  
• Pimento
• Oppoponax
  

I then evaluated both formulas and created a Chypre Base with:

• Sandalwood, Mysore
• Vetiver, Haiti
• Patchouli, Indonesia
• Oak Moss Absolute

After deciding to move toward a Green and Sea based Chypre I added these elements to my Chypre Base Accord:

• Labdanum Absolute
• Seaweed Absolute
• Celery Seed
• Choya
• Peru Balsam

To further the Green element I added an accord which I call Fern due to it's very green imprint. This accord contains 29 different plant essences including:

• Boronia
• Tuberose
• Lavender
• Violet Leaf
• Mimosa
• Musk Rose
• Parsley Seed
• Pine
• Galbanum Absolute
  
• Ylang Ylang

Faux Musk Accord #1:

• Ambrette C02
  
• Cassie Absolute, Egypt
  
• Africa Stone
• Spikenard
• Cumin
• Beeswax

Once I had my accords I combined varying amounts of each and added:

• Tonka Bean
• Orris C02
• Elemi
• Geranium Absolute
• Jasmin Sambac
• Katafray
• Galbanum Absolute
  
• Parsley
• Lemon
• Bergamot
• Petitgrain, Lime

After this synergy matured I added the tinctures and the Organic grain alcohol.
The tinctures in this edition are: Kelp, Hawthorne flowers, leaves and berries.

Notice that this fragrance contains Africa stone, technically not a botanical ingredient. I used a dilution (tincture) of Africa stone absolute, Procavia capensis. Africa stone is one of those particularly odd ingredients that has made it's way into the palette of natural perfumers. It is the fossilized urine and excrement of a small African mammal called the Rock Hyrax. Before going into a perfume the substance has gone through a number of alchemic transformations. Africa stone adds an animalic quality to a natural perfume, or in this case an accord. In GreenWitch the ingredient is barely in the perfume since there is minimal amounts of the Faux Musk Accord, however, I wanted to let you all know that it is there.


Once the fragrance was solved it was time to decide on the color harmony. Green was the obvious choice, however what shade of green? Q and Sierra already had the two greens in the palette, what to do!? With the help of my mother Martha and my little maiden Eve, we decided on the pastel tone of teal because it "felt" most appropriate to GreenWitch. The photo below is of Eve, which she took using her camera remote.


From there Martha created a sample for the top of the pouch, which resembles the rolling waves of the ocean. The little star fish charms were chosen last year while in downtown Los Angeles.


The illumnator of our perfumes, Master Gregorio, is developing a new image for GreenWitch. He has been quite busy with Artist As Brand thus the illumination may not be ready for SaturnDays debut. We shall see, please hold a strong intention that it may manifest. In the meantime there are plenty of other images that will suffice, including this one pictured below.


Please return to this journal on Saturday when friends join me for another blogorama event with their impressions of the first edition. In the meantime...Watch for the GreenWitch!


Photos and images ©Roxana Villa, ©Eve Neuhart and ©Greg Spalenka.

Wandering Wonderland Winners

Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:
Thus slowly, one by one,
Its quaint events were hammered out —
And now our tale is done
And home we steer, a merry crew,
Beneath the setting sun.
~ Lewis Carroll

Here I am...FINALLY...I think I must have fallen through yet another wormhole, I mean rabbit hole, so sorry! In either case, I have five little sample vials of Smell Me here in my pocket for the winners of the Wandering Wonderland game.

Ah, but, first, the correct answers were:

Helg at Perfume Shrine = Cheshire Cat
Indie Perfumes = White Rabbit
Beth at Windsphere Witch = Caterpillar
Tom at Perfume Smellin' Things = Hatter
Roxana of Illuminated Perfume = Alice

The winners:

Queen of Spade = Holly
Jack of Spade = Lisa
Queen of Clubs = Denise
Jack of Hearts = Anatole
Queen of Hearts = Angie

Thank you to every person who stopped by and participated, I am so grateful to the bloggers who contributed their time, wit and words as well as each of YOU.