A Natural Perfumers Journal

I am preparing to make some more rose beads. I was stoked to see that Mandy Aftel mentions them in her book Essence and Alchemy. Here is what she says about them on pages 196-197 "On feast days, early Christian priests wore garlands of rosebuds or beads made from rose petals, ground and blended with fixatives into an aromatic paste, then rolled into balls and pierced with a needle. The circular form of the rosary suggested eternity and eternal devotion. And perhaps because the rose is associated with the blood of Christ and the purity of the Virgin Mary, the custom caught on. Or maybe it was simply that, warmed in the hands during prayer, the beads released a mesmerizing scent. As Baudelaire recognised, "The rosary is a medium, a vehicle; it is prayer put at everybody's disposal." I make mine entirely from rose petals, orris root and rose hydrosol. I won't give *my* secret for making them away. Mine turn out dark maroon and are very hard. I have only 2 doz

Top Notes Lavender eo (essential oil), juniper berry eo, fir needle eo, corriander eo, mandarin eo, elemi eo, galbanum eo, sweet orange eo, black pepper eo, bergamot eo, lime eo, lemon eo, lavandin abrialis, basil eo, blood orange eo, grapefruit eo, rosewood eo, pink grapefruit eo, ginger eo, cinnamon eo, tangerine eo, carrot seed eo, wild orange eo, bitter orange eo, anise seed eo, spikenard eo, tarragon eo, cedarwood eo. pandanus green cognac eo tagate oil Egypt Middle notes Chamomile blue eo, lavender absolute, melissa eo, neroli eo, turkish rose absolute, clarysage eo, myrtle eo, lemon myrtle, pink lotus absolute, rose otto, cardamom absolute, immortelle eo, orange blossom absolute, violet leaf absolute, cardamom absolute, amyris eo, bay rum eo, jasmine grandaflorum, yarrow eo, jasmine sambac absolute, sweet marjoram eo, geranium eo, ylang ylang complete, hyssop eo, listea may chang eo, clove absolute, jasmine concrete, ylang ylang concrete, boronia absolute. Nutmeg ab

I am having a rest day today, getting ready for blending the White Witch Mystery juice. One of my favourite materials being used in this blend, is that of orris root butter. Orris root is the root of the sweet flag, grown mainly in southern Europe: Iris germanica, Iris florentina, and Iris pallida. Once important in western herbal medicine, it is now used mainly as a fixative and base note in perfumery. Orris root must generally be hung and aged for 5 years before it can be used for perfumery. Oil of Orris is known commercially as Orris Butter and is obtained by distilling powdered Orris root with steam, has an intense and extremely delicate odour of the fresh Violet and commands a high price. Orris has the power of strengthening the odour of other fragrant bodies and is used as a fixative in perfumery. The odorous constituent of oil of Orris is a liquid ketone named Irone, to which the violet-like odour is due. It is the presence of this principle in the rhizome that has long led

Tonight I about to embark on a blend I have already formulated, one of the ingredients in the blend is ambergris tincture. Now ambergris for those of you who have never heard of it, is expelled from the stomach of the sperm whale. At first it has a strong fecal smell and would not be suitable for perfumery. However after years of floating on the sea, and being exposed to the elements it begins to harden and develop an odour which is sweet and animalistic. To my nose ambergris has a haunting smell which is strangely provocative. Ambergris is highly sought after and is very expensive. Now wish me luck as I head in to my studio, my heart is pounding yet again...

Who would have thought that sourcing clove absolute would prove so difficult. It's easy to find clove essential oil, or clove CO2 but the absolute seems to be a different matter. I need it to proceed with my next perfume. With the plastic spoon episode I had to throw away a whole batch of juice. Clove is usually only used in very small amounts, but it's absence would be like...well leaving garlic out of the pasta sauce. The juice I threw away had 1.5mls of clove in it...such a small amount is a lot when it comes to clove absolute. What does clove absolute smell like, it's warm, sweet and spicy, the absolute is softer than the essential oil, to my nose anyway. I did hear back from two people yesterday, both in the US. So will I get it in time? We shall see. Ruth

OK, I was all set to go, I have my area so nice and tidy, and I have everybody told to stop humming or talking to me, in case I loose count. How many drops of this and that... my heart is beating in my chest. I take down the essential oils, absolutes and concretes on my list. I line them up. I re-check my calculations. Every thing is ready... I measure in the first material, carefully counting the drops, as I can't find my measuring spoon, or the graduated syrynge. I have to count 80 drops...the first one is easy it's an essential oil, drops quickly and evenly from the pippette. Then I pick up one of my favourites...vanilla absolute...thick, sweet, black... that's when trouble starts... I start to count the drops from the pippette...that one looks like it's two drops, that one looks like it's one drop, then in desperation I count each drop as two. I realise that I am playing a guessing game...not good. Breath Deeply...

This is the first day of my New Journal. Later today I plan to put together 40mls of each of my new perfumes, to use in a my solid perfume sticks. I have a lot of other stuff to do first and I want to be calm and really centre myself before I start so I will wait till this evening and all the kids are in bed. I have been getting ready for this for the last three days. I am always nervous before I start blending. It's a kind of excited nervousness, like butterflies in my tummy. Maybe as I get more familiar with my work the nervousness won't happen so bad. It's the very idea that I am pouring 20mls of pink lotus into a beaker to mix with some cocoa absolute and some ambergris, and I am thinking, "OH my! What if I mess up!" I double and treble check my calculations to make sure, I know I can't take it back once it is mixed in. And as yet I don't know if it's possible to "fix" a mistake! Anyway, got to go now, and make a meal for the famil