I had to decant sample vials of Rosemary today and something about its greenish brown gummy character (the absolute is like a olive green hunk of herbaceous fudge) made me wonder how it would behave with chocolate, to sort of play up the fudgy weirdness, and would a particularly dusty and greenish-smell patchouli be an [...]
Entries Tagged 'mandrake apothecary' ↓
rosemary revisited
June 15th, 2008 — , Chocolate, Natural Aromatics, lavender, mandrake apothecary, rosemary from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
the power of copal and myrrh
June 9th, 2008 — , Myrrh, Natural Aromatics, Ofrenda, Perfume, abies grandis, copal, frankincense, mandrake apothecary from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
I poured and packed three bottles of Ofrenda this morning, for an order. This is one that I had to make an emergency batch of a couple months ago, because it looked like I’d be running out in June (and lo… it happened).
It’s a bit strange to describe, but I feel like I’m working in [...]
appreciating roses right now
June 6th, 2008 — , Medea, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, Rose, mandrake apothecary from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
I had to make up another batch of Medea some weeks ago, and finally filtered it yesterday afternoon, after work. There is something very guttural and yet refined about how the damask rose plays off of pink lotus, ginger lily, and carnation. The touch of ambrette in the base (not a predominant note, so I [...]
explorations of Pogostemon cablin
May 29th, 2008 — , Natural Aromatics, Patchouli, mandrake apothecary from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
I have a 16 oz bottle of dark patchouli from India that I’ve been hoarding for about six years. Aside from it making the opening of the bottle a bit tarry over time, it has aged into something really special. Golden, fruity, contemplative, green, herbaceous, dusty, sweet freshly-turned soil. All at once.
So [...]
co-distills and attars rock
May 21st, 2008 — , Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, attar, co-distillation, mandrake apothecary, rosa bourbonia, ruh khus, vetiver from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
I’ve been playing with attars in a very limited fashion for some years now. There are the obvious tonalities like mitti (baked earth distilled into sandalwood), gulhina (henna into same), motia (jasmine sambac into same), et al.
But you can get attars (I think these are technically co-distills) in vetiver as well. My current favorite is [...]
co-distills and attars rock
May 21st, 2008 — , Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, attar, co-distillation, mandrake apothecary, rosa bourbonia, ruh khus, vetiver from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
I’ve been playing with attars in a very limited fashion for some years now. There are the obvious tonalities like mitti (baked earth distilled into sandalwood), gulhina (henna into same), motia (jasmine sambac into same), et al.
But you can get attars (I think these are technically co-distills) in vetiver as well. My current favorite is [...]
Saffron
May 20th, 2008 — , Manniche, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, Saffron, arctander, mandrake apothecary from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
From Lise Manniche (Sacred Luxuries), “…The well-known flower pistils of Crocus sativus relate to Egypt only as far as saffron is an ingredient in the kyphi recipe provided by Galen. This presumably occurred because saffron was much loved in the classical world for its scent as well as its colour. It was known in the [...]
ginger on my mind
May 12th, 2008 — , Ginger, Ignis, Natural Perfumery, Perfume, mandrake apothecary, paracelsus from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
When I picture a fire-breathing dragon, I tend to think of ginger from several angles. Ginger is sweetness, spice, sharp edges that dull into almost cool surfaces, warmth, and fire in the belly. And it’s one of those aromatics that is unmistakeable, much like cinnamon cannot be mistaken for any other essence.
And I worked with [...]
Musk rose (hard to find, but worth it)
May 11th, 2008 — , Circe, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, mandrake apothecary, musk rose, phytol from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
I was talking about using blue lotus phytol, a few posts down…
I also happen to have a small (okay, hoarded) quantity of musk rose phytol. Rosa moschatus.
Because Circe is almost running low, I broke it out today to use in that perfume. Musk rose is like rose petal preserves. But it’s not marmalade like a [...]
Hekate is back!
May 8th, 2008 — , Perfume Bloggers, blue lotus, botanical perfumery, mandrake apothecary from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
It’s been on the list of ‘things to do’ for a couple months, but Hekate is finally back in the lineup alongside Demeter.
I’m hoping to add an additional unguent or eau de parfum with blue lotus as a primary note in coming months. I particularly like what it does with rose and spikenard in [...]
Hemera, the last of the summer flowers
October 10th, 2007 — , Natural Perfumery, News, Perfume, mandrake apothecary from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
Hemera is the primordial goddess of the day, and Nyx (primordial goddess of night) is her mother.
Her perfume is built around a heart accord of tuberose and violet leaf, bolstered by ambrette seed, and exalted by neroli and petitgrain. This scent is reminiscent of the sensory overload that is the overgrown and wild summer flower [...]
Damascena, Centifolia, Bourbonia, Moschatus, and how!
June 25th, 2007 — , Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, Perfume, mandrake apothecary from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
May had me in the planning stages of a project based around roses, and June has seen that to completion, sort of. We’re still blending and reblending and aging and tweaking, but I think that the rosy end of the tunnel is approaching!
The rose is one of the longest-cultivated flowers. It is traditionally [...]
Continue reading → Damascena, Centifolia, Bourbonia, Moschatus, and how!