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Perfect Harmony VELVET SKIN Natural Aromatic Body Oil |
US $19.99 | Sale |
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Natural Edge Live Edge Slab Aromatic Red Cedar Lumber |
US $19.99 | Sale |
July 9th, 2008 — , Anya McCoy, Natural Aromatics, artisans, distillation, mandy aftel, microgrants, natural perfumers guild, sustainable agriculture from Natural Perfumers Guild @ *A Natural Perfumers Guild
photo of women carrying kewda pandanus blossoms to distillery in Indiaphoto courtesy Christopher McMillan http://whitelotus.smugmug.com/Anya McCoy, President of the Natural Perfumers Guild is happy to announce that a percentage of Guild membership fees…
Related StoresContinue reading → The Natural Perfumers Guild Establishes Grant Program
July 8th, 2008 — , Natural Aromatics, Sierra Nevada, mountains, olfaction, scent detection from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
I have not read any of the newest tomes on scent detection, and there are several in circulation at the moment. I’ve read Luca Turin’s ‘Secret of Scent’ and have to be honest and say that while I find the study of smell fascinating, this book left me w…
Related StoresJuly 7th, 2008 — , Education, Natural Aromatics, advertising, antiquarian perfumery, article from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
Probably one of the most difficult tasks a self-trained perfumer has before them ~ all that research.It isn’t enough to read the right books or the books that someone who seems more experienced recommends. Bibliographies in those books are often recomm…
Related StoresJuly 7th, 2008 — , Education, Natural Aromatics, agarwood, article from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
Missing trees for woods in perfume industryIan JacksonMonday July 7, 2008″Have you ever wondered how much money is involved in the odors of the developed world.So, to make sure there are no big surprises here, I’m not talking about imported Chanel No 5…
Related StoresJune 26th, 2008 — , Amazon.com, Natural Aromatics, advertising, arctander from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
Arctander on Amazon at $194 and change.UPDATE! June 29,2008 ~ Oops! It appears the ‘deal’ went out the door and the books are up to $246. Still, that’s a deal ~ the publisher’s price is usually $349, oh, and maybe a 10 or 20% discount.Another Update! J…
Related StoresJune 23rd, 2008 — , Natural Aromatics, antiquarian perfume, formulating, tinctures from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
Just a brief note here ~Tinctures need diluting. Or at the very least, a better understanding of their nature; knowing that some tinctures can rival the strength and quality of a good absolute is important, and they should be used in the same manner as…
Related StoresJune 21st, 2008 — , Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, advertising, botanical perfumery, natural perfumer, ruth ruane, white witch from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
Ruth Ruane, aka White Witch, has recently redesigned her website ~ it’s easy to maneuver, easy on the eyes, and the products listed are — well, run on over there and take a peek for yourself!White WitchPhoto copyright White Witch
Related StoresJune 17th, 2008 — , American Science Surplus, Education, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, White Lotus Aromatics, natural perfumer, perfumer from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
Well, at the beginning, of course. Get thee swiftly to thy apothecary ~ in this case, that would be American Science Surplus, and buy up as many of those little 5 ml dropper bottles as you can fit in the shopping cart (ok, 50 or 75 or 100 are more than…
Related StoresContinue reading → Natural&Botanical Perfumery 101 ~ Where to Start
June 15th, 2008 — , Chocolate, Natural Aromatics, lavender, mandrake apothecary, rosemary from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
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 [...]
Related StoresJune 11th, 2008 — , Christopher McMahon, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, botanical perfumery, joy, magic, spirituality from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
I spent a bit of time on White Lotus Aromatics’ website perusing the archives. Reading Christopher McMahon’s descriptions of blue lotus & agarwood made me drool.Blue lotus is a spectacular essence. No words can aptly describe it. It produces a phys…
Related StoresJune 11th, 2008 — , Natural Aromatics, cacao, cocoa nibs, coffee, tincturing from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
I have a row of bottles at my work bench, filled with freshly roasted coffee beans of various origin, and biodynamic grape alcohol. They’ve been there since I moved, following a crazed trip to Peet’s for a half pound of decaf that quickly became a quest to try coffees from all producing continents.
What is surprising [...]
June 10th, 2008 — , Bulgaria, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, botanical perfumery, natural perfumer, rose production from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
Forbes.com announced today: Bulgaria expects record production of rose oil in 2008Sophia, Bulgaria - Bulgaria’s rose oil distilleries expect record production this season of the ingredient …
Related StoresJune 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 [...]
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 [...]
Related StoresJune 5th, 2008 — , Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, natural perfumer from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
I think it’s sad how modern natural perfume books (teaching material) have so little information with regard to raw materials’ safety. Redirecting the reader/student elsewhere, away from the book or teaching manual, isn’t a responsible route to take as…
Related StoresJune 4th, 2008 — , Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, a, natural perfumer from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
That, my friends, is the result of two years and one month in the life of a forgotten tincture.Boswellia carteri, pea-sized tears of African origin, soaked and sealed in organic grape alcohol, and abandoned to the dark depths of the Cupboard of Scente…
Related StoresMay 31st, 2008 — , Natural Aromatics, mechanics, sugar scrubs from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
This has absolutely nothing to do with perfume, but aromatics play into it, so I’ll forge along and just post anyway.
We’re trying to get the Buttless Wonder Car to pass smog, which in CA can be quite difficult to do unless you have a brand new vehicle, and it means having to adjust the timing [...]
May 30th, 2008 — , Books, Leather, Natural Aromatics, Patchouli, formulation from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
It’s been done, maybe to death; I’m not sure because I’ve not looked for others doing this for a couple years, but I’m thinking about recreating the smell of antiquated books. Down to the old leather binding.
I know to start with some antique terpeneless patchouli I managed to source a long time ago, and [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
May 20th, 2008 — , Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, eau de cologne, water from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
Jiminy crickets. This addition of water stuff really gives me fits.
I managed to add a few milliliters of filtered water to one blend, minimal clouding. The trick is to either work with one of those magnetic stirrer jobbies, or to be really thorough and swift with your stirring rod as you add drop by drop.
The [...]
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 [...]
Related StoresMay 20th, 2008 — , EdC, Education, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, botanical perfumery, natural perfumer from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
I felt I’d done quite well with my first real attempt at an EdC. That is, I felt that way until this morning.Trying to put a new twist on an old formula isn’t as easy as you might think. Other folks are chiming in with what they’ve done to tweak the fo…
Related StoresMay 19th, 2008 — , Natural Aromatics, eau de cologne from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
Hungary Water, Koelnische Wasser, 4711, the stuff that Napoleon Drenched Himself In By the Quart…
I did two standard recipes for this today. Both of them have thyme as an herbaceous element. Both of them have rosemary. I really do not like the effect the rosemary has on the lemony elements; it turns them into a [...]
May 19th, 2008 — , Education, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, botanical perfumery, raw materials, tinctures from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
Chamaebatia foliolosa, supposedly a member of the rose family, is a scent once sniffed is never forgotten.Mountain Misery, it’s common name, or Kit Kit Dizze, it’s less common- common name, is the scent of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Deeply green and …
Related StoresMay 18th, 2008 — , Gourmand, Natural Aromatics, aromachology, butter, cacao, coffee, wheat from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
I was too beat to post last night, but it was on the tip of my brain to think a bit about foodie scents and their place in perfume. Some folks call them ‘gourmand’.
Generally speaking, these are not odors I seek out, at all. The idea of smelling like my aunt’s kitchen the after she’s [...]
May 16th, 2008 — , Natural Aromatics, arctander from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
…I managed to get a copy of Arctander from Amazon awhile ago for substantially less than any of the other outlets claiming to offer a discount (I think it’s quite ballsy to call it a discount when you’re working your angle as the only gig in town for a reprint), and just wanted to note [...]
Related StoresMay 14th, 2008 — , Labdanum, Natural Aromatics, cistus from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
When I moved in February, I left behind a huge shrub that’d started out as a wee 4-inch pot from a local nursery. It bloomed like crazy all year, save the rainy season and when it got seriously cold. And the cuttings were nice.
The BF gave it a haircut every year, sometimes twice a year, [...]
May 13th, 2008 — , EdC, Education, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, botanical perfumery, formulating, raw materials from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
I’ve been playing around with Eau de Colognes of late ~ attempting to recreate formulas, and come up with a few of my own.The whole water issue with EdC’s kind of scare me. I remember when I was new to natural perfumery, I attempted an EdC based on a f…
Related StoresMay 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 [...]
May 10th, 2008 — , Lise Manniche, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, Orris, iris, violet from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
I went to Lise Manniche for an entry on iris this morning, because I felt like I was missing something in my appreciation.
“Varieties of iris grow wild in Egypt today; Dioscorides gave nar as its Egyptian name. Petals of Iris albicans Lange or I. florentina have been identified in an Egyptian burial of Graeco-Roman [...]
May 10th, 2008 — , Education, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, botanical perfumery, raw materials from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
I’m obsessed with green.I want to run out and gather up leaves and grass to tincture. Chaparral — manzanita in particular — intrigues me. I’m inspired by Roxana Villa’s ‘Q’ parfum built around an oak leaf tincture. She and I had brief email conversa…
Related StoresMay 2nd, 2008 — , Education, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, botanical perfumery from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
I remember my first experience with this essence as being sort of meh. No big deal, I thought. Now, years later, I find myself craving the scent of this odd little citrus.It is not sweet and robust as orange essence, nor subtly tart as lemon, or sheer …
Related StoresMay 1st, 2008 — , Education, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, accords, botanical perfumery, natural perfumer from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
I’ve been experimenting with creating leather accords, pushing the leathers toward gourmand and simple rankness.The gourmand leather accord is pretty interesting. Among many of its components is valerian root tincture. Valerian, as supremely rank as it…
Related StoresApril 25th, 2008 — , Education, Music, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, Poetry, botanical perfumery, natural perfumer from Oh, True Apothecary @ Oh, True Apothecary!
As some of you who read this blog know, I’ve taken time off from the grind of mass producing skincare and perfume products to study. When I initially made the decision, I thought it would be difficult — y’know, being separated from my loyal customers,…
Related StoresSeptember 13th, 2007 — Botanical Alchemy Series, Classes, Inner Alchemy Tea Co, Natural Aromatics, Smelly Workshops, Tea Culture, Workshops from Ayala Sender @ SmellyBlog
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Alchemy Notebook: Tree of Stars, originally uploaded by Ninth Wave Designs. Ay…
Related StoresJuly 11th, 2007 — , Alchemy, Natural Aromatics, Natural Perfumery, spagyrics from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
Alcohol-based perfumes have this reputation preceding them, which I’d never quite realized the scope of until I started creating eau de parfum, experimenting ever more with high-proof grain and grape alcohols.
For some reason, alcohol is almost universally viewed as a diluent rather than as a carrier for aromatics, or a blending medium, or, how to [...]
June 26th, 2007 — , Natural Aromatics, Perfume from scentedwench @ The Scented Wench
There are multiple forms of this available, but I favor the amber. Spikenard is the renowned ‘nard’ that the woman (one of the women to form the Mary Magdalene composite character in the Bible) anointed Jesus’ feet with.
So, it has religiously symbolic trappings, which appeal. A nose-governed friend of mine asked if Mary Magdalene could [...]
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!