tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191546452024-03-19T04:28:44.477-07:00Oh, True Apothecary! Ramblings on about natural perfumery . . . and other moderately related perfumery stuff, written
by Justine Crane, natural botanical perfumer, olfactogustatorian, writer, alchemist, and owner of The Scented Djinn Parfum Apothecary & ThurifercorumUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1911125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-66395828200221495712024-02-29T10:18:00.000-08:002024-02-29T10:18:49.771-08:00Evolution of ArtThe brain fog has finally cleared. There has been a dam burst after almost two years of post-Covid caca slowing the creative juices flowing. I allow myself only a few hours every day to be on the computer working, everything is on a timer (my life is ruled by the alarm). I'm finding that instead of quitting work hours way ahead of schedule, as I've been doing since August 2022, I'm putting in loads of overtime on the computer, as well as making incense, soap, and perfumes. I'm on the computer writing the incense book/course, sending students emails, correcting assignments, writing some more, networking with peers, researching, adding course content, designing labels, creating video and podcast scripts, scheduling live classes, writing evals of finished perfumes from students, creating diplomas, printing shipping labels, answering emails from strangers curious about this art, and giving encouragement when needed from 6:45 AM until it's time to pick up the grands from school at 3:00 PM. There. Is. So. Much. To. Do! <div><br /></div><div>One of my favorite quotes is by Buckminster Fuller, and it goes like this:</div><div><br /></div><div>"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete." </div><div><br /></div><div>This is the hinge that holds everything I've been working for these past 20-odd years. Trying to break the old paradigm and create something inclusive, joyful, inspiring, and entirely achievable. </div><div><br /></div><div>Today I did something that I have rarely done. I ordered perfume labels to be printed by an outside source. In all of my time working in this business, I've done this maybe three times, reserving the right to print when I needed to, but also creating some ugly and unprofessional-looking labels along the way. These new labels are brightly colored and glossy. I'm determined that this be the norm from here on out. I've got these absolutely stunning Brosse bottles and here I am sticking on matte white labels of the wrong shape because I'm a stubborn ass responding to trauma (which I am currently deconstructing). I am totally the kind of person who says, FU, I'll do it myself! I'm realizing I don't do it as well as it should be done, and I'm loading myself with a lot of work that is cheaply and easily delegated. </div><div><br /></div><div>In December we, the NPA, performed a complete overhaul of the school. It took two weeks to complete, and the results of all of the hard work our on-site tech master, Ruth, put in has been a game changer for us. Most, if not all, of the manual bits of the course, are now automatic, which frees up a lot of time from checking and double-checking all sorts of moving parts in the courses. Now it just happens and it has freed up tons of my time so that I have the time, and now the energy, to get some of the work done that has been sitting in the queue for years. Like articles, interviews with perfumers and growers, essays, books, and more course content. Natural perfumery isn't a static art. It's constantly evolving. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz7eL8OWwWggba0Jf2fXHkSmmumvGIXnCPTjW9Jf2J35GGAtVdh1l4HTrO6WAkvUkTesD2Aab1ch-dNJNany_cvjTrnTyphs8V_jhg_swA8A1xjucQub8VnyXwuj3rEv-CZK3-MuU1WjLFn5McmxmOFP4F886iAqB1yOVUx1BXudNad-eO-E9d/s1000/AI%20pic%20for%20np%20blogspot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz7eL8OWwWggba0Jf2fXHkSmmumvGIXnCPTjW9Jf2J35GGAtVdh1l4HTrO6WAkvUkTesD2Aab1ch-dNJNany_cvjTrnTyphs8V_jhg_swA8A1xjucQub8VnyXwuj3rEv-CZK3-MuU1WjLFn5McmxmOFP4F886iAqB1yOVUx1BXudNad-eO-E9d/w454-h454/AI%20pic%20for%20np%20blogspot.jpg" width="454" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-75798928218386848352024-02-22T08:43:00.000-08:002024-02-22T08:43:07.832-08:00Have a Great Day<p>See what happened here? I got busy. The course updates created a huge opportunity in terms of time -- I'm not babysitting the course or working on schedules anymore, that's all automatic now, so I have time to work on projects, mostly writing and experimenting, that I set aside months and years ago. Basically, honing everything down to its core, making things plain and easy to understand, but also writing about the beauty of what I do. </p><p><br /></p><p>Instead of writing all of that here, I'm writing it elsewhere, adding a bit of exclusivity to it. I'll still pop in and write a bit on the blog. Some things that irritate me, most likely! </p><p><br /></p><p>Have a great day! XO</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW5crwi5AEqGSKNsZfaQsZosWThsfzO8XTwZzw03uRZip4TImitW3s9v9rOzuio81r18fc5GZYkkcbD5CjrWMdUPnILL7fZoe8Ke58ga9QPzsJawcnzy-iV9nlGYuChlbsexg_DivLy5-AtRvur7GailIk4IHOLISdTN7lu8fVM82W7YJklEJh/s1000/The%20Ram%20Natural%20Handmade%20Incense%202024%20Ram%20Label.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW5crwi5AEqGSKNsZfaQsZosWThsfzO8XTwZzw03uRZip4TImitW3s9v9rOzuio81r18fc5GZYkkcbD5CjrWMdUPnILL7fZoe8Ke58ga9QPzsJawcnzy-iV9nlGYuChlbsexg_DivLy5-AtRvur7GailIk4IHOLISdTN7lu8fVM82W7YJklEJh/w375-h375/The%20Ram%20Natural%20Handmade%20Incense%202024%20Ram%20Label.jpg" width="375" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Back in the Etsy shop!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-5443494372535370342024-01-16T10:24:00.000-08:002024-01-16T10:24:54.598-08:00The book . . .<p>The book is effectively and efficiently kicking my butt. </p><p><br /></p><p>I'm placing itty, bitty, teeny, weeny paragraphs of inspired writing here and there in the book. Some very disjointed, out-of-place wackadoo stuff right now that I will sort out when the bulk of the book is done. I'm ashamed of my very low word count, but very proud of my gorgeous book cover, which I would share, but the 'net has greedy eyes and nasty intentions. I sound paranoid. Yuck.</p><p>To make the book writing easier for myself, I sought to reduce the number of topics covered, but it has been brought to my attention that I shouldn't. Spill it out, they say, pour it over the pages. So I will. </p><p>I've been researching bakhoor and was feeling more confused about it than ever before, but I see light at the end of the tunnel thanks to a TikTok video I watched yesterday where a woman in Sudan demonstrated making Sudanese bakhoor. I watched that video at least 5 times, completely fascinated by it. Once I create a few batches of incense using the information gleaned from the video, I'm going to add one of the recipes to the book, as well as information regarding the history of traditional bakhoor. Years ago, someone on YouTube posted a video demonstrating how traditional monastary incense was made. I studied that video, wrote wads of notes, paid very close attention to the details, and then went on to make a few batches of a natural perfumer's version of church incense. That video has since been redacted or removed as there was a bit of a dust-up over the videographer sharing them with the public. </p><p>Unfortunately, sometimes these 'escaped' videos and demos are the only way to get the instruction as this stuff is still very hush-hush within their traditions. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjClYU5euEgB1lGroBElUPVpeWPAKs7nmnRKaIZco4muyF9CYZFOhrsIBe8zE7xHvaR7m_UY0xp8DsIAY2EFYma1UZ1CX7-6Iu0QoWllxJMM4bCVqvfiCJeJSbna6-YMmBt9r80XM7wExAbFkcdgqd6gYLQBrXj8y239Sv5EDj3ajHpXm6ge8An/s597/Green%20Tea%20Natural%20Incense%20Pastilles%20LABEL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="271" height="664" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjClYU5euEgB1lGroBElUPVpeWPAKs7nmnRKaIZco4muyF9CYZFOhrsIBe8zE7xHvaR7m_UY0xp8DsIAY2EFYma1UZ1CX7-6Iu0QoWllxJMM4bCVqvfiCJeJSbna6-YMmBt9r80XM7wExAbFkcdgqd6gYLQBrXj8y239Sv5EDj3ajHpXm6ge8An/w301-h664/Green%20Tea%20Natural%20Incense%20Pastilles%20LABEL.jpg" width="301" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-39477007181600101282023-12-29T10:27:00.000-08:002023-12-29T10:27:41.597-08:00The headspace could be better right nowI have a stack of NPA student perfume submissions sitting on my desk, and I don't want to deal with them at the moment. I pulled a muscle in my lower back (thanks, old age), and I can't get comfortable, especially in my office chair, and I just feel generally annoyed. I won't evaluate their work well if I'm already annoyed. Plus, I feel really stupid today. I've been researching materials for incense and diving down some serious rabbit holes trying to transcribe pages written in Iranian or another language I don't understand into English, only to realize I'm an idiot. I feel like I'm dog paddling in bottomless water when all I want to do is to write a book about how a perfumer approaches incense making. Right now it feels like someone dumped a 3000-piece jigsaw puzzle on the table in front of me and said, "Do it," and I hate jigsaw puzzles.<div><br /></div><div>Does the book really have to have information about obscure and rare materials I have yet to experience? Does it have to have a 30-page chapter on the history of incense for every ancient culture that ever existed? Am I looking back or forward? Or maybe a little back, and mostly forward? How does this serve a book about creativity NOW, but also adding in all of the dangers of overharvesting any plant currently used in incense, not to mention the possibility (more like probability) of ancient cultures having done the same and wondering how many aromatic plants that have gone extinct because of THEIR work, and how wars and invasions through millennia erased so much information and crops (like the missing violets after WWI), and . . . geez. The headspace could be better right now.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzYbva8ukSDcDzhcP-rXuYxwRhZUK01JqF6dY-8l9ZuNqWkVW85sZwLjF23FCf1MxtaeBN-o892q5-EigVfukSz3SI_F3Q7RyNCDO3h4ftsCk9TbvU0AHQIzBByHdudbcPlT5yJsvkeWTUjHjVP7NxB0B8flAMWc3JJR0XlY1V8RbL8ifxiF7z/s2000/for%20the%20blog%20dec%2029%2023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1429" data-original-width="2000" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzYbva8ukSDcDzhcP-rXuYxwRhZUK01JqF6dY-8l9ZuNqWkVW85sZwLjF23FCf1MxtaeBN-o892q5-EigVfukSz3SI_F3Q7RyNCDO3h4ftsCk9TbvU0AHQIzBByHdudbcPlT5yJsvkeWTUjHjVP7NxB0B8flAMWc3JJR0XlY1V8RbL8ifxiF7z/w640-h458/for%20the%20blog%20dec%2029%2023.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-62875714246662507442023-12-26T12:45:00.000-08:002023-12-26T12:45:13.191-08:00Nettles CO2 (Urtica dioica)I have a small sample of this new nettle CO2 on hand for evaluation. I've never experienced nettle anything before, not the essential oil, not the leaf, nothing, as nettles are something in my upbringing to be avoided by us uninitiated in the mystery of nettles. No, I don't mean anything woo woo, but the innate abilities of nettle itself. It is vitamin and mineral-rich, taken as capsules and as tea, helps to battle against hay fever, can be used in cream form to combat inflammation, may lower blood pressure and blood sugar, and has a few other topical and ingestible applications, which I just discovered today researching for this post. My experience with nettle has been complete avoidance. Here, it grows along river banks and sloughs and was common along the shore of my family's favorite fishing holes. I can't tell you how many times I was screamed/told, "Stay away from the nettles or you're riding home in the back of the truck." It wasn't because the screamer thought I was contagious with nettles, but because he didn't want to see, hear, or feel me scratching the hell out of my skin. Clearly, the avoidance is emotional. <div><br /></div><div>Anyway.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Nettle is not historically used in perfumery but is available in eo form, rare as it is, and its notes are deeply green and damp forest. The nettles' CO2, I'm guessing, is from the root and isn't like the essential oil (of the leaves) at all. It is fatty, smells of cream, slightly sweet, soft, and powdery. It smells a little like sweet butter, but not like butter CO2. It is persistently creamy and milky, with soft fatty notes that almost smell like shea butter, but also not quite. The consistency of this CO2 is creamy too, like a thick buttery balm. </div><div><br /></div><div>I haven't diluted this to see exactly how it will behave in alcohol, but I immediately felt this would be wonderful in a solid perfume of delicate florals, like violet, lilac, lily-of-the-valley, jonquil, maybe even hyacinth, or with orris butter to create a gorgeous powdery sweet and creamy accord. </div><div><br /></div><div>It has been on my hand for an hour now, and it remains pretty much the same in terms of scent as it was when it was applied. </div><div><br /></div><div>The discovery of nettle CO2 is a testament to the persistence and adventurous heart of natural perfumery. In search of just the right note, we will go to almost any extreme to find it. Unearthing adventurous makers of scents is the most difficult part of the process. Avoiding brokers selling the same old stuff to everyone and their Uncle Joe is a struggle as well. It's all about the consistent flow of money in, and not at all about the flow of quality going out. This leads to more and more natural perfumers taking to the 'still, the chassis, and the alcohol -- in a good, healthy way, lol. Authenticity rules! </div><div><br /></div><div>If you want to know where to buy this, ask.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4UGF5VLv72kIeJt9JFLKc8wnlFiZW73f3M5kizy6gXBrw47jslepxw8tDMbdlkLD-GslrhJQeFXVrbjn3dAeRShTYp8-kQtDfzJOdUTKjuZyhh6F0j5Rfjw4ku-g4uaplr91b9dYsPTOTZaG31uLWJyoLTTics0u27W-sPoSP_959m32x_7WL/s973/Nettles%20CO2%20from%20EOA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="973" data-original-width="822" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4UGF5VLv72kIeJt9JFLKc8wnlFiZW73f3M5kizy6gXBrw47jslepxw8tDMbdlkLD-GslrhJQeFXVrbjn3dAeRShTYp8-kQtDfzJOdUTKjuZyhh6F0j5Rfjw4ku-g4uaplr91b9dYsPTOTZaG31uLWJyoLTTics0u27W-sPoSP_959m32x_7WL/w541-h640/Nettles%20CO2%20from%20EOA.jpg" width="541" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-68686589091395447572023-12-20T09:11:00.000-08:002023-12-20T09:12:47.472-08:00Natural PerfumeNormally at this time of the year, the Natural Perfume Academy goes on a two-week break, but we don't shut down the school. This is the time of year when students mostly catch up on their assignments and ask me questions 'off the record', but this year we've shut down the site to perform a major overhaul. By 'we', I mean Ruth. I don't have the foggiest notion of how to do these things, but she's a pro. With the site shut down, I feel lost. Part of my daily routine was checking emails, orders, and courses, with the courses taking up the bulk of my morning work. Without them, my morning feels empty. Which is probably the real reason I hopped back on here - ha!<div><br /></div><div>Sales at Etsy are way down this past year, and right now it's crickets and croaking frogs over there. I should actually have a stockpile of funds to get me through the sales desert of January right now, but I don't. Twenty-twenty-three has been an absolute sh*t show for retail. But I'm not complaining. Not much. The mindset is creativity and instruction rather than the sale of goods. I taught a few live classes with my friend Cher Grosse of Essential Oil Apothecary fame, and that brought in a little money. The classes were great, but the venue was changed on us midstream, so that threw us for a loop, but we managed to put on a couple of good classes. Oh, we have a FB page, and possibly soon will have a website called The Rebel Perfumers where we will offer classes, live and on Zoom. The classes cover all the fragrant art topics, from incense to enfleurage. And a podcast is coming as well. We don't live too far from one another, and it hasn't been a rare occurrence to visit one another for a few days at a time studying, setting up our calendar, drinking far too much coffee (Cher is also a master roaster, one of the few women master roasters in the US, and she operates Soul Side Coffee Company), and playing around with aromatics. Our first podcast recording is just us introducing ourselves, and if anyone tells you podcasting is easy, they're lying. It took three hours just to get a simple 30-second intro recorded. </div><div><br /></div><div>Evaluations are on the way. I am so far behind in the evals, it's embarrassing. It may have been a slow sales year, but it certainly hasn't been a slow year anywhere else -- I'm receiving student perfume submissions more frequently than in past years, even students who officially finished their course years ago are starting to turn in their work. I've got a long, long, long line of perfumery and incense material evaluations to conduct, and the writing, which, I'm not going to lie, is very hit-and-miss as new work comes in to distract me. I should be able to kick out a book on incense much more quickly than I am doing, but I'm doing a lot of research, and getting side-tracked by the other stuff I'm behind on. I wish I could say that my New Year's resolution is to be more organized, prioritize the work more effectively, and stick with that plan until I die, but we all know that won't happen. </div><div><br /></div><div>I will wrap this load of nothing info post with something useful. EOA, Essential Oil Apothecary, has brought in a few new items for evaluation -- namely, some of the most beautiful floral waxes that I have ever experienced. Cher is quickly becoming the floral wax Queen with these rare and unusual offerings.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lavender Floral Wax ~ peppery, sweet coumarin, lush lavender, a lot-a lot like the absolute, but intensely sweet. Unbelievably intense, in-yer-face floral. Has a slight musky note way in the back. </div><div><br /></div><div>Clove Bud Wax ~ warm, sultry, soft clove bud without the sharp edges. This one is sexy. Those sharper notes emerge on the skin, you know the ones I'm talking about -- the notes that make you salivate and tingle. </div><div><br /></div><div>Black Locust Floral Wax ~ this one is a bit of an outlier. I must have sniffed it a half-a-dozen times before I realized what it reminded me of -- a helichrysum wax I received from Christopher at White Lotus Aromatics circa 2007. The black locust wax is warm and soft with slight vanilla notes and warm earthy tones. It's very unusual. The more you sniff it, the more you find, cycling through floral, sweet, earthy, warm, everlasting, softness, and on and on. </div><div><br /></div><div>New Frangipani Abs. ~ this, and possibly the waxes too, may not be listed on the website yet, but when all of these are, get some! Or find out if you can pre-order. The frangipani absolute is stunning -- it is fruity, floral, sweet, tropical, exotic, warm, and buttery. Simply gorgeous. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJAzuNhyphenhyphenU-GlEF2D20AJ1pt-xf4_ZWmijDtkBiFE0a90YICxSWWKSqbeNMNoHbfq5eAnK7mzMU8USxuzML2bS_4MSafwJyvuVaRSUuii3LKvGhd2-6en0prqKuc2Q8r9RGPFw_clIG_5uf3uKyGrdgFsiOWqK1OeA2ivxRnobwKA53XNAjIjkw/s2048/Janet%20at%20the%20soap%20class%20fall%20of%202023.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJAzuNhyphenhyphenU-GlEF2D20AJ1pt-xf4_ZWmijDtkBiFE0a90YICxSWWKSqbeNMNoHbfq5eAnK7mzMU8USxuzML2bS_4MSafwJyvuVaRSUuii3LKvGhd2-6en0prqKuc2Q8r9RGPFw_clIG_5uf3uKyGrdgFsiOWqK1OeA2ivxRnobwKA53XNAjIjkw/w372-h496/Janet%20at%20the%20soap%20class%20fall%20of%202023.jpg" width="372" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Students from the 2023 soap class trying out strawberry rose syrup</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-51994399197722985902023-12-15T10:24:00.000-08:002023-12-15T10:24:39.104-08:00And Abruptly, She Was Gone<p>I'm back. I'm not sure how long, or if this blog will be a consistent thing again, but for the moment, I'm here. Last March I was going through an existential crisis, questioning my life path and the work I was doing, the direction that my life was/had been going/gone, and whether it was making a difference in the world, as I had hoped it would. I made a few critical decisions back then; number one, I stuck with and rededicated myself to the fragrant path regardless of how my work was received, and two, I signed up for TikTok. The rededication began with a late March drive from Sacramento to the neighborhood of Portland, OR, to take a class with the esteemed Jessica Ring of Ring Botanicals. It was a ride-share situation in which I trusted a total stranger who has since become one of my greatest friends. TikTok was suggested to me as a means of posting some of my hands-on work, and videos showing me (actually, just my hands) in the creative process. What ended up happening is I fell into the world of witches, politics, and outright silliness for a lot longer than I had anticipated, eventually posting those brief videos, of which I will be posting much more and longer videos of the creative process. I also took the first steps to start a podcast with that traveling friend, and teaming up with her to teach live classes under the name of The Rebel Perfumers. And the book writing has begun, in earnest, featuring the long-awaited incense book. That process really kicked off when I used Canva to create the book cover, which is gorgeous. </p><p>What I haven't done since March is struggle with what to sell on Etsy. I created what I wanted to when I wanted to and pulled way back on the pressure to compete, and I made some absolutely gorgeous soaps and incense. I upgraded the courses on the Natural Perfume Academy, I took a lot of trips to the mountains to study the plants and where and how they grow, and I harvested more this past year than I had any years prior. Right now I have big boughs of juniper, cedar, eucalyptus, and neem drying. I pulled ALL of my incense materials from the garage studio put them in beautiful thrifted jars, and placed them on bookshelves lined in a row in my living room so that I could see them all of the time and be inspired to work. Next, I will be pulling all of the perfume raw materials in as well, leaving just tools and equipment in the studio from here on out. I think that keeping all of these materials tucked away, out of sight, was demotivating. There was some pushback from the family about my 'junk' somehow being in their way, or how I'm cluttering up space, but I've stuck to my guns. I don't say anything about the Rick & Morty rug in the loft, or the other childish, inappropriate, and downright dumb 'decorations' featured in the loft, or in their bedrooms, and I keep entirely mum about the state of their bathrooms. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLLSkat-t9LuN4VtOpy0LTXgQqBY0r9UbwvRf8AmNiMQkCLtXy8CeiftthN1tTV0UHoA1_4DYTrasfgvz3I_sDmoG9AfXO2V0rYfoPWC9mqcYcFK6BSB6DBZ8zholyYjxjj5Z_Hbk3RsoM09Clc9lwELf1cTMRW3wGXQSw82PMVTzDaizjEsQ4/s2048/Incense%20Apothecary%20top%202023%20jadi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="571" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLLSkat-t9LuN4VtOpy0LTXgQqBY0r9UbwvRf8AmNiMQkCLtXy8CeiftthN1tTV0UHoA1_4DYTrasfgvz3I_sDmoG9AfXO2V0rYfoPWC9mqcYcFK6BSB6DBZ8zholyYjxjj5Z_Hbk3RsoM09Clc9lwELf1cTMRW3wGXQSw82PMVTzDaizjEsQ4/w428-h571/Incense%20Apothecary%20top%202023%20jadi.jpg" width="428" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-90358902474318202852023-03-16T07:03:00.002-07:002023-03-16T07:03:28.333-07:00Vertical & Horizontal Trial Studies Video<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="394" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r0thpQoAGXY" width="474" youtube-src-id="r0thpQoAGXY"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p>Check it out. This is the video the NPA has on our YouTube channel. You should subscribe. We're adding more and more of this type of content there every week. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-54538916226910333852023-02-27T07:09:00.002-08:002023-02-27T07:25:23.541-08:00The Way of the Dropper<div style="text-align: justify;">I'm back! Not really. I'm just checking in to let you know I haven't been abducted by aliens or moved to a cave in the woods. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, what have I been doing? Writing. Bouncing from one document to another, writing a few hours in this one, and then moving on to write a few hours in another, and so on and so on. I haven't touched the organ to do anything more than experiment a bit. I applied to a perfume workshop out of the country and my application was denied. Turns out I'm 'already a famous perfumer' and don't need the help. It got me thinking about essential professions that require CEUs to retain licensure and how we might get something like that going in the future. It also got me wondering about art and its subjectiveness, and how there are dozens of artist retreats designed to cater to 'famous artists' and neophytes, but natural perfumery is left out. So had I been a baby perfumer, I could apply to and attend perfumery workshops and classes all over the world, gain knowledge, and develop my own way of perfumery, but if I'm already known, I can kick rocks. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For the record, the Natural Perfume Academy, where I teach, takes all comers. We have had famous perfumers take the course to brush up and reinspire, and in some cases, share some of their Way of the Dropper. Was I nervous to have them there? I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I was, but what I felt more about it was a sense of camaraderie and cooperation. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-uYCqPqd6cIbRR3V0INkweLN5tbIYfPswqtvrqilqjSw6kNqyL-ve3Qdy0e4jiB7X8TIMEsvQuTkzvclI3fBTUNlcQ_uPQPyUIoxaUAIMzNjnQ8gAQG5XQ3ce-nIda3CC_po1Tr_gu9YHhMYsbasxCvNvh--vLrNJxoA6htUcHletv0LkXw/s1024/The%20Way%20of%20the%20Dropper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-uYCqPqd6cIbRR3V0INkweLN5tbIYfPswqtvrqilqjSw6kNqyL-ve3Qdy0e4jiB7X8TIMEsvQuTkzvclI3fBTUNlcQ_uPQPyUIoxaUAIMzNjnQ8gAQG5XQ3ce-nIda3CC_po1Tr_gu9YHhMYsbasxCvNvh--vLrNJxoA6htUcHletv0LkXw/w540-h406/The%20Way%20of%20the%20Dropper.jpg" width="540" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-59837601626263945922023-01-07T12:31:00.000-08:002023-01-07T12:31:15.274-08:00The Filipino Series From EOA & More Part II<p style="text-align: justify;">As promised, here are the last few oils from EOApothecare's new Filipino Series.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">A Tale of Two Elemies; Wild and Tame (?). </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Wild Elemi, Canarium luzonicum, Philippines ~ Wow! It opens with slight dill notes along with strong pink pepper-like notes and has a glossing of -- oddly enough -- gasoline. Something strangely industrial. It is intensely green in nature, like pine pitch, resinous, and herbal (leaves, leaves, leaves) with a warm balsamic undertone. I have some vintage elemi that I throw into soaps every so often and it is completely pickly and resinified, nothing even remotely close to this Wild Elemi that smells so inviting and fresh. It is a small, artisan distillation as well, so, yay! Supporting small distilleries!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Elemi, Canarium luzonicum, Philippines ~ This one is smooth. It is the less rambunctious twin sister to the Wild Elemi. It presents deeply resinous, with only slightly pink peppery notes, and zero dill. It is elegant, and not in the least 'industrial' smelling. Sparkly. Again, supporting small distillers. Go get some of this. This is one of those super bridges that open at the top and closes at the base. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And the others - </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Almaciga, Agathis philippinensis, Philippines ~ Resinous, green-leafy, waxy, smells of an antiques furniture shop, wood polish-like, smooth, airy, and fresh. I really love the waxy note in it. It smells like a cathedral with prayer candles burning. It is also called Manila copal. Small distillation. Woot! </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Benguet Pine, Pinus kesiya, Philippines ~ This oil screams GREEN! It is clean, fresh, chilly, and somewhat citrusy -- think orange and lemon peel. There is also a slight pine note typical of pines, but it isn't overpowering. Small distillation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Guava leaf, Psidium guajava, Philippines ~ This oil is a bit of an enigma. I love the smell of guava fruit, and I've even distilled it for the hydrosol, and it smells absolutely gorgeously fruity, floral, and lush, but this oil from the leaf is a different animal altogether. I had to contact EOA to make sure that what my nose was smelling was what it was smelling, and it was! This oil is spicy! It's like a fermented hot sauce with lime juice and brown sugar. The pepperiness of it is like hot chilis. It. Is. Amazing! Pepper oils are really crucial to building gorgeous green or green-note perfumes. The more fresh and fleshy the pepper, the more sparkly the opening of the perfume, and this entirely non-pepper leaf oil fits right in there. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY8IfNc0muua_G8G1sHQNPXkuiAM-iyXYCObt4W-i72wXOtr_W1FdyvCjC4pXRZhn-8uMMWYbc4KLDRQKbbqP3--rsC4djjKSWwe8rwOihs99QkQksVrD3ZlU3gqDIhjtcopEtdVLqisFxB_jiSgt9MfSbz6-8JXh8WVcH89abpvL0DrHvKA/s2048/Filipino%20Series%20EOA%20part%20II.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="588" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY8IfNc0muua_G8G1sHQNPXkuiAM-iyXYCObt4W-i72wXOtr_W1FdyvCjC4pXRZhn-8uMMWYbc4KLDRQKbbqP3--rsC4djjKSWwe8rwOihs99QkQksVrD3ZlU3gqDIhjtcopEtdVLqisFxB_jiSgt9MfSbz6-8JXh8WVcH89abpvL0DrHvKA/w441-h588/Filipino%20Series%20EOA%20part%20II.jpg" width="441" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-62283118990993036152022-12-30T12:20:00.003-08:002023-01-06T11:30:42.515-08:00The Filipino Series From EOA & More<div style="text-align: justify;">I cannot effectively express how the anticipation of this time of year never jives with reality. Kids are out of school, so no schedule, but they're also home -- most everyone is home now -- and restless. I encourage everyone to be as creative and/or lazy as they want so long as they clean up after themselves, and leave me alone to write during school breaks -- it is, after all, my time off too. But noooooo, can't just stay in their own lane and do them while I attempt to do the same. Yes, honey, your wasabi sculpture looks okay, just don't touch your face. Ah, yes, your three-eyed, orange-haired crayon drawing of me looks fantastic, now go and draw your grandpa with pointy horns. Or, my favorite, pointing out the obvious by entering the room and saying, "It's raining," when it is, indeed, raining, and then expecting, for about the 7th time in the day, a conversation about rain. Acknowledge, divert, acknowledge, divert. What's happened is that I haven't gotten much writing done for the courses or articles or whatever's in the chute, but I have made some very small and significant strides, mostly in the research department. Between all of this hustle, I receive goodies from near and far -- a wee, handpainted bird ornament, a trunk full of empty, unused perfume bottles, some delicious-smelling enfleurage pomades from masters of the craft, freshly roasted coffee beans from a small, nearly local roaster, and some unexpected and new perfumery materials. And that brings me to the gist of this post -- EOA's new Filipino materials series. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ylang-ylang eo, Cananga odorata, Philippines -- one is direct from the farm distillation, the other is an artisan distillation, and both are stunning. The direct from the farm version is intense. It presents as a very fresh, loud, fruity, and unmessy heady floral. It is so sweet! There is something about it that reminds me of the quality goods from White Lotus Aromatics from years and years ago. I am not a huge fan of ylang-ylang, especially the distillations that smell like unused Pampers diapers, but I have grown to at least like ylang-ylang, and this one is very likable. I don't get the diaper thing at all. There is a sweet, medicinal, candy-like quality to it that brings to mind something like cherry cough syrup. When I say it's sweet, I'm in no way exaggerating. The longevity is pretty spectacular as well, a couple of hours of that intensity and then it fades little by little. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Takeaways from Ylang-Ylang Farm Direct -- Super sweet, candy-like, heady floral, intense, extensive longevity. UPDATE: It is day two on a scent strip, and this ylang-ylang is still pumping it out there. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now for the Artisan distilled ylang-ylang. The intensity isn't there like it is with the farm direct, but something else is. It is ylang-ylang, but ylang-ylang with friends in tow, like impossible florals, lovely powdery sweet, spring florals, hints of hyacinth and jonquil, and summer florals like tuberose. It's also somewhat green as well, and peppery. It is precious, delicate, narcotically floral, and would be the go-to ylang-ylang to boost a spring floral perfume where too much ylang-ylang would ruin the batch. It is the least ylang-ylangy ylang-ylang I've ever smelled, which is why it is my favorite of the two. The longevity on this one is equally impressive, but it seems to intensify ever so slightly over time and presents muted orange oil notes as well. It's an odd bird. A lovely, beautiful, impressive odd bird.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Takeaways from Ylang-Ylang Artisan Distilled -- Spring bulb florals, powdery sweet, green and peppery, narcotic, orange peel. UPDATE: This ylang-ylang is still hanging around on day two on a scent strip -- it's giving off icy vibes. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I'm not sure if the differences between the two are more about terroir or extraction methods, either way, they are both high-quality, top-drawer goods. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dalandan, Citrus aurantium, Phillipines -- Dalandan oil is a beautiful and intense sour orange scent. It is powdery, somewhat petitgrain-like, not so rindy, and has more juice. It isn't a super tart like lemon, or candyish like lime, nor is it musty and sweet like orange. It's a bit closer to yuzu, though. Wild. It smells like orange with a bit of an attitude. There are some fleeting peek-a-boo neroli notes in it as well. There is something else about it I like that goes with that 'wild' descriptor, but I can't put my finger on it. The word that flashes in my mind when I'm smelling it is 'fire'. It's weird, and I really, really like it! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Takeaways from Dalandan -- A beast of an orange, sour-juicy, floral, firey.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Calamansi, Citrofortunella microcarpa, Philippines -- Calamansi is airy, powdery, fresh-squeezed juice and citrus soda. It smells very lemon-lime rindy, but different. There is very little sweetness in this scent, it's all the high sour, bitter notes along with something indescribably spicy in it. I want to say the spice note is like pink pepper, but it's not quite that. Nuances of pink pepper maybe. There's also a bit of a breath-catching harshness to it. It smells blue, like chamomile oil-blue. Whoa! That's it! It's got some tansy/German chamomile tones to it. Weird! I like it!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fun fact: Dalandan & Calamansi together make a fabulous fire ant killer, in case you have that problem. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One more, but this time from Indonesia. Fingerroot, Boesenbergia pandurata -- Since it's related to ginger root, I was half expecting a ginger-like note, you know? But that isn't this. Fingerroot smells ancient, like it was once used as an offering to gods and royalty. There really isn't anything like it that I have smelled before, but it does have some distinguishably fine resin-like qualities, maybe a light touch of oud, and a wash of long pepper. It mostly, to my nose, smells of damp earth, spices, and mysteries. Way down deep, it is sweet. I cannot wait to play with this in compositions. I see a lot of promise here. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">None of these, as far as I can tell, are listed on EOA's Etsy shop just yet. It's a work in progress. I recommend if you want to broaden your olfactory horizons, to at least pick up samples of these oils, dilute them to 10% and start working with them. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are a few more in the queue from this Filipino Series, but I just haven't gotten to them yet. After doing this for too long, I tend to get a bit drunk on the scents and need an olfactory break. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhpOFAuBplhkrwfs2YuQMhpr5FaHM-QzGIKlKRLzO4yDmjMRbZPXk1awUE-VZjRABR2A5BvO4d78H-s9yYO29GyJfiqMgBk1hStqlwTiDqSAuX2-y4ClqzcqUxfSCCtGHAg9m__1tukDwK6bfcPbYEm_MPla02v22Plvjc6kDCYS9aaY9YLuw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhpOFAuBplhkrwfs2YuQMhpr5FaHM-QzGIKlKRLzO4yDmjMRbZPXk1awUE-VZjRABR2A5BvO4d78H-s9yYO29GyJfiqMgBk1hStqlwTiDqSAuX2-y4ClqzcqUxfSCCtGHAg9m__1tukDwK6bfcPbYEm_MPla02v22Plvjc6kDCYS9aaY9YLuw=w484-h484" width="484" /></a></div><br /><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-80543719272089626762022-12-29T10:38:00.001-08:002022-12-30T10:35:36.514-08:00Happenings <div style="text-align: justify;">Aside from a poorly-timed 'well, what about ME!' explosion on Xmas morning from someone who definitely knows better, things have been good. Great, even. I met up with Laurie Stern of Velvet & Sweet Pea's Purrfumery, and Charle-Pan Dawson of Cherry Valley Lilacs just a few days before Xmas, and wow! What powerhouses these women are. We spent the better part of our time together oohing and ahhing over one another's accomplishments. I felt like I was in the presence of goddesses, really. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Laurie hosted us in her El Cerrito, CA home overlooking the San Francisco Bay, where we had a leisurely and delicious vegetarian lunch on the deck, then we moved into her gorgeous purple palace and discussed everything from effective extraction methods to the conservation of our precious natural perfumery resources, and the founding of the Tapputi Belatekallim Society of Natural Perfumers and its goals. All of it aligns. Three people from vastly different backgrounds coming together under the banner of the tenets of TBS was remarkable. This conversation and the zoom meeting prior with other founding TBS members about the next moves have been so inspiring. There is a lot of work yet to do, but finding so many people who are as concerned about plant extinction and the myriad other problems that natural perfumers face has been a balm to my heart. Truth be told, plant extinction should alarm everyone, not just those of us whose livelihoods rely upon them. If you pay attention, you see it everywhere, this extinction event. From deliberate overharvesting (see that Vice program about thugs in the frankincense trade), to extreme weather events that wipe the surface of the earth clean through severe storms or long-term droughts. It is no longer enough to recommend wild harvesters take only 10% of what they see, because if you take 10%, then I take 10%, then 832 other people take 10%, then what does that leave us with? The answer is in cultivation. We all must be participants in massive cultivation processes. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is some evidence (I cannot remember the source, but when I find it, I'll share it) that the Rainforests of South America were cultivated by early indigenous cultures. Medicinals and food source plants were moved from one area to another to provide better access, and this carried on for thousands of years. They created an ecosystem that was mutually beneficial. That's what we need to do now. Right now, before it's too late.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEil2-35Z0c_wYqjbvoXlCXTwPhEN9DJx1EOklme1T5cZ4-SEsFV4100DU9Kxn66ycQKaQtrytPrD-Z8lWk1Ko6V5e45T_jKdrqNVFh8Nk7vDLExFDYyiwkapntklylUgNh2WkOCMOyBmqlPXsh09uUCldpWB3P7V2tEkHkoXF_GWlNgD5P_Tg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1275" data-original-width="1920" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEil2-35Z0c_wYqjbvoXlCXTwPhEN9DJx1EOklme1T5cZ4-SEsFV4100DU9Kxn66ycQKaQtrytPrD-Z8lWk1Ko6V5e45T_jKdrqNVFh8Nk7vDLExFDYyiwkapntklylUgNh2WkOCMOyBmqlPXsh09uUCldpWB3P7V2tEkHkoXF_GWlNgD5P_Tg=w598-h398" width="598" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-79695622825034255482022-11-30T07:30:00.001-08:002022-11-30T07:30:00.167-08:00The Importance of SAFETY in Natural Perfumery<div style="text-align: justify;">Validation in your chosen art form (natural perfumery) can come in many different forms, from finishing and launching a beautifully constructed perfume, to receiving glowing reviews from customers and writers. Nothing, however, feels quite as satisfying as running a tight ship -- er -- laboratory. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Beyond the very basic safety rules applied to the creation of natural perfumes -- toxicity levels of certain materials, the IFRA's no-no list, and the occasional snag of the sleeve that results in the loss of an expensive, irreplaceable bottle of specially extracted oud oil -- there is a HUGE list of safety protocols, and equipment, that you, as a professional perfumer, need to pull together to be legit. Like OSHA-compliant, Health Department-compliant, eat-off-the-floor clean, and business certified. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Real lab cred.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Protocols would include things like monthly sorting of citrus and other oxidizing materials to find out if they've passed their 'use-by' date. If they have (and honestly, you would already have this on a spreadsheet so you'd know before the cull) you have to toss them. But not in a bin or down the toilet. You have to think about what tossing in the trash and pouring down the toilet means for everyone who isn't you. Plus, laws.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is the hard part. Have you seen the safety/hazards section of the GCMS for lemon oil? It is significant and scary. The fluid and vapor of lemon oil are flammable. If it catches fire, you have to throw sand or dry chemical extinguishers on it or use an alcohol-resistant foam. It also catches fire via static electricity, so don't play the zap-it game in the lab. Put on the humidifier to knock it out (not the fire, the static.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you swallow it (so stop it, you weird multi-level marketing aromatherapy people!), it can be fatal if it manages to enter your airway. It causes skin irritation and allergic skin reactions, and it is toxic to aquatic life, so wear the safety gear -- lab coat, gloves, mask, eye protection, and whatnot, and don't flush it down the toilet or sink. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">You have to keep it out of the reach of children because when a kid gets this stuff on themselves straight from the bottle, it ain't pretty. I have a little anecdotal experience with this. Back when I worked in investigations, one of the employees/family members would bring her little boys to work with her. In every bathroom in the building was a bottle of citrus spray, industrial-strength orange oil to eliminate odor. One afternoon, the littlest boy went to use the toilet and decided to spray the orange oil straight up his bum. Yeah. The howling could be heard a block away, and I think blisters were involved. He was rinsed and rinsed and rinsed some more, then he was shuttled off to urgent care for some cream and a stern admonishment about spraying things up his bum. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is some seriously nasty stuff. If I had just told you about the cautions and not what the material was, you'd think I was talking about battery acid. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, if you have a laboratory with 300 or so raw materials, you have to keep in mind that each and every one of those materials have different protocols for general handling and waste disposal. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And then there are the standards of cleanliness . . . for another time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWnLl5a8lol8hbGu1VpqrL5_RFnrtgZCqpFw0uwaC66iRflNo3qxK7V6-1Cq-JynFtL3FgoY5uUKrofzwt0Z31jIqJAk-7-vyj5jpTptEExzdcIptMh40d7-mN2PIVZ62dTHboXwK9Hv3u5ALP_sd0zAe2Z0-7HaOlWPGr5-Qpw1NhoGAYxg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="511" height="687" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWnLl5a8lol8hbGu1VpqrL5_RFnrtgZCqpFw0uwaC66iRflNo3qxK7V6-1Cq-JynFtL3FgoY5uUKrofzwt0Z31jIqJAk-7-vyj5jpTptEExzdcIptMh40d7-mN2PIVZ62dTHboXwK9Hv3u5ALP_sd0zAe2Z0-7HaOlWPGr5-Qpw1NhoGAYxg=w488-h687" width="488" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-38348145393811103942022-11-29T08:53:00.000-08:002022-11-29T08:53:05.417-08:00Importance of Evals<div style="text-align: justify;">When first learning to create a natural perfume that wasn't aromatherapy and more like, well, real perfume, the answer to my questions (nearly all of my questions) was the same -- evaluate. I say this constantly to my students. Do you want to learn to make natural perfume? Buy as many essential oils, absolutes, and plant waxes as you can afford, and pick them each apart olfactoraly -- bit by bit, day by day, the same 30 or 40 smells over and over again. And. Write. That. Stuff. Down! Whip out the thesaurus to find appropriate smell words to describe what you're smelling (create a monograph for each one that YOU understand). If you say, "Wow, this smells kind of waxy," -- thesaurus that thing:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Waxy = greasy, slippery, unctuous (good word!), lubricious (another!), oleaginous (oh, they're just pouring in now!), butyraceous (c'mon!!). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Do any of these words work better than 'waxy' does in describing what you smelled that was waxy? Use it. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And do this over and over and over, and more when you purchase and receive new raw materials, until you know them intimately, and then revisit them again and again. Your brain will do the rest. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDyenygXw5rpRknJCCyKlnCyD3UM2hfWYKKxys-wPqZgKuXkWX556m5CJTR9EK1dTrajANyvQD6Axv5x51wTsPQlZYZwAJT7cgPGBOdxCz3S4RP5UlgVWs9kJpnQe7PQN6N3Aw06o90HftsObZqfH6vnNNJiAB758utzXTpYIuXFXZNfKfqA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="932" height="421" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDyenygXw5rpRknJCCyKlnCyD3UM2hfWYKKxys-wPqZgKuXkWX556m5CJTR9EK1dTrajANyvQD6Axv5x51wTsPQlZYZwAJT7cgPGBOdxCz3S4RP5UlgVWs9kJpnQe7PQN6N3Aw06o90HftsObZqfH6vnNNJiAB758utzXTpYIuXFXZNfKfqA" width="545" /></a></div><br /><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-32708833181124621392022-11-16T09:05:00.001-08:002022-11-16T09:05:38.053-08:00NPA SubmissionsThe perfume submissions from the March course have begun arriving! I'm so stinkin' excited! I can't wait to smell what these brilliant people have put together. <div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNOF1Qd6_8VYZnKvlx0ys7d3JnwAxlOgxpTZkgb54eacLHVZKhNRbFWfdUGgqr5F5pd42GoBcYAxZMBymXUH8SbnZKSvCBWD-9XTdgYJzIoRL8q8h5lKuJwZK9hcgG_-LrEgHksGWMzBbLk9OGntVcHcj6vBVcNsCrKaqnGCwNni0pb9RNw/s816/313338950_566180895507744_2636560747382973599_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="448" height="588" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNOF1Qd6_8VYZnKvlx0ys7d3JnwAxlOgxpTZkgb54eacLHVZKhNRbFWfdUGgqr5F5pd42GoBcYAxZMBymXUH8SbnZKSvCBWD-9XTdgYJzIoRL8q8h5lKuJwZK9hcgG_-LrEgHksGWMzBbLk9OGntVcHcj6vBVcNsCrKaqnGCwNni0pb9RNw/w323-h588/313338950_566180895507744_2636560747382973599_n.jpg" width="323" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-65460774195641706492022-11-13T10:38:00.000-08:002022-11-13T10:38:08.173-08:00School<div style="text-align: justify;">Some of my students put me to absolute shame with their astounding description writing abilities. If I read it, and I'm there, fully immersed, smelling the soil and the water and the moss as they paint this picture with words, then I get a feeling of satisfaction -- not for myself, but for them, that they get it, they understood the assignment and took off running with it. This can all turn to disappointment if for all of their pretty words they send me a final perfume that doesn't quite meet the expectations they have set. This doesn't happen as often as it did nearly 15 years ago, but every once in a while, one will 'phone in' their last assignment due to exhaustion or overconfidence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is a student who is very practical, very left-brain, who every so often complained that they didn't get it, they didn't understand why they needed to know how to 'feel' the work that they do. With some encouragement, they finally got it, though still, their work was very meticulous and scientific and only slightly embellished. But they got it. The finished perfumes they submitted were where the beauty of their talent really lived -- some of the most exquisite and beautifully constructed first-time perfumes I've ever smelled. One I could compare to L'Artisan's 'Tea for Two' but with a beautifully turbulent, natural edge. And the essay they submitted with their work was just as exquisite with their realization that their right brain was well-engaged and had taken control of the work they submitted. This is also very satisfying. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am so proud of my students. They are the reason I get out of bed most mornings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPxqV5w6jeCX58fUeSlLxiD_LUpM386ete5sL5fndcszdW_88KRHePmodjMZmAS1WPNIXHXXPO-tRnqke5Hd7-5BhLBH9i_0wbyfLcHkYe8m6KlAa2dE5trfvatK3LE6Z3rvGcHfvfif5p1jPIfK9tbbW9zpETwcIwEi5IiGGeNudMuhR1GQ/s1920/basil-gbbaf6c758_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPxqV5w6jeCX58fUeSlLxiD_LUpM386ete5sL5fndcszdW_88KRHePmodjMZmAS1WPNIXHXXPO-tRnqke5Hd7-5BhLBH9i_0wbyfLcHkYe8m6KlAa2dE5trfvatK3LE6Z3rvGcHfvfif5p1jPIfK9tbbW9zpETwcIwEi5IiGGeNudMuhR1GQ/s320/basil-gbbaf6c758_1920.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-18529360277467992662022-11-09T14:02:00.003-08:002022-11-09T14:03:57.422-08:00Fuzzy Ylang-Ylang<div style="text-align: justify;">This will teach me to use anecdotal material to teach. Years ago when I first started with natural perfumery, I discovered that a couple of bottles of ylang-ylang oil that were stored in the refrigerator became cloudy and almost jelly-like. They came from either Eden Botanicals or White Lotus Aromatics as those were the only two reliable sources for me at the time. I asked around to my perfumery peers if they were having the same thing happen with their ylang-ylang, and a few of them did, so I took that as a definite 'ylang-ylang gels or clouds in the cold'. Well, now I can't get any of my samples to gel, but they did leak a lot! So it isn't common, it was just those particular bottles, and I'm going to assume, which, if I'm being honest, I shouldn't, that my peers also sourced from the same places. I proceeded to do a bit of research and came up empty-handed on the ylang-ylang gellification process. Strike anecdotal information down. If yours gels or clouds, let me know. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-cAKGebQwvKZia6r6lRWY1OlnyV6HuWMOco1DVTShwcYMqZAQdGO8DNylmouz8eaJO-EhwzK4ydgfWjZa7SWmQR2U09Iw6Fr9nFvRPPHr9TYPL1ZVUPgG9y-r294vuxJm4gcl8lsWw2j7r1kdE66_1aT6P5ZLZBkqaOWVvkv-5iaLY7rDWg/s1920/ylang-ylang-g91a263313_1920.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-cAKGebQwvKZia6r6lRWY1OlnyV6HuWMOco1DVTShwcYMqZAQdGO8DNylmouz8eaJO-EhwzK4ydgfWjZa7SWmQR2U09Iw6Fr9nFvRPPHr9TYPL1ZVUPgG9y-r294vuxJm4gcl8lsWw2j7r1kdE66_1aT6P5ZLZBkqaOWVvkv-5iaLY7rDWg/w506-h337/ylang-ylang-g91a263313_1920.jpg" width="506" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-24067379535591521572022-11-08T11:12:00.002-08:002022-11-08T11:12:49.853-08:00Stinky Slippers<p style="text-align: justify;">I finally hit 1000 words on DabbleWriter to qualify for the $20 discount for full membership, then I transferred all the stuff I'd done on Word to the Dabble outline and I now have 12,881 words. And that's all just outline. I still have no clue how much they want to charge for this program, so I may end up dropping it and going back to Scrivener, as difficult as book-building is there. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">One of my APW students is a chemist who is now diving deep into perfume chemistry of the natural sort and is working out a natural fixative that works better than what we have available to us now. I can't wait to see what he discovers. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I woke this morning in the middle of a weird dream (more on that in a second) by one of our arsehole cats plucking at the closed door trying to get in. She's never done this before, so I got up anticipating a hungry starved cat and what I got was a hi, hello, how ya doin' cat, that, honestly, I wanted to push down the stairs, but instead cuddled with for the remaining 15 minutes before the official alarm went off. But that dream -- I haven't had a weird dream like this in a long, long time. I was with Jeanne Rose and we were hanging out at a public pool in San Francisco. It was dark, and it seemed like everybody there wanted a piece of her, coming up to get autographs and talk about herbs or aromatherapy, and she seemed super annoyed by it all. There was a point during the dream when she scolded me for wearing stinky slippers to the pool, and I could actually, in my sleep, smell those slippers. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Going back to the basics of NP, I've found that the most remarkable scents are those that are simple. But it all starts with beautiful raw materials. It doesn't work with standardized essential oils or poorly distilled materials. It always begins with fantastic quality. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">That is all for now.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-17129820660599119352022-11-07T10:16:00.001-08:002023-02-15T08:34:22.464-08:00Inconvenient Little Truths<div style="text-align: justify;">So, after consulting with a perfumery chemist I learned that, no, Schiff bases cannot be made with naturals in the way that I define them. However, they can be made with naturals AND natural isolates. I was reminded by the said chemist that "Despite how you feel about them, natural isolates are natural." Right. I still feel that they aren't quite natural. But it won't stop me from creating at least one natural/natural isolate Schiff base just to say I have. Beyond that, what naturals can do falls more or less into the arena of material dynamics. Primary material dynamics are those combinations that are expected, such as butter CO2 and vanilla creating a caramel note. Secondary material dynamics are those combinations of natural essential oils, absolutes, tinctures, et al (natural, natural, natural) whose results are unexpected. Like frankincense and white sage sometimes creating a gardenia-like scent. Over the past 15 years or so, I've had very little time to experiment on long-term projects, those that require hundreds of hours of sonication and warming and just time in general to reach their peak. I've also slowed way down on the tincture gig. I want to explore more CO2 alcohol extractions (using the whip-it thing). I've just run across a couple of years-old extraction and tincture of Chamaebatia foliolosa. The CO2 alc. extraction is still clear and smells exactly like the plant material, and the tincture is a bit darker than it was at the beginning, and it, too, smells exactly like the plant material. This darkened discolorization is oxidation, so now I'm not sure if it's even useful. The CO2 alcohol results, though, are impressive. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anyway, I kind of got off track there -- the point I'm making is that experimentation will be ramping up, and I'm hitting the books. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's funny -- well, not "haha" funny, but odd-funny, that I'm not the only person within my sphere of friends and acquaintances doing this. Dropping just about everything to dig deeper, experiment, learn more and solidify theories into facts. I love this, but it's a poor woman's work. While I toil away in the lab, my bank account shrinks, so I have to come up with creative ways to generate more income. I'm working on that.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGhabG5hYa3ZieH9Z2ieioxyOVukRbjNGcdB_poEOQLG-6kyfH-4XfWgXCzp42WiCzR5EYdla1dRCOThcvotWAT_mtj_XHWuwyPPMnzk54fUwGBv2KaNNeQ2Px8QrLe_pC2uEuNufnMtRVAIwsDg5E5Y8m15QBdk12fVvlQsG6nhWwoLZ7_Q/s1920/trees-g7d4748e86_1920.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" height="359" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGhabG5hYa3ZieH9Z2ieioxyOVukRbjNGcdB_poEOQLG-6kyfH-4XfWgXCzp42WiCzR5EYdla1dRCOThcvotWAT_mtj_XHWuwyPPMnzk54fUwGBv2KaNNeQ2Px8QrLe_pC2uEuNufnMtRVAIwsDg5E5Y8m15QBdk12fVvlQsG6nhWwoLZ7_Q/w540-h359/trees-g7d4748e86_1920.jpg" width="540" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-38760566834734614062022-11-03T11:59:00.003-07:002022-11-13T10:39:15.620-08:00Schiff Bases & Etsy Pressures<div style="text-align: justify;">Tuberose has been renamed <i>Agave amica</i> from the previous <i>Polianthus tuberosa</i>. Some botanists hashed it out and published the new nomenclature in Phytotaxa, <i>Vol. 306 No. 3: 12 May 2017</i>. Make a note. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">These taxonomy changes happen every so often, and most suppliers are slow to pick up the new Latin when they do. It's best to use both the old and the new when listing the raw material to avoid confusion, just until everyone gets used to the change. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's been a busy research morning, and it's not even remotely over yet. I even used my own book, WTB II, as a reference! Now I'm jumping down the Schiff base rabbit hole. That ought to keep me busy for a minute. I have gathered the materials necessary to potentially create a few Schiff bases, all that's left, after the mixing, is to wait and evaporate, and in some cases, heat and evaporate. Since there is almost nothing to be found online about creating Schiff bases using naturals, I'm going to have to dive into experimentation to find out if it can even be done. Time seems to be the major component here, and if you know me, you know patience isn't a virtue that I possess in abundance.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">UPDATE! 11-6-2022 I spoke with a perfumery chemist friend of mine who says Schiff bases CAN be made with naturals in combination with natural isolates. Tricky little tightrope, that. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of my favorite soapmakers, Anastasia, aka eleneetha on Etsy, has packed up her soap molds, probably permanently for all online purchasing. I understand the pressure she is under 100%. Etsy's system of ranking sellers with their star seller awards, and customer service badges -- it's a lot. Not to mention the increase in costs from listing prices to transaction fees and processing fees, and they're always pushing sellers to offer deep discounts and free shipping on just about everything. If you're dealing in high-quality, top-drawer stuff combined with Etsy's depressing system of rewarding an artist for good behavior on their platform -- well, like I said, it's a lot. And then there are the reviews. All it takes is for someone to just not like what you sent and nothing else; a matter of 'just not my cup of tea' giving your shop a one or two-star rating to ruin the whole thing, as well as temporarily tank your confidence. I could rail for paragraphs about the stupid reasons someone gave me a lower-than-5-star rating, but what's the point? People do jerky stuff and don't think of the consequences their opinion has on the seller. I've done this to other sellers myself because I was having a bad day or really felt they hadn't given it their best effort, and I regret it now having been on the receiving end more than once. I've not done it since without good reason, such as a total misrepresentation of the items purchased, or really long shipping times (really long = 30 days+) without any communication from the seller. And last, and perhaps the most important, is the pressure from so-called loyal customers to make, make, make, to the point of threatening to buy elsewhere if they feel unheard, leave a bad review with a low-star rating, or worse, creating the thing they requested and letting them know it's available only to have them respond with, "Oh, thanks, but I don't really want it anymore." That's happened more times than I can count over the past 16 years on Etsy. You would think I'd know better, get a deposit or something. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">See? Told you I could go on and on with this. Oh! And one more thing -- the raw materials to make all these wonderful aromatic goods has gone up three times what they were in 2020, some well into the prohibitively expensive bracket. So there is that too.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-22787372831542133432022-11-01T14:08:00.000-07:002022-11-01T14:08:11.585-07:00Not the Mummy<p style="text-align: justify;">Blargh, what a day! Just spent 20 minutes writing a blog post here, editing the tar out of it, and then went right on ahead and accidentally deleted it. It was good, too. You would have liked it. I talked about overcoming my natural inclination to procrastinate, and how I wrote a new policies document, spending two hours putting it together only to edit it to death, providing about a minute's worth of reading, two if you're a slow reader. Some actual clever stuff was tossed in there too, like how there aren't many, if any, worthy natural perfumery podcasts, and those that do exist rehash the same old blah blah blah we were reading or gossiping about 20 years ago. I wrote about finding inspiration and how it always seems like the reason you can't find it is because something is missing; a book, a good podcast, some helpful writing, or a tasty aromatic. Anyway. Why whine about being a dork and hitting the refresh button instead of the go-back button? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Part of the procrastination bit I wrote about originally was how, during the course of research for natural perfumery information, I slipped -- okay, I dove head first -- down a rabbit hole that began with Mark Twain and interestingly ended with some light research of the mythical mummy paper of 1855. The so-called proof of this paper's existence came from Mark Twain, likely it was a satirical embellishment, and was later debunked by someone else claiming any evidence of its existence has never, ever been found, except for maybe two or three pieces of the "mummy paper" which cannot be tested without destroying the proof itself. If it is true that paper was once made from the sale of mummies in Egypt to American papermakers, I am horrified, but also not surprised given the disregard for cultures other than our own that persisted then, and still today. If it's all a bit of satire, then I am relieved, and also amused. But again, I wouldn't be surprised that paper was made with mummy wrappings as there is proof that mummies were ground to dust and used as a medicinal, or that, lacking the actual mummy, the skin of Egyptian homeless was passed off as such. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGO4L3lZ66t8GG49Jb2x4OpX42VESprSgvx7FnH8E1X5vab04_QqCDsNk5PbmykeuuPVZAtrEe6ZycHxpFyGb96L7WKew6kK73zP6z1GLnv3DpbwWa5R2YT82IvK079UlG_tkFPX105mUt_-8hF3f_lcqUdHr1F0tbchB3KyD-UuPlw0G8ZQ/s1920/woven-g8999fa5d2_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1438" data-original-width="1920" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGO4L3lZ66t8GG49Jb2x4OpX42VESprSgvx7FnH8E1X5vab04_QqCDsNk5PbmykeuuPVZAtrEe6ZycHxpFyGb96L7WKew6kK73zP6z1GLnv3DpbwWa5R2YT82IvK079UlG_tkFPX105mUt_-8hF3f_lcqUdHr1F0tbchB3KyD-UuPlw0G8ZQ/s320/woven-g8999fa5d2_1920.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-65802555835875109772022-10-31T12:26:00.000-07:002022-10-31T12:26:06.067-07:00Happy Hallowe'en!<div style="text-align: justify;">Happy and blessed Hallowe'en! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I don't dress up for Hallowe'en anymore as I appear to be dressed for Hallowe'en most days of the year anyway. The last time I intentionally dressed up for the holiday, I trick-or-treated with my grands wearing a pickle costume. The dressing up and decorating is for them, not me, as the older I become, the more I place a spiritual bent on the holiday, one revering my beloved dead and conferring with the old gods and goddesses, and the spirits of the plants and animals around me. I wish that someone had told me that this is what this holiday was really about when I was a child because I would have dug into it and trick-or-treating would have been the least exciting thing about it. You come home, dump the enormous pillowcase of candy out on the kitchen table, wade through the good stuff, separate the bad stuff, sort the chocolates out, eat a few pieces, then take a bath and wash the paint and hairspray out and go to bed. Finito. But with a real Hallowe'en celebration, there are candles and music and bonfires and food. And the ancestors to keep you company. This goes on for a couple of days, the reverie, the dreams with the ghosts of your people walking through. And more than anything else, there is love. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmC6T9tJ8llacNK6xSo3exW0iS18GHri3HhAerj58xPDbyDObBu0Qns6weRWp5YJUHWiq3VizJceriLY3cA0A7RWtTN1uoGZhLu3ldfxwyMaa1_qDkfDFIf8OvLs1sNh8-Hdkll12MUYgolJcJN42WA509DGBH4Lv1k175ubEgOEqgpFqSBA/s824/black%20cat%20with%20violin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="526" height="803" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmC6T9tJ8llacNK6xSo3exW0iS18GHri3HhAerj58xPDbyDObBu0Qns6weRWp5YJUHWiq3VizJceriLY3cA0A7RWtTN1uoGZhLu3ldfxwyMaa1_qDkfDFIf8OvLs1sNh8-Hdkll12MUYgolJcJN42WA509DGBH4Lv1k175ubEgOEqgpFqSBA/w512-h803/black%20cat%20with%20violin.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-2419563539699294252022-10-30T13:10:00.001-07:002022-10-30T13:10:08.948-07:00Heritage<div style="text-align: justify;">A report just came out on October 27th about how the Grasse, France fragrant plant extract yields are down 40% due to drought and rising temperatures, and it got me thinking that instead of freaking the hell out, why not figure it out? So I started poking around on the internet to see what, besides losing one's mind, could be done, and it's pretty clear that the "fix" will be found in technology and advanced growing practices, like vertical farms. This year, my garden-growing child and I will be using vertical growing techniques to maximize the space in our wee backyard food garden to grow tuberose, and will eventually use space in the garage to continue the experiment with indoor vertical growing to further maximize yield. Duplicate the exact temperatures, water volume, and soil conditions where these gorgeous florals grow best. Well, as much as we can with our limited funding and expertise. It's worth a shot, right? For now, though, it's an outdoor operation. I've always got decent yields from my tuberose bed until this past year. Not a single sprouted bulb produced a flower stalk. It could be that the bulbs were old and done, or it could be that my persistent pleas to water the tuberose went unheeded, or it could be the soil was depleted of the proper nutrients or ... well, it could have been all or a combination of these and other factors, like heat, the bottom line is that there was no tuberose harvest. No tuberose enfleurage. I have always, as a rule, instructed my students to grow as much of their own perfumery plants as possible, if not to harvest and use in their work, but to at least study and smell the live plant or flowers as a tool to help ensure the same extract of the plant or flower bought from a supplier can be reasonably determined to be real or not real. Vertical growing in small spaces could be the answer to some of these students' limited growing spaces.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the cons of working with naturals is this issue of yield per acre, water needs per acre, environmental impacts, and on and on. Natural perfumers are mocked and denounced at nearly every European perfumery convention and these are the dog whistle issues they spout to do it, while on the other hand they virtue signal about the efforts they take to preserve perfumery's heritage by supporting (and purchasing) fields and fields and fields of natural perfumery materials around the world. The real issue is that they think it's their heritage, and not ours. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifVOJM8w3Zhmwf5tkWtxVLt1e2Nb9_HCxlck-taEMwXxiKPVVGzoXAP1nPWUL07Ydhvpvwl7LeKh-s8J1vMUqx_Dd3OK7vQXxDX4eoSsuv3EyeGMRg4cFpfa6dRA4AlW0oBinqePemMO5BXyail57KaBXVJjqb61rhy-m3N4NJEsB8s4gCNw/s1920/flower-geeba8fc61_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1920" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifVOJM8w3Zhmwf5tkWtxVLt1e2Nb9_HCxlck-taEMwXxiKPVVGzoXAP1nPWUL07Ydhvpvwl7LeKh-s8J1vMUqx_Dd3OK7vQXxDX4eoSsuv3EyeGMRg4cFpfa6dRA4AlW0oBinqePemMO5BXyail57KaBXVJjqb61rhy-m3N4NJEsB8s4gCNw/s320/flower-geeba8fc61_1920.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-2384211955818291422022-10-28T11:27:00.000-07:002022-10-28T11:27:16.421-07:00In Loving Memory<div style="text-align: justify;">It's official! The Scented Djinn Etsy shop is in vacation mode until next year! Don't get me wrong, I am a little worried I'll lose momentum or have a financial crisis or . . . something, but I feel better about doing this than I do about not doing it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I found out that I cannot download my Scrivener app onto my Chromebook, which I've been working on the most lately, so I sought out another Scrivener-like app that does work on Chromebook and found DabbleWriter.com. It isn't as complicated as Scrivener or as useful in some respects, but it sets everything up nicely and is a far better book-writing format than Word docs turned to PDFs which always messed up the formatting further. I was thinking of making two books, one on incense and incense making, and another on natural perfume and natural perfume making, but now I'm thinking of making these two books into one. They are the same thing, yes? Now that I've made that decision, it feels like the tangled and thorny path to finish just cleared a bit.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Death is so heavily on my mind of late. Not only because of a recent unexpected and deeply tragic passing, but also because it's spooky season, and everything dead is in our faces, from blow-up ghosts and skeletons to meatloaf shaped like zombie heads and cauldrons full of punch with jelly candy eyes and fingers floating about. Because I was thinking of the real death, I was compelled to visit my long-passed relatives in the cemetery, something I have not done in 30 years. My son found my grandparents, and then, thanks to Find A Grave dot com, we located his paternal grandfather and great-grandmother. It is difficult to describe the memories that flooded back. It felt somber yet joyous, we were together again. I do a bit of ancestor veneration, so it felt like I had completed a journey by visiting them in their resting places. I plan to return next week to bring flowers and eggs to grandma, and a Baby Ruth candy bar to grandpa. By the looks of their graves, no one has attended to them in a long time. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One other thing I find fascinating about visiting cemeteries is the names on the grave markers. One, in particular from yesterday's visit, stuck with me. It was a lady whose given name was Icy. Apparently, Icy was a common name from around the 1880s to roughly the beginning of the 1920s. Icy Mae, Icy Pearl, Icy June (now that's a cool one, no pun intended). I found a Fayola and a Flavel, a Fern and a Fonnie. There was a Creed, a Coy, a Eula, and an Amert. I don't know why, but I find these names to be a bit magical. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What's in a name? Everything.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZZwIpDhHvPq_fNR9nr7OdvVbTS6yfUtSJWBJxK9pDtr0kCXkRJZLD3FJFPPGUTZH1ehITkEs6qGwnyynUXitNIHstOuIsX9zLVTq-4CsX5vNi9pk7m1jr9ITDITGvFQNx6tL-haGN5-YWqkNsFVsymzx_AM80gJM_bf5ii1jpyd3W9ceS5w/s1920/loving-1207568_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1437" data-original-width="1920" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZZwIpDhHvPq_fNR9nr7OdvVbTS6yfUtSJWBJxK9pDtr0kCXkRJZLD3FJFPPGUTZH1ehITkEs6qGwnyynUXitNIHstOuIsX9zLVTq-4CsX5vNi9pk7m1jr9ITDITGvFQNx6tL-haGN5-YWqkNsFVsymzx_AM80gJM_bf5ii1jpyd3W9ceS5w/w505-h378/loving-1207568_1920.jpg" width="505" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19154645.post-19127065302045331292022-10-27T08:34:00.002-07:002022-10-27T08:34:35.344-07:00PSA<p style="text-align: justify;">Hug the youngsters in your life. Talk to them, really listen, and teach them how to cope with this crazy world as best as they can. Love them. Help them get the resources they need before it's too late. Stop giving a crap about what the neighbors will think or how the problems seem enormous and insurmountable because when it comes right down to the bones of it, love is all that matters. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">988</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw6LBDM0L_U-o2o67YILVABcmRruVLMXAkhdVgzhdAUvj3l1L-GPLYHP9xMeb-zBaSWKsXbrcSJjX_3vFL2tn2TVAO7lYC_v0hE1-RE_-MJwVhEKwhRagTAIYlKrye4FKd3vmxAiAskQQbdlOCPY-861dRMKbNiIGgkWqtnwoWJo8pho9YGg/s1920/yellow-rose-6162613_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1282" data-original-width="1920" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw6LBDM0L_U-o2o67YILVABcmRruVLMXAkhdVgzhdAUvj3l1L-GPLYHP9xMeb-zBaSWKsXbrcSJjX_3vFL2tn2TVAO7lYC_v0hE1-RE_-MJwVhEKwhRagTAIYlKrye4FKd3vmxAiAskQQbdlOCPY-861dRMKbNiIGgkWqtnwoWJo8pho9YGg/w526-h352/yellow-rose-6162613_1920.jpg" width="526" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0