Day 88 ~ One Year, One Nose
Day 88 ~ Lavender CO2 Select, Bulgarian
Many raw materials in natural botanical perfumery take me by surprise, even what appears to be somewhat pedestrian, like this lavender CO2 select from White Lotus Aromatics, circa 2005 (from the bag(s) of Aromatic Wonders) that I have sitting in front of me. It's been warm here in the valley the past few days, up in the 90's (phew!) and I've noticed with the warmer temperatures, this lovely creamy CO2 has become more fluid and less 'sticky'. When I first received the bottle, it was somewhat cooler and the lavender CO2 clung to the inside of the bottle like a lovely homemade sugar syrup. It was intriguing to me, the heaviness, the substantive clinginess; it's luxuriously thick, like a wonderfully beneficial serum. The scent is unbelievably magical, as if a bundle of freshly cut violet and green lavender buds have been thrust under your nose. I'm typically not a big fan of lavender since I've kind of worn myself out on the scent, having made probably close to 100 total pounds of handmade lavender soap in the past 15 or so years -- ordinary. Plain Jane.
Not so this lavender. It is sweet and creamy and and herbal and fresh-cut floral. It reminds me of spending the day at my friend Shannon's harvesting lavender into bundles and shaking the flower buds into bowls for sachets. Overwhelmingly intoxicating with high floral notes and low, if any, camphor or pine needle notes. A simply gorgeous, extraordinary, enveloping lavender.
I take back something I wrote here earlier -- I find no raw material 'pedestrian' in the sense that they are throw-aways, not meaningful, or useless to a perfumer's palette. I feel that pretty much any raw material can be implemented gracefully into a composition, even those notes which are deemed offensive (valerian, hyraceum, goat), it just takes a cautious and well-tuned hand to present them.
Many raw materials in natural botanical perfumery take me by surprise, even what appears to be somewhat pedestrian, like this lavender CO2 select from White Lotus Aromatics, circa 2005 (from the bag(s) of Aromatic Wonders) that I have sitting in front of me. It's been warm here in the valley the past few days, up in the 90's (phew!) and I've noticed with the warmer temperatures, this lovely creamy CO2 has become more fluid and less 'sticky'. When I first received the bottle, it was somewhat cooler and the lavender CO2 clung to the inside of the bottle like a lovely homemade sugar syrup. It was intriguing to me, the heaviness, the substantive clinginess; it's luxuriously thick, like a wonderfully beneficial serum. The scent is unbelievably magical, as if a bundle of freshly cut violet and green lavender buds have been thrust under your nose. I'm typically not a big fan of lavender since I've kind of worn myself out on the scent, having made probably close to 100 total pounds of handmade lavender soap in the past 15 or so years -- ordinary. Plain Jane.
Not so this lavender. It is sweet and creamy and and herbal and fresh-cut floral. It reminds me of spending the day at my friend Shannon's harvesting lavender into bundles and shaking the flower buds into bowls for sachets. Overwhelmingly intoxicating with high floral notes and low, if any, camphor or pine needle notes. A simply gorgeous, extraordinary, enveloping lavender.
I take back something I wrote here earlier -- I find no raw material 'pedestrian' in the sense that they are throw-aways, not meaningful, or useless to a perfumer's palette. I feel that pretty much any raw material can be implemented gracefully into a composition, even those notes which are deemed offensive (valerian, hyraceum, goat), it just takes a cautious and well-tuned hand to present them.
I completely agree with you...every natural aromatic has something to offer if we only learn to work with it.
ReplyDeleteI love lavender absolute and CO2 extract, and even though I'm also rather bored with the ssential oil, the truth is I couldn't live without it!
Marina~