Working on the Base Formulation for a Lovely Kyphi Perfume Oil and Body Balm

Fall is coming, I can feel it in my ... sinuses! I've been working on a Kyphi project, not a Kyphi incense, but a Kyphi perfume oil. I've been asked repeatedly to do this, and I just didn't give the requests much credence before. I am now because of the change in direction with the biz and all. Again, I reiterate, I'm not out of the smells business, just not the froo-froo bottles and accoutrements that go with high dollar alcohol-based natural perfumes. I've got this really cool idea to make bath bombs again and calling them Djinn Fizzies. Y'know, like a sloe gin fizz? Or maybe you don't know. Sloe gin was really popular back in the 40's and 50's, gin made with sloe berries tasted a little bit like cough syrup, which is why you cut that medicinal bit with some carbonation (the fizz). Back when I was a youngster hanging out with the older crowd, we'd hit up a steakhouse in the oldest part of Fresno where the owners would freely and without question serve me and my equally underage best friend cocktails. We got talked into sloe gin fizzes and the rest was history. Well, not really. That was the only time in my life I ever drank them, but the fun established through those drinks remains firmly branded in my old brain. To make a sloe gin fizz, you'll need two ounces of sloe gin (pretty red wine colored alcohol) poured over two or three ice cubes, one ounce lemon juice, one ounce of simple syrup (more sugar!), and top off the glass with soda water, the fresher the better. If you've a mind to be silly, make sure the glass is very sturdy, heavy bottomed, place your palm over the opening of the drink, then holding the glass with the other hand, bonk the bottom of the glass onto the counter (make sure that won't break either), so the bubbles erupt, then drink it all down in one shot. Anyway, now that you've had your alcohol lesson for the day, let me move onto what I was originally talking about -- Djinn Fizzies for the tub.

 I made a lot of bath bombs back when I ran Delicia, the skincare store in the Tower District. Lots. We had buckets of those babies -- Hot Buttered Hippie, Your Mama Wears Jasmine loaded with real jasmine grandiflorum absolute and sparkling green and pink glitter; Ylang-Ylang; Caramelita with shea butter, burnt sugar, and jasmine grandiflorum; Meditatio with frankincense, myrrh, pink grapefruit, santal, and bergamot; Evangeline with bergamot, lemongrass, ylang and geranium. There was also Antonia, Mocha, Padrino, Stella Negro, Stella Vermiglio, Aromatizzare (clove, frankincense, bergamot), Seaweed, Sophia (rose and vanilla) -- we were the bath bomb hub in our little corner of the world. The problem was the molds. We were using those Christmas ball molds, the ones where you put your own Christmas whatever inside and snap the two halves back together. They wore out quickly. Then we had a mold that made bath bombs the size of a newborn baby's head. No kidding. You could almost go bowling with those bath bombs. Then space became an issue again once the store front shut down, I didn't have anywhere to store the big bags of raw materials necessary to make the bath bombs, plus I kept getting requests for plain vanilla or plain chocolate and that got boring very quickly. I don't do plain well. Then I really got caught up in the perfumery biz and let all the other fabulous stuff I made go by the wayside. Well, it's coming back! I can't help myself. The scent formulations will be much more complex and perfumey than what I did before, but that's okay, right?

So soon on the menu will be Djinn Fizzies in varying scent combinations, and Kyphi Perfume Oils. I've been treating the Kyphi perfume oil formulation with the same reverence I do when I make incense. Each oil is given a day to meld and marry into the whole, I play soothing music, burn incense, have a 7-day candle burning, and repeat the process daily, adding one more oil to the formula. The current Kyphi Perfume Oil formulation I'm working on is based on a more traditional Egyptian style Kyphi recipe. Thus far it contains three different frankincense oils, two myrrh oils, and a vintage lemongrass oil. Next up is the cognac (wine element), then galangal, calamus, santal, mastic, and more. So far it smells very cathedral.