Zombie Water

So the students at the Academy are at the part of the course where they learn to make Florida Water using some purchased items, eo's and absolutes, and some tinctures. It's also the only exercise where using drinking alcohol is allowed. Florida Water is mostly water, and as a cologne/splash, it's meant to be used up quickly. Added water in natural perfumes causes esterification, a process of degradation of the materials within the perfume, which is why we recommend not including water in any formulation, regardless of its grade (parfum, Eau de parfum, Eau de toilette, cologne, splash). Esterification changes the chemical composition of the materials to the point where a perfume that was crystal clear for months suddenly changes color and develops 'floaters', but it also can create beautiful openings to a perfume -- so a little esterification is okay, a lot is disastrous. This happens a lot with hydrosols when they aren't properly stored or dispensed. I had a hydrosol of neroli that I purchased from a well-known company that went from clear to brown in a matter of four months from the date of purchase. I know this company doesn't sell crap, so I assume that the change occurred due to an operator error (mine) in opening and dispensing the hydrosol into sprayers for personal use. Reminder to myself and others, always wear gloves and a mask and be sure to properly clean any pipettes inserted into the hydrosol when dispensing, even if it's your own personal stash and you're not planning to sell the stuff. It's lab work, treat it as such. Esterified perfumes don't smell good, either. They take on a swampy note and are only useful if you're making perfume for zombies and ghouls. 

Florida Water recipes vary from source to source, but just about everybody agrees that there are key components to a good Florida Water recipe -- citrus, lavender, jasmine, neroli, rose, some type of spice, usually cinnamon or cloves, and a musk component. Most, if not all, of the floral notes are washes or tinctures and not whole materials, and just about everything is highly, highly diluted. It is possible to create an entire Florida Water composition using tinctures of everything. I've used a CO2 alcohol extraction to create a few of the materials used in Florida Water. Every year I purchase crates of bergamot oranges from a grower not far from here and process the citrus differently every year. Some years I make bergamot marmalade, dry the peels for tinctures or incense, and save the juice for a spiced-up lavender lemonade, and other years I distill them for tiny bits of oil and liters of hydrosol. When making Florida Water, I tinctured some of the bergamot peel and then ran it through the CO2 dispenser to get every last molecule of scent out of the peel, and that was used as the base and body of the perfume. When most of the perfume was done, I added a few cloves, and a stick of cinnamon, a handful of organically grown lavender buds from my garden and set the entire composition in the ultrasonic for a few hours before straining and setting it aside. Zero water was included. 

Now that I think about it, Zombie Water might be a thing.