The actual making of the melts is a very simple process, but the fragrancing, that is something else.
Although the pictures that accompany this post focus on the physical process, the conceptual process begins with me putting on my mad perfumers hat on and grabbing a pad & pen, scribbling notes and sniffing various essential oils, all the time thinking of the type of aroma and ambient atmosphere I wish to create.
My latest 2 varieties, Auburn Angel, and Tuscana are both quite earthy, but each with it's own characteristics.....artisan melts with unique blends.
Auburn Angel is warm and sultry, spicy and enticing, with ginger and geranium the main act.
Tuscana evokes images of wandering aimlessly through Italian orange groves...sweet orange the top player here, supported by petitgrain and patchouli.
I choose not to colour my melts, I like them pure with natural fragrancing only.
Below are images of the finished products.
Genus Buddleja Davidii, this gorgeous aromatic beauty lives in my back garden. As it's name suggests, it attracts butterflies(and bees and other insects too)....infact, the scent is like a drug to them, and if you were to sit in my garden during a balmy summer evening, you'd understand why.
The scent is hypnotic, sweet tea surrounded by a honey glaze with a hint of ripe fruit. It's glorious, and i love it. It is(due to space constraints) the only scented plant I own, and as part of my journey along the route of natural perfumery I wanted to try to capture this aroma for myself.
Tincturing aromatic material is new to me, although as a child I used to shove rose petals unceremoniously into a jar of water and hope to yield perfume. Ofcourse, this didn't work, BUT it shows that even then I was fascinated by the art of capturing natural aromas, I just saw it in base childlike terms rather than the more sophisticated adventure I find myself on now.
This time of year is perfect for harvesting the scent filled flowers of the Butterfly Bush, so I collected a decent amount, ever mindful of leaving plenty for the butterflies and bees who rely upon this lovely plant.
Tincturing needs to be done with alcohol(either perfumers alcohol(NOT rubbing alcohol) or the highest proof pure alcohol you can find) in order to extract the aromatics from the plant, and so into a little pot I put some of my harvested flowers, filling it to the brim with the alcohol. Now, I must stress here that I am new to this, and therefore used barely 100ml of alcohol....I didn't want to waste it if I did something wrong!!
I have to say, that after only 2 days, there is a distinct sweet aroma being extracted from the flowers.....I'm like the proverbial child now, excited and full of inspiration for what I could do with the tinctured material once I've exhausted my supply of aromatic material and extracted as much 'perfume' as I possibly can.
I have some Violet Leaf Absolute on order from
Fresholi and I'm hoping that this may compliment the sweetness of the buddleja tincture and I may be on my way to making my first natural perfume using aromatics I've created myself.
Until next time
Beth
Firstly, helloooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! Not blogged for an absolute age, but I'm back, athough if Blogger keeps behaving like a petulant child on the naughty step, I'll be moving this blog and it's content over th Wordpress.
Secondly, one significant(for me) piece of news. I'm now a very proud member of the
Natural Perfumers Guild. I won this through a competition on the Natural Perfumers yahoo group run by
Anya McCoy.
In my absence from the blog, I've grown increasingly more interested in making my own natural perfumes, alongside my melts which I currently sell, and my soaps etc which I hope to have for sale later in the year.
Perfumery is fascinating to me, nature has such an amazing array of wonderful scents to explore and utilise, the possibilities for developing your own unique creations are endless.
As funds are limited I am currently relying upon my essential oil collection for inspiration, but I will branch out into resins/absolutes/concretes etc when I'm able to do so, as well as attempting to tincture my own aromatic materials.
With all this in mind, I set about trying to create my own interpretation of the classic chypre theme. Now, classically chypre has a base of oakmoss and labdanum, niether of which I have! I do, however, have patchouli and vetiver which are also used for this particular olfactory family.
Beginning with a basic 3 tier fragrance containing clary, cypress and patch, I add geranium and bergamot(another classic chypre inclusion). This seemed to accentuate the 'green' notes within the aroma, and created quite a sharp opening, rather like the scent of a flower stem when it's first cut.
Adding a little more patchouli helped diifuse some of that sharpness without losing the green note, which I wanted to retain.
To this I added a hint of lemon, which seemed to do nothing, so I added a bit more....now I have a much sweeter 'green' note, similar in some regards to cut grass. Extra clary and cypress is added at this point, along with a teeny bit of black pepper. This creates a little spicy intrigue, enhancing the lemony accents, and marrying the base with the additional aromatics.
I feel that at this point I have no smoke, no real substance to the blend, so I add a little extra geranium, and also a touch of vetiver, which seems to overwhelm and dominate the blend, so a touch more patch and clary reins it in somewhat, whilst still keeping that lovely, smokey quality.
A little hint of coriander adds an extra dimension to the blend and there we have it, a rather simple but still nicely aromatic little chypre.
Overall I'm happy with it, for a first attempt I don;t think I did too badly. I do have in my inventory a little sandarac gum, which I may infuse into some oil and use as a base for my creation.
There are so many possibilities to be explored on this olfactory journey and I hope to share a few of them with you.
Til next time.
Beth
