The Arty Soaper

Aromatic tincturing - The Butterfly Bush

Posted by Titanium Wild , 10 August 2012 3:36:00 pm

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