Bellyflowers

Wild Sour Oranges

2012-02-11T17:38:00.000-08:00


Wild Sour Orange Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Florida has held its share of surprises for me but walking through an oak hardwood hammock in the middle of nowhere and finding feral sour orange trees has been one of the best. My husband and I went to the Lakewood Sour Orange Festival today hoping to learn more about sour oranges and perhaps find a small tree for sale to take home. No such luck! We had some really great fried green tomatoes and corndogs on a stick, we visited the quilt show, saw the young girls clog-dancing, and bought some strawberries but the closest we came to sour oranges was the slice of sour orange pie we bought at the quilt show. We learned a bit of sour orange history, however, and were told that most of the sour oranges in the area are growing uncultivated in yards and wild in the surrounding hardwood hammocks or oak-dominated uplands.

Since we didn’t stay long after we finished our fried green tomatoes, we decided to take a hike in the Fisheating Creek Wildlife Management Area and see what kind of birds and such we might see. Fisheating Creek is the only free-flowing tributary into Lake Okeechobee and is important habitat for many native animals and plants. We were just leaving the dry prairie, where we disturbed three turkeys and a crested caracara under the overcast sky, and enjoying the start of the live oaks, palmettos, ferns and Spanish moss when I glimpsed a bit of orange brightening up the normal shades of green and gray found in a hardwood hammock. Nestled underneath a large live oak and with Spanish moss framing the fruit, it was a lovely sight.

Sour Orange Under Live Oak Copyright Elise Pearlstine

After photographing this lovely from every angle, we moved on. As soon as the trees became more abundant, the air a little more moist and we got closer to Fisheating Creek, the sour orange trees became more common. The fruit on most was still a light orange/yellow but we saw a couple with dark orangish-red fruits indicating ripeness. We saw large, old orange trees with foliage growing up into the oak branches, younger trees with 10 foot long new growth reaching to the sky and a couple of small trees likely only a few years old. At one spot on the trail the live oaks made a shady green tunnel bordered by sour oranges and palmettos. We finally reached Fisheating Creek after avoiding one feral hog and rested a bit. We visited the mounds left by the Belle Glade people and watched a pair of bald eagles circling high overhead and calling to each other in their strangely sweet chirps.

Live Oak and Orange Alley Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Sour oranges are the same species as bitter oranges, Citrus aurantium, and originated in southeastern Asia. It was the first orange to reach the New World and was naturalized in Mexico by the 16^th century then arrived in St. Augustine, Florida thanks to the Spaniards. Early settlers and Native Americans adopted the fruit and it can often be found in hammocks on the sites of former Native American dwellings. Sour oranges provided the rootstock for the first sweet orange trees in pioneer dooryards. In addition to central and South America, sour oranges can be found growing wild as far as southern Georgia in the US.

Neroli is derived from bitter orange blossoms and is generally of the type Citrus auranium amara. The leaves are used to produce the petitgrain essential oil called bigarade type. The blossoms are distilled immediately after picking to avoid decay and often the leaves are distilled immediately following. In reading the description from Arctander (see reference below) of neroli he describes a “beautiful blue fluorescence” when neroli oil is dissolved in alcohol that fades away when the solution is aged in daylight. This seems to be a visible sign of the presence of anthranilates in the flower oil. Since neroli oil is somewhat soluble in water, quite a bit of the oil remains in the distillation water thus producing Orange Flower Water. It can either be used as is or further extracted to produce Orange Flower Water Absolute. The quality of neroli oil is highly variable because of the sensitivity to weather and variation in quality between geographic areas.

As for me, I am already thinking about when I can go back to Fisheating Creek to visit the oranges again and look for Florida panthers, said to be expanding into the area.

Arctander, Steffen 1961 Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, . Re-issued by Allured Publishing Corporation in 1994. Carol Stream, IL.

Winners of Vetiver and Pommelo Tincture

2012-02-05T07:09:00.000-08:00


Passion Flower Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Five passionate tincturers are winners of Vetiver Tincture and Pommelo Tincture. Michael S., IlGraham, Chris Schaefer, Zboudreaux and Janet McClary send me an email to claim your prize.

Thanks to everyone who commented - it was fun reading about your tinctures.

Tinctures of Vetiver and Pommelo

2012-01-28T07:09:00.000-08:00

Pommelo and Peels Copyright Elise Pearlstine

With a new shipment of alcohol in hand I couldn’t resist tincturing a couple of new things. The first was a batch of beautiful vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides) roots I got from Anya McCoy of Anya’sGarden Perfumes who lives nearby. Then, as luck would have it, I found pommelo (aka pummelo) fruits (Citrus maxima) in the market. I have been fascinated by pommelos since I wrote a blog in February 2011 and summarized a scientific study of citrus blossoms comparing the scents from a variety of trees. Pommelo blossoms are actually fairly close to neroli blossoms in scent but I wasn’t sure how the fruit oils would compare or whether it would even have a scent. But it seemed like an easy and fun experiment.

Vetiver Roots Copyright Elise Pearlstine

The vetiver roots had already been cleaned and freed from soil but I washed them one more time and dried them in the sun. Interestingly, the smell was stronger after drying in the sun than when they were wet. The pommelos, I had four, I washed carefully and peeled just the outer layer (flavedo) to put in the tincture. They have a very thick albedo which is the white part just under the flavedo (Wikipedia has a nice illustration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_anatomy). Both prepared materials went into their own quart canning jar and were compressed slightly then covered with alcohol and set them in my workroom. Tinctures that are aging always sit by my work bench so I can gently shake them a couple of times a day.

The pommelo tincture quickly became a light green in color and then ended up a brown/orange color. The scent is lightly reminiscent of citrus, somewhat diffusive out of the bottle, and short-lived. As with the Buddha’s hand tincture I did, it would provide a lovely opening citrus note but it only lasts about 10 minutes or so. I left the peels in the tincture for about four days after checking the smell daily. There doesn’t seem to be much development after that time and I am afraid of getting a sour or off note with these. This tincture doesn’t have much smell on my skin but I will enjoy experimenting with it in combination with other citruses.

Pommelo Peel Tincture Copyright Elise Pearlstine

The vetiver tincture immediately exhibited a green, floral vetiver smell that was surprisingly strong. It has gotten a bit stronger in the past week and, just recently, has developed a more earthy note that I expect from vetiver. But it continues to be light and lovely. The vetiver roots are still in the alcohol. Since they don’t contain much water or anything that would spoil I feel I can leave them for a while and hope for a stronger scent. The tincture on my skin is gorgeous but short-lived and stays close. As I, hopefully, get more vetiver roots from the one I have planted I can experiment with tincture lengths and may just try to capture the scent from the first couple of days.

You can find out more about vetiver at vetiver.org. It is used worldwide as a natural soil retention and water purification system. I have also found vetiver roots for sale at various places online. Pommelos are more difficult to find and perhaps not worth the try unless you enjoy the fruit, which I do. They are huge, grapefruit-sized and were actually the ancestor of the grapefruit. The flesh is more sweet than grapefruit and not as juicy and it takes a while to peel and get through the very thick albedo.

Tell me about your experiences tincturing, especially if you have tried citrus or vetiver. Or let us know what tinctures you would like to try yourself. Post here by January 31st and I will randomly select five commenters to receive a small sample of both tinctures. Go over to our Facebook page, comment and/or like us there and you will be entered twice. Winners will be announced on the blog and on our facebook page.

Joy in January Winners!

2012-01-19T10:17:00.000-08:00

Lemon, Lime and Tangelo by Elise Pearlstine

Thank you so much to all who participated in this blogging event! We hope we have brought Joy in January to everyone. I have so enjoyed everyone's posts and all the comments! The winners for my three day draw are below. Please contact me by midnight Friday January 21st at elise@bellyflowers.com to claim your prize.

Day 1: The prize was a 10 ml EdT of either Sun & Flowers or Spiral and the winner is Nekosan.

Day 2: The prize was three of our soaps and the winner is Rosarita.

Day 3: The prize was a 10 ml EdT of either Wild Chypre or Magnolia perfume and the winner is Hemla.

Because the Day 3 comments were so lovely and inspiring, I would love to offer a small lagniappe to all the commenters who shared their way of bringing joy to others. If you commented on the post "Blending at the Top: Citruses and Mints" before the deadline of midnight January 18, 2012 please contact me. I have a little something for you.

Much love and light for this January!

Elise

Blending at the Top – Citruses and Mints

2012-01-18T09:33:00.000-08:00

For my third day of blogging for the Joy in January project from the Natural Perfumers Guild, perfume topnotes like citrus and mint will be the star. Citruses seem to jump right out of the bottle and carry their essence with them. Although short-lived they set the attitude for a perfume and draw you in. Joy in a bottle, uplifting and sparkly, they are the go-to ingredients for many perfumers. From the fruit we get bergamot, clementine, pink grapefruit, white grapefruit, ruby red grapefruit, lemon, green lemon, lime peel cold-pressed, lime peel distilled, lime juice distilled, mandarins yellow, green and red, oranges bitter, blood, sweet, and wild, distilled orange juice, dancy tangerine, and yuzu. I may have missed a few but you get the idea. Most peel essential oils are cold pressed using machinery and are often a by-product of the juice industry. However, the best peel oils are produced separately from the juicing process. Some peel oils are distilled and seem to have a slightly sharper, fresher odor. Before mechanization they were pressed by hand using sponges to gather the oils. Other parts of the citrus tree produces other essential oils like petitgrain bigarade from bitter orange, lemon petitgrain, petitgrain sur fleurs from leaves and twigs, neroli, orange blossom absolute, orange blossom water absolute, and orange blossom water from the flowers. Kaffir lime or combava is produced from the leaf and is an unusual citrus note. In a previous blog, The Scent of Citrus Blossoms, I write about the fragrance of citrus blossoms – one of the world’s favorite florals!

Orange and Mint Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Mints are also bright and sharp, often sweet and herbal, peppermint, spearmint, wintergreen, and cornmint are the most common uplifting mints. Although no-one would necessarily want a perfume centered around peppermint or wintergreen, a mint note in tiny amounts can add freshness to florals. Perhaps a bit of mint can lift a green perfume – but I haven’t tried that yet. In my perfumes I use peppermint to add freshness to the lemony topnote in Magnolia and it marries with wild orange and wild lavender for the completely unique topnote of WildChypre.

Bringing joy and pleasure has been the goal of this blogging project and we have all adored the chance to reward our loyal readers with just a tiny ‘give-back’ for your support. Thank you everyone who is reading, commenting and participating in this lovely event. Let’s all spray and anoint away those winter blues!

Many people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD during the long, cold, dark winter days and we hope this lovely act of sharing has helped just a little bit! A list of bloggers who are also participating is at the end of this blog along with links to their blogs. We are all blogging for three days, January 16^th, 17^th and today, the 18^th. Each day has a random draw for the giveaway on each blog.

Comments on all three Bellyflowers blogs must be received by midnight tonight (Eastern Standard Time, USA), January 18^th. The winners will be announced on Thursday the 19^th by midnight and must be claimed by midnight on January 21^st. Send an email to elise@bellyflowers.com if you are a draw winner.

Today I would love to offer a readers choice of one of two Bellyflowers perfumes (10 mls EdT strength) that feature citrus and mint – Magnolia or Wild Chypre. Leave a comment and share something that lifts you up or a time when an act of kindness has brightened your day and tell me which perfume you would like to be eligible for the draw. There are a few rules: If you post as ‘anonymous’ you will not be eligible for the draw and please make sure you are readily identifiable if you win the draw by leaving your first name or a nickname and some identifier such as your ISP (gmail or yahoo for example) and a location. Prizes will be awarded only to posters from the US and Canada but please comment no matter where you are from, we’d love to hear from you. Other bloggers are located in the US, Canada, Australia, South Africa and Vietnam.

Ambrosia Jones - Perfume by Nature
Anya McCoy - Anya's Garden
Charna Ethier - Providence Perfumes
Christi Meshell - House of Matriarch
Clemence Barbier - Dame Clemence
Emiliy Pienaar - Rose En Bos
JoAnne Bassett - Joanne Bassett Perfumes
Joyce Noerr - Sororia Organics
Karen Williams - Aromatics International
Liz Cook - One Seed Perfumes
Noelle Smith - Ellenoire
Stephanie Vinson - Stephanie K Naturals
Susan Stype - Aromatherapy Contessa

Making Soap with Joyful Ingredients

2012-01-17T05:07:00.000-08:00

Some people may not know this but we also make and sell soap but under the name Tambela. We originally formed our company to create aromatherapy products including handmade soaps. We quickly became addicted to our luxurious, skin-friendly soaps and enjoyed creating essential oil blends for scent. It wasn’t long before I discovered natural perfumery and established Bellyflowers Perfumes as our second main venture. Making soap is an amazingly rewarding operation and something that my husband and I can do together and, since many of our soaps require at least four hands to get the color, scent, blending and pouring accomplished, it works out well. During the early years we spent our weekends at the green market selling soaps, soap dishes, essential oils and perfumes. What a learning experience that is and something that I never want to do again. But I wouldn’t give up the connections we made and the immediate feedback from customers. Over and over again we got people coming back who would take a free sample and return the next week to ask for “You know, that soap you gave me. I don’t remember what color it was but it smelled great and that tiny sliver lasted the whole week!” That left me guessing which one they liked but they were always happy to purchase some soap. For most people it was a revelation how gentle to the skin an all-natural, handmade soap was and how great it felt to use.


Soaps by Elise Pearlstine

I have always loved canning fruits and vegetables, baking bread and sewing. To me these are arts that leave you with something lined up on a shelf or a counter-top or hanging in a closet and know you made it yourself. It’s a physical experience and a way of giving joy to others. Making soap is very akin to these experiences and I love nothing more than to see a lovely lineup of fragrant soap on the curing racks. The hard part is waiting four to eight weeks for the soaps to cure so they are hard and long-lasting. The good part is sharing these soaps with so many people. Most of our essential oil blends for our soaps are joyful but three in particular are uplifting, cheerful and great for the winter blues. Our oatmeal-buttermilk soap is scented with lemongrass, sweet orange and palmarosa. A touch of honey and some soothing buttermilk make this soap a joy to use in the shower each morning. For a more masculine scent, our avocado-spa soap contains rich avocado butter and is scented with lime, West Indian Bay and Ylang Ylang essential oils. This scent is long-lasting and the rose and grey spa clays are purifying for the skin. Fresh Lavender soap pairs lavender, rosemary and peppermint for a clear, clean uplifting scent. For today’s giveaway I will send one each of these three soaps to one commenter. Visit us at Tambela.com for more soaps.

This blog is part of a blogathon organized by the Natural Perfumers Guild celebrating the power of natural aromatics to bring joy to those suffering from the winter blues. Many people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD during the long, cold, dark winter days and we would like to help! A list of bloggers who are also participating is at the end of this blog along with links to their blogs. We are all blogging for three days, today January 16^th, tomorrow the 17^th and Wednesday the 18^th. Each day will have a random draw for the giveaway on each blog. The winners will be announced on Thursday the 19^th.

Leave a comment, tell us about how winter affects you, what are your favorite soap scents, or share a favorite essential oil story. There are a few rules: If you post as ‘anonymous’ you will not be eligible for the draw and please make sure you are readily identifiable if you win the draw by leaving your first name or a nickname and some identifier such as your ISP (gmail or yahoo for example) and a location. Prizes will be awarded only to posters from the US and Canada. Other bloggers are located in the US, Canada, Australia, South Africa and Vietnam.

Ambrosia Jones - Perfume by Nature
Anya McCoy - Anya's Garden
Charna Ethier - Providence Perfumes
Christi Meshell - House of Matriarch
Clemence Barbier - Dame Clemence
Emiliy Pienaar - Rose En Bos
JoAnne Bassett - Joanne Bassett Perfumes
Joyce Noerr - Sororia Organics
Karen Williams - Aromatics International
Liz Cook - One Seed Perfumes
Noelle Smith - Ellenoire
Stephanie Vinson - Stephanie K Naturals
Susan Stype - Aromatherapy Contessa

Joy in January - Uplifting Essential Oils

2012-01-16T08:06:00.000-08:00

Fresh, diffusive and spicy, essential oils that help to uplift and create joy include nearly all citruses including peel oils, neroli and petitgrain, chamomile,basil, peppermint, coriander and even ginger. Lesser-known cheering and uplifting oils include benzoin , actually a resin, which cheers and clears the mind and it is an ingredient in Friar’s Balsam. Bergamot may be the first choice in the case of depression – it’s got a lovely, tangy and yet floral scent. Bitter orange, both the peel and the petitgrain, is calming, cheering and stimulating. Coriander, also known as the herb of happiness, is uplifting, euphoric and useful in the case of sadness. Among other essential oils with a lemony scent, lemongrass is uplifting and good for depression and melissa is helpful in cases of grief or depression. A couple of florals that are good include ylang ylang for anxiety and depression and jasmine to restore confidence and to energize and, of course, neroli. If winter is a difficult time for you, uplifting essential oils may help give you a little boost.

Citrus and Mint Copyright Elise Pearlstine

There are a variety of ways for essential oils to be used to assist in lifting one’s mood but the most common are through diffusion into the air and by absorption through the skin. Most commonly they are use in a diffuser or a room spray for scenting a room with the added benefit of the therapeutic effects . Some may be used in a fixed oil (usually vegetable oil like olive oil, sweet almond oil or coconut oil) for massage or as a moisturizer. Essential oils in perfumes are applied in very small amounts to certain points on a body so there is likely little effect due to absorption through the skin. However, it can’t be denied that a wonderful perfume can be uplifting and provide a joyful experience. There is nothing better than the first spray of a perfume with a well-crafted citrus topnote.

For your winter blues, I suggest crafting your own room spray. Two of my favorites are lemon/peppermint and orange/lavender. I use the lemon peppermint spray in my kitchen to keep the ants away. We get tiny little sugar ants and a good spray on the counters of lemon and peppermint will keep them away for at least a day. If used regularly, it discourages the ants and makes your kitchen a cheerful and friendly place to be. Orange and lavender together are great in the kitchen and also the bathroom. I often use this spray on the counters for a final wipe-down or in the bathroom to keep it smelling fresh. To make these sprays you can purchase a small sprayer with a fine mist from many drugstores. Just 20 to 30 drops of your essential oil blend per four ounce sprayer is plenty and use distilled water with a bit of alcohol (vodka will work) to keep the spray fresh, If the essential oils don’t mix in, just shake before use. Add a few drops of basil oil to the blend for an energizing spray while you are working or studying.

This blog is part of a blogathon organized by the Natural Perfumers Guild celebrating the power of natural aromatics to bring joy to those suffering from the winter blues. Many people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD during the long, cold, dark winter days and we would like to help! A list of bloggers who are also participating is at the end of this blog along with links to their blogs. We are all blogging for three days, today January 16^th, tomorrow the 17^th and Wednesday the 18^th. Each day will have a random draw for the giveaway on each blog. The winners will be announced on each blog on Thursday the 19^th. Today I would love to offer a readers choice of one of two Bellyflowers perfumes that feature citrus – Spiral or Sun & Flowers EdT in a 10 ml sprayer. Leave a comment, tell us about how winter affects you or your favorite uplifting essential oil, and which perfume you would like, to be eligible for the draw. There are a few rules: If you post as ‘anonymous’ you will not be eligible for the draw and please make sure you are readily identifiable if you win the draw by leaving your first name or a nickname and some identifier such as your ISP (gmail or yahoo for example) and a location. Prizes will be awarded only to posters from the US for this project. But please comment if you are from elsewhere, we'd love to hear from you! Other bloggers are located in the US, Canada, Australia, South Africa and Vietnam. Please send me an email claiming your prize by midnight on January 21st.

Participating Bloggers

Ambrosia Jones - Perfume by Nature

Anya McCoy - Anya's Garden

Charna Ethier - Providence Perfumes

Clemence Barbier - Dame Clemence

Emily Pienaar - Rose En Bos

JoAnne Bassett - Joanne Bassett Perfumes

Joyce Noerr - Sororia Organics

Karen Williams - Aromatics International

Liz Cook - One Seed Perfumes

Noelle Smith - Elle Noire

Stephanie K - Stephanie K Naturals

Susan Stype - Aromatherapy Contessa

Ambrette: Flower and Seed

2012-01-02T12:58:00.000-08:00

Abelmoschus moschatus Flower Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Ambrette seed oil, when nicely aged and preserved, can be described as musky/floral, rich and sweet with a wine-like component. I find it to also have a slightly nutty aroma with a slight fatty aspect. It can also become rancid with an accompanying off note. A few years ago I was experimenting with musk notes and added ambrette seed CO2, ambergris tincture and African stone/hyraceum tincture in tiny amounts separately to a standard floral perfume I was working on. All three musks had the effect of smoothing the edges of the perfume, adding just a touch of musk and making the base more interesting. African stone made the perfume brighter and somehow lighter. I love its effect on light florals with citrus notes. Ambergris, which I love deeply and unconditionally, has the effect of making a perfume more elegant, adding richness and longevity. I actually add it to most anything, at least in small amounts. Ambrette seed has a creamy, sweet effect on a perfume when used in small amounts but I sense a definite nuttiness when I am too liberal with it. To me it’s a perfect gourmand ingredient and I like it with spices and cocoa.

This relative of the ornamental hibiscus is has a beautiful large creamy yellow blossom with deep purple center and is cultivated for the seed that is used to make a musky base for perfumery. The scientific name is given both as Hibiscus abelmoschus or as Abelmoschus moschatus and may also be called musk mallow. Ambrette seed is available as a CO2 extract, an oleoresin, an absolute, a concrete, or you can make your own tincture in alcohol. The absolute may be produced two ways according to Arctander, one is by solvent extraction of the seeds to produce a concrete that is then washed with alcohol to produce the absolute. Ambrette seed absolute may also be produced by steam distillation of the extracted concrete with the goal of getting rid of the fatty acids that pose the risk of rancidity. It is also possible to make a tincture in high proof alcohol for use in some perfumery applications. The tincture should be approximately 25% strength. Since the seed coat, not the fatty endosperm, contains the essential oil, tincturing the entire seed is recommended. When I experimented with tincturing ambrette seed, I used crushed or ground seeds but I still have a lovely lightly-scented tincture that has a definite musky/floral aspect to it. Next time I will just tincture the whole seed. If you have an essential oil, it should be diluted with alcohol to prevent rancid notes from developing (this also according to Arctander, reference below). Ambrettolide is the characteristic musk component and is an important macrocyclic musk in the perfume industry, although it is generally synthetically produced. Ambrette seed oil is also used as a flavoring and one part in ten million parts of a sweetened liquid provides a distinctive taste.

It turns out that ambrette plants quite well here in southern Florida and are also grown up to zone 9; in colder areas the plant can be grown as an annual and will freely re-seed. It will grow to nearly six feet and the light yellow blossoms are over 2 inches across. Each blossom only lasts a day but most plants have many blossoms. The large, okra-shaped seed pod quickly develops and is edible when green. When the seeds are mature the pod dries out and splits to release the seeds. In order to harvest the seeds, I have to watch carefully for the dry pod and get it just before it splits or the seeds spill easily to the ground. The half dozen or so plants I had three years ago managed to seed themselves and each year I get a couple of plants, mostly in the pots around the one that held the original plant. The flowers are attractive to butterflies and bees and the deep purple center probably provides a nice nectar guide for the bees.

Ambrette Seeds and Pods Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Faces Are Strange Flowers to Honeybees

2011-12-18T10:52:00.000-08:00

Honeybee on Lignum Vitae Flower Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Honeybees are highly skilled at recognizing patterns and some colors. They can be trained to associate a particular color or pattern with a food reward such as sugar water or nectar. Ultraviolet colors are especially attractive and many flowers contain patterns hidden from the view of those of us who can’t see ultraviolet light. But to honeybees, and possibly other insects and birds, ultraviolet patterns on flower petals lead the pollinator right to the sweet spot; these are called nectar guides. Honeybees can be trained to learn a new color in about half an hour, a new pattern in about half a day or 20 - 30 rewarded visits. Rewarded visits mean if they visit the right pattern, they get a reward; if they visit the wrong pattern, no reward. They can also learn to visit particular species of flowers at certain locations at different times of day. They have been trained to negotiate mazes with complex turns and paths using a mark to indicate the correct path, for example a small green square placed by the correct turn or exit. I am fascinated by the idea of honeybee intelligence and love these sorts of studies. I thought I'd share two summer's day photos of honeybees from my yard and this interesting study on honeybees and human faces.

In another feat of training and honeybee ability to learn, researchers have taught honeybees to recognize a human facial pattern. They used symbols for faces – circles for eyes and slashes for nose and mouth. Honeybees chose symbols organized in a face pattern rather than a random or linear pattern of the symbols. Experimenters then went further and presented honeybees with actual photos of faces in black and white. Honeybees were able to distinguish faces they were trained on, for example a photo of a particular man vs. a photo of a different man, with nearly 80% accuracy. When the face was shown without the hair, recognition was still nearly 60%, hair with the face blurred out was slightly better at about 70%. If the photo of the face was cut and re-arranged in a random order the bees were unable to recognize the face on which they were trained.

If we go higher on the taxonomic ladder, there was an excellent study conducted not long ago at the University of Florida in Gainesville by students who were studying nesting mockingbirds that illustrated facial recognition in these birds. An ‘intruder’ was designated who would walk up to a nest where the bird was incubating eggs, stand close and put their hand on the nest. A specific individual was assigned to a specific nest for four days. On each day the bird responded more quickly and aggressively to the recognized intruder as they neared the nest. On the fifth day, a different intruder walked up to the nest and placed their hand on the nest. Mockingbirds did not respond to the new intruder as quickly as they did to the recognized intruder on the previous day but acted more as they had on the first day, before the known intruder began standing close. These birds recognized the person who acted as an intruder and responded differently to that specific person than they did to unknown people. These were birds nesting on an urban campus with regular and frequent foot traffic in the vicinity of their nest. They generally did not respond to students walking through their nesting territory, only to specific individuals that they learned to perceive as a threat. Crows and magpies have shown the same ability to recognize individual humans.

The work with bees is significant because they are generally considered a so-called simpler organism than warm-blooded vertebrates like birds (and humans). Although they have long been known to learn routes to food sources such as flowers in a meadow and then communicate that location to their hive, specific recognition of faces has only been shown in the past few years. This with a brain that weighs less than a milligram!

Honeybee and Magnolia Copyright Elise Pearlstine

For more information, here are three excellent papers:

Adrian G. Dyer, Christa Neumeyer and Lars Chittka 2005. Honeybee (Apis mellifera) vision can discriminate between and recognise images of human faces. The Journal of Experimental Biology 208: 4709-4714.

Douglas J. Levey, Gustavo A. Londono, Judit Ungvari-Martin, Monique R. Hiersoux, Jill E. Jankowski, John R. Poulsen, Christine M. Stracey, and Scott K. Robinson 2009. Urban mockingbirds quickly learn to identify individual humans. PNAS 106: 8959-8962.

Mandyam V. Srinivasan 2010. Honey Bees as a Model for Vision, Perception, and Cognition. Anuual Review of Entomology 55: 267-284.

Perfume Draw - Much Ado About Boxes

2011-12-13T17:27:00.000-08:00

Chickadee in Winter Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Announcing the perfume draw winners! Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions on boxes. Hopefully it won't be too long before I have the final product. Watch for new developments.

Winner #1 from the blog comments: Emily wins a 15 ml EdP of her choice.
Winner #2 from facebook: Diana wins a 15 ml EdP of her choice.
Winner #3 signed up for our newsletter: Michael wins a 10 ml EdT of his choice.

All winners chosen randomly thanks to random.org. Email me by the 17th to claim your perfume.

Much Ado About Boxes

2011-12-08T17:29:00.000-08:00

Perfume Bottles and Boxes Copyright Elise Pearlstine

I have to admit, I am conflicted about packaging. What’s inside the package is the fascinating part of perfumery for me. However, I understand the importance of an attractive, irresistible box or bottle. I look at packaging differently lately and always try to figure out what draws me to a particular item at the beauty or skin care counter. From the beginning, though, I have always known that I want packaging to be as sustainable as possible with recycled papers in boxes and labels, local products where possible and low impact inks. The idea of making my own boxes and choosing the paper is exactly right for me at this point in my business. So I was very excited about a do-it-yourself box project. It’s been 3 ½ months of experimentation and frustration but now, here at last, both Anya and I have boxes! And I feel I am nearly there with labeling as well.

To get from the concept of the E-cutter all the way to custom cutting our own boxes has been a longer-than-expected journey for Anya McCoy and me. Anya’s classic Boxgasm post started it off with Emily Pienaar of Rose en Bos Fine Fragrances helping out and blogging about her boxes. I also blogged about it. First off Anya and I had to find someone to do the custom design for the boxes; Emily had that part figured out already. Our initial designs were from a busy art student and busy friend. This was enough to get going but the boxes were far from perfect – close but not quite. Plus, we each were thinking about more than just a couple of boxes because we each have several different size bottles each requiring a new design. This was a little too much for our family and friends. So, I went to work on learning to make a pattern from scratch. This means flaps and edges, overlaps and exact bottle measurements. Still not perfect but getting there!

Because the paper that fits the eCutter (from Craftwell craftwellusa.com) is 12 by 12 it doesn’t work in my printer so I have to get any printing done at the local Kinkos (or any copy shop). This makes it difficult to print a single pattern, for example a logo, in a specific spot on the box. It means precisely positioning both an image and the outline for the box so that two different ‘printers’ can exactly match them. So my first thought was to print a repeating pattern with our leaf logo, the same one I currently am using on the bottle. It made for pretty boxes but they are difficult to pair with a label as you can see here. Apparently it’s also hard to make sure the leaves are right-side up! And box-making requires very careful scoring, folding and gluing to make sure all edges match and the box is square.

Box Trials Copyright Elise Pearlstine

I have some inexpensive card stock for box trials that is plain white. The more I looked at it, the more I liked the idea of plain, classic colors. Then I went back to the Bellyflowers logo which I love and which is in my previous post. With a little tweaking, I have a design I like. It’s simple and there is room for a label on the back with all the important information. With the round label folding around from front to side there is space for the perfume name.

Closeup Bottles and Boxes Copyright Elise Pearlstine

So, I am hoping for feedback. Comments please! Likes or dislikes, suggestions. How about label placement? Should I go for color in the boxes? How about the font? Should I try the Bellyflowers circle on the bottles? Or just let me know which perfume you’d like to see in one of our new boxes.

I would love to have a cute little box for our samples too. Then there are soaps, essential oils …… maybe I can make some of those fancy greeting cards that cost $6.00 each. Heaven forbid I should start scrapbooking! Now I need to get back to perfume creation, I have a great one in mind for Valentine’s Day.

I will be giving away one 15 ml sprayer Eau de Parfum in a random draw for people commenting on the blog here. If you go over to Bellyflowers Facebook page, I will have another random draw for 1 15 ml EdP for people who comment there. So double the chances! Hmmmm, sign up for the newsletter too and one lucky, random person will be the winner of a 10 ml EdT, the button is right here on the blog. All giveaways will be your choice. Only one free perfume per person, if your name is drawn twice it will go back in the hat so someone else can win.

This free draw will end on December 12 at midnight. Winners will be announced here on the Bellyflowers blog and on Facebook within a day or so. Check back and send me an email by December 17th if you are a winner.

Saffre: A perfume for the 13th Sign

2011-11-28T08:38:00.000-08:00

Saffre is an oil-based perfume created for the 13^th Astrological Sign project conceived and organized by Michelyn Camen at the well-known perfume blog CaFleureBon. The 13^th sign is Ophiucus, named after the snake and having close ties to the Greek healer Aesclepius, son of Apollo. He is also thought to have been a historical figure with temples built to him throughout the Mediterranean. His symbol was a single snake entwined around his staff. The snake was used because it represents healing and re-birth. Another well-known serpent symbol is Ouroboros which depicts a serpent eating its own tail and has been associated with alchemy.

Because I am a wildlife biologist, I was immediately inspired by the snake aspect of this project. Saffre was conceived to combine essences from the earth, from roots and from herbs that hug the earth, reflecting the biology of the snake. Healing aspects of these essences were also important and informed my choices.

Topnotes of Saffre include fresh ginger and lavender – both herbs long used in healing. I loved the idea of ginger for its ‘bite’ at the topnote. Ginger promotes digestive health and is great for blood health and circulation. Lavender is great for blood pressure, burns and relaxation.

Saffron blended with orange flower essences provides a lovely heart note, unusual and as smooth as snakeskin. Saffron is an ancient spice often used medicinally as well for flavor by the ancient Greeks and has many therapeutic applications including anti-spasmodic, anti-convulsant and antidepressant Anciently it was used to relieve stomach aches and kidney stones as well as to improve blood circulation. Citrus is used in a variety of countries to treat snakebite (especially lemons or lime but I took some liberties here and used orange varieties).

Vetiver essential oil from the roots, the low-growing patchouli, musky ambrette seed and the traditional medicinal resins of myrrh and frankincense complete the base notes. You get the impression that a snake has just passed through the grasses, woods and herbs leaving just a hint of musk behind. Vetiver is a grass with aromatic roots and is the Oil of Tranquility. Frankincense and myrrh are both ancient traditional medicines. Frankincense is used for a variety of ailments including respiratory and skin-related and can be important in religious ceremonies. Myrrh has similar uses to frankincense. Myrrh and frankincense are also commonly used in incense. Ambrette seed is a vegetable musk and can be used for both relaxation and stimulation as well as for casting out snakes.

Saffre starts with the bite of ginger, transitions to a smooth heart of saffron and citrus notes that is smooth and unusual. The base is rich, resinous and musky, leaving the impression of a snake moving through the grass leaving just a trace of musk behind.

Be sure and visit CaFleureBon for a draw for the perfumes reviewed, Saffre included!

Other perfumers involved in this project include:

Adam Gottschalk

Anya McCoy

Christie Meshell

JoAnne Bassett

CaFleureBon

Tincture Updates: Honey, Buddha's Hand and Red Stopper

2011-11-23T05:56:00.000-08:00

Honey Tincture Copyright Elise Pearlstine

In a previous post I wrote about tincturing honey, vanilla, peony and hyacinth. Here is an update. The honey tincture is still separated into two layers but doesn't seem to be mixing any better. So I decided to test the two layers today. I pipetted out the two layers separately, the bottom layer is on the left in the photo above and the top layer is on the right. Sure enough, the bottom layer is sticky and thick just like honey. The top layer, though, is thin and mobile, lighter in color, and is the alcohol layer. I have pulled out about 4 mls of each for comparison and photos. On the scent strip the bottom layer is still thick and sticky and has nearly no scent. The alcohol layer, though, is lovely and has a scent that is true to the original. It is sweet and honeyed on my skin although a bit sticky. I would say the odor intensity is about a 1+, so not very strong, but definitely honey! It would make a lovely backdrop for sweetening and enhancing a light floral. I will leave the layers together for a while but I think nearly all the scent is now in the alcohol layer.

I did a follow-up check on some aged tinctures. Last year about this time I tinctured the peel from Buddha's hand fruit. The scent of the whole fruit is floral, sweet and slightly lemony and will fill your kitchen. After peeling each finger of the fruit, I tinctured the peels in alcohol. A year later it's still gorgeous. I would say the lemony scent has strengthened but it's still a beautiful, strong floral tincture.

Red stoppers grow in my back yard and produce tiny white flowers with a surprisingly strong and diffusive tropical floral aroma. The smell is also just a bit green and buttery like a light gardenia scent. The tincture I made last year has gotten better, it's lost some of the strong greenness and retains a the beautiful floral scent. I am so pleased with this tincture. This will find a way into one of my new perfumes next year. Stay tuned!

Blending at the Heart: Lotus and Tuberose Absolutes

2011-11-13T06:29:00.000-08:00

Blue Lotus (Nymphaea caerulea) Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Lotus flower absolutes smell earthy, leathery, perhaps a bit spicy and definitely floral. They all resonate deeply with me. Lotus absolutes actually come in three types, pink, white and blue. White and pink lotus are the same species – Nelumbo nucifera – while blue lotus is a completely different species. Blue lotus is actually a waterlily – Nymphaea caerulea – with a fragrant flower. To the ancient Egyptians the blue lotus represented the sun or rebirth because the flower sinks below the water each evening and rises each morning with a bright yellow center in a ring of deep blue petals. I use the precious lotuses sparingly in the heart of a perfume to add a depth and richness. White lotus always seems watery yet floral, pink lotus is probably the most earthy with the distinctive lotus fragrance. Blue lotus is fleeting and floral yet also slightly reminiscent of moist earth and leather. Just a little bit mysterious, those lotuses.

Perfume heart notes are often floral, appear after the light, effervescent topnotes have dissipated, and provide the unique character of a perfume. Rose, jasmine and tuberose are classic heart notes. Other florals include neroli, osmanthus, boronia, and ylang ylang. There are some unusual ones that I use sparingly like aglaia, the Chinese Perfume tree, or black currant bud. These floral essences are usually absolutes meaning they have been extracted from the flowers using a carbon-based solvent. The solvent is evaporated away and completely recovered leaving a waxy concrete that is then further extracted with alcohol. The alcohol extraction is the absolute and the fragrant wax left behind is the concrete. Flowers are often extracted this way because they are too delicate for distilling.

Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa)– ethereal, floral, rich and slightly earthy. It floats on the breeze at night and stays close to the bloom during the day. The absolute extraction is stronger, concentrated and more powerful in aroma yet true to the flower. When blended with light essences like neroli , it floats and sweetens but it also responds to spices like cinnamon and coriander. When blended with spices in the heart of a perfume it becomes rich and narcotic, all the while exhibiting its unique scent. Tuberose is a popular heart note and one of my very favorite floral absolutes.

I use tuberose and white lotus in my sunny, floral perfume Sun & Flowers and they are wonderful together. The tuberose is light and lovely and you can just get the smallest hint of the lotus. Citrus and juniper make up the top notes and frankincense and vetiver are the foundation of a lovely, light base. You can find tuberose and spice in Torch – full-throated and smoky just like your favorite torch singer.

Community

2011-10-31T14:09:00.000-07:00

Fall Leaves North Carolina Copyright Elise Pearlstine

We recently returned from out 10^th anniversary retreat to the mountains of North Carolina – the leaves were gorgeous, after a rainy start the weather was beautiful and we managed to relax. Today I want to write about two experiences. Our first stop in North Carolina was the little town of Chimney Rock where a tall, bald rock overlooks the town with a killer staircase to the top and a gorgeous view. I made it most of the way but just couldn’t handle the last bit where the stairway crossed open space a couple hundred feet high to the pinnacle or chimney. We enjoyed dinner later that day and went back to the same little café for breakfast the next morning. When we arrived first thing in the morning the café was packed with mostly locals but a few tourists as well. There was just one waitress being run off her feet. She was doing a great job but obviously there should have been at least one more person to help. We chatted with people at other tables and got acquainted with a table of locals, probably retired, next to us. Within about 10 minutes one of the men got up, picked up one of the coffee pots and went around topping off people’s coffee. Then he cleared a couple of tables, organized the condiments and generally tried to make himself helpful. The next night we found another great little restaurant and since we were early we were the only ones there. A mother and teen-aged daughter came in, said hi to the waiter, and sat down. The daughter went to the back, I thought to say hi to someone, and came back out about 15 minutes later. She told her mom she had washed the dishes while she was back there. The cook, meanwhile, went out to the restaurant next door and came back with a head of lettuce they had given him when he ran out. This seemed to be a common attitude among everyone we met; they pitched in to help and worked together.

On our last day we went to LEAF – the Lake Eden Arts Festival in nearby Black Mountain, NC. After a beautiful drive through the mountains we enjoyed a day of crafts, music and togetherness. This was our first time at the festival and we really enjoyed it. It turns out that many of the attendees camp right at the Lake Eden site and stay for the duration. We saw decorated campsites, people wandering and visiting each other and, best of all, kids running and playing everywhere. This was a completely physical bunch of kids grooving to the music, throwing bean bags, using hoola hoops, and just having fun. Cell phones and electronic devices were pretty much absent. We had a great time and, once again, I was reminded of a community, this time playing together.

I have long known that community is important and really appreciated this reminder. Wherever your community is – give back and help out!

Crocus (Crocus sativus) and Saffron: Flower and Spice

2011-10-11T16:59:00.000-07:00

Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world and it tastes and smells rich, resinous, sensuous and decadent. It can also be described as hay-like and sweet. Saffron is an ancient herb from central Asia with a long history of use by a variety of cultures. The color of the flower, stamens and pistils is a feast for the eyes with the delicate purple of the flowers, rich yellow of the stamens, and the deep red stigmas with long stalks. It is the stigma and the style or stalk that is harvested and dried for use as a cooking spice as well as a colorant. The red in the stigma is partially a result of a carotenoid dye (similar to that in carrots and autumn leaves) that provides color to dishes and textiles. Saffron contains more than 150 aromatic chemicals as well as a large number of coloring compounds like carotenoids. The chemical that gives it the characteristic odor is safranal – a volatile compound – that is produced when saffron is dried after it is harvested.

The saffron crocus is a fall-flowering plant, much like the spring crocuses common in many gardens. My fall flower catalogue has them for sale and planting now. The plants themselves are sterile and highly domesticated, partly due to intensive breeding for longer stigmas. They don’t produce seeds but the corms or bulbs can be divided and re-planted to increase your numbers. The plants are small, less than 12 inches in height, usually, but the stigmas may be up to over an inch long. Autumn-flowering crocuses like full sun and plenty of water in a well-drained soil. Since they are planted in the fall, the site should be sunny and protected from harsh winter weather. They do well if the site is somewhat dry in the summer. If they are correctly sited, they should bloom in about 4 – 6 weeks. After blooming they should be divided after 4 years or so to keep them flowering abundantly. As few as 24 saffron crocus plants should be enough for the home gardener to harvest their own saffron at the beginning. After a few years you can start giving the bulbs away to your neighbors.

The best time to harvest the stigmas is in the morning when the flowers are still fresh but late enough, about mid-morning, so the plants are not damp from the dew. Pick the stigmas (again, bright red) carefully from the flowers and dry them in a warm place. The saffron threads should be kept in an airtight container to maintain the flavor.

I love the rich, spicy, earthy smell of saffron absolute and am working on a blend featuring saffron with various combinations of orange flower absolute, petitgrain, jasmine sambac, and tarragon. Vetiver, musk and hay in the base. What perfumes do you love that feature saffron? Or, what do you feel blends well with saffron?

Sources: Wikipedia has an excellent article on Crocus sativus and White Flower Farm’s website has information on growing and harvesting. The Herb Companion has a lot of great information on saffron.

ambre alchemé: a Brave New Scent

2011-10-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

Brave New Scents

The Brave New Scents Natural Perfumers Guild project honors the beautiful and unusual new aromatics becoming available, the outlaw perfumers who create lovely fragrances with all natural ingredients and are not afraid to try new things and the suppliers, distillers, alchemists and other producers of these gorgeous new products. This is the third Natural Perfumers Guild blogging project and it celebrates the 21^st century of natural perfumery.

Inspired by the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, most of the perfumers seemed to follow this creed:

I want God, I want poetry,

I want danger, I want freedom,

I want goodness, I want sin.

Aldous Huxley

My perfume for this project, ambre alchemé is unusual, golden, rich, floral and full of ambergris, but more about that later. A big part of this, and every Guild project, is the collaboration and inspiration of other independent perfumers dedicated to using only pure and natural ingredients. Natural perfumery is not easy, it’s not inexpensive, nor is it familiar to most perfume buyers. But for all the things it is ‘not’ there are so many things natural perfumery is. It’s sustainable, it honors nature and the processes that brought us these ingredients, it is complex and unusually beautiful, it is often a passionately held belief that leads the perfumers to seek out Brave New Scents. I have smelled wonderful, unusual creations from all the perfumers involved and I recommend reading about them, the wonderful bloggers who write about them, and about their fragrances using the list below. It’s so exciting to get the little samples we all share for each project and to recognize the distinctive blending style of all the perfumers. It’s also a testament to everyone’s individuality and skill that we have managed to create 10 completely different perfumes using the same palatte of mostly unfamiliar ingredients.

Ambre alchemé is a sheer, golden floral with a sweet musky base. It takes its name from the old term for ambergris, ambre gris and from alchemy. Alchemy is an ancient practice harking back to distillation and early chemistry. The top notes of ambre alchemé are slightly sharp and lifting but mellow together to lift directly out of the bottle with a lovely mellow green scent. They transition to and lift the heart note of golden boronia and aglaia blended with jasmine. Slight touches of black currant absolute and wild rose keep the florals just a bit earthy and spicy. This perfume is anchored by ambergris absolute in a tincture. Ambergris is an ancient scented essence and is generally infused in oil or tinctured in alcohol. The absolute is solvent extracted using a two stage phytonic extraction which greatly concentrates the aromatic components of the raw material. Ambergris is paired with two kinds of sandalwood, Vanuatu and Australian. The base is sweetened and extended with orris root and honey.

Amber alchemé contains ingredients newly available to the Natural Perfumer with the exception of Jasmine grandiflorum absolute, a very traditional perfume ingredient and my ‘wild card.’

Top notes: Essential oils of Lime essence, Green Pepper, White Cognac and Tagetes

Heart Notes: Absolutes of Aglaia, Boronia, Black Currant Bud, Wild Rose, and Jasmine Grandiflorum

Base Notes: Opoponax absolulte, Orris Root CO2, Australian Sandalwood essential oil, Vanuatu Sandalwood essential oil, Honey absolute and Ambergris absolute tincture.

All my perfumes teach me something and the creation of ambre alchemé provided a lesson in the alchemy of blending different scents. Originally, I created the top, heart and base accords separately and evaluated each until they were perfect. When blended together, the perfume was just what I expected. Then I created a trial final version of the perfume in one blend with top, heart and base all added at once. I waited a few weeks and then evaluated again. The final blend was strangely different than the one created from three separate blends. The best way I can describe it is ‘inharmonious’ and quite different from the vision I had in my head, not to mention the original construction. Eventually I realized I should go back to blending the accords separately and aging them separately. This allowed the ingredients to age together in their separate roles as top, heart and base. Ambre alchemé contains ingredients that may be heart or base, such as orris butter (I wanted it sweetening and fixing the base for this perfume) and white cognac, that works equally well in the top or heart, but I wanted the lift it provides in the topnote with the citrus/green scent. The light yellow topnote, deep amber heart and golden base notes meld together effortlessly in the final perfume, working their alchemy.

Ambre Alcheme Notes: Top, Heart and Base

Perfumers:

Lord's Jester, Adam Gottschalk

Perfume by Nature, Ambrosia Jones

Anya's Garden Perfumes, Anya McCoy

Providence Perfume Co., Charna Ethier

House of Matriarch, Christi Meshell

a wing and a prayer perfumes, Jane Cate

JoAnne Bassett Perfumes, JoAnne Bassett

One Seed Perfume, Liz Cook

Ascent Natural Perfumes, Rohanna Goodwin Smith

Bloggers:

CaFleureBon, Michelyn, Neil, Ida, Mark and Leslie

Feminine Things, Diana Wiener Rosengard

The Examiner, Donna Hathaway

Perfume Critic, Dr. Marlen Harrison

Perfume Shrine, Elena Vosnaki

All I Am - A Redhead, Ines Stefanovic

Tinctures and Enfleurages: From Honey to Peony

2011-09-25T08:18:00.000-07:00


Honey Tincture Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Honey and vanilla absolutes can both add a sweet richness and depth to natural perfumes. I used some honey absolute in my most recent perfume for the bit of light sweetness it adds to the blend. When I rub it on my fingers I can smell rich honey but faintly and it’s just a bit sticky. Vanilla, while sweet, is also rich, earthy and slightly floral. I have absolutes of both vanilla and honey but am working this week with tincturing them both. The photo above is the honey tincture – equal parts honey and 190 proof alcohol. The tincture did not blend immediately, honey remained thick and golden in the bottom of the bottle and the alcohol stayed clear. After 4 or 5 days, the honey mixed more readily giving the alcohol a golden tint and producing a layer of intermediate fluid between the honey and alcohol layer. You can see that some of the alcohol has dissolved into the honey, increasing the volume of the bottom layer. When I dip my scent strip through all three layers it comes out slightly sticky and smelling, faintly, just like the orange blossom honey I used. A scent strip dipped in the alcohol portion alone also has a slight honey smell. Very promising! I plan on giving the tincture a few months to age.

Vanilla Beans for Tincture Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Now for the vanilla bean tincture. I have about 4 ounces on my shelf that is several years old, nicely aged. It's a 10% tincture and is lovely, strong and sweet. It is less earthy than the absolutes but certainly worth using. For this batch I have some nice Bourbon Vanilla beans. For perfumery, a tincture should contain a high percentage of alcohol because of the need to blend with other perfume ingredients. However, many of the aromatic ingredients in vanilla dissolve more readily in dilute ethanol so most recipes for vanilla extract used in flavoring suggest a high quality vodka with about 40% alcohol. For either, I simply cut the beans in half lengthwise, scoop out the thick seedy pulp (also called caviar), chop into small bits and add everything to the alcohol. I will keep this on my work bench for the next few months and shake occasionally. A general recommendation is to let tinctures and extracts of vanilla age for about six months.

Peony Enfleurage Alcohol Wash Copyright Elise Pearlstine

I have two enfleurage experiments, peony and hyacinth, also on my workbench, that have been added to alcohol for extraction of the scent. My mother has beautiful, fragrant peonies in her yard and I have spent two summers trying to capture their scent. Two years ago, while helping to care for my sick father, I spent time in mom and dad’s lovely yard. The peonies were at their best and I picked a few each day, put them in a container with palm shortening, and changed them out several times. Last year my sister and mom helped out with the process since I couldn’t be there. The resulting aromatic palm shortening is now sitting in two mason jars and is covered with alcohol to extract the scent. As you can perhaps see, the fat soaks up a good bit of the alcohol, at one point it was about half shortening and half ethanol. This is a problem because it makes the alcohol yield quite low. So, more experimentation is in order. After draining off the alcohol using a coffee filter inside a large funnel and saving that alcohol, I took a small portion of the leftover fat and warmed it gently on an electric cup-warmer. Warning! Always, always use caution when heating anything with alcohol. Use very low heat like a bain marie or a cup warmer or even set the jar in the sun. Now there is a clear layer of alcohol on top, about 5% of the total, that I can salvage from the fat. When I dip a scent strip in both alcohol fractions I get a lovely, faint but true scent of peony. I’m so excited that I can salvage a bit more of the alcohol by melting the fat. Now to work on the hyacinth enfleurage!

Lovely, Woody Cedar Essential Oils and Wild-crafting

2011-09-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

Eastern Red Cedar Copyright Elise Pearlstine

True cedars grow in the mountains of Lebanon and their relationship with humans is ancient, rich and complex. They may have been one of the first essential oils extracted. Atlas Cedar or Cedrus atlantica trees are majestic, sometimes reaching 120 feet tall, and characterize forests on the slopes of the mountains in the region. The essential oil is woody and balsamic with a slight camphoraceous note at the top. To me, it defines “cedar” yet with a unique sharp richness. Many find it grounding and calming in times of stress or chaos. Scientists disagree whether it is a subspecies of the Lebanon cedar or a species of its own. It is hardy, fast-growing and long-lived and covers an area in Morocco of up to 132,000 hectares where it is grown for timber. In other areas it is commonly cultivated as an ornamental tree. The essential oil is used in perfumery and cosmetics and as a traditional medicine for urinary tract and bronchial infections.

The ‘other cedar’ essential oil that is commonly used is a member of the Juniper family, Juniperus virginiana, also called Virginia cedar or red cedar. It has the familiar smell of wood pencils, but a good Virginia cedar essential oil is much better with rich, almost buttery undertones. Most Virginia cedar essential oil is distilled from wood shavings and sawdust as a by-product of the timber industry. It can grow tall and majestic with large diameter trunks. Traditionally, the essential oil was distilled from the heartwood. The tree is a colonizer, spreading into disturbed areas and may invade natural prairies. Part of its excellent colonizing ability is due use of the berries as a food item in the diets of many birds and mammals that live in or near these trees. In fact, the seeds sprout better if they have passed through the digestive system of a bird or mammal. The wood is very resistant to insect damage and finds use in cedar chests, pencils, boats and paneling. The cones or berries can be used to flavor gin and as a kidney medicine.

There are also essential oils of western red cedar and Himalayan cedar. Western red cedar (Thuja occidentalis) essential oil can be toxic and is not used in aromatherapy. Himalayan cedar (Cedrus deodora) is another lovely cedar essential oil but, to my nose, not as unique as Atlas cedar. Texas Cedarwood (Juniperus ashei) is also produced in the US and is said to have a drier, smokier drydown than other cedarwood oils.

Essential oils of ‘cedar’ species are most likely produced from a combination of wild harvest and from managed plantations. In many, if not most, instances the essential oil is a by-product of other timber uses and may be distilled from sawdust and wood chips. Because Virginia cedar grows quickly and is abundant in many areas, harvesting it from the wild is common. In fact, in some areas it is controlled by cutting or prescribed burning to preserve native tall grass prairies or farmland. Atlas cedar may also be wild-harvested and is abundant in places. It is grown in southern France as a timber crop. For both of these trees, however, wild harvest may bring about environmental degradation in the form of erosion, soil disturbance, habitat loss and other harmful practices that result from unsustainable harvesting activities.

All cedarwood oils serve an important function in the fragrance and body care industry and are often used in masculine perfumes. I have yet to find a way to use more than small amounts of the cedar essential oils in perfumes. However, I have some lovely essential oil blends where the strength and calming effect of these woods is highly beneficial. More work with these strong, grounding and calming oils is definitely in order.

Please comment and let us know how you like to use cedar oils and what you like to blend them with.

Eastern Red Cedar Tree Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Heavenly Henna and Ancient Perfumes

2011-08-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

Henna Flowers Copyright Elise Pearlstine

I can smell the strong, sweet, nearly narcotic smell of the henna (Lawsonia inermis) flowers from the front of my house as the scent comes over the fence from the back yard. The smell of the blooms is sweet, green and persistent away from the tree. When I put my nose to the flower the odor is very floral but with a slight earthy, not entirely pleasant, musky smell along with the sweet. Not surprisingly, perfumes sometimes contain henna flower as an ingredient. An ancient process is used in India to make a traditional attar called Gulhina (Gul Heena) Attar. The flowers are hydro-distilled into a base of sandalwood oil. It is described as soft, rich and floral with hints of tea and smooth bittersweet chocolate.

The flowers are small, white and produced in clusters. The tree itself has small leaves with light green veins and greyish brown bark. Large seed pods are produced following the blooms. The henna in my yard has been blooming since early summer and has grown at least a foot. Each new twiggy growth ends in densely-packed tiny buds that soon bloom in flowers that last for several days. The twig continues to grow as the flowers and seeds mature. The henna tree is originally from North Africa and Asia and is sometimes called Mignonette. I had to baby my little trees, I have two now, along during the hot early summer days and watered them every morning. However, once the tree is established it seems fairly sturdy and tolerant of hot temperatures.

Parts of the henna plant have been used for cosmetics and medicine for over 9000 years. There is a long list of medicinal properties including antimicrobial, immunostimulant, antiparasitic, anticancer and antifertility. In Ayurvedic medicine it is reported to promote mental peace, calmness, relaxation and cheerfulness. In India it symbolizes fertility and is popular for its cooling effect during the hot summer. Henna is probably better known as a dye as a result of the carotenoids in the plant which produce colors ranging from yellow to orange and brown. The chemical name is lawsone and it binds with proteins in the skin and hair to produce a semi-permanent dye. In preparing the dye, the leaves are dried and crushed to form a power then mixed with an acidic substance such as lemon juice. The dye should be left on overnight in order to completely bond with proteins in the skin or hair.

Henna is listed as one of the flowers used to make ancient perfumes that consisted of a combination of flowers, spices and resins extracted into a fixed oil. Flowers likely included jasmine, rose, narcissus, white lily, henna, iris rhizome, calamus rhizome and nardus rhizome. Gums or resins like myrrh, frankincense, balsam, labdanum and galbanum were also used. Saffron, fenugreek, cardamom and cinnamon were the spices used along with honey and wine. Oil-based perfumes have been found in the ancient city of Pompeii and in shipwrecks as well as other archaeological sites. One ancient recipe used sesame oil, jasmine, cardamom, cinnamon, saffron and myrrh. Jasmine flowers were placed in sesame oil and stirred with hands that had been coated with honey. The mixture was filtered and the jasmine flowers were hand-pressed to recover the fragrant oil. Salt was added and the mixture was filtered after a few minutes. New jasmine flowers were added to the oil along with a small amount of cardamom and the mixture was again stirred with honey-coated hands. The process was repeated six times. Myrrh, cinnamon and saffron were added and stirred some more. After about 2 hours the mixture was filtered into a honey-coated glass bottle. An analysis of the fragrant oil resulting from the process described a short-lived jasmine note that quickly gave way to strong spicy overtones followed by faint terpenic notes along with styrax.

Henna Being Applied to Hand (Gregory 21/Dreamstime.com)

The article describing the making of the ancient perfume contains a lot more interesting information and is titled "Perfumes in Mediterranean antiquity" by Cecilia Castel, Xavier Fernandez, Jean-Jacques Filippi and Jean-Pierre Brun. It was published online by Flavor and Fragrance Journal on 26 July 2009.

Boxes! Another Packaging Update

2011-08-23T17:15:00.000-07:00

Custom Boxes for Natural Perfume Copyright Elise Pearlstine

The next big packaging news is boxes! Individual, custom, handmade and tailored to my own perfume bottles thanks to Emily Pienaar of Rose en Bos, The Western Cape Perfumery and Anya McCoy, President of the Natural Perfumers Guild. Emily and her mother Ros (the gifted innovators behind the idea) helped Anya to work out the machine, software and methods for making boxes using scrapbooking technology and software. Anya had seen photos of Emily’s boxes and took a moment to compliment her on them and inquire about the source. It turns out that Emily uses an electric cutting system about the size of a small printer. These are programmable and will cut paper into a variety of shapes, including boxes. You can use card stock or heavy paper to make boxes of any size, shape, color and texture. The machine Anya decided on, after much research, is the Craftwell e-cutter but there are others available that are compatible with the program, Make-the-Cut. Anya blogs about the process in her usual generous and enthusiastic fashion, going into much detail about the process and Emily has written a blog about her custom boxes and how it all started.

Over several days Anya and I measured bottles, shopped for paper, learned about vector files for drawing outlines, and then cut, folded and taped boxes. On a long Sunday afternoon we tried classic, simple off-white as well as deep pink or green boxes larger sizes. We also had mango, patterned lavender, dark purple and more. It wasn’t long before we had a line of little boxes, some slightly wobbly, with tabs that wouldn’t stay closed, or with protruding edges, but boxes all the same. I had made some trial labels for the boxes on clear 2 by 4 mailing labels just for fun. Anya tried some of her bottle labels. In the photo you can see my prototypes – not quite the finished, professional look I hope to get eventually, but certainly promising. Perhaps with a lot of trial and error and careful positioning, we can get labels printed right on the box.

We learned some lessons along the way too. Measurements are important! Too much on one side and the box is definitely lopsided, slightly small tabs will make it more difficult for the box to stay closed, and even an extra 16^th of an inch extra and the bottle rattles just a bit inside the box. We loved the textured papers but need some more experience with various thicknesses. I made a larger box with a pretty green paper with random leaves as a part of the design – this one may be worth further research. I also loved the plain white small boxes but will need to really punch up my label design to make it eye-catching and elegant. Speaking of labels, they need a complete re-design to be appropriate and professional-looking on the box.

Our various papers came from Michael’s, purveyor of everything crafty here in the U.S. We are also looking into other sources, perhaps for larger rolls in the 12” size we need. I hope to find recycled or carbon-neutral paper that I can get in bulk and/or locally. Locally-sourced, handmade, artisan boxes! A dream come true for me in the ongoing packaging adventure!

The Bat Head Lily

2011-08-16T19:01:00.000-07:00


Bat Head Lily Copyright Elise Pearlstine

I may someday find a way to include this word in casual conversation but for now I’ll include it here in my short discourse on the Bat Head Lily (Tacca chantrieri) that just bloomed in a shady spot in the front yard by the phalaenopsis orchids. Sapromyiophily: pollinated by dung flies. Sapromyiophilous syndrome describes the flowers of plants that are pollinated by carrion or dung flies. These flowers are dark in color, have large bracts or leaves surrounding the petals, often long, hairlike appendages and an odor of decay. They don’t usually have nectar. Here’s another term – deceit pollination – sort of like false advertising. The flower looks and smells like something dead but there’s actually nothing to eat so the flies stumble around the flower and pick up pollen in the process. When they fly away disappointed they carry some with them and deposit it on the next plant of the same species.

But the flower has a back-up plan. Just in case pollination by flies doesn’t work, many of this genus can also self-pollinate and produce seeds without a pollinator. Which leaves most of us wondering why the large investment in a huge flower with almost four inches of bracts and petals and over a foot of trailing ‘hairs’? I can find no answer but I am glad this strange plant has decided to put forth its weird, bat-like face and surprise me.

Here’s a website I found while researching this blog with great information about pollinators: http://www.internationalpollinatorsinitiative.org/

Bat Head Lily Flower Closeup Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Blending, Absolutely

2011-07-31T08:10:00.000-07:00

Ambergris Absolute on Patchouli Leaf Copyright Elise Pearlstine

I am completely in love with ambergris in all its forms. It is earthy, floral, oceanic, seaweed on the shore, wind over the water, slightly fecal and the very definition of musk. Words pretty much fail me in describing ambergris. My friend Douglas Stewart of Scentsual Antiquities has been so kind over the years to let me smell a variety of ambergris types. He has shown me floral, woodsy, mossy and earthy sides of this precious aromatic. Ambergris absolute is an ethereal, rich and refined ambergris with only the best of a variety of ambergris types. I find myself reaching for ambergris often in my perfumes for the elegance and depth it adds. The bit of ambergris absolute I spilled on my fingers takes my skin and makes it a better, slightly floral version of itself.

Patchouli absolute is a deeper and more sweet version of earthy patchouli with a touch of green and just a bit of spice. I have a couple of small bottles mixed in with my many bottles of patchouli EO that are aging on the shelves. I love the earthiness of patchouli essential oil matched with florals. Patchouli absolute just makes that even better.

Oakmoss is a first love and possibly over-used in my first perfume attempts. Like a first love, I remember my first experience with oakmoss and the deep green wooded grove it took me to. I came back to that special place recently in my unintended chypre blend that became Wild Chypre.

Deserts and Wetlands and Water

2011-07-24T15:06:00.000-07:00

Weeping Rock Zion National Park Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Made by water, ice, snow and geologic uplift and subject to droughts and floods, Zion National Park is sculpted from sandstone by the Virgin River. Plants respond to water dramatically either by their location or as they grow following springtime rains. Animals will follow the water, drinking from water holes when they can. Spadefoot toads will bury themselves under the soil to await the next wet spring. This year was a very wet spring in the desert southwest around Zion National Park. “The Narrows”, the long, narrow canyon at the upstream end of the park, was closed due to high water and flooding from snowmelt. There, the tall, closely spaced sandstone walls channel the water and make any inflow faster and deeper than elsewhere in the canyon. Sudden storms can also create a dangerous situation. Further down the canyon, the marsh alongside the Narrows Trail was healthy and lush, something I haven’t seen often in my 35 years of visiting the park. Water cascaded down the sandstone walls, dripped from overhangs and created an exuberance of ferns and columbines. Zion is located in a desert, the Great Basin desert, and can be an oasis of water. It can also be dry and sandy with barely a trickle flowing where the Virgin River should be. It all depends on the water.

Columbine Flower Copyright Elise Pearlstine

I came home to southern Florida after my Utah trip in June. Southern Florida has had the worst drought in many years this last winter. Everglades National Park dried up during the dry season to levels almost never seen. The deeper waters in Shark River Slough disappeared, fires burned, wading birds failed to nest and the area waited. For water. During June, I visited the Stormwater Treatment Areas which are filter marshes created to clean water from agriculture before it enters natural Everglades systems. I also visited one of the best birding areas in south Florida, Wakodahatchee Wetlands (another created wetland). They were all nearly dry with just a few wet compartments for wildlife and plants. Wading birds and alligators crowded the few wet spots looking for relief. The rainy season arrived, late, but it arrived. Marshes are now filling up, birds are spreading out and alligators are on the move. We get our daily dose of rain and humidity.

During this summer I have visited desert and wetland and seen the effects of high levels of precipitation in one and drought in the other. I can’t help but think of the predictions by scientists of increasing variation in water availability and precipitation in response to climate change. General predictions about water availability include changes in patterns of rainfall, snowfall, snow melt, spring rains, extreme flooding and drought. Some of these events are in the news today. Global climate change will affect water supplies to many people throughout the world because of increasing uncertainty, possibility of increased evaporation, changes in vegetation cover, changing land management, increased populations, increased CO2 that will change plant physiology. Even if some areas (perhaps tropics and high latitudes) receive more water, that won’t necessarily be healing due to flooding, soil erosion, land movement, and soil moisture availability. The world’s plants and animals have adapted over centuries to particular environmental conditions that are now changing rapidly. For plants this includes altitude, soil type, pollinators, rainfall patterns, herbivores, seasons, sunlight and many other environmental variables. While animals can move, plants can only hope to migrate through generations.

As an ecologist, I am very concerned about these changes to our natural world. As a grandmother, I fret for my grandchildren. As a natural perfumer, aromatherapist and maker of natural products, I worry for my art. Availability and quality of essential oils are already being affected – plants that require the cooler temperatures of high latitudes are being exposed to warmer temperatures and are unable to move. Even if they were to be transplanted, in many cases landowners may not own land in other areas than where they have grown their crops for centuries. Wetter or drier climates will affect essential oil quality. The services of pollinators are likely to be disrupted because pollinators and flowers do not necessarily emerge at the same time in response to a changing climate. Pollinators may be too early or too late for optimal fertilization or to maintain healthy populations of pollinators. The quality and quantity, perhaps even simple availability, of essential oils will change and likely not for the better.

What can you do? Here are just a few ideas. Recognize the overwhelming scientific consensus that our climate is changing dramatically and human use of fossil fuel is a major culprit. Use less fossil fuel, less plastic, find out what your carbon footprint is. Buy energy conserving appliances and automobiles. Ride your bike, walk, work from home. Plant trees, don’t mow your grass, don’t water your grass. Educate yourself and your neighbors. Vote, if you can. Buy locally, shop locally, grow your own food. Enjoy Meatless Monday. That's just a few thoughts ......

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_action_on_climate_change

http://www.worldwatch.org

http://climate.nasa.gov/

http://www.ipcc.ch/

Tri-colored Heron in Pool Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Tuberose Flowers, Moths, Aztecs and Perfumes

2011-07-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

Tuberose Flowers Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa)

The Aztecs knew to get up early in the morning to collect tuberose blooms so the scent would still be strong and sweet. It is thought that they would use the scented flowers as a remedy for fatigue or to protect a traveler from harm. Perhaps this is why the bulbs of the tuberose found their way from the mountains of central Mexico to Europe and Asia in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Harvesters in Grasse also picked tuberose in the early morning for delivery to the enfleurage trays where tuberose blooms continued to give off their scent to the specially prepared fat over the next 24 hours or so.

Throughout history, tuberoses have been called the Bone Flower or Omixochitl and nardo in their native Mexico and were once thought by botanists to be related to hyacinths. The name bone flower probably refers to the pure white color of the blooms. As omixochitl it was cultivated in Mexican gardens over 400 years ago. The name nardo may actually refer to spikenard, a Biblical plant also described as highly fragrant even though there is no relationship between the two. The confusion with hyacinth is likely related to the shape of the flower and, again, the strong floral scent. Tuberose plants will produce both double and single flowers. Double flowers often go to the cut flower industry and single are the ones chosen for their scent, for example in Grasse. Instead of the expensive enfleurage process, tuberose scent is now extracted by solvents to produce an absolute which is still quite costly. Tuberoses will bloom from July through September. And are just starting their bloom-time in pots in my side yard.

The shape, color and fragrance of this ethereal flower are all designed specifically for its nocturnal pollinator, a hawkmoth. It is said that hawkmoths could find a tuberose flower with no visual cues, just by following its twitching antennae. And it seems that human noses are tuned to the same appreciation for scents as the sensitive antennae of a hawkmoth.

Intensely floral, rich, green at times and reminiscent of indolic jasmine at others, tuberose is a complex and unforgettable scent loved by many.

Tuberose is one of my very favorite floral notes and yet I find it a challenge every time I work with it, probably because there are so many nuances and subtleties to the fragrance. On the one hand, it lends itself to dark and rich notes like spices, vetiver and labdanum where it can hold its own. I love a bit of smokiness with it as well. This is how I constructed Torch – smoky, golden, spicy and rich. Going the other way, it pairs very nicely with citrus and orange blossoms to add a bit of depth and uniqueness to a typical citrus floral scent. But as I worked with this aspect of it I wanted to emphasize its unusual character and so I added some unexpected notes. Sun & Flowers is greenly floral, bright and lovely and is highlighted by notes of wild orange, juniper, white lotus and grey ambergris reminiscent of a tropical island or beachside setting in the early summer.

Hawkmoth Photo by Timothy Stirling

Summer Fruit Perfume Sample Draw

2011-07-09T04:40:00.000-07:00

Mango and Raspberries Copyright Elise Pearlstine

And the winners of the draw for a free sample of BellyFlowers perfume are:

Chayaruchama and greenlily61. Congratulations!

Let me know which perfume sample you'd like and I'll get it right out. Email me at elise@tambela.com

Here's a teaser for my next blog post:

Raspberry Jam and the Fruits of Summer

2011-07-04T06:13:00.000-07:00

Homemade Raspberry Jam copyright Elise Pearlstine

They were too good to pass up, those ripe red raspberries in their green boxes at the store. I bought a half a flat (about 6 pints) and then went back for more. I was visiting my mother and my grown children in Utah, meeting my son’s dog for the first time, hiking with grandchildren in Zion National Park and painting a spare bedroom (or two) but I was pretty sure I’d find the time to make some raspberry jam. And I did!

Mom and I made several versions of raspberry jam, all excellent. We called my daughter for a recipe consultation so it was a three-generation collaboration. For the first batch I mixed, added and stirred while was visiting with family. Because I apparently can't count and talk at the same time I mistakenly used half the sugar called for in the recipe, a version using only berries and sugar. I cooked the mashed berries and sugar together for about ½ an hour. After I poured the slightly thickened mixture into canning jars, I heat processed them for about 20 minutes. What resulted is more of a raspberry sauce, slightly thickened and deep red. The taste is amazing, a blast of pure tart raspberry on the tongue and it’s more complex than one would imagine. But the real surprise is the fragrance. I brought several jars home, including one for fellow natural perfumer Anya McCoy, who described it as surprisingly green at first, like cooked green beans and asparagus, but also containing hints of cedar and fir absolute; intense raspberry is in there on top of the woody base. My nose doesn’t perceive the same cooked green smell but I do get a strong fresh green along with fir absolute blended with a cedary/woody smell. All of these smells enhance the raspberry odor and taste. Raspberry flavor is described as fruity, floral, green, sharp, cheesy, perfumed, buttery and candy. I’ll have to sniff again for the cheesy and buttery!

The compound that gives raspberries their characteristic smell and taste is raspberry ketone, one of the most expensive natural flavor compounds in use and an early exciting discovery of flavor chemists. For general use, raspberry ketone is synthesized as a less expensive, although non-natural, alternative. However, scientists are investigating the potential for using bacteria and yeast as a natural source of this particular chemical. Beta-damascone and beta-damascenone are other flavoring agents used commercially in raspberry flavor for the fruity touch. Both of these are reminiscent of damson fruit and both have a fruity, floral, fresh, green and woody flavor. Alpha-irone is a floral violet compound that is used to add a floral taste. Boronia absolute may also be added for its floral/violet taste.

Raspberries have long been cultivated and are best grown in cool temperate regions. Raspberries are said to be high in pectin, which is the substance that thickens fruit into jam. Extra sugar is needed to enhance the action of the pectin naturally in the fruit or added from a box. Some sort of acid such as lime or lemon juice will also aid in the formation of the jam. My runny jam had low sugar and no added acid, not so great for spreading on toast but wonderful for letting the pure raspberry flavor shine through. My mom had some rhubarb growing in the back yard as well so we made rhubarb and raspberry jam for our second batch. This time we used pectin and a bit of white raspberry balsamic vinegar and the result was a solid, sweet and tangy mélange of raspberries and rhubarb. I love rhubarb but don’t use it often, probably because I grew up cutting what I wanted fresh and I stay away from rhubarb in the stores. Then for my third try (I already had the pots, bottles, sugar and canning equipment out, so why not?) I did a full sugar, white raspberry balsamic vinegar and pectin version with only raspberries. This one is also sweet and tangy, a yummy raspberry, but my favorite has to be the low sugar, pure raspberry blast of my first try. So good I could eat it with a spoon. Okay, I admit, I am eating it with a spoon and hiding it in the back of the fridge.

Write a comment about your favorite summer fruit or scent for a chance at a free perfume sample from BellyFlowers Perfumes. There will be two random draws from the comments. Comment before Friday July 8th at midnight to be eligible for the draw. Winners will be announced on July 9th. Thanks for reading!

Citations: Beekwilder, Jules, Ingrid M. van der Meer, Ole Sibbesen, Mans Broekgaarden, Ingmar Qvist, Joern D. Mikkelsen and Robert D. Hall. 2007. Microbial Production of natural raspberry ketone. Biotechnology Journal 2007:2:1270-1279.

Wright, John 2010. Flavor Creation, 2nd Edition. Published by Allured Publishing Corporation, USA.

The Butterflies and the Bees

2011-06-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

Zebra Longwing Copyright Elise Pearlstine

I know where the butterflies sleep – behind the mango, over the patchouli and under the full moon.

The ones in my yard that do this are called Zebra Longwings and they are known for roosting at night in groups. Bright stripes on their wings advertise their bad taste – the young feed on passionflower vines which contain a toxin that makes the caterpillars and butterflies both bad-tasting. This explains the fluttery flights of the butterflies among their favorite firebush trees in my back yard. They are making sure they are seen and recognized for their unpleasant flavor as they forage on the yellow, orange and red flowers.

Butterflies are attracted to plants with bright colors and are able to detect a broad range of colors and seem to prefer red and yellow. They are also likely respond to certain volatile or fragrance compounds as well. Linalool is emitted often from flowers that are butterfly-pollinated and may serve to attract foraging individuals. Indole, on the other hand, seems to be present more in moth-pollinated flowers and doesn't attract butterflies. Together scent and color can be important clues that plants use to attract butterflies in hopes that they will pollinate their flowers. Some flowers even change their color as they age, indicating that there is no more nectar to be had because they have already been pollinated. Butterflies then know to forage on the yellow flowers. Lantana for example will change from yellow to orange to red. Bright fluttery butterflies and pretty, fragrant flowers make a lovely combination.

But, are butterflies just pretty pollinators that couldn't find their way out of a wet petunia? Susan Miller asks this question in an interesting article in Science News from April 11, 1988. She also wonders if they can be trained in the same way as bees. Bees are well known for their ability to learn where the best nectar is and can be trained to recognize colors that lead to reward. For example, if a researcher makes flower models in the laboratory and puts nectar in a purple one and no nectar in other colors, bees learn quickly to prefer purple flowers. Using this technique, bees have been trained to actually choose a specific flower part, lower right hand quadrant of a bloom for example, that has a nectar reward. This location can be combined with a color, lower right hand quadrant of a purple flower. Researchers can even add time of day into the mix and train the bee to visit the lower right hand quadrant of a purple flower between 10 and 11 am. Bees will choose correctly 80% of the time. It turns out that butterflies, while maybe not as 'smart' as bees, can be trained to pick a flower with a nectar reward based on color. Butterflies actually detect more colors than either humans or bees and can be trained on flower colors for best feeding but also to find suitable spots for laying their eggs.

Little did I know when I started planting both larval and food plants for butterflies, that I would attract the Einstein of butterflies – a Heliconius species or Zebra Longwing. In most species the caterpillars work hard to store the nutrient and fats that enable the adult butterfly to flit about looking pretty, eating nectar, having sex and laying eggs for their very short life as an adult. Heliconius butterflies are the only ones known to eat pollen an ability which may contribute to their relatively long life as an adult. The zebra longwing establishes a daily route to visit favorite nectar plants and will gather in nightly roosts, probably for protection from foraging predators. For these zebra longwings, and other butterflies like the Julias, swallowtails, sulfers, skippers, hawkmoths and others, my tiny yard seems to have at least some of what they need and I see them daily. Food for caterpillars, nectar for adults, shelter during the night and a bit of shade from the sun while I get the pleasure of their lovely company.

References:

How Bright is a Butterfly by Susan Milius in Science News April 11, 1998.

Biology of Floral Scent Edited by Natalia Dudareve and Eran Pichersky 2006, CRC Press.

Wild-crafted Aromatic Plants and Wild Chypre Perfume

2011-06-11T17:33:00.000-07:00

Wild Carrot by Lunamarina

As a plant grows from seed to flowering it begins with a store of nutrients from the female parent. Soon, however, it pushes its roots into the soil and begins to take in water and external nutrients to support its growth. It also begins to experience a variety of environmental conditions including variation in sunlight, wind, nutrients and minerals, shading, soil type, drought, or flooding. It may communicate with its neighbors or insects in the area or it may need to repel bacterial or fungal attackers using chemical methods. Many plants have a number of such defensive or communicative chemicals that vary with the needs placed on the plant by the immediate environment. Plants grown in the wild are subject to a variety of conditions, neighboring plants, herbivores and pests. Cultivated plants, on the other hand, grow and are harvested in conditions that are much more uniform and predictable.

Gathering medicinal and aromatic plants from the wild can be a source of income for many people, often in developing countries. Medicinal herbs may include ginseng or black cohosh and there are many aromatic herbs as well that may be harvested from the wild including Holy Basil from its native and introduced habitat and rosemary or savory from the Mediterranean. Such plants may be used in traditional medicine, in cooking or may be distilled for their essential oils and are groups in the category of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants or MAPs in the literature. It is hard to get an estimate of how many plants are wild-crafted for medicinal, aromatic or flavoring needs but a report by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations at fao.org) concludes that as much as 90% of medicinal plant materials are wild-crafted or gathered. This information is from commercial trade; plants grown in private gardens likely increase that amount. In the process of gathering aromatic plants from the wild, some species may be over-exploited and in danger of disappearing altogether. Few countries have regulations on harvesting of these wild plants.

My original idea for creating a perfume based on wild-crafted ingredients was to include only wild-crafted ingredients. I soon found out that this would not be possible and that I would need much, much more information on ingredients to be certain that they were actually wild-crafted, that it was a sustainable method of obtaining the essential oil, and that wild-crafted oils were the highest quality choice. Also, some of the most beautiful natural perfumery ingredients have been bred and tended for centuries to nurture and preserve their lovely scent – think jasmine and rose. So my perfume, Wild Chypre, became a tribute to a selected group of wild-crafted essential oils and to some lovely farmed ingredients as well. I describe a few of those ingredients below. I did research into my ingredients in a few ways including discussions with my suppliers, literature searches and firsthand knowledge of distillers.

Wild carrot is native to Europe and also called birds nest or devils plague. It is common in Europe, but introduced in US and may be seen as a weed in many places. As the lovely and lively Ida Meister mentioned in her behind-the-bottle interview of me on Cafleurebon, the entire flower head is distilled once the seeds are produced and the umbel is dried. For this perfume I really liked the slightly floral, true carrot aroma.

Lavender is native to the Provence region of Europe and grows best in its chalky soils and produces the highest quality oils at high altitudes. It has an ancient history of use by people in the area and has been cultivated for centuries but also gathered from the wild. We all know and love lavender in all its forms.

For the base, I was interested in a sweet, light fixative note and Balsam of Peru was a perfect choice. It is native to Central and South America and is related to tolu balsam. Its seeds are wind-dispersed and may be gathered from the trees or forests may be naturally regenerating. Trees do not yield a profitable amount of balsam until they are 15 years old and may continue to yield for 30-40 years. Wild populations are the major source of these balsams. Balsam trees may be grown as a coffee shade tree in El Salvador.

Vetiver is native to India and grows wild along the riverbanks where it is harvested and known as khus. Most vetiver used to make the essential oil is from an introduced variety that has traveled the world, often transported by agricultural workers. In addition to perfumery use, it is used worldwide as a soil stabilizer, cleansing contaminated water, pest control, forage, canal protection, and soil moisture improvement among other uses. The website vetiver.org promotes its use worldwide and is a great source of information on this plant.

Wild Chypre is one of my perfumes that developed a will of its own. As with my children I usually find it better to see where it goes with just a bit of discipline. I am so pleased with the combination of untamed wild-crafted oils with organic silver fir from France and the elegant jasmine absolutes.

Wild Sheep by Tomislav Ladisic

Wild Chypre Ingredients

Top Notes: Wild Orange EO, Wild Lavender EO, Ylang Ylang I EO and Peppermint EO.

Heart Notes: Jasmine sambac absolute, Jasmine grandiflorum absolute, Organic Silver Fir EO, Wild Carrot seed EO.

Base notes: Wild Balsam of Peru EO, Wild Haitian Vetiver EO, Oakmoss Absolute (low atranol), Myrrh CO2 and Fossilized Amber Oil.

Personal note: Wild-crafting is an important subject to me covering as it does the things that make aromatic plants unique and incredibly valuable but also because it is a complicated conservation and sustainability topic. I will post blogs from time to time on Medicinal and Aromatic Plant (MAP) conservation, sustainability and harvest issues.

Uncorked! Natural Perfumers Guild Blogging Event

2011-06-01T04:51:00.000-07:00

For the 5th Anniversary of the Natural Perfumers Guild, bloggers all over the world are coming together to speak about what natural perfumery means to them. I am pleased and honored to be among this group.

What natural perfumery means to me –

With my eyes closed, I take a deep breath or two for cleansing, center myself, and get acquainted with clary sage all over again. Green and herbal, sweet and spicy with a touch of balsam, different with each bottle. Then I do it with vetiver or sandalwood or petitgrain, neroli or jasmine. This happens over and over with every new bottle or jar and never gets old. I came to natural perfumery in the second half of my life and found a new passion. As a scientist for over 20 years I gather facts and make conclusions and yet I am also a naturalist. As a naturalist I try to experience the natural world without pre-conceptions or the need to gather facts and I spend much time in the minute. It is this side of me that responds to natural perfumery.

Natural perfumery means taking my perception of a botanical ingredient and building on it, combining it, enhancing it or hiding it so it just barely peeks out but provides a richness and uniqueness to a perfume. That first impression gives me a clue of where to go with it and I have to keep the scent with me in my head, or in my nose, or wherever my nose and my head connect. But the scent memory is there as is the ability to find others to put with it. The wonderful complexity of a particular ingredient is able to blend in lovely and often unpredictable ways with other complex ingredients. Okay, I admit, sometimes not so lovely ways. Some great ideas really have to be consigned to the ‘bad ideas’ bottle. But when they work, it’s synergistic, unexpected and very fulfilling.

There’s another side to natural perfumery that is nearly as important to me and that is the depth and beauty of the ingredients and it reaches back to their origin – where and how they were grown – and to the hands that picked them and placed them in a still. These are the ingredients that mean something to me and that find their ways into my little bottles. Their story is one of dirt, bugs, water, rocks, wind, breezes, sunshine and moonlight. Pollinators and predators have had their influence as has climate and altitude. All of these things are within my lovely bottles and are the reasons for their uniqueness and complexity. A flower doesn’t simply have one smell, the pollen smells different from the petals and the nectar may have its own scent. Leaves that are young smell different than older ones and grazing by a caterpillar may change the scent of a leaf, blade or flower.

From my first smell of vetiver or tuberose - how could I go back? These ingredients pull me in and get inside my head. They stay in my nose and I wake to their smell in the morning even though the bottles are closed up and put away. Then they compel me to tell a story with them or to build a lovely thing.

The following bloggers are also participating in this event:

Absolute Trygve
Anu Essentials Blog
Anya's Garden Perfumes
Aromatherapy Contessa
Aromatics International
Being Led by the Nose
Blossoming Tree Bodycare
Ca Fleure Bon
DSH Notebook
Ellenoire
I'm Just Saying
Les Parfums d'Isabelle
Lord's Jester Inc.
Natural Perfumes
Olfactory Rescue Service
Olive and Oud
Perfume Journal
Providence Perfume
The Western Cape Perfumery Blog

Soliflores and Doppelgangers Draw Winners

2011-05-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

Mimosa Copyright Elise Pearlstine

The two winners of the draw are Solace and Olive and Oud! Congratulations! Email me at elise@tambela.com with your sampler choices.

Soliflores and Doppelgangers

2011-05-24T19:34:00.000-07:00

Wild Roses Copyright Elise Pearlstine

If I say rose, most people have a very clear scent association with that word. In trying to describe it a person would likely say ‘rosy’ but also maybe floral or spicy or green. Yet if you put your nose to a rose, it may not smell exactly the same as the last rose you smelled. A brand new rosebud is different from a full-blown rose. A wild rose smells different than a rich, well-cared for hybrid tea rose. The surroundings may have an effect, both the soil and minerals that the rose grows in, but also, a rose by the Mediterranian coast will smell different in the cool sea breeze than a rose in a garden in Las Vegas, Nevada (where I grew my best ever roses!) in the dry, slightly astringent desert air. Time of day may affect how a flower smells and whether it has been pollinated or not. But each kind of flower has a distinctive and recognizable scent. A perfumer’s vision of a particular floral scent may be described as a soliflore.

Soliflore in perfumery usually refers to a perfume that is created around a particular aromatic, a flower that gives it its name. In these perfumes the aromatic is not the only ingredient; it is highlighted by other notes meant to bring out the unique character of the flower. There are many botanical essences that would be lovely worn alone and people often do just this. A soliflore is different in the sense that the perfumer uses other ingredients to provide structure and complexity to the blend that marks their personal interpretation of that scent. My perfume Tea Olive is just such a soliflore and is a tribute to the scruffy little shrub that perfume my yard every winter with their indescribable scent. I have used a number of ingredients to highlight my feelings and impressions of Tea Olive (Osmanthus fragrans). The initial sweetness of the flower is re-created using a tincture of Buddha’s Hand (a citrus fruit), fir balsam absolute and green mandarin essential oil. The heart is built around two different osmanthus absolutes blended with other sweet florals like frangipani, jasmine and ylang ylang. The green drydown is accomplished with clary sage, beeswax and violet leaf absolutes and a lovely Bourbon vetiver. Because it is a floral, and flowers are all about sex, there is a bit of African Stone or Hyraceum tincture for a musky effect.

A doppelganger is defined in the dictionary as a person who is identical to someone else and the impression is that it is sometimes a ghostly personage. In natural perfumery doppelganger is a term that refers to the creation of a scent or a perfume that mimics a botanical that is not available naturally. There are a number of floral scents that are not available, are too expensive to include in a perfume or are simply not satisfactory. This is when the skilled perfumer can use their nose, familiarity with natural ingredients and experimentation to create a natural scent that mimics the one they are trying to get. In addition to flowers, one might also create a doppelganger for leather or musk. Magnolia is my doppelganger. I spent several days a few years back smelling the huge magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) blooms on the tiny tree in my back yard to build this perfume. The aroma that I always get first is rich, fresh lemon followed by a combination of white and golden florals. Lemon with a touch of peppermint provides the top notes. Boronia, aglaia and jasmine absolutes compose the lovely heart and are accented with a touch of lemon myrtle. The base is simply amyris, patchouli and, again, African stone tincture.

Magnolia Bloom Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Please leave a comment on your favorite soliflore or your favorite floral ingredient in perfumes. There will be a draw for two mini samplers consisting of three 2 ml sprayers each. Two lucky winners can choose any three perfumes on my website for their trio. The draw closes at midnight on Thursday May 26 and I will announce the winner on Friday the 27th.

Pollinators, Flower Color and Bumble Bees

2011-05-15T06:52:00.000-07:00

Bumble bee on lavender copyright Elise Pearlstine

Co-evolution between flowers and pollinators has provided a tremendous diversity in flower scent, color, pollen size and availability, nectar quantity and scent of both nectar and pollen. Some flowers may have particular pollinators that they target with their color or scent. Strongly scented flowers tend to be pollinated by butterflies, moths and beetles. Sweet smells and lots of nectar attract butterflies and moths but beetles respond to spicy, fruity or rotten smells and don’t care so much about the nectar. It turns out that magnolias and water lilies are pollinated by beetles, who knew? If a flower is pink or lavender, it is likely to be pollinated by butterflies. Milkweed, liatris and purple coneflowers are all pollinated by butterflies, tend to have a lot of nectar and be strongly scented. Moths, on the other hand, may fly either at night or during the day but prefer white flowers with a strong, sweet scent and lots of nectar. Bee flowers may or may not have a scent, but if present the scent may mimic bee sex pheromones (a previous post about scent in citrus flowers mentions myrcene). Common bee-pollinated flowers include orchids, sunflowers, wild roses, apples, alfalfa and penstemon and they often have hidden patterns that reflect ultraviolet light. These patterns lead the bees to the nectar reward. Birds like hummingbirds prefer red or orange flowers with a tubular or funnel shaped flower in red or orange and don’t respond to smell.

Bumble bees are one of my favorite insects. It is so fun to watch these big, fuzzy insects bumble around a variety of flowers. They are found worldwide with approximately 250 species and there are 40 species native to North America, making them an excellent choice for native pollinators wherever you might live. There is one species, Bombus impatiens, that is raised commercially in North America for pollination services. Bumble bees are social insects and live in colonies, generally underground, for example in abandoned rodent nests, or aboveground in patches of grass. Bumble bees are specialists at buzz pollination – a strategy used to gather pollen from plants that guard their pollen behind small pores in the anther (male structure). A bumblebee will grab the anther with their mandibles and vibrate muscles in their chest or thorax. This shakes the pollen out of the pores for the bumble bee to gather.

Bumble bees are just one of a variety of native pollinators that provide important services to agriculture and native plants. Historically, when farms were small with native food and pollen producing plants in the surrounding area, native pollinators were able to attain large enough populations to provide pollination services to farmers. Native plants that bloom before and after crop plants are important to sustain pollinators during times when crops are not producing pollen and nectar for food. However, modern farms have large acreages and wild plants (sometimes called weeds) nearby are usually controlled or removed. This negatively impacts the native pollinators and makes crops more dependent on the European honey bee which is often intensely managed in agricultural areas.

Did you know that pollination is a business and that professional beekeepers truck bees to various agricultural areas around the country? In California bee pollination is required for almond production – no bees equals no almonds. Each year over a million colonies of honey bees are needed to pollinate almond trees and many of these are trucked in. Bees are also trucked to Wisconsin to pollinate cranberries, even though they are not as efficient as native bees. But the native bee population is not large enough to do the work in these managed agricultural landscapes.

How do you help native pollinators? Grow native flowering plants, plant a butterfly or hummingbird garden, maintain natural corridors in urban and disturbed landscapes and reduce or eliminate pesticide use. There is an excellent publication with much more information on native pollinators at www.sare.org.

Petals and Pollinators

2011-04-24T18:21:00.000-07:00

Stephanotis photograph copyright Elise Pearlstine

We have a stephanotis vine (Stephanotis floribunda) in our backyard growing in a pot. It is one of the yard flowers that I tend to enjoy on the plant rather than trying to enfleurage or tincture. I love the strong, waxy blooms, the wonderful thick leaves and I really hope that someday it will grow all over the awning outside our bedroom. I find the shape of the flowers unique and was interested to find out more about them. Along the way I learned more about plant, flower and pollinator behavior.

A flowers job is to provide the next generation. This generally means that a flower needs to produce pollen and receive it. Many flowers do both. The flowers that receive pollen may just open themselves up to whatever comes by and are pollinated in that fashion – assuming pollen from the same species happens by. Many flowers, however, hedge their bets with fragrance . The smell is designed to lure a pollinator to the flower to provide the pollen transfer. A pollen transfer requires that the pollinator visit more than one plant of the same species, pick up pollen from a flower somewhere on its body, and deposit it at a different flower . Honeybees, bumblebees, butterflies and hummingbirds are all well-known pollinators and all but one are sensitive to odors in their environment. All are also sensitive to colors, including ultraviolet – but that’s a subject for another time.

Some plants devote an incredible amount of resources to produce flowers with showy colors, amazing fragrances or even flowers that follow the sun. Shape, timing of opening, petal scent, various scent molecules, pollen scent (did you know pollen has a scent?), color of petals, color of the throat of the flower, placement of flowers, and so on are all tools to drive pollinators to the right spot in the flower. Even production of scent may vary by location within a flower or even a petal. This variation in scent acts to maximize diffusion of scented molecules, assist pollinators to find a specific part of the flower or even find a particular flower that needs pollinating within a plant full of blooms.

Stephanotis flowers have very specific areas within their petals that produce scent as does another flower, the four o'clock (Mirabilis jalapa). Both species have a tubular shape, open at night and are pollinated by hawkmoths – a nocturnal moth that resembles a hummingbird in shape and flight pattern. Its long tongue is perfect for tube-shaped flowers like the four o’clock and stephanotis. Stephanotis releases its scent at night and produces and emits scents from the spreading petals, not the tube, because the petals are open to the night air. This assists pollinators in finding the flowers from a distance and also to orient within the flower itself. Stephanotis flowers have a time-sensitive release of aromatics with the first release occuring in the early evening and the second very early in the morning to attract pollinators first thing at night and last thing before morning light. The short-lived four o’clock opens in the evening at a specific time and the emission of fragrance matches the time of flower opening. Release of specific scent compounds varies throughout the night with different scents being released later in the evening.

I am fascinated by the ability of flowers to speak to their pollinators, to communicate over distances and to control the timing and placement of scent release. The more I learn about plants the more I realize there is a whole secret world of plant behavior just waiting to be discovered.

Celebrating Earth Day

2011-04-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

Great Horned Owl photograph copyright Elise Pearlstine

Taking stock: My day job is wildlife ecologist and so, by definition, I work with wildlife which is an earth-friendly thing to do. My focus is on wildlife in human-influenced landscapes, mostly agriculture, which makes things a little tougher because sometimes wildlife and humans don't always thrive on the same things. In looking back over the past week and year, I hope that I have spent my time improving the outlook for both wildlife and agriculture. Last week I refined and began looking for support for a proposal to establish nest boxes for American kestrels (small falcons) here in south Florida. They don't nest down here like they used to because the large trees that provided nesting cavities are mostly gone, taken over by urbanization. Kestrels take readily to nest boxes and it has been one way of working to restore populations. If successful, I hope to get some nest boxes and eventually resident kestrels in areas of organic agriculture to help keep crop-eating blackbirds away from the fields.

In my night and weekend job, literally, as a perfumer I have recently sourced and began working with a variety of wild-crafted essential oils. I will release a perfume soon that highlights wild-crafted and organic essential oils. For me, how and where plants are grown and their place in nature is an important part of making a natural perfume. This is why I find myself learning more and more botany as I read about how flowers produce scent, how soil and fertilization affect essential oil production, where the vetiver in Haiti originated, and what does wild-crafted really mean. My own enfleurage and tincture projects are allowing me to put a little of myself and my yard into my perfumes as well. As a company we are dedicated to sustainable and recycled/recyclable packaging, read my blog from January for more information.

We have a tiny yard that is mostly dedicated to native and fragrant plants. But within that yard we have been able to fit pineapple plants from the tops of pineapples we have eaten. We have half a dozen blueberry bushes and have been enjoying a handful of blueberries every few days for the past couple of weeks. We have a mango tree and finally found a spot for two tomato plants and have actually harvested quite a few tomatoes. We don't mindlessly leave the sprinklers to cycle automatically but hand water new plants and potted plants.

Looking forward: Personally, I recognize some things in my behavior that I would like to change in the coming year. Just a peek in my refrigerator shows me I need to find a way to bring leftovers home from restaurants without using their styrofoam! It should be pretty easy to take along a container instead of using one of theirs. A small thing but something I can certainly change.

I am very happy with my bottles and packaging for perfumes but need to work out a sustainable way to package our soaps. Right now we are using recycled paper as a wrap and that's fine for shipping to customers or for local sales. What we need is something locally available, recycled and eye-catching as we start to market our soaps to local businesses. This is tough but we're working on it.

Check out the lovely tribute to EarthDay on Cafleurebon and read what natural perfumers, myself included, have to say about Earth Day.

Thanks to all our loyal customers – enjoy your Earth-friendly, luxurious perfumes and soaps. Happy Earth Day!

Draw Winner

2011-04-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

Perfume Spray Bottle Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Thanks everyone for all the comments on the bottles - it was unanimous to include the bottle on the right.

The winner of the draw for a 15 ml sprayer of Sun & Flowers EdP is HJ!

Let me know your shipping address, HJ, and I'll get the bottle right out. Email me at elise@tambela.com.

Packaging Update

2011-04-10T16:35:00.000-07:00

Perfume Bottles Copyright Elise Pearlstine

The bottles and caps are here! I am very happy with my little perfume bottle – 10 mls of scented goodness, parfum strength, with a pretty silver screw cap. The classy spray bottle holds Eau de Parfum and is 15 mls. I love their looks and both bottles would work well for men and women. Since many of my perfumes are unisex, this is a look I wanted. Now I am faced with more choices. I plan on adding a 30 ml sprayer to my line soon; this bottle is the same as the 15 ml bottle only taller and with the same silver spray cap. However, in hosting a bottle buy for the Natural Perfumers Guild, I bought, packaged and shipped several quantities of a lovely rounded feminine bottle. This is my dilemma: I wanted to stay simple and classic without too much variety in the bottles. However, the rounded bottle would be beautiful for my floral perfumes in Eau de Toilette strength. I have four pretty florals that would be perfect in this lighter concentration.

So I am asking for feedback. Let me know if it would be too busy/confusing/unstructured to add a fourth bottle to the Bellyflowers line. Leave a comment, tell me if you think I should add the Eau de toilette 10 ml sprayer or not, and you will be entered in a random draw for a bottle of Sun & Flowers Eau de Parfum in the 15 ml sprayer. The bottles are shown left to right:

Parfum 12 mls

Eau de Parfum 15 ml sprayer

Eau de Parfum 30 ml sprayer

Eau de Toilette 10 ml sprayer.

Seasons, White Flowers and Tinctures

2011-03-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

Red Stopper Flowers Copyright Elise Pearlstine

In my yard the Osmanthus has nearly finished blooming and has needed watering every other day or so with the heat and the drought. I count the flower buds (6) on the Magnolia, the Little Gem variety that seems to do well here but only grows to 15 or 20 feet. It blooms well throughout the summer in spite of its size and has just the right smell. A few late lime blossoms are hiding in the lower branches of the lime tree, a welcome sight! My tuberoses are peeking out of the soil in their pots; I hope this is a better summer for them than last. The Vietnamese gardenia is blooming and there are frangipani buds all over the trees. One season ends and another begins.

But the wonder of this spring is a plant of the tropical hardwood hammocks here in Florida called the red stopper (Eugenia rhombea), a small tree or shrub that is a member of the myrtle family with amazing tiny white feathery flowers. The sweet, sweet fragrance of the red stopper in the back yard reminds me to check for blooms. We have some taller Simpson stoppers and white stoppers along the back fence that are also in bloom but it is the red stopper along the side fence that is both accessible and most appealing. The smell of the blooms? All the sweetness of gardenia without the heaviness, influenced by osmanthus and frangipani, the almost minty smell of ylang ylang 1^st essential oil and the best surprise is just a touch of the buttery richness you get with gardenia. A new plant to tincture!

There are a few generalities for tincturing flowers but most of my experiences have been learn-as-you-go. I use a high-proof alcohol, sterile jam jars with lids that seal, a series of labels for the name of the plant, the date and subsequent dates of each recharge. It may sound strange but I always wash my hands to make sure there are no smells either from perfuming or from cooking with smelly things like garlic. I don't like to leave the flowers in the alcohol for more than a day, two at the most, and use a funnel lined with a coffee filter to filter the tincture between recharges. Fresh flowers have the best scent and the time of highest fragrance release may differ. For example, osmanthus emits the most fragrance on warm winter afternoons while red stoppers seem to be the most aromatic in the morning. So I time my harvesting, as much as possible, to their rhythm. Some white flowers bloom at night so harvest should occur after dark.

This is the first time I have tried tincturing red stoppers but my experience from yesterdays harvest is very promising. The flowers pull off from the branches in clumps and the feathery tips are anchored to hard, round bases that hold the petals. I go ahead and drop the little bunches in my alcohol. The tincture turns a lovely light green and I am surprised. Other white flowers have produced orange or deep red tinctures. I will go out early tomorrow and pick some more.

I am finished with tincturing osmanthus for this year. I have to admit that I enjoyed the scent of the blooms filling my yard throughout the winter here and did not pick them for tincturing until this last batch. All the flowers faded and fell off a few weeks ago and I thought it was through blooming but I soon noticed many tiny little buds along the stems and in the nodes between the leaves. I watched for just the right time and have been able to re-charge my tincture 3 additional times with this fresh batch of blooms. This makes a 6x strength but at just over 2 ounces it will be very precious. The smell is true to the flowers and will enhance my Tea Olive perfume.

Vietnamese Gardenia Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Coriander, the herb of happiness

2011-03-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

Coriander Seeds and Flowers Copyright Elise Pearlstine

When I open the bottle a sharp, astringent scent punches out and fills the room. “This isn't coriander!” I think. The aha moment comes when I realize it may be cilantro – the other part of the plant. I enjoy using coriander seed essential oil in perfumes and have had a couple of bottles of the essential oil that aged nicely to develop a lovely, sweet woody scent reminiscent of rosewood, thanks to the linalool that is present, up to 70% of the essential oil. Smaller percentages of components like thujene, pinene, terpinene and limonene contribute a sharp, herbal and lemony smell and add character as the oil ages. I can smell these in my new coriander supply currently aging on my shelf. Unripe seeds have a higher percentage of aldehydes including trans-2-decenal and decanal that likely add a sharp smell and are responsible for the fresh taste of the leaf, cilantro. The aldehyde C-11 or undecanal is also present in the leaves and is used in perfumes to provide a clean smell. The seeds when immature may smell strongly and be unpleasant but as they age the smell becomes citrusy, woody, spicy and complex. The taste also mellows in older seeds.

Coriander may be one of the oldest flavorings in the world, both seed and leaf. Ancient Egyptians used to bruise the seeds and mix it into their bread. The greens are one of the bitter herbs mentioned in the Bible to be used for Passover. Coriander has been used by the Chinese as a love potion and more recently finds a place in many of the world's cuisines and all parts are used including the root. Many know the leaves as cilantro and enjoy the spicy citrus taste this herb adds to a variety of foods. Some people, however, detect an unpleasant soapy odor and strongly dislike the herb. Julia Child has been reported to say that she would pluck out any cilantro in her food and throw it on the floor. Distaste for cilantro may be genetic or it may be learned or a combination of both. Like many herbs and spices, coriander is known to be an antioxidant and anti-bacterial and may assist digestion. It is in the carrot/parsley family.

I like how I can get spice and wood from this lovely oil and how it tames cinnamon, if only a little bit. It also provides lift in heavy floral perfumes and is often found paired with rose or jasmine. Coriander was used in Carmelite water by fourteenth century nuns and in Eau de Carmes cologne – a Paris favorite for many years. With a little bit of rose geranium or palmarosa it may be used as a substitute for endangered rosewood in some blends.

Smells and Sounds From the Road

2011-03-08T08:28:00.000-08:00

Southeastern Utah and Ravens Copyright Elise Pearlstine

On a pullout on the high desert of western Utah , early March, there is snow in the shadows and slickrock in shades of tan and red among the sparse vegetation. Slickrock is the backbone of the desert in this part of the world and is basically sandstone from ancient beaches and ocean bottoms. There is a fresh, very faint smell of resinous woods, maybe a little hint of water from the snow in the shadows and the dry, comforting smell of desert soil. The trees are juniper and pinon with sagebrush and ephedra mixed in. There is the faint sound of a pair of ravens flying below me over the desert and cawing to each other. The wind rushes by and dirt and rocks crunch underfoot.

I stand for a few minutes that stretch into many more as I wait for the ravens to re-appear. I am completely absorbed by the ability to inhale air that has passed over nothing but trees, rocks and water. Something less noticeable is the complete absence of sounds other than faint traffic passing by on the interstate below me. Since the traffic is sparse on this stretch of I-70 there are long stretches of time where the only noise is the wind.

I am in the middle of helping my daughter, her husband and my two grandkids move from Longmont, Colorado to St. George, Utah. It turns out that my job is to drive a 16 foot van over the mountains west of Denver, through the deserts of western Utah and south to St. George. My van smells vaguely of past cigarettes and rubber and the radio is bad so I am mostly alone with my thoughts. The family station wagon, when I poke my head in to say goodbye to the kids before the drive, smells of scented markers, crackers and sleepy kids.

We arrive and I am staying with my daughter's in-laws in their new home. As I shower the body wash they have provided has a vanilla-honey scent, then I smell pancakes cooking on the stove, the family dog and someone’s cologne. Kids are laughing, the dog barks a few times and conversation is soft and comforting. Throughout the day I notice the new-home smell at both houses.

Because I am a perfumer and test my perfumes on my skin I rarely use scented lotions and sprays. Because my husband and I also make soap using only essential oils, our soaps are lightly scented and only a few linger on the skin. The smell of the vanilla-honey bath wash I used is probably not particularly strong but strikes my nose and triggers a comparison with the previous day where the only smells were from the surrounding landscape. Smelly, scented things are a part of our lives and nearly unavoidable. The same is true of music that surrounds us at malls, restaurants, theme parks, and other public spaces. There are shops full of artificial scents that I will not enter and there are restaurants that my husband and I don’t eat at due to the level of noise.

My message today is to try to find those spaces where scents are lovely and natural, where sounds are few, soft and far-between and where you can re-charge your senses.

Still Inspirations

2011-02-28T05:01:00.000-08:00

The very earliest still was probably an open kettle in which cedar oleoresin was boiled and the oil floating on top was collected, or else layers of wool were spread on sticks over the kettle and the oil was squeezed out by hand as it saturated the wool. No illustrations exist of this practice but drawings of early stills show a strange similarity to birds, especially birds with bulbous bodies and long necks. There was also still shaped like a bear standing on its hind legs. Was this inspiration from nature or a practical design?

The main pot of a still may resemble the bulbous body of a long-necked bird like an ostrich or a goose. The long neck of the bird with an attenuated beak is much like the outlet on a still for the steam. From very early on it was recognized that a long outlet pipe or “beak” allows the steam generated during distillation to be cooled, often by water, so that it condenses and can be collected. Essential oils can then be separated from the aqueous solution. It was not long before the long beak or outlet was coiled to extend contact with the cold water and further enhance condensation of the valuable oil.

Locality is also important and influenced by surroundings. In addition to being near a particular plant source, availability of both wood and cool, clean water likely determined where stills were located. In eighteenth-century Kentucky, bourbon manufacturers preferred a flowing spring that had predictably cold groundwater for the condensers. The distillation process itself also requires clean, pure water and the limestone water of Kentucky seemed perfect for producing the local bourbon. A source of wood to heat the still was also critical; such requirements may have led to the location of many early stills in deep, cool wooded areas. Similar factors are true for essential oil distilleries. I visited a small distiller in Provence who had a still in the mountains next to his home. It faced a meadow where he gathered plants to distill and was just up the road from a tiny village. He located his still up that steep mountain road to take advantage of the higher altitude that allowes him to distill at lower temperatures. He knew the mountains intimately and showed me a variety of plants that he distills throughout the summer season. His essential oils have a distinctive character that reflects his place but also his careful attention to his craft.

There are stills used today that continue to bear a striking resemblance to animals. I greatly enjoy the photos availabe at whitelotus.smugmug.com illustrating traditional stills operating today in India, one such photo is below.

Illustration and photo credits: The Volatile Oils by E. Gildemeister and F. Hoffman printed by Schimmel and Co. in 1900 and http://whitelotus.smugmug.com/ for the choya still and multiple other stills.

The Scent of Citrus Blossoms

2011-02-20T18:27:00.000-08:00

Lime Blossoms Copyright Elise Pearlstine

I was very disappointed to learn, on moving to Florida, that it would be difficult to have any kind of citrus tree is my yard. To prevent the spread of a disease called citrus canker and protect the citrus industry, trees were being removed from people’s yards and were not generally sold in nurseries. A few years ago, that practice was halted and citrus trees were once again on sale in the nurseries. My first citrus tree was a lime tree for a small spot in my backyard. It hasn’t produced any limes yet but has grown in just over three years to a 20 foot tall tree that bloomed abundantly this winter. I decided to see what kind of blossom water the flowers would produce if distilled and if, just maybe, I could get a few drops of lime ‘neroli’.

Neroli oil is one of the most sought-after and popular essential oils in perfumery and many classic perfumes use this scent. It comes from the blossoms of the sour or bitter orange tree with the finest oils coming from a specific variety called amarna or Bouquet de Fleurs’. To my nose neroli is floral but not sweet with a strong green fresh note, very refreshing and uplifting. It is strangely familiar. Many people find spice in neroli as well. Neroli is one of the few distilled floral essences and is gathered by hand and distilled in water rather than steam. For my lime blossom oil I laid a couple of sheets under the tree, picked some blossoms by hand, pruned the tall leggy stems back and plucked blossoms off those and then shook the tree to try and get the last few flowers. I used just-opened or nearly opened blooms along with a few very tiny limes.

I did, indeed, get a tiny amount of essential oil. It is maybe just enough to dampen the end of a scent strip so I smell it out of the bottle. Most of us know that linalool is one of the sweet, floral chemicals that contributes to the orange blossom scent. A lesser-known chemical is myrcene, present as alpha or beta types, that is attractive to bees. Methyl-anthranilate provides a characteristic orange blossom scent but also smells strongly like grape soda. It is a bird repellent that causes temporary pain in nerve receptors when birds taste it. One more important compound, a small percentage out of many, that contributes to the scent of orange blossoms is indole – fecal in nature but surprisingly floral in very small doses.

So, how does my lime blossom oil compare to orange blossom neroli? I definitely get a neroli sense to it but also a very fresh scent of lime that is quite uplifting and slightly sharp. How does research classify lime blossom essential oil? A very interesting study from the University of Florida’s Citrus Research and Education Center by Jabalpurwala and colleagues (2009) compared head-space volatiles from 15 different citrus cultivars. Head space analysis is a method of placing the blossoms within a ‘trap’ that captures the scent molecules in tiny amounts as they are released from the flowers. A complicated analysis quantified the relative amount of 70 aromatic compounds, some detected in citrus blossoms for the first time. A grouping of citrus blossom types and their aromatic compounds clusters mandarin, lemon/lime and pummelo in three separate clusters. True neroli blossoms have a scent that falls in the middle of a line between pummelo and mandarins but closer to pummelo and quite far from lemon/lime. Both pummelo and sour orange flowers have linalool and myrcene compounds as well as methyl anthranilate. Each also has a small amount of indole. Lemon and lime blossoms have a small amount of linalool as do mandarins but have higher levels of limonene that provides a characteristic lemony scent. Or the fresh, sharp scent that I perceive in my distillation.

Tincturing Raw Materials

2011-02-07T16:34:00.000-08:00

Tinctures Copyright Elise Pearlstine

I started tincturing raw materials nearly as soon as I became involved in natural perfumery. From seashells to freeze-dried fruit to blossoms from my yard plants I have put many things in bottles of alcohol or oil or vegetable fat. Tincture is defined as a solution of alcohol or alcohol and water containing some material, generally botanical. The alcohol is a solvent that will dissolve the desirable compounds. Ethanol is often used and may have a varying percentage of water. At last count I have nearly 75 different bottles of tinctured plant or animal materials.

For me there is no specific method or formula, I just try to get as much scent as I can out of the material. It's important to have as little water as possible in or on the material to avoid diluting the alcohol and increasing the potential for contamination. I generally fill a jar with as much material as I can, sometimes packing it down, then I add the alcohol. After a day or two I filter the mixture and if I want a stronger scent I will add new material. I like to have several recharges until the scent is strong; this means evaluating the scent profile as I go along until the scent is strong enough for my purpose (or I run out of material).

A coffee filter is great for filtering out the solids; I cut one to fit my funnel and fold it up in a cone. Slowly pouring the mixture through the filter results in a lovely, often tinted, tincture. Sometimes the color will surprise you. For example, tiny white osmanthus blooms turn a tincture deep reddish brown and freeze-dried apricots produce a dark brown tincture. When I do freeze-dried fruit I have to squeeze the alcohol out of the reconstituted fruit. Generally I leave a tincture of flowers only a couple of days, fruit maybe a week or so, spices like vanilla can go for a few months.

Here are scent profiles for a selected few successful tinctures:

Bourbon vanilla beans: lovely vanilla scent that lasts a good long while on my skin. Not as deep and rich as the absolute but since the absolute does not dissolve well in alcohol, a tincture is easier and more reliable for alcohol perfumes.

"Just Fruit" brand strawberries: these freeze-dried strawberries give up their scent and color readily to alcohol. Even after several years there is a true strawberry scent to the tincture.

Coconut cream: this is basically pureed coconut and when I add alcohol it becomes thick and waxy but I can pour off a nicely scented tincture. The scent is rich, warm and coconutty.

Sour orange blossoms: these I stole off a neighbor's trees early in the mornings for several years. He never used the fruit so I'm sure the blossoms weren't missed. The scent of the tincture is lovely and true to the smell of the blossoms. Tragically, he cut down the trees a couple of years ago.

Packaging: more than just a pretty bottle!

2011-01-24T06:23:00.000-08:00

Pretty Bottles Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Packaging is a very large part of how a product sells and I look at labels differently now than I used to. I will sometimes see something in a shop and think “Wow, I need that!” when in reality it's the packaging that has grabbed me. It may be a package of chocolates, which I often need regardless of packaging, or an expensive bottle of lotion, another weakness. This reaction makes me stop and look at the packaging and how it is speaking to me.

For our business, packaging includes bottles, labels, caps, spray tops or not, size, more labels, boxes, bags, shrink-wrap, bubble wrap, shipping peanuts and more. Because of our company ethic we are committed to the extra challenge of sustainable labels, recycled or recyclable packages, minimum waste, soy ink, and reusable packaging! As a result we consider very carefully before buying any new packaging. Or when we are in the process of new product development. We also buy locally wherever possible, usually for soap-making ingredients since they are more commonly available.

We have found carbon zero recyclable Cello packaging for our soaps made from wood cellulose fibers from sustainably maintained forests. These little bags are certified biodegradable and compostable. We have four giant garbage bags of packaging peanuts and bubble wrap saved from shipments to our company that we re-use for all our shipping needs. We also re-use all cardboard boxes but we also like the idea of using US Postal Service boxes since they are shipped in bulk to the local post office (fewer carbon emissions) and are environmentally friendly. Plus they are free and can be delivered to our door!

Good labels are hard to find in recycled materials and we continue to search. But we have found a company that printed our new Bellyflowers business cards on recycled stock with low VOC soy-based ink and solvents.

Some things, however, just demand that I give in and go for it. Perfume bottles fall in this category, at least for now. I am looking for the perfect bottle with the perfect cap, one that speaks to me and represents my perfume.

Nearly there …....

Looking towards spring

2011-01-17T18:34:00.000-08:00

Common Moorhen Juvenile and Fledgling Copyright Elise Pearlstine

I have started hearing the Common Moorhens calling in my neighborhood. They belong to the Rail family and are aquatic with very long toes for walking on and through wetland plants; they are also very good swimmers. They are nearly all black with a red and yellow bill, white along their sides and under their tail. Moorhens live in the marshes and lake edges of eastern and southern North America and will also inhabit rice fields and ditch edges in agricultural and urban settings. In Florida they may breed year-round but most likely in the early spring. They build their nests in marsh vegetation and will sometimes bend the plants over to form a canopy for shade. Some nests even have a ramp for easier access. A female may lay as many as 8 to 10 eggs. In most areas they will have multiple broods over the course of the breeding season and young from earlier nests will sometimes stay to help with subsequent broods. Whether this is because of a lack of available territories or gives the older helpers experience that will help them raise their own broods later in life is uncertain. Our little lake had at least two nests last summer and up to six youngsters of various ages feeding in the grass. On several occasions I was able to watch a patient older sibling feeding tiny seeds to a youngster only a couple of weeks old.

Common Moorhen Copyright Elise Pearlstine

My quest for hyacinth - an experiment

2011-01-09T13:59:00.000-08:00

The fragrance of hyacinth is, to me, floral with spice, green yet earthy and nearly musky at the back of your nose. I have two tiny vials of hyacinth absolute and have been unable to find more in the past few years. My fascination with this botanical intersected yesterday with my never-ending quest for something to enfleurage.

As I try to capture botanical scents I tincture quite a few things but I like best the scent that comes from those flowers that lend themselves to enfleurage. These blooms need to continue emitting their fragrance after being cut from the plant and placed in a closed container coated with a solid fat of some kind (I use organic all vegetable shortening). The fat then captures the scent molecules and stores them. Blooms may be removed and new ones added multiple times to build up scent in the fat. A washing of the fat with alcohol transfers the scent molecules to the alcohol.

I found a lovely pink hyacinth in a pot during my shopping yesterday and fell in love with the smell again. I decided it was time to try something I have been thinking of for some time. I am not sure whether hyacinth flowers will continue emitting scent so I wanted to leave them on the plant. I coated a couple of large plastic drink cups with shortening, inverted them and put them right over the two largest spikes of flowers with a couple of straws and chopsticks for support. The cap was replaced on the cup to hold the straw in place and keep the scent in. This was yesterday. As of now, about 24 hours later, the flowers are going strong and still putting out scent into the shortening. I have two more blooming spikes I can cover and a couple still in the early stages. The proof will be in the alcohol wash in a week or two.

Working on a new perfume

2011-01-06T17:08:00.000-08:00

Before I even start a new perfume I usually have most of it worked out in my head. This new one came to me on two different hikes in two different south Florida parks. On both hikes I was struck by a smell of vetiver and frankincense together. I have no idea what plant gave me this smell and it was fleeting. When I smelled it a second time I knew I had to go back and get it on paper and in a bottle. I've had the general construction in mind for a while but with some very nice new botanicals it has really come to life. It is now mostly done and smells pretty darn good.

The process of making notes for perfumes, for me, is very similar to doing fieldwork in my wildlife studies. For my fieldwork I also know before I start what kind of project I will be doing and how to structure it. I often know which birds I am likely to see. In order to keep track of the important data I always make up a field data sheet before hand with blanks for critical information like date, time, location, bird names, vegetation, and so forth. Sometimes I draw a quick sketch on my notes if a bird is new to me and I want to remember whether it had bars on its wings, a long beak or a short one, red legs or pink ones.

I also have 'data sheets' for perfumes that I am working on. This helps me to remember important components such as the notes - top, middle and base, the supplier for a particular essence, and maybe a short evaluation of the scent to remind myself. I do a 'wish list' of what I think will be included and then add and subtract from there. They are structured according to notes but sometimes the notes move around, a base might become a middle note for example. There is a date and a lot number. The data sheets are kept in plastic sleeves in a white notebook. Like all my important documents they are usually covered with sticky notes from changes I make at the last minute or things I want to remember.

I have learned from long experience that birds fly away quickly and perfume ideas may be just as fleeting.

Christmas Bird Count 2010

2010-12-19T07:41:00.000-08:00

Common Yellowthroat Copyright Elise Pearlstine

This year marks the 111th Christmas Bird Count. As the year 1900 drew to a close, ornithologist Frank Chapman, an officer in the new Audubon Society, proposed as the first Christmas Bird Census and set Christmas Day that year as the first one. On December 25, 1900 twenty-seven dedicated birders went out and counted birds on that day in places ranging from Toronto, Ontario to Pacific Grove, California. This month and next (between December 14 and January 5) birders large and small, experienced and not-so experienced, will go out in all kinds of weather and spend the day counting all the birds they see or hear within a 15 mile diameter circle. I got my turn yesterday in Palm Beach County, Florida. In spite of the rain it was an amazing day. We are lucky that Florida is home to a large number of wintering as well as resident birds so we saw ducks, raptors, shorebirds, songbirds, swallows and even a pair of courting great blue herons. At the top of the page is a photo of one of my very favorite birds - a common yellowthroat - from the count yesterday. A white pelican flew directly overhead for my closing shot.

Buddha's Hand Tincture

2010-12-16T11:51:00.000-08:00

Buddha's Hand Fruit Copyright Elise Pearlstine

I found a beautiful Buddha's hand fruit at the market over the weekend and decided to see what I could do with it. This is a large citrus fruit with many fingers, like the hand of a Buddha. With no flesh to speak of it is mostly peel and white pith. Obviously, I was interested in saving the fragrance and expected a lemony, citrus smell since it is a member of the citrus family. It sat on my counter for a few days and perfumed the kitchen with a sweet floral scent. This was new to me; I didn't know about the diffusive smell but found that it is used in Asia to scent a room or clothing. Once I was ready, I took a carrot peeler to it and peeled all the little fingers. It is now giving up its lovely color and scent to a jar full of organic grape alcohol to be used at some future date. Maybe when I update my Tea Olive perfume - it should add a nice lift to the topnotes.

Buddha's Hand Fruit Tincture Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Blending Perfumes, Absolutely

2010-11-28T14:15:00.000-08:00

Clary Sage Copyright Elise Pearlstine

After a day of blending, it's the absolutes that stick. A touch of jasmine sambac absolute from opening the bottle, a bit of mimosa absolute from the spatula I used to dig it out and just a hint of clary sage absolute from a toothpick I used to break up the rich, green and grainy stuff. All blended together in tiny amounts on my fingers. Jasmine sambac is more green and fruity than the well known jasmine grandiflorum, mimosa is sticky and sweet, floral and honeyed while clary sage absolute is a richer, more earthy version of the essential oil. Pretty nice!

Bellyflowers

2010-11-20T17:48:00.000-08:00

Rain Lilies Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Bellyflowers is the name I chose for my perfume line. If you are from the western United States and do much hiking you may have walked right past a stunning sampling of bellyflowers, especially during a wet spring. These are small, even tiny, flowers that grow in sparse soil, in rocky crevices and often under your feet. They are tiny but they are often beautiful and may be subtle in color and shape or wonderfully showy. You may have to slow down and get on your belly to appreciate them. The Wildflower Conservancy has a great blog about them at http://www.wildflowerconservancy.org/2010/06/belly-flowers-blink-and-you-might-miss.html

My mind made the immediate connection between a flower that you have to slow down and take your time to appreciate and a natural perfume. The logo of the Natural Perfumer's Guild contains the motto “Slow Scent” to describe our art and our perfumes. We work with ingredients that are stunning in variety and depth, their subtlety and showiness, and we take the time to craft those ingredients into a personal, evocative work of art.

You won't walk into a building behind someone wearing a natural perfume and choke on the 'fumes'. Natural perfumes are best enjoyed up close, as in a hug or an intimate conversation. They unfold naturally from top notes which are generally bright and cheerful but fleeting, through a heart accord that is often floral, long-lasting and represents the main statement of the perfume. The base notes are the anchor and are the last to appear. They may stay on the skin for hours and are often woody, musky and rich.

Elise

Bellyflowers Perfumes

Outlaw Perfumes and My First Post

2010-11-15T17:55:00.000-08:00

Wild Roses Copyright Elise Pearlstine

Hi, my name is Elise and I am a natural perfumer. I haven't met a natural perfume ingredient that I don't like. I get a little giddy when I open a new shipment of ingredients, I often stick my nose in my little box of ambergris samples and inhale, sometimes I just sit and look at all the little bottles on my perfumer's organ and think about what might get along with what. I spend as many hours as possible smelling, sourcing, evaluating and using essential oils, absolutes, concretes, tinctures, enfleurages, resins, infused oils and other scented goodies. I smell the air around me as I walk the dogs in the early morning, at mid-day or in the clear night air. Sometimes I will be stopped by a scent, as I did recently while hiking through a black mangrove forest here in south Florida and said to myself “frankincense and vetiver!” I occasionally wake up with a phantom smell of jasmine or patchouli or something slightly mysterious in my nose. But enough about me. My perfumes often re-create the things I smell, like my little Magnolia tree out back or the amazing fragrant and sweet Tea Olive bushes in the front yard. Some perfumes come to life all by themselves. Verdigris, green and musky and one of twelve featured perfumes in the Natural Perfumer's Guild Mystery of Musk project, was born nearly full grown. Other perfumes have their own story and there are many yet to unfold.

Rose of Cimarron, my most recent perfume, was difficult to get in a bottle as a traditional rose/jasmine based blend and finally came into her own as an Outlaw Perfume, the current project of the Natural Perfumer's Guild. Rose is loyal, brave, sexy and unexpected. Rose defies the restrictions of the International Fragrance Association and the European Union that have been placed on many of the beautiful, natural, classical botanical elements of perfumery. Both rose and jasmine essences have been restricted by these organizations for use in very small amounts but are displayed in the heart of Rose of Cimarron in all their glory.

One of the totally unexpected blessings of being a natural perfumer is the amazing people I have met online and in person. This is a generous and caring group of people, a community, all learning from each other as we pursue this ancient, and yet recently re-born, art of natural botanical artisan perfumery. We are all passionate about our art and unbending in our commitment to all natural, botanically-derived essences. We spend much time educating people about natural perfumes and spreading the word. Seven other natural perfumers are taking part in the Outlaw Perfumes project and have created unique and beautiful perfumes according to their own vision.

Our company is Tambela and our perfume line is Bellyflowers. Check out our website to see the origin of these names.