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Fragrance, beauty, and business.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
ABCs of Essential Oils: Immortelle
Helichrysum italicum
Helichrysum is another one of those amazing and healing aromatherapy essential oils. There are different species besides Helichrysum italcum, and you should also consider the country of origin when purchasing an oil. This post is about the absolute, which is for perfumery, not aromatherapy. Absolutes are solvent extracted, so they're generally not used for aromatherapeutic applications. While you can use the essential oil in perfumes, the absolute is usually cheaper. If you have the essential oil and want to use it for its fragrance, keep in mind that other species can have different odor profiles.
Known as immortelle or everlasting, the absolute catches your attention with it's poetic name before you even open the bottle. The scent is sweet and honey-like, with tobacco and hay nuances. Arctander mentions it's fixative effect (though also mentioning you're unlikely to use it enough to really work as a fixative), as well as it's value in "rounding off and 'bouquetting' a fragrance which may need life and naturalness."
Consider adding immortelle to bring some sweetness to a blend. I can picture using it in a meadow-type fragrance, along with some herbal and floral essences. I would reserve this material for perfumery, since it might not mix into whatever else it is you make. When you do use it for perfumes, you might need to heat it up gently (warm/hot water bath) before and/or after adding it to your alcohol or oil. This method is useful to keep in mind with other thick materials. The essential oil will blend easier into different bases, so if you have the money for a helichrysum soap or want to add it to a lotion, the EO is a better choice.
Similar odors (per Arctander):
Broom or Genet Absolute (Spartium junceum)
German Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla)
Roman Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis)
Flouve Absolute (Anthoxanthum Odoratum)
Hay Absolute (Foin coupe)
Previously:
Ho Wood
Ginger
Frankincense
Helichrysum is another one of those amazing and healing aromatherapy essential oils. There are different species besides Helichrysum italcum, and you should also consider the country of origin when purchasing an oil. This post is about the absolute, which is for perfumery, not aromatherapy. Absolutes are solvent extracted, so they're generally not used for aromatherapeutic applications. While you can use the essential oil in perfumes, the absolute is usually cheaper. If you have the essential oil and want to use it for its fragrance, keep in mind that other species can have different odor profiles.
Known as immortelle or everlasting, the absolute catches your attention with it's poetic name before you even open the bottle. The scent is sweet and honey-like, with tobacco and hay nuances. Arctander mentions it's fixative effect (though also mentioning you're unlikely to use it enough to really work as a fixative), as well as it's value in "rounding off and 'bouquetting' a fragrance which may need life and naturalness."
Consider adding immortelle to bring some sweetness to a blend. I can picture using it in a meadow-type fragrance, along with some herbal and floral essences. I would reserve this material for perfumery, since it might not mix into whatever else it is you make. When you do use it for perfumes, you might need to heat it up gently (warm/hot water bath) before and/or after adding it to your alcohol or oil. This method is useful to keep in mind with other thick materials. The essential oil will blend easier into different bases, so if you have the money for a helichrysum soap or want to add it to a lotion, the EO is a better choice.
Similar odors (per Arctander):
Broom or Genet Absolute (Spartium junceum)
German Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla)
Roman Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis)
Flouve Absolute (Anthoxanthum Odoratum)
Hay Absolute (Foin coupe)
Previously:
Ho Wood
Ginger
Frankincense
Monday, August 17, 2015
Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Spice Muffins
I lost this recipe on my computer awhile back, and recently found it again. I'm not sure about the original recipe, since I saved it as document with all my changes.
Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Spice Muffins
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
⅔ cup all purpose flour
⅔ cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
½ tsp salt
2-3 medium bananas
2 ½ tbsp ground flax seed
5 tbsp water
¼ canola oil
¼ soy milk or other nondairy milk
1 tsp vanilla
⅓ cup mini chocolate chips
⅓ cup regular chocolate chips
Topping
1 tbsp maple sugar
⅛ tsp pumpkin pie spice
*Heat oven to 375°F. Spray a regular-size muffin cup pan with cooking spray, or line with paper baking cups.
*In large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt.
*In a blender, blend the bananas, flax and water, oil, soy milk and vanilla until smooth. Stir into flour mixture just until flour is moistened. Gently stir in chocolate chips. Don't over mix. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.
*In small bowl, mix the maple sugar and ⅛ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice. Sprinkle evenly over batter in cups.
*Bake 20 to 24 minutes or until light golden brown and toothpick or knife inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately remove muffins from pan to cooling rack.
Notes:
If you don't have whole wheat pastry flour, you can replace it with more all purpose flour. You can also use all whole wheat pastry flour.
I buy pre-ground flax seed, since I use it a lot and don't want to grind it each time. If you have whole flax seed, grind it in the blender first by itself, and then add the other ingredients.
You can use all regular chocolate chips if you don't have the mini ones. I love using a mix of both, but it's not necessary.
Maple sugar is a granulated form of maple, kind of like regular sugar but with extra tastiness. It's expensive, so if you don't have it and don't want to buy it, use your regular sugar.
You can also beat together the wet ingredients (bananas through vanilla) if you have ground flax seed, but the blender makes it fast and easy.
Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Spice Muffins
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
⅔ cup all purpose flour
⅔ cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
½ tsp salt
2-3 medium bananas
2 ½ tbsp ground flax seed
5 tbsp water
¼ canola oil
¼ soy milk or other nondairy milk
1 tsp vanilla
⅓ cup mini chocolate chips
⅓ cup regular chocolate chips
Topping
1 tbsp maple sugar
⅛ tsp pumpkin pie spice
*Heat oven to 375°F. Spray a regular-size muffin cup pan with cooking spray, or line with paper baking cups.
*In large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt.
*In a blender, blend the bananas, flax and water, oil, soy milk and vanilla until smooth. Stir into flour mixture just until flour is moistened. Gently stir in chocolate chips. Don't over mix. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.
*In small bowl, mix the maple sugar and ⅛ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice. Sprinkle evenly over batter in cups.
*Bake 20 to 24 minutes or until light golden brown and toothpick or knife inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately remove muffins from pan to cooling rack.
Notes:
If you don't have whole wheat pastry flour, you can replace it with more all purpose flour. You can also use all whole wheat pastry flour.
I buy pre-ground flax seed, since I use it a lot and don't want to grind it each time. If you have whole flax seed, grind it in the blender first by itself, and then add the other ingredients.
You can use all regular chocolate chips if you don't have the mini ones. I love using a mix of both, but it's not necessary.
Maple sugar is a granulated form of maple, kind of like regular sugar but with extra tastiness. It's expensive, so if you don't have it and don't want to buy it, use your regular sugar.
You can also beat together the wet ingredients (bananas through vanilla) if you have ground flax seed, but the blender makes it fast and easy.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
The ABCs of Essential Oils: Ho Wood
Cinnamomum camphora
First, ho wood oil might also refer to what is actually ho leaf oil. When buying essential oils, look to see what material it is distilled from, such as the wood, bark, branches, twigs, and/or leaves. I know it as ho wood, so that's how I'll refer to it here. There are three chemotypes of ho you can find, and as the Latin binomial suggests, camphor is one of them. Ravintsara is the cineole chemotype of ho leaf oil, and it is often confused with ravensara. Not only do they have similar names, but they're both distilled from trees in Madagascar. It's like someone was messing with us naming them.
The third chemotype, and the one I'm most familiar with, is linalool. You can also fractionate the camphor off from the camphor-type, leaving you with linalool and small amounts of other constituents. You might recognize linalool (aka linalol) from ingredient lists, where it's listed because Europe requires certain known allergens to be declared in the ingredients, whether they come from natural or synthetic sources. It's scent is a sweet, spicy, and woody floral present in many essential oils, with ho leaf ct. linalool leading the way. Linalool is one of the numbers in Lavender 40-42 essential oil, the other being linayl acetate. There's also quite a bit in coriander seed essential oil. If you have that EO, give it a sniff and try detecting a rosy-floral note to it.
Rosewood (aka bois de rose) is also comprised mainly of linalool, and some consider ho wood oil a substitute for it. I think it could work ok as a substitute in some products, like soap, for fine perfumery, rosewood has a much finer scent compared to the ho wood oils I've sniffed. The problem with rosewood is that it is listed as an endangered species, per CITES. Listed under Appendix II, it does not currently face extinction, but might some day. When shopping for rosewood essential oil, look for sustainable oils distilled from twigs, branches, and leaves. Also buy from a reputable buyer, since rosewood is easy to adulterate. Consider alternatives, such as ho wood or the aromachemical linalool.
Other Ho/Rosewood Notes:
Linaloe wood and seed oil (Bursera delpechiana)
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