Pogostemon cablin
Patchouli is one of those things you probably love or hate. And while I've met those who adore patchouli, it feels like the general public is wary of the scent. If you want to make perfumes, trying to find a way to use the oils you don't like is invaluable.
Patchouli has a reputation as a "dirty hippy" scent, and with its earthy odor, that might feel apt the first time you sniff it. It does have a strong scent, and if your first reaction is to wrinkle your nose up, try diluting it. A lot of essential oils are too strong in their pure state, so diluting it will help you appreciate it better. If you're still thinking "ew" after diluting it, don't give up hope.
Like other oils, you can find patchouli as an essential oil, CO2 extract, and absolute. I am a huge fan of CO2s and absolutes, which often have odor profiles quite different than the essential oil. While I haven't sniffed patchouli absolute (at least not too recently), the CO2 has a fresher scent that you might find more appealing than the essential oils. For the essential oils, you can seek out different distillation methods. I've seen double distilled, which removes parts of the essential oil, such as iron. "Light" patchouli, which is distilled in stainless steel, has not only a lighter color than dark patchouli, but a lighter scent as well. And then you can also explore aged patchoulis, with their richer, deeper scents.
Still not feeling the patchouli love? Time to move on to blending it. Add a small amount to a different single oil, like rose, and evaluate what it does to the rose scent. Split a blend in half, add a drop or two of patchouli to one of them, and leave the other aside. Go back a day later and sniff out the differences.
Arctander says, "Patchouli oil is used so extensively that it is hardly possible to specify its field of application," and goes on to list as "an important ingredient in Oriental bases, woody bases, fougeres, chypres, opoponax bases, powder-type perfumes, etc." As such, anyone who wants to work with fragrances beyond narrow subsets should learn go appreciate this oil. While you don't need to love it, rise above the hate, and expand your creative potential.
Previously:
Orange Blossom
Nutmeg
Mandarin
Lavender
Kewda
Jasmine
Immortelle
Ho Wood
Ginger
Frankincense
Fragrance, beauty, and business.
Showing posts with label aromatherapy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aromatherapy. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
The ABCs of Essential Oils: Lavender
Lavandula angustifolia
So ubiquitous, lavender is used to scent almost any product that can be fragranced. There's a good chance you already have an opinion on the odor. "L" presented many essential oil choices, and I chose lavender because while simple on the surface, it has much more going on once you dig deeper.
Lavender is a popular scent, with either the essential oil or fragrance oil appearing in a wide variety of products, from perfumes to floor cleaners. Lavender is a relatively inexpensive essential oil, but nothing is too cheap for adulteration. Many of the lavender products you have sniffed will either be fragrance oils, adulterated essential oils, or poor quality essential oils. Lavender also has a cousin, lavandin, that is often used in its place due to its lower cost. If you've sought various lavender oils and are still like "nope, don't like this stuff," then you can go on your way. But if you haven't, you should realize there are better lavenders out there.
Lavender oil is produced in many countries, including the United States, though you more often hear of French and Bulgarian. You can also find organic , wild-crafted, (as opposed to cultivated) and high-altitude lavender oils. Each factor can influence the scent of the lavender, and even a lavender from the same farm can smell different year to year. It's worth it to buy samples of several types to see which one you like best.
If you're willing to explore beyond the essential oil, lavender is available in many other forms. Lavender hydrosol is fairly common, and safer for those who are sensitive to essential oils (though anyone with a lavender allergy should avoid the hydrosol as well). It does have a different odor profile than the oil, and I tend to think of it as best for skincare and aromatherapy than for scent. If you are looking to purchase lavender for its fragrance, then you need to try lavender absolute. Not only is it a blue or green color, it has a scent quite different than that of regular lavender essential oil. It has a coumarin note, making it a perfect addition to chypre and fougere fragrances. Lavender concrete is harder to find, and not as enjoyable as the absolute, but if you need to sniff everything (like I do), then go for it. Lavender CO2 extracts are available as well, and are perfect for the lavender connoisseur, with a scent that most accurately captures the plant.
A versatile oil, lavender pairs nicely with many essential oils, and it's moderate cost makes it perfect for soap and bath/body products.
Similar:
Bergamot Mint (Mentha citrata)
Clary Sage (Salvia sclarea)
Lavandin (Lavandula hybrida/grosso/abrialis)
Petitgrain Bigarade (Citrus aurantium)
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Spike Lavender (Lavandula latifolia)
Previously:
Kewda
Jasmine
Immortelle
Ho Wood
Ginger
Frankincense
So ubiquitous, lavender is used to scent almost any product that can be fragranced. There's a good chance you already have an opinion on the odor. "L" presented many essential oil choices, and I chose lavender because while simple on the surface, it has much more going on once you dig deeper.
Lavender is a popular scent, with either the essential oil or fragrance oil appearing in a wide variety of products, from perfumes to floor cleaners. Lavender is a relatively inexpensive essential oil, but nothing is too cheap for adulteration. Many of the lavender products you have sniffed will either be fragrance oils, adulterated essential oils, or poor quality essential oils. Lavender also has a cousin, lavandin, that is often used in its place due to its lower cost. If you've sought various lavender oils and are still like "nope, don't like this stuff," then you can go on your way. But if you haven't, you should realize there are better lavenders out there.
Lavender oil is produced in many countries, including the United States, though you more often hear of French and Bulgarian. You can also find organic , wild-crafted, (as opposed to cultivated) and high-altitude lavender oils. Each factor can influence the scent of the lavender, and even a lavender from the same farm can smell different year to year. It's worth it to buy samples of several types to see which one you like best.
If you're willing to explore beyond the essential oil, lavender is available in many other forms. Lavender hydrosol is fairly common, and safer for those who are sensitive to essential oils (though anyone with a lavender allergy should avoid the hydrosol as well). It does have a different odor profile than the oil, and I tend to think of it as best for skincare and aromatherapy than for scent. If you are looking to purchase lavender for its fragrance, then you need to try lavender absolute. Not only is it a blue or green color, it has a scent quite different than that of regular lavender essential oil. It has a coumarin note, making it a perfect addition to chypre and fougere fragrances. Lavender concrete is harder to find, and not as enjoyable as the absolute, but if you need to sniff everything (like I do), then go for it. Lavender CO2 extracts are available as well, and are perfect for the lavender connoisseur, with a scent that most accurately captures the plant.
A versatile oil, lavender pairs nicely with many essential oils, and it's moderate cost makes it perfect for soap and bath/body products.
Similar:
Bergamot Mint (Mentha citrata)
Clary Sage (Salvia sclarea)
Lavandin (Lavandula hybrida/grosso/abrialis)
Petitgrain Bigarade (Citrus aurantium)
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Spike Lavender (Lavandula latifolia)
Previously:
Kewda
Jasmine
Immortelle
Ho Wood
Ginger
Frankincense
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
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
The ABCs of Essential Oils: Frankincense
F:
Frankincense (Boswellia)
If you talk to me about essential oils, you'll likely hear me say "that's one of my favorites" so many times it seems to lose meaning. But I really do love many of them, and it would be hard to limit the number of favorites that I have. That said, frankincense really is one of my favorites, and I would place it somewhere in my top ten (but please don't ask me what the other 9 are!).
I could write a lot about frankincense - not only does it have a long history, but it also is amazing for aromatherapy. I'll stick to a few bits of information, and include my thoughts on using it as a scent.
Frankincense starts as a resin, the tears from tree. It is formed in the bark of the various Boswellia species, and for production purposes, incisions are made in trees, and the exudate collected. This is also how we get myrrh, frankincense's buddy. The tears can be used as incense, or processed to form materials for perfumery or aromatherapy. In addition to the tears, I have the absolute, essential oil, and CO2.
 |
| Frankincense & myrrh tears. |
Like all essential oils, frankincense will vary based on the exact species, its origin, age, and extraction method. Boswellia carterii is the most commonly available, based on what I've seen. Most species of frankincense come from Africa and the Middle East, including Somalia, Oman, Ethiopia, and Kenya. The essential oil might be produced in the country of origin, or the resin can be shipped to another country. Boswellia serrata is from India, and it is usually the cheapest.
Frankincense by itself is beautiful, and to me it is the scent of sunshine. I find it bright and clean with a lot of depth. Arctander describes it as "...strongly diffusive, fresh-terpeney, almost green-lemon-like or reminiscent of green, unripe apples...A certain pepperiness is mellowed with a rich, sweet-woody, balsamic undertone." He continues to describe it as "more or less tenacious with an almost cistus-like, ambre-type, balsamic note," depending on its distillation circumstances. (FYI - cistus isn't a typo, it's the essential oil of rock rose, with labdanum as its absolute.) I agree with Arctander's assessment, with caveat that the scent will vary.
As a base note, frankincense is a great base note for citrusy fragrances, keeping it light and fresh. In oriental perfumes it's peppery notes will go nicely with the spices, while it's balsamic notes will add depth to the base notes. For products, use it on its own or blend it with a few other notes. Combining it with myrrh for the holidays is popular, but try blending it with a citrus note, lavender, cardamom, or an evergreen. If price is no object, try it with rose.
Additional species:
Boswellia neglecta
Boswellia frereana
Boswellia rivae
Boswellia sacra
Previously:
Friday, July 17, 2015
The ABCs of Essential Oils: Eucalyptus
E:
Eucalyptus
If you're brand new to essential oils, you might be most familiar with eucalyptus through a vapor rub used when you have a cough. Eucalyptus, camphor, and menthol are the active ingredients in VapoRub, giving it that medicinal odor. Eucalyptus is more of an aromatherapy essential oil than a perfumery one- who wants to smell like a medicine cabinet?
That said, there's more to fragrance creation than just making perfumes, and it's useful to know how to use all sorts of materials. If you decide to make something like soap, you'll start to realize you're limited partly on the chemistry of the product. Cold process soaps can alter your scent, and some scents might not be strong enough to be worth putting in them. Hot process involves flash points, since an oil with a low flash point might not survive the heat, meaning you wasted that oil (I actually got into anise when playing around with hot process). Liquid soap (the kind made with oils and potassium hydroxide) can also react in weird ways with different essential oils. Different scents can thicken it or thin it out, some can cloud it, and others might clump up weird. So if you're interested in essential oil blending for products, there's definitely a lot more going on than just figuring out what smells nice together.
I haven't used eucalyptus in soaps, but there are a lot of products you might want to use it, especially if you're feeling kind of sick. You don't want to smell like eucalyptus all day, so you could try it in a salt or sugar scrub, or perhaps put it in a shower fizzy tab so it releases the scent into the steam. Try mixing it with peppermint to make it fresher, or try some lemon for a sunnier scent. Use eucalyptus in your home made cleaning products for an aromatherapy boost.
Since I am mentioning the aromatherapeutic uses, I would like to note that it's advised not to use this oil for children under ten, including sniffing it out of the bottle or from an aromatherapy inhaler. Because there are many different eucalypti, some may be safer for children than others.
And if you really want it in your perfume? Try finding eucalyptus absolute from the stores below for a less medicinal fragrance.
Hermitage Oils
Aftelier
There are a lot of eucalypti out there, and if you can't stand the odor of one, you might want to try another. I've listed some below that I've seen before. There are many more, but this list includes some common ones plus a few that have a bit of a fragrant twist.
Eucalyptus globulus
Eucalyptus radiata
Eucalyptus smithii
Eucalyptus macarthurii - rosy, Arctander notes that it's a eucalyptus for perfumers
Eucalyptus dives - minty
Eucalyptus citriodora- citronella-like
Eucalptus staigeriana - lemony
Other eucalyptus notes:
Cajeput (Melaleuca cajupti or Melaleuca leucadendron)
Niaouli (Melaleuca quinquenervia)
Previously:
Davana
Coffee
Bergamot
Anise
Eucalyptus
If you're brand new to essential oils, you might be most familiar with eucalyptus through a vapor rub used when you have a cough. Eucalyptus, camphor, and menthol are the active ingredients in VapoRub, giving it that medicinal odor. Eucalyptus is more of an aromatherapy essential oil than a perfumery one- who wants to smell like a medicine cabinet?
That said, there's more to fragrance creation than just making perfumes, and it's useful to know how to use all sorts of materials. If you decide to make something like soap, you'll start to realize you're limited partly on the chemistry of the product. Cold process soaps can alter your scent, and some scents might not be strong enough to be worth putting in them. Hot process involves flash points, since an oil with a low flash point might not survive the heat, meaning you wasted that oil (I actually got into anise when playing around with hot process). Liquid soap (the kind made with oils and potassium hydroxide) can also react in weird ways with different essential oils. Different scents can thicken it or thin it out, some can cloud it, and others might clump up weird. So if you're interested in essential oil blending for products, there's definitely a lot more going on than just figuring out what smells nice together.
I haven't used eucalyptus in soaps, but there are a lot of products you might want to use it, especially if you're feeling kind of sick. You don't want to smell like eucalyptus all day, so you could try it in a salt or sugar scrub, or perhaps put it in a shower fizzy tab so it releases the scent into the steam. Try mixing it with peppermint to make it fresher, or try some lemon for a sunnier scent. Use eucalyptus in your home made cleaning products for an aromatherapy boost.
Since I am mentioning the aromatherapeutic uses, I would like to note that it's advised not to use this oil for children under ten, including sniffing it out of the bottle or from an aromatherapy inhaler. Because there are many different eucalypti, some may be safer for children than others.
And if you really want it in your perfume? Try finding eucalyptus absolute from the stores below for a less medicinal fragrance.
Hermitage Oils
Aftelier
There are a lot of eucalypti out there, and if you can't stand the odor of one, you might want to try another. I've listed some below that I've seen before. There are many more, but this list includes some common ones plus a few that have a bit of a fragrant twist.
Eucalyptus globulus
Eucalyptus radiata
Eucalyptus smithii
Eucalyptus macarthurii - rosy, Arctander notes that it's a eucalyptus for perfumers
Eucalyptus dives - minty
Eucalyptus citriodora- citronella-like
Eucalptus staigeriana - lemony
Other eucalyptus notes:
Cajeput (Melaleuca cajupti or Melaleuca leucadendron)
Niaouli (Melaleuca quinquenervia)
Previously:
Davana
Coffee
Bergamot
Anise
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)