Intoxication- Walking Under the Influence (of Jasmine)

I haven't enjoyed moving to Mountain View, but when I'm walking here and there, I can at least enjoy the abundance of flowers here. For a few moments, the fragrance takes me away from where I am. Long stretches of jasmine, large and fragrant roses, and the blossoming trees stop me in my tracks, and all is right and beautiful. I move on sadly, looking forward to the next moment when the scent of flowers fills the air.

I spent several years trying to figure out what to do with my life. I knew I wanted to start my own business at some point, but it took awhile to figure it out. When I started studying perfumery, I knew that I wanted to work with these captivating materials. I feel intoxicated after spending a day in a room full of essential oils, absolutes, and other aromatics. Sometimes it will make me giddy, excited, and just happier. Other times it's so intense and I need to step out for fresh air.

When I started Ivre de Fleurs, I knew I wanted to focus on natural fragrance. Knowing that not everyone likes or wears perfumes, I decided to include bath and body products, like lip balms, hair oils, etc. These would let me share the fragrances with a wider group of people, and allow me to work with different mediums as well.

As time went by and I developed the brand, my mind was pulled this way and that. The products I made and the direction of my brand have led me to a point where I look at what I have, and I'm not excited by it. I've barely blogged the past few months, and without Instagram, I would have barely done anything with social media. I'm not a real fan of social media - I'm more of a keep to myself kind of person - but I keep hearing how important it is for business.

I've spent the time experimenting and studying the past few months, and also figuring out where I want my brand to head. Along the way I pondered so many possibilities, each tempting, but they would take away from what I really want to do. And that is create beautiful and strange fragrances. I'm going to refocus my creative energies on scent creation. I'm going to make lip balms, hair oils, and a few other products, but for now at least, I won't be making soap.

Ivre de Fleurs translates to "drunk with flowers," but so far I've aimed for a more restrained, quiet brand. I hope to breathe life into it with the passion I feel for the materials, and the wild beauty I strive to capture.

"In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo."

-T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The Lab # 5 Lavender

This started out as an idea for a lip balm flavor- lavender, anise, and vanilla. When I did my flavor tester (I made a zillion of those), I wasn't impressed. I took the scent blend and put it in some soap, which was rather lovely. It did make the soap turn dark due to the vanilla in it, so it wasn't the prettiest soap, but it did smell nice.

This scent is an expansion of that idea- vanilla at the base, lavender at the middle and top (lavender absolute and essential oil), and anise at the top. Vetiver, patchouli, and clary sage bring some earthiness to it, and black pepper spices up the top. I also added some yuzu absolute to brighten it up- that stuff is hard to find and rather pricy for a citrus note, so once this fragrance is sold out, there will be no more of it. Perhaps a slightly different version, but unless I can get my hands on some more yuzu absolute, I won't be able to make any more.

The Lab #5 Lavender is available at Ivre de Fleurs and Etsy for $15.

Davana

Davana is an odd scent. Kind of fruity, and to me, kind of boozy. It reminds me a bit of cough syrup sometimes. It is also a bit of a chameleon, and can smell differently on different people. Of course that's true of all (or at least many) fragrances, but when creating this scent, I couldn't stand it in the bottle, but liked it on my skin.

I wanted to emphasize the fruitiness of davana, so I added Roman chamomile. Frankincense and Peru balsam at the base added additional sweetness and some citrus. At this point, it seemed like it could be a sugarbomb of a fragrance, and while there is a market for that, I don't want that to be the end result.

Back to the middle notes, I added rose geranium and ylang ylang. This probably didn't help with the sweetness, but adds a small touch of floral. For the top notes I went with spice (black pepper and juniper berry) and some floral woods- petitgrain and rosewood. The scent definitely isn't a fruity floral- the floral aspect is pretty quiet.

Lab #4 Davana is available from Etsy and Ivre de Fleurs for $10.

Also new on Etsy are blended floral balms. There are currently three different blends- Trio Blend, which leans towards jasmine but with hints of rose and tuberose; White Flowers, a blend with jasmine, neroli, and tuberose; and Mimosa Neroli, a honeyed scent with an orange flower twist. These are $10 for each .15 ounce jar.

Vanilla and More

New Gardenia and Sandalwood Fragrance

Before we get to Lab #3 Vanilla, I'd like to introduce Gardenia Sandalwood Natural Fragrance, available in our Etsy Store. The gardenia is infused in apricot kernel oil, and while sweet and beautiful, the scent doesn't last long on the skin. I added some sandalwood so there would be something there once the gardenia was faded, and it provides soft, lingering back up to the gardenia.

On to the vanilla. When I first started studying fragrance, I loved vanilla. It's a nice scent after all. But as I continued, I started using a greater variety at base notes, and at times I didn't even have any vanilla absolute or CO2 on hand. Once I realized I wanted to make something with vanilla but didn't have any, I made sure to get some. Plain it may be, but it's still useful to have around.

This fragrance starts with a vanilla infusion, with vanilla CO2 added for more depth. Peru balsam, which has some vanilla notes to it, was then added. At that point I left it alone for a long time, and wasn't sure what else to do with it. One day after sniffing it, I decided it needed some wood notes, and so I added Himalayan cedarwood and some sandalwood. As with the Neroli Rose, this fragrance has no top notes. It is available through the Ivre de Fleurs store for $15 for a 4ml roll-on bottle.

New Limited Edition Fragrances!

Fragrances #1-#5

The Lab fragrances are limited edition perfume that explore different ideas in scent. Each silver roller ball holds 4ml and costs between $10-20, depending on the essences used. Each perfume is naturally scented, including some with rare and expensive oils. All of them will be available through the Ivre de Fleurs website, and #4-#7 will be posted to Etsy soon. I will also add sample sizes for sale on Etsy.

I will be writing about each of the fragrances in separate posts, starting with #1 today.

The Lab #1- Wood
When I started making perfume, I loved all the florals- rose, jasmine, neroli. I still love them, but over time I have come to appreciate pretty much all of the scents out there. Except for clary sage, but I do like blending with that one. I just don't like it alone.

I love the various wood scents out there, in particular rosewood and sandalwood. Sadly, these face endangerment, but I hope with increased attention, there will be a way to protect these trees and obtain their beautiful oils. I know for rosewood that some distillers use the branches, and I've seen it distilled from the leaves as well.

 Virginian cedarwood is pretty far down my list of woods. It turns out it's not even from a cedar tree, but from a juniper tree (Juniperus virginiana). It has a scent like a pencil, which can still be nice and useful, but it's not my preferred cedar. For this fragrance, I decided to use Himalayan cedarwood, a real cedar (Cedrus deodora). It creates a nice bridge between the top note rosewood and the base note sandalwood.

In the future I might build off of this fragrance- I thought about adding agarwood, but that stuff is expensive, and I wanted to keep these relatively affordable.

In the Works and Such

I was really hoping to write more once I no longer had my day job, but I just haven't felt like writing as much as I should. I've had so much other stuff to do, and still more I can do, that I haven't made blogging a priority.

I've been working on some new perfumes, and quite a bit of soap. I'll be coming out with fall/Halloween soaps hopefully in the beginning of October. It can take so long for soap to cure, and since I've gone palm free and soy free, I'm finding it trickier to make a hard bar. I don't think the hydrogenated soy helped much anyway, but even with sodium lactate, I've found some batches hard to remove from the molds. I'll also be working on winter/Christmas soaps soon. As much as I love fall, I truly love winter. The scents, the colors- everything is perfect and beautiful. I really want to capture the freshness of newly fallen snow. It's too bad I'm not likely to see any this year, and haven't seen good snow in a long time. Last year I did see a few patches of old snow in Ohio, but that's not exciting.

I'll be writing more about the perfumes as I post them for sale. I've been having lots of fun with fragrance lately, and I'm even delving into home fragrance! Home fragrance is tricky though- essential oils don't seem to want to blast you in the face the way some people might want them to, so it's taking some time.

Hydrosols

Lately I've been researching hydrosols- water that has been used to distill a plant for its essential oil. While they are usually a byproduct of essential oil distillation,  sometimes the distillation is done specifically for creating the hydrosol. They are often cheaper than the essential oil, perhaps always, but I haven't looked too much into it yet. The scent is lighter, and often quite different than the fragrance of the essential oil.

Witch hazel is one of the most common hydrosols, and you can often find it at your drugstore, mixed with 14% alcohol as a preservative. You can sometimes find rose or orange blossom waters in the baking section.

The problem with hydrosols is that since they do contain water, they can go bad. If you're buying small amounts for personal use, it's probably safe to keep it in your refrigerator and use them quickly.While looking into hydrosols, I also started looking into preservatives, since I wouldn't want to sell anything that could go bad easily. While I didn't want to use preservatives in my products at first, after doing some research, I've found some that I would be comfortable using in my products. If the tests turn out well, I might have some hydrosol products available for sale soon. There is also alcohol- a good amount of high proof alcohol also acts as a preservative (see witch hazel, above).

I have bought several small bottles of hydrosols, and while I plan on moving forward with using some of them, others were not so appealing. Yarrow is almost gag-inducing. There are also some fruit hydrosols out there, which can be used to create natural fragrances with strawberry, apple, and other fruity scents.

Book Reviews- Perfumes: The A-Z Guide & Cult Perfumes: The World's Most Exclusive Perfumeries

Perfumes: The A-Z Guide, Turin, Luca and Tania Sanchez, New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-14-311501-4

Cult Perfumes: The World's Most Exclusive Perfumeries, Williams, Tessa, New York, NY: Merrell, 2013. ISBN: 978-1-8589-4577-4

Two books on perfume- Perfumes gives short reviews of hundreds of perfumes, while Cult Perfumes is a coffee table book full of pictures and the stories behind several perfumeries. I liked them both, but Perfumes: The A-Z Guide is probably more helpful to most people. Of course, Cult Perfumes is nicer to look at.

Perfumes: The A-Z Guide covers a wide variety of perfumes, many that you've probably heard of, and some you probably haven't. I enjoyed the writing styles of both Turin and Sanchez, and often found myself laughing at their reviews. The reviews of bad perfumes are usually funnier, though I'm not sure that would take the sting out of a one star review. The reviews are alphabetical by fragrance, with an index by star rating and brand in the back. After the name of the fragrance, they give the brand name, star rating (1-5), two word synopsis, and pricing (1-4 dollar signs). Price and stars don't always correlate- there are good cheap perfumes and bad expensive perfumes. They're a bit dismissive of all natural perfumes, though there are some good reviews of natural fragrances. Some brands have both 5 star perfumes and 1 star, though the reverse is definitely not true. While I read this cover to cover, I think it could be a nice book to just pick up every now and then and read a review for fun- even if you're not interested in perfumes.

Cult Perfumes: The World's Most Exclusive Perfumeries is probably best for those that truly love fragrance. It has pictures of bottles, advertisements, showrooms, and items of historical interest. It goes over the history and fragrances of 27 perfume houses, from the few that are centuries old to the relatively new. Prices put some of the fragrances out of reach for most people, including some that are $1000+ and bespoke perfumes that have waiting lists on top of exorbitant prices. The book doesn't go much into pricing, but there are some fragrances in here that do cost significantly less than $1000 (diptyque has some for less than $100). Some perfumeries strictly control distribution of their fragrances, making them hard to find. Serge Lutens has many available worldwide, but has a collection of fragrances that are only available in Paris, for example.While this is a lovely book, it wouldn't be a good choice for helping you find a new scent. In addition to the issues above, the lack of criticism in this book makes it hard to determine which of the exclusive scents are better than the others. If any sound intriguing to you, check out Perfumes: The A-Z Guide before going any great lengths to pursue the perfume. 

Soap making- Pros and Cons of the Different Methods

Note: If you're interested in the soap making methods below, The Nova Studio in Point Richmond, CA offers classes on most of them.

I've tried a lot of the different kinds of soap making out there, so I figured I'd write about the different types, for those interested. I'm making some at the moment, so it seems like an appropriate time.

A lot of soap you buy in the supermarket isn't really soap, but a detergent bar. Soap involves the reaction of lye and fats to make a solid. Those who buy or make handmade soap are probably most familiar with cold process or melt and pour soaps. I'll start with cold process.

Cold process isn't totally cold- when you add lye to your water, it heats up rather quickly, you also need to melt your oils and butters, and then when the soap is in it's mold, it's probably creating heat as well. I know that's probably obvious to a lot of people out there, but I still feel cold process is a bit of a misnomer. Safety is a bit of a concern, but with proper precautions (goggles, gloves, and covering yourself up, plus keeping your lye away from children & pets), it can be a safe and fun way to make soap. I'm admittedly not too good at it, though that's more to do with my experimental recipes thickening up to quickly. Impatience also doesn't help, since I might combine my lyes and oils too fast.

The advantages to cold process include freedom to choose your own oils & liquids and creating beautiful designs. You're also starting with raw ingredients, so it's totally handmade. I'm honestly in awe of what some people do with cold process soap- amazing swirls, fancy layers, and beautiful colors. There are a few disadvantages, which can be avoided to a degree. Start with good instructions and a good lye calculator, and you've avoided a lot of them. Using tested recipes from a trusted source also helps when you're beginning. One of the biggest issues is a bad batch, at which point you have to either toss a lot of soap or rebatch it. You're also a bit limited in scents you can use. With fragrance oils, buy them from a store that mentions any issues that can come up from using the oils, such as ricing, seizing, or accelerating trace. Some of these problems can arise from using essential oils as well. And while I've seen recipes calling for sandalwood and rose essential oils, this would be impractical for many people. This would cost a lot of money, though it would make for a lovely soap.

While not necessarily a problem, cold process needs several weeks to cure, during which time some water evaporates out (leaving you with a harder bar) and the lye fully saponifies. Which brings us to hot process soap. There are a few ways of doing hot process soap, but I make mine in a crock pot. Your soap essentially cooks, leaving you with fully saponified soap that's ready to use (though it can benefit from curing time as well). There are fewer fragrances you can use, since anything with a low flash point will not survive the high heat. You don't need as much as with cold process though, so it can save you a little money. Colorants are a bigger issue, since some of them don't work well in hot process. It's also much thicker than cold process soap, so when it comes time to pour, it's harder to make nice designs. I still like making it though, since there are generally no surprises once you pour it into the mold.

Melt and pour is a good beginner's soap- you can pick up supplies at a craft store, making it more accessible. If you really like it though, better supplies are available online, and you'll save money that way, too. It is what it says it is- you cut up and melt your soap base, add colorants/scent/additives and then pour it into a mold. While you don't get to choose what your soap is totally made of, since you're starting with a base, you can use all sorts of colorants and scents, and create fancy designs in pretty molds. It's also safe for kids to make, since you're not using caustic ingredients. It's a nice way to get into soap making, if you're not sure if you want to try making cold process soaps. One big disadvantage is that it can sweat if not packaged properly, leaving clear beads all over your soap. This isn't very attractive, though wrapping it in plastic wrap seems to help keep this at bay.

Want a real challenge? It's possible to make your own melt and pour from scratch. I have never done this, though I've learned how to in a class. Too me it seems like a lot of trouble for something that you can more easily buy, I guess that can be said of all soap making. It's more complicated than cold or hot process soap, and involves extra ingredients. The soap I saw made wasn't crystal clear, though the sample I did melt down and I was able to pour it. It could be worth it for someone who wants to make translucent soaps from scratch.

Another challenge is liquid soap- this is a longer, more drawn out process, and requires potassium hydroxide instead of sodium hydroxide. I make this every few months for personal use, starting on a Saturday night and ending on a Sunday afternoon. You start by making a soap paste, which you then add to distilled water to get your liquid soap. I've had mixed results, though with some experimentation and research, I can sometimes get a nice thick gel. Other times it's a bit runny, and every time it's a dark yellow color. Insoluble ingredients fall out, so if you don't want that to end up in your finished product, you need the soap to sit for several days before pouring into your bottles. I also use a recipe that starts off lye heavy to make sure all the fats are saponified, and then I need to adjust pH once it's dissolved in the water. Some scents don't mix well with the final product, so that requires testing. While I probably won't ever make it to sell, since I find the end results unreliable, it is nice to make a liquid soap for less money than what you buy at the store. And I feel great when I do make a nice batch.

As mentioned in cold process, one more way to make soap is rebatching or hand milling. This involves grating up your soap, melting it down (in a double boiler, in an oven bag in your oven, or in a heat proof bag in a crock pot of water), adding your scent/colors/additives and then pouring into your mold. Often the melted down soap is more of a paste, so it's usually more like glopping it into your mold. You can create your soap specifically with this in mind, or use it as a way to possibly salvage a botched batch of cold process soap. It gives you more freedom in terms of scents and additives. I am making rebatched soap today- one that I using soap specifically for this purpose, the other using a batch of funky soap. Should the first batch come out nicely enough, I will be selling it at some point. It's has chamomile powder and lemon essential oil. The color isn't the nicest, since the chamomile powder turned it a muddy yellow, but I'm hoping the benefits of the soap out way it's appearance. The funky batch is currently melting in a double boiler. Even if the final result is better than the initial soap, it won't be for sale, since I don't want to risk selling a bad bar.

Art vs. Craft vs. Science vs. Gimmick

I was looking for spring/summer craft shows to apply to, and I looked at the pages for some art shows. These types of things go by all sorts of names, so I'll look at pretty much anything that sounds sort of promising. Of course these art shows are "fine art" shows, and fragrance is not an included category. I realize a lot of what I make wouldn't fall under the category of fine art, but I strongly feel that fragrance doesn't get the respect it deserves.

Most perfumes that people buy are more about marketing than scent. Sure, the scent counts, but most of the money goes into making the packaging pretty and paying for all the ads. I don't know if the people making these scents consider it an art, or if they're sitting in their labs looking at what's needed and figuring out the cheapest way to get there while still making a scent that people will wear. Those scents are mostly science- a degree in organic chemistry is actually very useful to anyone wanting to work in a big perfume house. There are some commercial perfumes, and definitely a lot of niche perfumes, that are art. To me it seems like what separates the fine art of fragrance is the passion that goes into, making the best you can with what you have, and creating a scent that has some meaning, even if that will never be clear to 99% of the population. You need mastery over the materials, just like you would with any other fine art.

I aim to be a perfume artist, and hope that if I'm not there yet, I will be soon. Working with scent can be a craft as well. When I assist at a perfume's class, the scents that people make are sometimes nice, but they don't rise to the level of art. That's not to be harsh, but a great perfume requires more time and thought than can be fit into an 8 hour class.

And a lot of what I do is craft- hair oils, lip balm, foot balm, lotions bars- those really aren't art. The scents are usually blended so that the product smells pleasant, usually with hopes of bringing hopes of some benefits to the product as well. So there's a bit of science in there too- nothing that would make me a scientist, but I do research which ingredients do what. Soap makers are working with science and craft. I don't know if those who make fancy swirls and designs consider their soaps works of art or not. I've seen some truly beautiful soaps (nothing I've made- I'm lucky if mine aren't plain ugly), but I'm not sure if there will be a gallery of beautiful soaps, or soap displays at museums. I guess in that sense perfume is getting a little more recognition, since there are occasionally exhibits dedicated to scent.

Beauty products are usually somewhere between craft and science. The ones you see at chain stores are probably mostly science, though don't necessarily fall for all the claims on their boxes. Just because something is made by people wearing white coats in a lab, it doesn't mean it will make your wrinkles disappear. Those who make beauty products on a smaller scale probably do use some science knowledge. You need to understand things like emulsion, preservative systems, and what each ingredient brings to the finished product. But these are handcrafted, not made on an industrial scale.

And then there are beauty products that are gimmicks. These are the most painful to me. I see single oils (like argan oil) being bottled up and sold at a large mark up. If you want 50ml of pure argan oil for less than $48, email me and I'll make you a bottle for less. While some of my products only use a few ingredients, I don't create single ingredients products and then sell them for a huge profit. Though I suppose if those companies are spending a lot of money on marketing, they might not be making such huge profits after all.

TL;DR- I want perfume to enter the world of fine art, and hope to be a fine perfume artist myself. Most of my products are craft, with a dash of science. And I will not sell you a gimmicky product like a single ingredient at a high mark up, unless you ask me to (at which point I'd reduce the markup).

Valentine's Day Gift Ideas

These gift ideas would work for any time of year, but with Valentine's Day vast approaching, these items in particular would make a nice change from chocolates and flowers.

Instead of a dozen red roses that will wilt and die within a few weeks, why not try our One Dozen Roses, a set of twelve vials each containing the essence of a different rose. These are all single notes, at 20% strength in clear jojoba. The rose essences come from around the world (South America, Europe, Asia, Africa), cover a few species, and various extraction methods. Some of the rose essences are incredibly rare, such as the enfleurage from South America. The roses lined up together make a colorful set, with the different roses and extraction methods creating a range of colors- some are clear, others more yellow, a few are green, and some are orange. The vials are packaged in a tin, nestled in a ring of paper roses. The set will come with information on each type of rose, and would make a great gift for any rose lover.

For a gift that's better shared, we also have our Rose & Vetiver Massage Oil. A woodsy rose, this is a scent that can be easily enjoyed by both men and women. Made with apricot kernel oil, the massage oil will absorb into the skin, leaving your skin soft afterwards, not greasy. This can also be used as a moisturizing body after you get out of the shower.

We have also marked down all of our Massage & Lotion Bars, including sets, now through February 14. More moisturizing than our massage oil, these are warmed in your hands with the resulting oil massaged into the skin. They also come in a wide variety of scents.

Our Perfume Balms would also make great gifts- they come in six different floral scents- Jasmine, Mimosa, Neroli/Orange Blossom, Plumeria/Frangipani, Rose, and Tuberose. All are available in .25 ounce jars, and all of them except for Plumeria are available in 1 ounce jars.

The perfume balms and the Rose & Vetiver Massage Oil are also available as options in our 3 item and 5 item sample sets. These sets give you many options for trying out new things, and would be greater for a smaller gift.

Perfume Class and Art

This past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I spent my days taking classes at Mandy Aftel's studio in Berkeley along with seven other students. This was my third time attending this class, and it was amazing as always. If you're interested in studying natural perfumery, this is the place to be. Mandy has so many essences, one's that you'll never be able to smell any where else, and with the exception of the antique ones, you can use any of them in the blends you make.

Each day you make a blend, and then remake it based on Mandy's critique. The critiques are very helpful, and they're not at all mean or scary, for anyone reading this that might think of attending some day. You then remake your blend based on that. The first day we had to work with six essences voted on by the class, and needed to add a few more to complete the blend, working out how much of each to add. The second day was similar, but with three instead of six. The third day we got to choose three essences we wanted to work with, and then make our blends around that.

The first day was a bit of a disaster for me, since I became anosmic to a very strong scent that isn't so pleasant in high doses, and I put a whole lot in my blend. For my remake I added only a small amount, and tried to do my best knowing that I couldn't smell two of the things I needed to use. The other two days were easier, since I was able to smell everything I was putting in. Though I must admit adding black tea absolute to my blend on the third day was difficult, not due to the odor, but due to the fact that it took forever to dissolve in the alcohol. I left it out of my remake just because I didn't want to have to spend an hour shaking my bottle to get it thoroughly dissolved.

For me, one of the best parts of the class is spending three days with people who feel the same way I do about scent and perfume. For me, working on a blend is a form of art, with the various scents replacing paint and the alcohol or oil replacing the canvas. It might not seem like art to most people, and a lot of perfumes out there aren't really art. But for me, each drop is carefully thought out, and the final fragrance often started with an idea or feeling. I spent all of my life searching for an art form to express myself. But I can't act, I'm not musical, and I'm pretty bad with painting/drawing. Some crafts kind of help with that, but I could never take any of them to the level of art. I did want to be a writer, and I probably graduated high school with more English credits than anyone else, but even if I could learn to write well, the words would feel false. This doesn't apply to non-fiction and journalism, of course, but the only satisfaction I could get out of those was editing. I really did love my red pen.

I stumbled on natural perfumery a few years ago, and while I enjoyed it, the materials are expensive, and with a limited collection of essential oils, it was more frustrating than fun. After volunteering as a teacher's assistant for the same natural perfumes class at The Nova Studio a year later, something just clicked, and I knew that I wanted to study perfumery. I started collecting more essential oils and absolutes, worked my way through Mandy's Level 1 work book, and have now taken three of her in studio classes. I am working my way through the advanced work book, but have only done a little of it so far. I hope to continue studying, and I also hope to bring the beauty of natural fragrance to everyone, whether it be through a perfume or a lip balm.

Product Spotlight: Floral Perfume Balms

Neroli Balm, 1 ounce Size, available in all but Plumeria.

The floral balms I make are probably my most unique product. Both highly fragrant and moisturizing, they can work like a solid perfume, or as a balm for cuticles or other rough skin. My Etsy shop has all sizes of the floral balms available. You can also purchase the quarter ounce jars directly from the Ivre de Fleurs website, where I offer free shipping on all orders.

Floral Balms from Etsy

Quarter Ounce Jars from Ivre de Fleurs Website

The balms are centered around the floral waxes. These are made when the respective flower is washed with a solvent,creating the concrete- the fragrant materials and waxes of the flowers. The concrete is washed with alcohol to make the absolute, leaving behind behind the wax. 

The floral balms combine the wax of the flower, shorea butter, various oils, and a little bit of extra scent from the  to match complete the scent of the wax- for example, the Neroli Balm pictured above uses orange flower wax, and has a little bit of neroli (orange flower) essential oil for a more rounded scent.

.25 ounce jars of all varieties.

I've tracked down as many floral waxes as I can- I've seen lotus and champaca before, but not in stock. I have rose, tuberose, orange blossom (neroli), mimosa, plumeria (frangipani), and jasmine. The jasmine uses two varieties for both the wax and absolute- Jasmine Sambac and Jasmine Grandiflorum. 

All six are available as a set on Etsy for a reduced price.

Minis! Each lasts for awhile. Available in all but rose. 

Try three minis!

Try five minis!

So how to use these unusual beauties? I use them mostly as cuticle balms- a little goes a long way, and I get to enjoy the scent while doing something I find tedious. While it probably wouldn't work as an all over body moisturizer, rub some into particularly rough spots, like elbows. 

They would also work as a moisturizing solid perfume, either using one or layering a few to create a custom fragrance. Please note that since they are natural, the scents won't last as long as commercial perfumes. You can also apply it before putting on your favorite fragrance, giving it a scent unique to you.

New Year's Resolutions (of a sort)

I'm not big into New Year's resolutions- a lot of them are thought up with good intentions, but hard to follow through with. I do try to think of what I need to do to make the coming year better though.

On a personal level, I feel my life is pretty good, but I'd like to work on a few things. I don't really like my shopping habits, and so I need to work on that. I'd also like to get back to tracking my weight each week- I did that for awhile, and I think it helped, but then slacked off. I don't feel much of a need to lose weight right now, but I'd like to make sure I don't put any more on.

On a business level, I feel like the main thing I want to work on is refocusing my brand. My products feel kind of scattered now, which might not seem obvious, but when I was selling at the SF Holiday Bazaar, I felt like I was a little too scattered.

Since scent is what I care about most, I am going to start by making natural fragrance the center of my brand. While I love trying exotic ingredients, most customers seem to have little interest in the strange and wonderful things I add. So I'll be sticking to more basic (but still awesome) ingredients, while working on exotic scents. I still have a few interesting ingredients to use up, so if you do like trying the latest and greatest, keep an eye out on my Etsy store for limited time items.

Living in a world of scent

Try to think of everything you smell each day. Most scents come and go without giving you any pause. Every now and then, something catches your nose, and you think about it- there's a memory of it, or a distaste for it, or perhaps it's a scent you adore. Some scents we become so accustomed to, we don't even smell them- the way our homes smell or the scent of our perfumes.

I make an effort to notice every odor I can. Sometimes this is a good thing, other times it's not so great, since the world isn't always a pleasant smelling place. When I walk to my office in San Francisco, I'll catch whiffs of a wide variety of odors within a short amount of time. There's the food form the restaurants I pass, the occasional bits of nature in the form of flowers, trees, or bushes, the more industrial smells from road work or new construction. I smell cigarette smoke way too often, which bothers my lungs, and pot smoke fairly regularly as well- while it doesn't bother my lungs, I think marijuana is rather nasty smelling. Sometimes there's the smoke from a fire, and I hope there's nothing too serious happening at those times.

There's one spot where there's a water fountain, and it has a kind of fake maple sweet smell to it, perhaps like fenugreek. I'll catch someone's perfume or cologne as they walk by- usually thinking to myself that they really ought to be wearing less, especially when I can smell it half a block away. There are odors that I'd prefer not to write about- fortunately those aren't as bad in my area as in others.

The office building is generally one of those places I fell has a neutral odor- I'm used to it. Sometimes I'll get into an empty elevator, and the scent of perfume or cigarettes lingers from the previous occupant. During lunch time there will be food smells, especially if one of the conference rooms has a hosted lunch.

My apartment often has way too many scents to describe- if I'm making something, that will often fill the space. My work space has dozens of essential oils in it, and while the bottles are closed, I feel they contribute to the scent of that room. They definitely make my trash and recycling smell nicer than most people's! Sometimes there will be soup simmering, cookies baking, or candles burning, and those will be the predominant smells. And while I love scented candles, I don't use "air fresheners." Cleaning products might add some odors, but I generally try to find ones that don't smell too strongly.

There's also those smells that are hard to describe, but you know what they are- for me those are the seasons, like when I'm walking, and I suddenly smell "fall" or "summer." They don't always coincide with the actual season, especially now that I live in San Francisco, but when I'm walking around and those scents hit me, they just trigger those seasons in my brain. And while I definitely don't get it in SF, the smell of snow is distinct to me, but I don't think I have words for how it smells to me.