Since the beginning of time the gift of scent–spices and oils have carried its way through out history. Today, just as thousands of years ago; essential oils are a huge part in our every day life. From toothpaste to perfume, essential oils are there—whether as a preservative or a fixative for common ailments—we are dependant on their properties.
More than likely, you are using scent to lift your mood or just smell prettier than that onion you just cut up! (As for that onion or garlic smell, I usually pick fresh rosemary and use it for cooking and rub it all over my hands—instant diffuser!)
Did you know…? the first alcohol-based perfumes were made in Italy in the 14th century—they were called waters because of alcohol’s resemblance to water.
According to the metropolitan museum of art’s, The Scents of Time by Edwin T. Morris…
Fragrance 101
Most fragrances, whether in perfumes and colognes, oils, or other household products, fall into a few basic categories. Which are your favorites?
Floral: jasmine, gardenia, rose, lavender, ylang-ylang.
Citrus: lemon, grapefruit, orange, lime, tangerine.
Musk: patchouli, ambergris, musk.
Herbal: rosemary, thyme, sage.
Green: leaves, grass.
Woodsy: oak, cedar, sandalwood.
Did you know . . .? The Arabs discovered how to distill petals and produce rose water, which they used in perfume and to scent food.
Fragrance Notes
Most fragrances consist of three levels of notes:
Top (head) notes (last for about a half hour). Head notes reach our sense of smell first, forming the scent’s initial impression and quickly dissipating. Many of them are familiar from cooking: herbs and spices such as coriander, spearmint, black pepper, cardamom, juniper, basil, tarragon; citruses such as lime, bitter orange, blood orange, tangerine, pink grapefruit.
Middles (heart) notes (last two hours). These generally consist of the scents of flowers—geranium, rose, jasmine, orange flower, tuberose, violet leaf, ylang-ylang. Heady, dramatic, intense, and sometimes sickly sweet, heart notes give body to blends, imparting warmth and fullness, and they bring out the best in the other notes.
Bottom (base) notes (last for several hours and as long as a few days). Intense and profound, base notes are often thick and syrupy, and most are derived from bark (sandalwood), roots (angelica), resins (labdanum), lichens (oak moss), saps (benzoin, peru balsam), and grasses (patchouli, vetiver).
Fragrance Types
Personal fragrances are found in a variety of forms for use on the body:
Perfumes: highest ratio of pure fragrance oil to alcohol.
Colognes: more diluted with alcohol and cost less than perfume.
Body splashes or sprays: great for the beach, these have the lowest concentration of fragrance or essential oils.
Scented lotions: lotions mixed with perfumes.
Solid perfumes: essential oils mixed with beeswax, jojoba oil, and or/other oils.
When choosing your perfumes, be sure to go as natural as possible. There are some nasty chemicals and allergens in synthetic fragrances such as hormone-disrupting phthalates.
A recent report released by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found; out of the 12 products tested positive for phthalates (back in 2002)—nine are now free of the nasty chemical. Thankfully companies are finally getting the message “We don’t want to wear poison!” Check out Skin Deep before shopping for you perfume.
Some natural alternatives to fragrance are; Pacifica- I love Sandlewood, Aubrey-Organics Spring Floral smells pretty and my favorite perfume from Aftlier is Pink Lotus. I found some other parfumes on the web like Ayala Moriel, Madini perfume at Tigerflag and a new line of aromatherapy scents from Intelligent Nutrients.
Or make your own… Make Your Own Solid Perfume
Ingredients:
1 Tbl. beeswax
1 Tbl. almond oil or jojoba oil
8–15 drops of essential oil
1 container (glass, ceramic, stone, or sterling silver small case)
Directions:
Pour about an inch of water in a small saucepan, and then put a small glass jar or Pyrex bowl in the water. Measure out the wax and almond/jojoba oil into the jar/bowl and bring the water around it to a boil.
The wax will melt gradually. When it is 100 percent liquid, remove from heat and stir in the other ingredients with a straw. (The wax will start to form solid on whatever you do your stirring with. A straw has little surface area so you lose less of the end product, and it’s disposable so you don’t have to clean it off.) When everything is thoroughly mixed together, pour the liquid wax immediately into your final container. In about thirty minutes, it will be cooled, solid, and ready to use.
Tip- keep scents in a dark place—and when you where it, don’t bathe in it—less is more!
Recently a friend gave me a thank-you note that said on the front “Bloom where you are planted” it reminded me to… Enjoy life as much you can, as God has filled it with a beautiful landscape for us to indulge in . . . a family and friends to share our greatest achievements or grievous moments. He is the creator of the first landscape (majestic views) as well as our lives, futures, and eternal paradise . . . He is the greatest inventor of all time and He created a masterpiece of a fragrant world for us to live in and enjoy. Go ahead take the time to smell the roses; your heavenly Father made then just for you.
You are a garden of locked up my sister my bride;
You are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.
Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all of the finest spices.
Song of Songs, 4:12-14
©2009, Shelly Ballestero
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