The Magic of Fragrance
Fragrance is one of the languages of the Earth. To open to it is to open all the cells of our body to the unique chemistry of its language. Fragrance bypasses the intellect (even as we are aware of it), finding its way directly to our emotions, touching memories, and activating spirit. It nurtures our soul while grounding us in our Earth body. Some fragrances – the deeper, heavier, resins, spices, unguents and pastes return us to mystery and offer hints of our ancient past and also, I sense, of what is “yet to be”.
Fragrance has long been associated with the Divine, and used very consciously by priests and priestess through the ages right up the present to aid in shifting consciousness and awareness of other realms besides the material world in which we spend most of our time. Babies have a highly developed sense of smell – it is how they recognize their mothers – long before their eyes can focus on her face. In her book, Essence and Alchemy, Natural perfumer, Mandy Aftel writes, “Fragrance has the instantaneous and invisible power to penetrate consciousness with pure pleasure.” One whiff of a fragrance has the power to immediately transport us to a memory, a loved one, or different time and place, and the experience is so much more profound than remembering using the mind to take us there.
Up through (and even beyond) the 17th century, perfume was intimately connected to alchemy. Aftel writes, “Perfume as we know it could not have taken shape without alchemy”. After science and reason predominated, Aftel continues, “the practical legacy of the alchemists passed to the chemists. . . the spiritual legacy . . . to the psychologists. . . Only the perfumers inherited both strands of the alchemical tradition.” The modern perfume business has its roots, strangely enough, in the making of perfumed gloves in France in the 1500s. The history of perfume and fragrance is fascinating – it will take you on a journey through the Orient and the spice trades, through times when fragrances combined with herbs and talismans could protect, attract and hold a lover, ensure fertility, even cause the death of an enemy, or enable far-seeing. In many ways, it still does all these things (except, I hope, cause death).
There are many ways we can bring fragrance into our lives – we can burn resins, woods, herbs, pastilles and incense wands, gently releasing their scents/healing energies into our homes; we can revel in the beauty of perfumes; call on aromatherapy to heal, soothe, awaken; we can walk in a pine forest after a rain, and drown in the sweet powdery scent of new mown hay carried on the wind. . .
For me, making natural perfumes started with a dream. I have always loved perfume, and gravitated to the older, classical scents (the formulas of which today vary as regulations prevent some ingredients from being used, and as aroma chemicals have taken the place of natural essences). When I started making herbal skin care products, I used essential oils for specific healing/ skin loving qualities, and also so they would smell beautiful. My collection of essential oils grew, along with my curiosity. The heavy base note fragrances that don’t find their way in skin care, captivated me: oakmoss, cedarmoss, labdanum, ambers, dark, aged patchouli, beautiful sultry attars. . . But I was not impressed by the first natural perfumes in the early 2000s. They had very little subtlety or nuance and didn’t smell like “real” perfumes at all.
Then in 2012, I had a dream that was sensuous, dark, erotic. I was in an open market, (much like one I experienced in Athens) when, in the way of dreams, I found myself in a small room that reminded me of a Parisian opium den. The space was close, the air slightly smoky, reddish, and dense. I could smell the odors of sex and roses and narcotic florals, and mosses and musk and woods. It was intoxicatingly beautiful and almost unbearably erotic. My whole body absorbed it, vibrated with it, and exuded it like all the others in the room with me – sweat, sex, heady perfume, smoke . . . I touched and was touched, dancing and loving and just feeling with every cell of my body. And when I woke up, still drunk with the experience, I knew that I had to create a perfume of that dream. It was the first perfume I made, called Dreamscape, and I still make it today.
Within days, like magic, a magician appeared (J.K. DeLapp, now an award-winning perfumer, among other things) offering a perfumery course through one of my essential oil suppliers, Floracopeia. I was one of the first students to take it and it’s still available (Aromatic Artistry Home Perfumery Course). As they say, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. JK compared perfumery to cooking with herbs, something that resonated with me as I grow and use herbs in my products and pretty much every aspect of my life. Chemistry was not my strong subject (to put it mildly) but I trusted I had found the right teacher and dove in. I’m still happily swimming in those fragrant waters!
What is a “natural” perfume? Most perfumes on the market today, even the classics, are formulated using aroma chemicals created in the lab. Virtually all the fragrance in products on supermarket and drug store shelves contain these chemicals. They are so prolific in our environment that many have developed sensitivities to them. People can also be allergic or sensitive to natural ingredients of course, but it is less likely. Many natural perfumers use “natural isolates”, which are chemical components “isolated” from the whole. I have purchased some but have never used them in a perfume. To me they are too linear, they don’t take you anywhere. My perfumes are created with essential oils, absolutes, resinoids, attars, herb/resin/infused oils and tinctures, many of which I make myself from resins, herbs I’ve grown, and ingredients I’ve wild-harvested.
Natural perfumes shift and change depending on your body chemistry and even the weather – I like to say that your body is another ingredient in the formula. I make both oil-based and alcohol-based perfumes. Alcohol perfumes are more diffusive and they tend to last longer. Oil-based are more personal, they wear closer to the skin, almost more for you than anyone else – until you get close.
Most of my perfumes are made up of three accords – top/head, heart, and base notes. Accords are to perfume what spice blends are to cooking – a single ingredient made of many different components like curry powder. Accords are created separately, then aged, before being blended into the final perfume. Aging is key in perfuming, and patience is a quality that must be cultivated. Accords should age a couple of weeks minimum, a couple of months is even better. I have some accords well over 7 years old and they are amazing! Top notes are light, diffusive, and come and go quickly – most citrus fall into this category. The “heart” of the perfume is the story, and the base adds depth and tenacity. A well-crafted perfume brings you in, seduces you, and keeps you coming back for more. Often I start a new project by blending everything into one accord to get a sense of how the different ingredients play together. Then I’ll break the formula down into the three accords on paper. I don’t always follow the “rules” however; intuition, sense memory, and playfulness play key roles. Someday I hope to be really good at what I do – I’m aware that it might take the rest of my life.
Every perfume I’ve made has a story to tell. Creating a perfume is like painting a picture with scent, or sharing the beauty and spirit of a special place. Like old growth forest translated into “Ancient Forest”, or a memory – my beautiful garden in Fryeburg, ME in “Memory of Bees”. Since that dream, a magical world has opened up to me. It’s important to mention here, that not all perfume ingredients are equal. Sustainability is a key concern, especially for the rarer woods and resins. I’m grateful to have found several trustworthy, small-scale distillers and fair trade suppliers, who make every effort to ensure their products are pure, benefit local people (often indigenous communities), and are harvested sustainably – or not at all. Because of this, high quality, natural perfumes are not cheap – if you find some that are, beware – the ingredients are likely substandard, especially if they claim sandalwood, rose, oud, or attars, to name a few.Aromatherapy oils are not “real” perfumes, rather they’re created for a specific purpose – to relax, to empower, to support the heart during hard times, to aid sleep or stimulate dreams, and so on. They’re lighter and don’t last as long after applied, and they’re gentle and safe for most people. That said, they should still smell wonderful. For many, a beautiful aromatherapy blend is the perfect perfume!
I encourage you to take your curiosity and create something deliciously fragrant for yourself. Perhaps a unique incense using dried herbs like lavender, rosemary, and sage, or gathered twigs and tips from fragrant pine, spruce, or cedar, crushed with a bit of pine resin or frankincense, burned on charcoal or an electric incense burner (which are wonderful and release very little smoke). There are many recipes available on the internet, or in books, for homemade incense of all types, from the simplest blend to complicated, sacred blends like Kyphi. Perhaps you will decide to start your olfactory journey using a few, pure essential oils that resonate with you – blending them together drop by drop until you love it. Or purchase a natural perfume – there are many of us now, and we each have our own unique style. We all offer samples so you can try a few until you find a favorite. Keep in mind, though, that each batch of a perfume may be a bit different even using the same formula – natural ingredients come and go and each distillation, even of the same ingredient, will vary. So if you find one you love, consider purchasing a larger bottle.
The magic of fragrance is that it’s everywhere. With every breath we breathe in the aromas of our environment. We don’t have to do anything – except pay attention . . . The energy of a storm blowing in, the scents carried on the wind as the storm gets closer – soft, musky, powdery dust, the slight metallic tang of lightning, the scent of apple blossoms and pine, and then the rain comes and releases the earthy fragrance of petrichor as the moisture hits the dry soil. The scent of snow melt in the spring . . . the sweet balsam of a fir/pine/spruce forest . . . the pungent earthy musk of foraged fungi snapped in two under your nose . . . These are all gifts. Take them. Revel in them. Share them with others.
Resources for more information
Essence & Alchemy, A Natural History of Perfume, by Mandy Aftel
A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman
Listening to Scent by Jennifer Peace Rhind