Essence and Alchemy
Page 17
French roses awaiting extraction
Without going to so much trouble, it is a lovely idea to make an object to hold in your hands during meditation practice, and most people find that it helps them to focus. I have experimented with silk ribbon, leather cord, silk fabric, and chamois (soft leather made from any of various animal skins). Chamois feels wonderful in the hand and contributes its own animal undertones, creating a more profound depth of aroma. (Not surprisingly, chamois was used in the original Peau d’Espagne.) You can buy chamois at an automotive supply shop (many people use it for polishing their cars).
To make scented chamois:
Wash the material by hand, using a mild detergent to remove the light oil with which it is cured. Rinse it thoroughly, stretch it out, and let it dry thoroughly. Cut it into shapes that feel right to hold during your meditation, or cut into strips and make a braid of them.
Choose an essence with which you have a strong affinity—or a few, but keep it simple. (I particularly love how base notes like clary sage concrete, labdanum, and white spruce absolute marry with chamois, but my very favorite is amber.) Put a few drops directly on the cloth and allow it to penetrate. Over time, the notes will fade but will not disappear entirely. Add more scent each time you meditate, layering scent upon scent until the chamois is completely impregnated with essences.
A solid perfume is a wonderful get-well gift that carries on the healing tradition of which perfumery has long been a part. I created a solid perfume for a friend to take to someone who was recovering from a car accident. My friend said, “I brought you a bouquet of flowers” and handed her a silver pillbox filled with a floral blend. (See here.)
ALSO BY MANDY AFTEL
Death of a Rolling Stone: The Brian Jones Story
When Talk Is Not Cheap (with Robin Lakoff)
The Story of Your Life: Becoming the Author of Your Experience
Supplies for the Beginning Perfumer
Getting started in perfumery requires very little in the way of equipment, as you saw in Chapter 2. And a basic set of essences is not very expensive either. To provide enough variety in your assortment of essences to spark your creativity and sustain your enthusiasm, I would recommend purchasing the second set of essences as well. I have marked with an asterisk those that are more costly. Those that you can easily find in a health food store or natural grocery are marked with a cross. (Buy 1/6 ounce or 5 ml)
BASIC SET OF ESSENCES
Base notes:
Benzoin resin
Labdanum absolute
Oakmoss absolute
Peru Balsam resin
†Vetiver essential oil
†Frankincense essential oil
Middle notes:
†Clary Sage essential oil
Clove absolute
Ylang ylang concrete
Lavender absolute
*Jasmine concrete
Nutmeg absolute
Top notes:
†Bergamot essential oil
†Bitter orange essential oil
†Bois de rose essential oil
†Juniper Berry essential oil
†Virginia Cedarwood
†Black pepper essential oil
SECOND SET OF ESSENCES
Base notes:
†Patchouli
Fir absolute
Tarragon absolute
Sandalwood essential oil
*Vanilla absolute
Middle notes:
*Neroli essential oil
*Rose absolute
*Tuberose absolute
Litsea cubeba essential oil
Geranium essential oil
Top notes:
Fresh ginger essential oil
Pink grapefruit essential oil
†Lavender essential oil
†Lime essential oil
†Spearmint essential oil
EQUIPMENT
2 10-ml beakers with markings for 15 ml and 30 ml
6 glass droppers
a dozen small glass bottles
skewers for stirring—use bamboo shish-kebab sticks cut into shorter lengths, cheap wooden chopsticks, or glass cocktail stirrers
perfume blotter strips
perfume alcohol for blending
rubbing alcohol for cleaning droppers
small glasses, shot or otherwise, for holding rubbing alcohol
metal or plastic measuring spoons
small adhesive labels for labeling essences and blends
coffee filters and unbleached filter papers (for filtering out solids)
For making solids:
beeswax
small cheese grater
hot plate (optional)
compacts
SOURCES
Aftelier Perfumes
510-841-2111
www.aftelier.com
Natural perfumes:
Beginning essence and equipment kits
The Natural Perfume Distance Learning Tutorial
The Aftelier Natural Perfume Wheel
Essential oils, absolutes, and concretes sourced by Mandy Aftel
For perfume alcohol
Bryant Laboratory
510-526-3141
garyb@bryantlaboratory.com
Remet
877-939-0171
www.remet.com
For grape alcohol:
Marian Farms (Demeter certified)
559-276-2185
www.marianfarmsbiodynamic.com
Vie-Del
559-834-2525
info@vie-del.com
For essential oils, absolutes, and concretes:
Essential Oil Company
800-729-5912
www.essentialoil.com
The Essential Oil University
812-945-5000
www.essentialoils.org
Liberty Natural Products
800-289-8427
www.libertynatural.com
Original Swiss Aromatics
415-479-9120
www.originalswissaromatics.com
Scents of Knowing
808-573-6733
www.scentsofknowing.com
Sunrose Aromatics
718-794-0391
www.sunrosearomatics.com
White Lotus Aromatics
Fax: 510-528-9441
www.whitelotusaromatics.com
For lab equipment:
Bryant Laboratory
510-526-3141
garyb@bryantlaboratory.com
VWR catalogue
800-932-5000
www.vwr.com
For perfume blotter strips:
Orlandi
631-756-0110
www.orlandi-usa.com
For bottles and packaging:
ABA Packaging
800-443-9799
www.abapackaging.com
O. Berk Company
908-851-9500
www.Oberk.com
SKS Bottle and Packaging
518-899-7488
www.sks-bottle.com
Sunburst Bottle
916-929-4500
www.sunburstbottle.com
For toiletries supplies:
www.mangobutter.com
For small compacts and lockets for solid perfume:
Eli Metal Products Company
800-552-4554
Notes
INTRODUCTION
1 The alchemical symbol means “essence.”
2 “We who are immersed”: Paolo Rovesti, In Search of Perfumes Lost (Venice: Blow-up, 1980), p. 9.
CHAPTER I. THE SPIRIT OF THE ALCHEMIST: A NATURAL HISTORY OF PERFUME
3 The alchemical symbol means “coagulate.”
4 “Odor, oftener”: Roy Bedichek, The Sense of Smell (London: Michael Joseph, 1960), p. 218.
5 “We are often”: Constance Classen, The Color of Angels (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 152–53.
6 “who lived, completely naked”: Paolo Rovesti, In Search of Perfumes Lost (Venice: Blow-up, 1980), p. 23.
7 Umeda hunters: Constance Classen, David Howes, and Anthony Synnott, Aroma (London: Routledge, 1994), p. 7.
8 The Berbers of Morocco: Gabrielle J. Dorland, Scents Appeal (Mendham, NJ: Wayne Dorland Company, 1993), p. 187.
9 “could recognize an old country house”: Classen, The Color of Angels, pp. 152–53.
10 “He would often”: Patrick Suskind, Perfume (London: Penguin, 1986), p. 35.
11 “Our olfactory experiences”: Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex: Sexual Selection in Man (Philadelphia: F. A. Davis Co., 1905), pp. 54–55.
12 “A scent may drown years”: Walter Benjamin, “On Some Motifs in Baudelaire,” Illuminations (New York: Schocken Books, 1985), p. 184.
13 “When it is said”: Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will (Kila, MT: Kessinger, 1997), p. 9.
14 “These memories”: Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution, trans. Arthur Mitchell (New York: Dover, 1998). pp. 7–8.
15 “can readily be understood”: Classen, The Color of Angels, p. 60.
16 Roman Empire: Giuseppe Donato and Monique Seefried, The Fragrant Past (Atlanta: Emory University Museum of Art and Archaeology, 1989), p. 55.
17 Jung on alchemy: Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), pp. 288-89, 314–16.
18 “The quinta essentia”: Paracelsus, Selected Writings, ed. Jolande Jacobi: (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988), pp. 145–47.
19 “so loaded with unconscious”: Carl Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989), p. 114.
20 “The combination of two bodies”: F. Sherwood Taylor, The Alchemists (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1992), p. 250.
21 “For the people of earlier agrs”: Titus Burckhardt, Alchemy (London: Element, 1987), pp. 57–59.
22 “All alchemical thinking”: Nathan Schwartz-Salant, The Mystery of Human Relationship (London: Routledge, 1998), p. 16.
23 René the perfumer: C.J.S. Thompson, The Mystery and Lure of Perfume (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1927), p. 102.
24 Charles Lillie: Charles Lillie, The British Perfumer (London: W. Seaman, 1822), pp. x–xii.
25 “the truly artistic part”: Eugene Rimmel, The Book of Perfumes (London: Chapman and Hall, 1865), p. 236.
26 “It may be useful”: Arnold J. Cooley, Instructions and Cautions Respecting the Selection and Use of Perfumes, Cosmetics, and Other Toilet Articles (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1873), p. 555.
27 “As a child”: Peter Altenberg, The Vienna Coffeehouse Wits, 1890-1938, ed. Harold B. Segel (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1993), p. 136.
28 “Modern perfume”: J. Stephan Jellinek, “The Birth of a Modern Perfume,” Dragoco Report, March 1998, p. 13.
29 “It was, for the first time”: J. Stephan Jellinek, “Scents and Society: Observations on Women’s Perfumes, 1880,” Dragoco Report, March 1997, p. 90.
30 “Artificial perfurmes obviously present”: J. P. Durvelle, The Preparation of Perfumes and Cosmetics (London: Scott, Greenwood and Son, 1923), p. 112.
31 The shift can be traced: Schimmel Reports, 1895, 1898, 1901, 1902.
32 “Our experience”: Schimmel Report, 1898.
33 On Coty: Elisabeth Barille, Coty (Paris: Editions Assouline, 1995), p. 112; J. Stephan Jellinek, “The Birth of a Modern Perfume.”
34 On Paul Poiret and Ahmed Soliman: Ken Leach, Perfume Presentation (Toronto: Kres Publishing, 1997), p. 92.
35 “The more we penetrate”: Edmond Roudnitska, “The Art of Perfumery,” in Perfumes: Art, Science, and Technology, ed. P. M. Müller and D. Lamparsky (London: Elsevier, 1991), p. 45.
36 “Magic has power”: Paracelsus, Selected Writings, p. 137.
37 “Philosophers agree”: Henri Bergson, Introduction to Metaphysics (Kila, MT: Kessinger, 1998), p. 159.
38 “subtle bodies”: Carl Jung, Jung on Alchemy, ed. Nathan Schwartz-Salant (London: Routledge, 1998), p. 148.
39 “The alchemist is an educator”: Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Reverie (Boston: Beacon, 1971), p. 76.
40 “The alchemist is described”: Cherry Gilchrist, The Elements of Alchemy (London: Element, 1991), pp. 7–8.
41 “the object of art”: Bergson, Time and Free Will, p. 14.
42 “It is our task”: Paracelsus, Selected Writings, p. III.
CHAPTER 2. PRIMA MATERIA: PERFUME BASICS
43 The alchemical symbol denotes ethyl alcohol.
44 “In alchemy the prima materia”: Lyndy Abraham, A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 153.
45 “Why natural oils?”: Robert Tisserand, The Art of Aromatherapy (Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press, 1977), p. 46.
46 “If you have taken”: Marsilio Ficino, The Book of Life (Woodstock, CT: Spring Publications, 1996), p. 67.
47 “The souls of these noblest”: Patrick Suskind, Perfume (London: Penguin, 1986), p. 186.
48 “Try to determine”: Edmond Roudnitska, “The Art of Perfumery,” in Perfumes: Art, Science, and Technology, ed. P. M. Müller and D. Lamparsky (London: Elsevier, 1991), p. 18.
49 Steffen Arctander: Steffen Arctander, Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin (Elizabeth, NJ: Self-published, 1960), p. 28.
50 Here is a method: I have adapted my sampling method from that described by Tony Curtis and David G. Williams in their Introduction to Perfumery (Hertfordshire, England: Ellis Horwood, 1994), p. 520.
51 “There is no evidence”: Christine Wildwood, The Encyclopedia of Aromatherapy (Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press, 1996), p. 24.
CHAPTER 3. THE CALCULUS OF FIXATION: BASE NOTES
52 The alchemical symbol means “fixed.”
53 “The perfumer should be totally unprejudited”: Jean Carles, “A Method of Creation in Perfumery,” in Perfume, ed. William I. Kaufman (New York: Dutton and Co., 1974), p. 173.
54 “The motivated and experienced perfumer”: Edmond Roudnitska, “The Art of Perfumery,” in Perfumes: Art, Science, and Technology, ed. P. M. Müller and D. Lamparsky (London: Elsevier, 1991), p. 7.
55 “The first phase of the alchemical process”: Richard and Iona Miller, The Modern Alchemist (Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1994), p. 64.
56 “It would be ridiculous”: Edmond Roudnitska, “The Shapes of Fragrances,” Dragoco Report, January 1976, p. 18.
57 On duration: Henri Bergson, Duration and Simultaneity (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965), p. 44.
58 “In our inner life”: Henri Bergson, The Creative Mind (New York: Citadel Press, 1992), p. 32.
59 “Our psychic states”: Bergson, The Creative Mind, p. 19.
60 “We speak of change”: Bergson, The Creative Mind, p. 131.
61 On harvesting sandalwood: Edwin T. Morris, Fragrance (Greenwich, CT: E. T. Morris and Co., 1984), p. 98.
62 History of ambergris: A. Hyatt Verrill, Perfumes and Spices (Clinton, MA: L. C. Page, 1940), p. 135.
63 “It has a particular soft”: Steffen Arctander, Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin (Elizabeth, NJ: Self-published, 1960), p. 195.
64 Papal bull: G. W. Septimus Piesse, The Art of Perfumery (Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1867), p. 142.
CHAPTER 4. AROMATIC STANZAS: HEART NOTES
65 The alchemical symbol indicates “to distill.”
66 Colette’s “Fragrance”: As quoted in “Colette’s Salon” by Robert Reilly, Vogue, November 1998, p. 296.
67 “It is prerisely”: Paul Jellinek, The Psychological Basis of Perfumery (London: Chapman and Hall, 1997), p. 42.
68 “the odor strength”: Jellinek, The Psychological Basis of Perfumery, p. 43.